2-914-011 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

French Infantry of the Line, 1854. Soldiers in the French army during the Crimean War. 'Prince Menschikoff, in his apologetic description of the battle, ascribes his repulse to the fact that the Russian Commanders ware wounded; and that "the enemy's infantry occasioned great losses in horses, artillerymen, and infantry officers." A more just explanation would have been to confess that the wretched serfs, raised on black bread and quass, whom the Czar sends him, are unable to stand against English and French soldiers, even when the former number more than four to one of the latter'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.