Stirring Incidents in the Life of a British Soldier: An Autobiography.

xv, [16]-537 pp. Blue cloth, gilt and black titles, black decorations, engraved frontispiece of author, engraved plates and in-line illustrations depicting locations, people, and battles. Memoirs of the Colour-Sergeant 2nd Battalion 6th Royal Regiment, who saw service in Great Britain, the Mediterranean, eastern Europe during the Crimean War, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean. Originally published in 1879, and reprinted several times with updates. "Born in Derry in Ireland, Thomas Faughnan 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."