HENEAGE CLEMENT WALKER: (1831-1901) British Major, Victoria Cross winner for his actions at Gwalior during the Indian Mutiny on 17th June 1858. A.L.S., Clement, four pages, 8vo, Meerut, 3rd January (1862), to Alice Heneage, his sister. Heneage announces that he is anxiously awaiting a telegram from England 'to hear whether there really is to be war with these dirty impertinent Yankees' and remarks 'I fancy if there is that they have chosen a bad time to provoke us, just as the Mexican Expedition was ready, and which will come in so handy, as the Mexicans seem to have quite knocked under at the last moment'. Heneage also writes of various family members and reports of his life in India, 'There is nothing very particular going on here, no end of drills & parades of all arms, & bitterly cold frosty mornings, with the snowy range grinning at our blue noses about sunrise' and also asks 'Have you read “Hills and Plains”? It is a very good picture of the old Indian life in a Native Infantry Regiment, and also at the Hill Stations, which are very well described. I think it would rather amuse you, though you would not understand some of the country slang.' Accompanied by the original envelope hand addressed by Heneage. VG

Heneage's reference to 'dirty impertinent Yankees' is in response to the Trent Affair, an international diplomatic incident which occurred in 1861 during the American Civil War and threatened a war during the United States and Great Britain. On 8th November 1861 the USS San Jacinto overhauled the British mail packet RMS Trent in the Bahamas and forcibly removed two Confederate diplomats bound for England and France to represent Jefferson Davis. President Abraham Lincoln did not want to risk war with Great Britain over the issue and after several tense weeks the crisis was resolved when Lincoln released the envoys.