[Illustrated with over two hundred and sixty maps, photos and portraits, of the battles, individuals and places involved in the Crimean War] Thomas Faughnan served in the 6th Royal Regiment, now the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, during a most bloody period of British History. Born in Derry in Ireland, he enlisted in the British Army to escape poverty and deprivation; his was destined to be a hard life of soldiering. His memoirs abound with details of the dull and brutal life of the private soldier on marches and in barracks in England before his first major service abroad in the Crimea. Colour-Sergeant Faughnan, as he had risen in the ranks, served with distinction at the siege of Sebastopol amongst the snow and disease. He writes movingly of the desperate conditions that the average ranker suffered and fought under in Russia and of the heroic engagements at Balaklava and the assault of the Redan. The author survived to see further action in Egypt before eventual retirement in Canada. A little-known but brilliant memoir from the ranks of the British Army.