'Our Cavalry, Dead Horses', 1854

Pen and ink with watercolour by Lieutenant Henry John Wilkinson (1829-1911), 1st Battalion, 9th (The East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot.

Balaklava, Britain's main port during the Crimean War (1854-1856), was not big enough to cope with the amount of shipping. Ships outside it then sank in a storm. Medicine, tents, fuel, food, winter clothing and fodder were lost. The loss of animal feed meant that cavalry horses and transport animals succumbed. Lord Raglan, British commander-in-chief, wrote to the War Office explaining that 'there was no use buying horses and letting them die of starvation'.