One for Liverpool Annie (Continued in Part 2)

[seamike]

Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct.13 - James L. MacLaren, * a veteran of the Crimea died in this city to-day, aged sixty-two years. MacLaren entered the British army service at the age of twelve as a bugler, and lost a leg in famous charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava. He had lived in Utah since 1869

Oct. 14, 1902 The Washington Post

He was only 14 during the Charge where he lost his leg!


*E.J. Boys Archive - missing

[seamike]

A parade of Grand Army of the Republic veterans and civic societies was held here to-day, after which the usual exercises took place at the sterling Cemetery.
In the exercises to-day Mr. Thompson was the entire center of attraction. The gray hair, the erect, soldier-like form, the vigor of an aged but dauntless eye was noted and wondered at by all. This old soldier was born at Linlethgo, Scotland, during the last hour of the last day in the year 1819. In 1852 he enlisted in the Seventy-ninth Cameron Highlanders while at Edinburgh Castle. He served through the Crimean campaign, being with Sir Colin Campbell's brigade. He recounts with vivid distinctness the bloody field of battle at Alma, the rush and roar of that heroic charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, the almost ruthless sacrifice of life at Inkerman, and the tedious, long-drawnout siege of Sebastopol. Mr. Thompson enlisted in the Forty-first Ohio Volunteers, serving through the civil war to its close. Mr. Thompson came to the United States in 1858, locating at Cleveland, Ohio, and moved from there to this place in 1899.
At the breaking out of the Crimean war his company was hurried on board a vessel named the Simoon and sent to Turkey, and later to the Crimea.
Mr. Thompson's first battle was participated in on the Alma River. He received a slight wound in this engagement. The next conflict between armed men and where they fought like tigers to the death, was at Balaklava, where the brave 600 rode through "the valley of death". ....
"I saw Lord Cardigan with the bugler near his side ride through the gap of fours adjacent to mine. I saw the remnant of the '600' when they returned, but did not see the bugler. I supposed he was killed in the bloody charge. Yet I see by a recent copy of the Denver News that the bugler, Sutherland, * of the light brigade, still lives and resides in Denver. I hope to live to meet him, and talk with him of that trying hour"....

At one time this brave old soldier did guard duty before Gen. Grant's tent. One afternoon the general noticed the military bearing of the guard, and asked him where he had served and received his training. Upon learning that he had served through the Crimea, Gen. Grant walked back and forth with him for a long time listening to his story of that great campaign. Finally, Mr. Thompson told his commander of having seen McClellan ** as a student of war in the Crimea. The general became so interested that he paced up and down with Thompson over an hour. Mr. Thompson soon after was appointed a sergeant.

Jun 28, 1903, The Washington Post

*E.J. Boys Archive - missing
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_B._McClellan

[seamike]

LONDON, Jan. 2 - Another Balaklava hero is gone. His name was Job Allwood and he lived at Leamington. According to the current newspaper story, Mr. Allwood not only had the good fortune to escape unhurt in the Balaklava affair, but also to come off unscathed at Sebastopol, where he had two horses shot under him. Without casting any reflections upon the late Mr. Allwood, it certainly is in order to remark that his death is about the ten thousandth recorded of men who helped make up the "noble Six Hundred"

 10 Jan, 1904, The New York Times

[liverpool annie]

Now Mike ... if I could find that " bugler Sutherland " .... I'd be a happy camper !! 

[seamike]

New London, Conn., March 15. - William E. Miller *, who claimed to be a survivor of the Light Brigade which made the famous charge at Balaklava, is dead at his residence, in Groton. He was born in Scotland in 1828, and at the age of twenty-four enlisted in the army. He served through the Crimean war, being an aide de camp at Balaclava, and won the Victoria Cross. Afterwards he came to this country and served in the navy during the civil war.

Mar 16, 1904, The New York Times

*E.J. Boys Archive - missing

[liverpool annie]

Ooh ooh ooh ! lookie here ......... 

A VETERAN OF THE FAMOUS CHARGE LIVES IN DENVER

Denver, Oct. 27 [1894], - Yesterday for the fortieth anniversary of the
famous charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava in 1854, immortalized
in the well known poem, "Forward the Light Brigade."  It is not
generally known that in this city lives one if the buglers who sounded
the charge upon that day, and which launched the famous Six-Hundred
into the valley of death.

Alexander Sutherland, now over 85 years of age, but still a well-preserved
man, lives in West Denver.  He served in the Light Brigade under Lord
Cardigan through the Crimean war and was one of the few who came back
alive from that terrible charge, of the like of which history has no
record.  He came to America after the war and settled in Denver in 1881 (1861?),
having lived here ever since.  Though the event of his life is forty years away,
it still affects Mr. Sutherland to tell the story.

It was October 25, 1854.  The Russians had captured the guns from the Turks
on the Causeway heights.  General SCARLETT, with a heavy cavalry, the Scots
Grays and the Enniskilleners in the front line, had made a brilliant charge,
routing many times their number of Russians.  The Light Brigade, near by,
had been simply idle spectators, but they had been eager to join with
SCARLETT's men in their victorious charge.  Lord Cardigan had been riding
impatiently up and down the line of his own men, disappointed as well as
envious that he and his soldiers were not participants in the fight.

Here . . began the first blunder, either through the loose orders of his
superiors or the failure of Lord Cardigan to properly interpret their commands.
Lucan had expected that Lord Cardigan with the light cavalry would have
flanked the Russians when General SCARLETT with the heavies was making
his charge.

Mr. SUTHERLAND can tell the story of this charge in a thrilling manner.  He
charges that Lord Raglan was to blame for the fearful slaughter that day. 
His commands were not plain, and while it was afterwards found that his
intention was to hurl the Light Brigade upon the Causeway heights and
capture the guns the Russians had taken from the Turks, the orders to
Lord Cardigan were not distinct.  He was ordered to charge for the guns,
and as he was a soldier he did as he was told, though he knew that someone
had blundered.  As to the story of the famous charge. Tennyson has told
it all in his great poem.  Out of the 613 men who made the charge into
the valley, only 195 returned, and most of them were wounded.  Over 500
horses were lost in the fight.  Mr. SUTHERLAND was wounded in the head
and leg, but not seriously.

Mr. SUTHERLAND is an Irishman and came of a fighting family, his father
before him having been in the British army, and was one of the officers
of the guard over Napolean at St. Helenn.  Mr. SUTHERLAND is well know
to many people in Denver, but it is not often that he will tell story
of the charge of the Light Brigade.

http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/co/elpaso/newspapers/1894oc28.txt

[seamike]

Will John Sutherland, born abt 1811  suit?

[liverpool annie]

The Denver Municipal Band is the oldest professional concert band in the continental United States.

The Denver Municipal Band was founded in the late 1860s by Alex Sutherland, bugler at the "Charge of The Light Brigade." Surviving the ordeal, he settled in Denver where he was active in many of the city's early musical activities. Originally constituted as the GAR Post Band, it performed early municipally funded concerts throughout the 1870s and 80s, changing its name to the Denver Municipal Band in 1891 when it began its continuous history of Denver Municipal Funding.

http://www.dmamusic.org/dmb/

[seamike]

Survivors of Balaklava Swarming

Not long since we published a statement that Thomas Yates, of Toledo, O., was "believed to be" the sole survivor of the heroes of Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade", and immediately afterwards we published a statement of the death of John Sutherland,*in Denver, Colo., who was the bugler in the Light Brigade. Now comes a statement that George H. Baynes **, of Colorado Springs, says that Mr. Sutherland was ninety-four years old when he died, which would make him forty-four years when he sounded the charge, "and we very seldom had a man in the cavalry at that advanced age. If he was in that charge, I have the greatest respect for him, but if he was the last survivor, then I must be a ghost".
The Colorado Springs Gazette says that Mr. Baynes was one of the twenty-eight fortunate ones out of the six hundred brave fellows who charged unflinchingly for a full half mile through a veritable rain of lead. Mr. Haynes was born in the Madras Presidency, in India, in 1836, his father being chief justice of the presidency. His boyhood says were spent in England, where he attended Eton College. His parents secured him a commission as a cornet in a regiment of light dragoons. When the Crimean War broke out he was but eighteen years of age. He served through the war, resigned his commission, and went to Canada and enlisted in the service there; later went to Australia and allied himself with the New Zealand colonists in their struggle with the natives; and more recently he came to the United States, and served in the Sixth Cavalry under General Chaffee.
Also the Courier Journal of Louisville declares that a plasterer living in that city, P.H. Hussey ***, is a survivor. Mr, Hussey was born in London in 1837; entered the army in 1853; when only sixteen years of age. Through nine long month his brigade accompanied the allies and fought with the Light Brigade. He was shot four times at Balaklava; one missile cut away the greater part of this left eyelash; a second struck him in the hand; a third disabled his left shoulder;and the fourth struck him in the right leg. From all these Mr. Hussey has completely recovered. He possesses numerous medals presented for his service in the British Army, and also owns the stripes of a sergeant, to which position he rose from a private. He has numerous papers verifying his claims. In 1855 he came to this country. Nor is this all. The Walton Reporter, of Delaware County, N.Y., states that John Harrison ****, a survivor, is living at Delhi, in that county.

Mar 9, 1905, Christian Advocate


*       E.J. Boys Archive - missing
**     E.J. Boys Archive - Baynes  Pte  George 1622 4th LD
***   E.J. Boys Archive - missing
**** E.J. Boys Archive - missing