MEMORANDA ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 279, 4 July 1855, Page 6

MEMORANDA ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE WAR.

(From the " Home News.")

Thk Metamorphoses of the Campaign.— Fnlst-iff would have thought his famous levy a corps d'elite if lie could hiive beheld our gallant soldiery. Many of the officers are as ragged and as reckless in dress. The generals make appeals to their subalterns "to wear their swords, as there is now no other way of telling them from (he men." It is inexpressibly odd t<> see Cnnt. Smith, of the — foot, with a pair of red Russian leather boots up to his middle, a cap probably made out of the tups 01 his lwis-

ters, and a white skin coat tastefully embroidered all flown the back with flowers of maiiy"Coiured silk, topped by a head-dress a la dustman of London, stalking gravely through the mud of Balaklava, intent on the capture of a pot of jam or marmalade. Do you wonder why we are all so foad of jura ? Because it is portable, and comeatable, and is a substitute for butter, and bntter is ouly sent out here in casks and giant crocks, one. of wliijh would exhaust the transport resources of a regiment. Capt. Smith is much more like his great namesake of the Adelphi, when, in times gone by, he made up for a smuggler-burglar-bandit, than the pride of the High-street of Portsmouth, or than the hero of the Phoenix-park, with golden wings like an angel, before the redness of whose presence little boya and young ladies trembled. All this would be rather facetious and lausha* ble, were not poor Capt. Smith, a famished wretch, with bad chilblains approximating to frost bites, a touch of scurvy, and a severe rheumatism. Siege " Dodges."—Both parties have now become so expert that their greatest pleasure is to try1 and "do" each other by getting up " dummies, 1' and exhibiting devices to draw fire, so that they may have a chance of returning it while the marksman is exposed. The old dodge of putting up a shako or forager on the end of a stick is universally despised, and not a shot will be thrown away on one. Moving them along with an irregular motion just above the top of the ramparts or trenches, as if a man were walking along, is sometimes successful, and the lucky fellow who gets a ball or two through his head-dress in this way is considered very clever. The men know each other—that is, they observe certain gunners in the Russian batteries whom they have seen for some time past, and who have nicknames. "There goes Red-cap!" or, "Blackbeard is going to take a shot at us now.;" and so on ; and there is a story going that pickets occasionally fraternize, as they were wont to do in the Peninsula, aud that they are all agreed as to the Shibboleth—"Bono Franzig;" " Bono Inglis I" " Bono Muscov !" " Turco, no bono !" Opinion of Lokd Raglan from the Ranks* —Going up to a private in one of the regiments of the line, we began a conversation, aud led him, by any easy transition, to pass an opinion upon the general. "Why, Sir," he said, "I fought on the Sutlej under Lord Gough and Lord Hardinge. They were looked upon as splendid fellows, but there never was a general better liked by his soldiers than Lord Raglan. 1' Another private who joined us, said that he was very attentive to the men, and that he had frequently seen him riding about before the battle oflnkermann. A corporal of the Grenadier Guards, overhearing the reinarkj exclaimed, " Why, the men thought he was far too much among the bullets." A member of the select vestry entered into familiar conversation with a wounded man of the 55th regiment, and asked him what he thought of the commander. "A braver man never breathed," was the ready response. " I saw him at Balaklava, riding up and down, and looking after everything." There was about a dozen of the wounded men, consisting chiefly of the 20th, 27th, and 56ih regiments, clustered round a large fire in the middle ward, reading the newspapers which the governor had generously distributed amongst them. It was only necessary to listen a moment to see that the greatest indignation was felt by all of them at the attacks made upon Lord Ruglan. " There never was a better general, 1' exclaimed one of them, " and right well every man in the array knows it." A most hearty assent was given \6 this sentiment. The Soldier's Friend.—The other day I was passing through the camp of the 50th regiment of the line (French), and urging my poor steed through heaps of mud, when an officer came out of his tent, and, with the unfailing kindness and courtesy of our allies, invited me to dismount and take a glass of the brandy which had been sent out by the Emperor as, a Christrms grift. Although he wns living in a t?nt, the canvass was only a roof for a capacious and warm pit in which there was a bright wood fire sparkling cheerily in a grate of stones. We j "trinqued" together and fraternised as our allies will always do when our officers give them a chance. My host, who hud passed through his grades in Africa, showed me with pride the case of sound Bordeaux, the box of brandy, and the pile of good tobacco sent to him by Napoleon 111.—" le premier ami de soldat."