Nolan relates that a correspondent of Colbourn's United Services Magazine listed the scale of kit issued to his servant, a standard private soldier:
COATS. - A tunic, a coatee, a shell jacket, a fur coat, a sandbag coat (a summer coat made of linen, called so, from its appearance, by the men), a great coat, a waterproof coat.
HEAD-COVERINGS - A shako, a forage cap, a fur cap.
TROUSERS - Two pairs cloth trousers, 1 pair sandbag ditto, 1 pair waterproof leggings.
BOOTS - One pair long boots to go outside the trousers, 2 pairs of ankle boots.
HOSIERY - Six woollen jerseys, 3 linen shirts, 2 pairs flannel drawers, 2 pairs worsted stockings, 1 cholera belt**.
** a cummerbund-shaped belt fastened by tape strings, and worn next to the skin. It was commonly believed that cholera infection was contracted via the mid-body region and that warmth in this area would repel the disease. It was also more practically worn to ward off lumbago.
One can't escape the feeling that the undoubted overkill displayed here may have been prompted by feelings of self-preservation by the Commissariat. The Tulloch and McNeill Commission of Inquiry into the Supplies of the British Army in the Crimea had not yet been officially released by the government, but, dated 10th June 1855, it had been available within government circles for many months and it is almost certain that its main findings would have filtered back through the grapevine to the Crimea.
Another lesson had been learned from the previous year - horses and mules would have to be provided with roomy warm stables and ample fodder or they would not survive a Crimean winter as bitter as the previous one. The Cavalry Division in its diverse locations could not be guaranteed adequate winter stabling and it was decided to despatch the entire Division with the exception of the 11th Hussars to Constantinople.
The 11th, probably still the smartest cavalry regiment in the tradition established by their former commanding officer, Lord Cardigan, had been selected to supply escorts to the Commander-in-Chief and other senior dignitaries, and letter parties at each division and the main hospitals. They were delighted at the honour, as well as at the abundance of building materials available to them from the huts abandoned by the departing regiments. Their RSM., Loy Smith, was also acting as Adjutant and he wrote on 25th November: "We have been very busy lately making every preparation for the coming winter so as to make ourselves and our horses as comfortable as possible, erecting huts, making and paving stables, digging drains to carry off the water in rainy weather, and making roads. We shall be very differently off this winter than to last. We are not at all sorry at being left behind for we think we shall, on the whole, be far more comfortable than the regiments which have gone to Constantinople.'
