In 1854 Fenton was approached by the Manchester publisher Thomas Agnew to be sent under semi-official patronage to the Crimean War. The government wanted to obtain scenes from the battlefield and of the British Army and Agnew would gain some financial return in selling prints. The images, therefore, had to be informative but also palatable to a British audience. Despite arduous conditions, Fenton produced up to 360 photographs of the war between Russia and an alliance of Britain, the Ottoman empire and France. The images are mainly topographical views and portraits of the serving British Army. This one shows three soldiers in the foreground at rest, eating and drinking. It has a conventional composition but its significance is transformed by the knowledge of the event at which the scene takes place. The stillness of the image highlights the sense of waiting and the impending action of the battlefield.