Produced by Richard Hulse, John Campbell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been placed at the end of the book. The only fractions in this book are on page 401 and reference time; half-past seven for example is displayed as ‘7 1/2’. Page numbers 129 and 130 are missing from the original book. No text is missing and this is probably a numbering error by the printer. Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. [Illustration: THE BATTLE-FIELD OF THE NATIONS. A Panoramic View of the Seat of War around Sebastopol, including Danubian Provinces, Turkey, Asia Minor, Southern Russia, and the Crimea, from a Survey by order of Louis Napoleon, Emperor of France. Published by HIGGINS & BRADLEY, 20 Washington Street, Boston.] THE POWERS OF EUROPE AND FALL OF SEBASTOPOL. BY A BRITISH OFFICER. ILLUSTRATED FROM SUPERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS. BOSTON: HIGGINS AND BRADLEY, 20 WASHINGTON STREET. 1856. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by HIGGINS & BRADLEY, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. This work makes no pretensions to absolute originality being partially a compilation, with incidents in the life of the Author, who was an actor in many of the scenes narrated. He has striven to be judicious in selecting, from the most authentic sources, only that which would be interesting, at this crisis, to the general reader. Some extracts are given entire; in other cases, long passages have been abridged and condensed. Information from a vast variety of sources has, in many instances, been put together, and presented in a new and more graphic form. Minute details, as far as practicable, have been avoided; whilst the whole ground has been, more or less, completely surveyed. The Author has sought to make a popular volume, which might be read with pleasure, and be permanently serviceable as a book of reference. The bloody sieges of Saragossa, Gerona, and Badajos, have been referred to more in detail to afford the opportunity of comparison with that of Sebastopol; while the battles of Austerlitz and Waterloo have been described for comparison with those of Alma and Inkermann. The origin and progress of the present war are detailed. The biographies of the principal characters now engaged in the East will be found entertaining; and the Author confidently hopes it may prove a volume of interest and permanent value. H. F. G. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.