Springtime on Sapourne
As February gave way to March, a tidal wave of long awaited relief swamped the British Army in the Crimea. Huge quantities of winter woolies and furs were suddenly available. Volunteers who donned complete sets for Roger Fenton's photographs, sweated freely in the spring sunshine. They probably sweated a good deal more when they learnt how much he was charging for a print - £2, according to Capt Somerville of the 68th! Still the poor man had his overheads and we are indebted to him for his photographs, so much more immediate than prints and artists impressions.
The erstwhile frozen muddy wastes on the heights were transformed by a covering of thin patchy grass liberally sprinkled with brightly coloured spring flowers. Walking became not only a possible method of moving between two points, it was also a pleasure. Ease of transportation took a great lurch forward as the railway scheduled for operation between Balaklava and the rear of 3rd Division camp on the Heights, was already completed almost to the Col by 31st March, facilitating the transfer of stores and materials to the camps in large quantities.
The Railway construction had also served to clear the fetid and disease ridden hovels off the streets in Balaklava. Omar Pasha landed in the Crimea with a substantial part of his army, and the Turkish soldiers who had eked out their appalling winter huddled together in Balaklava as poignantly described by Fanny Duberley, were taken in hand and evacuated to a new Turkish Camp above the port. The Sanitary Commission had arrived and were in the process of organising a monster clean up: 'About the middle of March......every day the the plains and hillsides were streaked with columns of smoke , which marked the spots where fire was destroying heaps of filth and corrupt animal and vegetable matter as sacrifices on the altar of Health 'wrote an unusually flowery Russell. With neat rows of wooden huts replacing the crumbling crowded slums, Balaklava was at last taking on the look of a conventional military base.
Colonel Macmurdo was also newly in harness, his mission to create a Land Transport Corps, and he threw himself into the task with great energy. The Corps was to be manned by ex-soldiers and specially selected recruits. They had to be trained, and the necessary animals and vehicles obtained. The Colonel had independent powers of purchase, which he was not afraid to use to the full. Faced with one particularly hefty requisition, the Secretary to the Treasury, Sir Charles Trevelyan had added to it "Colonel MacMurdo must limit his expenditure." "When Sir Charles Trevelyan limits the war, I will limit my expenditure." replied the Colonel.
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