CRIMEAN WAR. Lieutenant James Hornby Buller, 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment.
Autograph letter signed, to his father. October 21st 1854, the Heights above Sebastopol. This letter is written shortly before Buller was listed as severely wounded whilst on duty in the trenches before Sebastopol on 24th October 1854 and again while being carried back to the camp. Four sides, 18cm x 11cm, with external envelope.

Excerpts include:

21st October, Heights above Sebastopol
"On the 22nd of September we disembarked from the Mauritius—but as I told you, were embarked again the same evening. On the 23rd we disembarked at the Katchka River & marched 4 miles & joined our division which is the 4th commanded by Sir Geo. Cathcart. On the 24th we went to Balbec. The Russian Army or rather part passed within two miles on the night of the 23rd retreating, but they did not attack us or we might have suffered."

"On the 26th we had a long hot march without water as the Russians had cut it off and the men suffered awfully. On the 27th we marched to the Heights above Sebastopol and found we were the only division arrived. Up to the present time we have been waiting here, the Russians occasionally amusing themselves by throwing a shot in amongst us, which so far has not touched one of us, altho' a few yards more or less would..."

"We have lost as yet but few men, all from Cholera which the experience of the cold renders more fatal. We get a little biscuit, salt pork, a wine glass of Rum, a little coffee & sugar for the Day, but nothing more we can get. £5 has been offered for a Bottle of Brandy."

"It was first exciting, hearing the shot whistling by right & left of you, but now unless very near it passes unheeded. The cause of our delay is that the Siege Train has not arrived & if we were to begin without it, no one can say the amount of lives that would be lost. For every night the Russians are putting up fresh Batteries & putting their ships' Guns into them."

James Hornby Buller (1831-1895) retired on half-pay with the rank of Captain on 10th November 1856. He later became a Lieutenant-Colonel by purchase on 28th May 1870. His first wife, Catherine Anne Buller, died on 9th December 1874 and was the daughter of Sir William Williams Bart. of Tregullon, Cornwall. She bore James a son and four daughters. In 1877, he took as a second wife Emily Augusta, daughter of Major Henry Dashwood; R.H.A. Buller was granted the honourary rank of Colonel on 28th September 1877 and became a member of H.M Bodyguard. He died in 1895, and the following year his estate at Down Hall.