Date: 2 June 1855
Recipient: Grace Fenton
Book: Joseph Fenton letter-book, Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin

Head Quarters June 2^d 1855

I write to tell you that I got back safe last night[.] Last night, I dined with Lord Raglan [.] I did not get the invitation till 8 o’clock the hour named for dinner as I had been a long ride to the plain of Baidar & the new country which is now open to us by the advance of the Army to the Tchernaya[.] I never beheld any thing more beautiful than the plain of Baidar covered with high vegetation with dark woods & closed in all round with rugged mountains[.] There are two villages in the plain but both were in ruins & we could not see a single soul in the whole valley we returned across the sardinian camp to the Tchernaya about 8 miles from Sebastopol at a point where it comes out of the hills[.] We then crossed the river at a Ford where I being in advance missed the line & popped horse & all into a deep hole, we soon scrambled out & got well laughed at & had to ride home damp on our way we went exactly in the line taken by our cavalry at Balaclava except that we met instead of following their line of Advance we came upon many skeletons half burried [sic] one was lying as if he had raised himself upon his elbow the bare skul [sic] sticking up with still enough flesh left in the muscles to prevent its falling from the shoulders[.] Another mans feet & hands were out of the ground the shoes on his feet & the flesh gone

when I got to Head Quarters I found Lord Raglans invitation to dinner changed my things as quickly as possible & then had to wait with the rest till &quarter; past 10 when we sat down to dinner[.] Lord Raglan placed me on his left hand & made me give accounts of the expedition to Kertch – While sitting at dinner a despatch came from Sir E Lyons stating that the fleet had up to that time, taken or destroyed 240 Russian vessels in the sea of Azoph that they had landed at Yenikale at the end of the long slip of land that runs north from the Crimea to the Main land & had destroyed 6 million rations provided for the Russian Army with the loss of only one man[.] The bombardment begins again in a few days & every one believes that this time the south side will be taken[.] This Kertch affair is a terrible blow to them