_To the Editor of the Nottinghamshire Advertiser_.
SIR,—Having perused in your last week’s impression, a letter under the
above heading, from the pen of a participator in the perils of the late
war, complaining of the neglect he had suffered at the hands of those who
must, or ought to be, well acquainted with the incidents he relates. I
am inclined to think with him, that the strictly “discretoniary
decorations” will, after all, form a too striking constituent in our
modern system of distributing military rewards, for, presuming Mr. Morley
to have one of the ordinary Crimean medals, it scarcely, in his case,
seems an adequate recognition of services rendered under very trying
circumstances, and by so young a man. Indeed, it appears an exceedingly
questionable policy to pass over, comparatively unheeded, one who could,
at a conjuncture—such as is stated to have occurred at Balaclava—rally a
dozen men, mere fugitives racing for their lives, and inspire them with
confidence sufficient to bear down upon, and literally rend assunder an
entire regiment of the enemy. This, when regard is had to the fact, that
they were just emerging from a most fearful storm of shot, poured upon
them by the Russian artillery, was a display of no ordinary intrepidity
and daring in men, who, previously to that campaign, had never crossed
swords with an enemy, and well worthy, I think, of some special mark of
approbation,—the more so, when we reflect that he was thereby
instrumental in saving eight or nine lives of the flower of the army, who
would, in all probability, have been shot down, or lanced piecemeal, had
they not at that critical moment acted in perfect concert.
The fact of our Lord Lieutenant having given Sergeant Morley an
appointment in the Sherwood Rangers, is a sufficient guarantee for the
truth of his statements, and many, doubtless, who have read his very
interesting letter, will join me in congratulating him upon obtaining the
favour of such a man.