2-969-748 - /Heritage Images

Christmas-Day in the Crimea - Dinner of Captain Brown's Company, 57th Regiment - sketched by J. A. Crowe, 1856. '...the mess-tables of the regiments more resembled those of England than the impoverished arrangements of a winter camp. Plum-puddings sent out from England had failed to arrive as a matter of course...the officers...were not unmindful...of the welfare of their men, and a vast system of dinners by companies was organised throughout the Camp with the greatest success...the most sumptuous repasts were spread out upon improvised tables...These were feeds surrounded by all the pomp and circumstance of war, for the soldiers' muskets were slung over their heads, their cartouche-boxes near them, whilst their packs decorated the rafters...grog and porter followed, and toasts were given round amidst enthusiastic cheers'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.