John Archibald Ballard

It is likely that he had heard reports of the events then going on in the Danubian principalities, from Lieutenant Charles Nasmyth who was a relative of his brother's wife, and he turned aside to Constantinople proceeding to Omar Pasha's camp at Shumla, where he was invested by that general with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Turkish army, and deputed to Silistria as a member of the council of war in that fortress, which was then besieged by the Russians.

During the remainder of the siege, which was raised by the Russians on 28 June, Ballard was the only British officer in the fortress, and it was mainly owing to his exertions, and the influence which he exercised over the garrison, that the defence was successfully maintained.

After serving with the Turkish troops at Eupatoria and in the expedition to Kertch, Ballard commanded a brigade in Omar Pasha's Transcaucasian campaign, undertaken for the relief of Kars.

The chief event in this campaign was the battle of the Ingour river, at which Ballard and his brigade were for several hours hotly engaged with the Russians, the former conspicuous, as he had been at Silistria and at Giurgevo, for his coolness under fire and for his watchful care over the comfort and wellbeing of his men.

Returning to India in 1856 as subaltern of engineers, he was nonetheless decorated with the order of Companion of the Bath, and also with that of the Medjidie, by virtue of his rank and services in the Turkish army.