Dallas George Frederick - Eyewitness in the Crimea: the Crimean War letters (1854-1856) of Lieutenant Colonel George Frederick Dallas, sometime Captain, 46th Foot, and ADC to Sir Robert Garrett

EYEWITNESS IN THE CRIMEA

EYEWITNESS IN THE
CRIMEA

The Crimean War Letters (18541856)
of Lt. Col. George Frederick Dallas

sometime Captain, 46th Foot, and ADC to Sir Robert Garrett

Edited by

Michael Hargreave Mawson

Frontline Books

Eyewitness in the Crimea
First published 2001 by Greenhill Books
published in this format in 2015 by
Frontline Books
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street, Barnsley, S70 2AS
www.frontline-books.com

Michael Hargreave Mawson, 2001

The right of Michael Hargreave Mawson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise without the
written permission of the Publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Eyewitness in the Crimea: the Crimean War letters of Lt. Col. George Frederick Dallas,
18541856
1. Dallas, George Frederick Correspondence 2. Crimean War, 18531856 3. Crimean
War, 18531856 Personal narratives, British
I. Title II. Mawson, Michael Hargreave
947.0738092

ISBN 1-85367-450-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eyewitness in the Crimea: the Crimean War Letters of Lt. Col. George Frederick Dallas,
18541856/edited by Michael Hargreave Mawson.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-85367-450-8
1. Crimean War, 18531856Personal narratives, British. 2. Dallas, George Frederick,
b. 1827Correspondence. I. Mawson, Michael Hargreave.

DK215.97 .E95 2001
947.0738092dc21

00-066099

Typeset by DP Photosetting, Aylesbury, Bucks
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPD (Wales), Ebbw Vale

Maps

Plates

The 137 letters that George Frederick Dallas wrote to his relatives and friends whilst on active service during the Crimean War were firstly transcribed, in great haste, into exercise books, and later written up more neatly and bound into two volumes. At each transcription some errors crept in, and some light editing was carried out by the transcriber. This editing was mostly in the form of blanks being substituted for the names of officers vilified by the author. It has been a rewarding task to identify the officers concerned and reinstate their names in their proper places.

The letters herein reproduced came to me by inheritance. The responses I received to my initial enquiries about their likely historical value led me to believe that they were only of interest as family documents. In fact, the letters Fred Dallas sent home provide a gripping account of the war, as well as reflecting the views, fears and hopes of a career infantry officer of the mid-nineteenth century.

I have now been able to add to the text of my great-greatgrandfathers letters an amount of further information as well as introductory chapters and an afterword to provide, I hope, a fuller picture of George Frederick Dallas life and his service in the Crimea and elsewhere.

Fred Dallas written English is much more modern than that of many of his contemporaries, in that he rarely uses archaic spellings or capitalises nouns; where he does, these words have been left in their original form, as they provide an authentic Victorian flavour to the text.

I should like to take this opportunity to thank the following people, without whom, as the saying goes, this book could never have been written:

Each and every one of these has provided information, help and guidance in my search for historical accuracy; nevertheless, the responsibility for any errors remains my own.

I must also acknowledge the patient forbearance and support of my wife, Rachel, and my son, Charles. For far too long I have been to them nothing but a figure hunched over a keyboard. As I type these final few words, I am reminded that today is not only the 147th anniversary of the British declaration of the Crimean War; but also the 5 th anniversary of my sons birth. Having spent so much time on my ancestor, I shall now spend some time with my descendant. Im coming, Charles!

Michael Hargreave Mawson. Bedford, March 2001

The Dallas family was one of the ancient families of Scotland, tracing its descent from the first hereditary Laird of Dallas Michael, one William de Ripley (fl. 11651215). The family was prolific and successful; the branch to which the author of these letters belonged was connected with some of the greatest families in Europe. His Aunt Charlotte was the wife of Admiral Gowan Roberts; his Aunt Magdalene was Countess Blucher von Wahlstadt; his first cousin was to become Viscountess Ashbrook; his second cousin William, also born in 1827, succeeded to the title of Earl Poulett as the sixth Earl; another second cousin married the third Earl of Cottenham.