Two Autograph Letters Signed ('Charles Gibson' and 'Charles E. Gibson') by Gibson, as Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 49th, written to his 'Aunt Kate' from Sebastopol during the Crimean War, including a description of horse races during the armistice.

Letter One: 12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 75 lines of text. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Expresses regret at 'Morten Edens melancholy death, so young & so clever as he was'. 'There is great talk of Peace. We hardly know if to believe it - few will be sorry should the news prove to be true, as I think most of us have had enough fighting. Apparently refers to his sweetheart under a cypher. She has not written to him, but 'London gaieties have little time for correspondence'. 'The weather here is something awful - cold & wet, fogs & sleet. The place is a sea of mud up to your knees without exaggeration.' His father has sent him food and clothing. The officers are 'getting up a school for the men as the weather is too bad for drill', but 'there is no scarcity of work', with the roads requiring constant repair and 'the Minie Rifle Instruction' going on daily. 'There was a good deal of firing on Sunday night down by the Tchernaya - and we rather expected an attack however it all ended in Smoke.' The docks, which he considers 'the most splendidly finished' he has ever seen, 'built up of that beautiful red & blue granite', have 'all been blown up'. Letter Two: 12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 67 lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with 6 cm vertical closed tear through both leaves. Containing an interesting description of 'Spring (horse) races' which took place 'in the Valley of the Tchernaya' as a result of an armistice. The allied armies crowded the banks on one side of the river, and on the other 'the Russians let loose for the occasion'. There was much bartering - 'Knifes [sic], Pipes, Tobacco, Money and various other articles [...] thrown across the river attached to a stone, or enveloped in mud. The river is not more than 2 or 3 yards wide at some places, so that we could have plenty of conversation with our Enemies, without breaking the "General order". The French were allowed by their Chiefs to cross and they appeared to get on capitally with the Russian Officers'. The French fired 101 guns in a general salute to the heir to their emperor, and the British returned the salute with the same number. Regarding the outcome of 'the conferences' hears that 'you people in England are very pugilistic and are determined to have war if you can'. Considers that the British Army 'was never in better condition for a campaign', and thinks it 'a pitty to stop just now'. Gibson was still alive in 1864, when he married Georgina Eliza, daughter of William Clarke. Note: "The 49th was at the battles of Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol during which three Victoria Crosses were awarded to members of the Regiment."