Description
Nothing in British campaign history has ever equalled the tragic farce that was the Charge of the Light Brigade. In this fascinating study, Cecil Woodham-Smith shows that responsibility for the fatal mismanagement of the affair rested with the Earls of Cardigan and Lucan, brothers-in-law and sworn enemies for more than thirty years. In revealing the combination of pride and obstinacy that was to prove so fatal, the author gives us a picture of a vanished world, in which heroism and military glory guaranteed an immortality impossible in a more cynical age.
Collection
Publication
Penguin Group (1991), Edition: Illustrated, 288 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member jcbrunner
Two real-life Flashmen before there was Flashman! I don't know if this gem of a book has inspired George MacDonald Fraser, it seems highly likely. This twin biography of the divisional and brigade commanders of the British cavalry at the battle of Balaclava and the originators of the charge of the
Lord Lucan closed the poor houses during the Great Irish Famine, supplying the starving instead with tracts on Adam Smith (who as a professor of moral philosophy would have been horrified by such behavior). Lord Cardigan's speciality, meanwhile, was hounding and court-martialing any competent subordinates. Decisions have to be taken by the Decider, owing his appointment solely to nepotism. His connections shielded him from the consequences of his repeated failures. The two Lords were brothers-in-law but detested each other mightily. Add to this mix an aging Commander-in-Chief and an over-eager staff officer, and your catastrophe in waiting is perfect.
On rode the six hundred, into the Russian guns and the history books. You should run too, to get this book. Its a hilarious read that exposes the worst and the stupidest that finally crashed down in the First World War. In an otherwise perfect book, I wish the author to have devoted more space to the other two men responsible for the disaster, Lord Raglan and Captain Nolan. The only positive aspect of the charge was that truly British garment, the Cardigan sweater named after the commander of the Light Brrigade. Highly recommended (the book - not the sweater, nowadays mostly worn by old foggies).
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Light Brigade, Lord Lucan and Lord Cardigan, both epitomes of the decadence and incompetence of the British ruling class of the 19th century that foretold the decline of the Empire, a tale of lions led by donkeys, an insult to the grey animal. One might best call them "compassionate conservatives". Lord Lucan closed the poor houses during the Great Irish Famine, supplying the starving instead with tracts on Adam Smith (who as a professor of moral philosophy would have been horrified by such behavior). Lord Cardigan's speciality, meanwhile, was hounding and court-martialing any competent subordinates. Decisions have to be taken by the Decider, owing his appointment solely to nepotism. His connections shielded him from the consequences of his repeated failures. The two Lords were brothers-in-law but detested each other mightily. Add to this mix an aging Commander-in-Chief and an over-eager staff officer, and your catastrophe in waiting is perfect.
On rode the six hundred, into the Russian guns and the history books. You should run too, to get this book. Its a hilarious read that exposes the worst and the stupidest that finally crashed down in the First World War. In an otherwise perfect book, I wish the author to have devoted more space to the other two men responsible for the disaster, Lord Raglan and Captain Nolan. The only positive aspect of the charge was that truly British garment, the Cardigan sweater named after the commander of the Light Brrigade. Highly recommended (the book - not the sweater, nowadays mostly worn by old foggies).
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LibraryThing member numbernine
At the time of the Crimean War in 1853, the British army was run by incompetent aristocrats who had purchased their commissions. Not only were the officers with actual battle experience on the Indian subcontinent not promoted according to their ability, they were openly despised by many of the
The Reason Why relates the stories of the two main players who led the famous Light Brigade’s charge at Balaclava. Lord Cardigan, who commanded the brigade, and Lord Lucan, the division commander. Cardigan was a disciplinarian, undeniably brave but prone to ridiculous squabbles with his men over the most mundane details of uniforms and protocol. Lord Cardigan had no sense of proportion or distance. Every minor grievance was of terrible import, even years after. Even less impressive: on campaign in the Crimea, he anchored his private yacht nearby and spent his evenings away from his men, sleeping in his bed and being attended to by his servants. Lord Lucan, on the other hand, was unpleasant in an entirely different way: a landlord in Ireland during the Great Potato Famine, he showed an extraordinary lack of kindness and sometimes outright cruelty, such as literally pulling apart the houses of starving people who had not paid their rent. It is worth noting this was nasty even by the standards of other nobles; his behavior was specifically challenged in The House of Lords.
The first two-thirds or so of Ms. Woodham-Smith’s masterpiece sketches the lives of this not-so-delightful pair. They couldn’t stand each other either and quarreled constantly while on campaign--their squabbles handled about as poorly as possible by the Commander-in-Chief Lord Raglan.
The Crimean War itself was a strange business. Supposedly at issue was mistreatment of Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land but probably more to the point was the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Russian desire for a warm water port.
From an operational standpoint, the British expedition was a disaster: not enough food, not enough water, not enough room on the ships, bad reconnaissance (when there was any at all), and rampant disease. The successes the British did enjoy, such as forcing a crossing of the Alma, were due entirely to the courage and fighting ability of the soldiers themselves.
The last third of the book details the campaign leading up to the famous charge. It’s one of the finer battle narratives I’ve ever read.
Someone had blunder'd indeed. When captured British guns were in danger of being pulled off the battlefield, Lord Raglan ordered an attack to a re-take them. His order was so purely worded however as to invite disaster, and disaster accepted. Raglan didn’t specify which guns to attack and Captain Nolan, who delivered the order, indicated the cannon at the far end of what Tennyson aptly called the “Valley of Death.” The nearer guns were obscured by the terrain—something Raglan didn’t know because he was observing the battle from a heights nearly 600 feet above the battlefield.
In his order, Raglan also failed to give his commanders any discretion at all. General Lee is still sometimes criticized for adding “if practicable” to his attack order at Gettysburg nine years later, but Lee often add that prepositional phrase, specifically to avoid the sort of debacle, Lords Lucan and Cardigan found themselves in: galloping into the mouths of cannon with enfilade fire pouring into both flanks.
I used to have a strange prejudice against older works of history, feeling that newer books had more complete evidence and access to more scholarship on the subject, etc. etc. I’ve long ago dropped this silly idea--contemporary histories have their own biases, their own prejudices. It’s depressing to consider if I hadn’t and I would’ve spent my life missing out on books like these.
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upper echelon. It was thought that keeping the military in the hands of the propertied classes would prevent revolutionary fervor from spreading through the ranks, as it had in other countries. Because the Duke of Wellington had been both a duke and one of the finest soldiers in the history of the world, the system had seemed to work just fine.The Reason Why relates the stories of the two main players who led the famous Light Brigade’s charge at Balaclava. Lord Cardigan, who commanded the brigade, and Lord Lucan, the division commander. Cardigan was a disciplinarian, undeniably brave but prone to ridiculous squabbles with his men over the most mundane details of uniforms and protocol. Lord Cardigan had no sense of proportion or distance. Every minor grievance was of terrible import, even years after. Even less impressive: on campaign in the Crimea, he anchored his private yacht nearby and spent his evenings away from his men, sleeping in his bed and being attended to by his servants. Lord Lucan, on the other hand, was unpleasant in an entirely different way: a landlord in Ireland during the Great Potato Famine, he showed an extraordinary lack of kindness and sometimes outright cruelty, such as literally pulling apart the houses of starving people who had not paid their rent. It is worth noting this was nasty even by the standards of other nobles; his behavior was specifically challenged in The House of Lords.
The first two-thirds or so of Ms. Woodham-Smith’s masterpiece sketches the lives of this not-so-delightful pair. They couldn’t stand each other either and quarreled constantly while on campaign--their squabbles handled about as poorly as possible by the Commander-in-Chief Lord Raglan.
The Crimean War itself was a strange business. Supposedly at issue was mistreatment of Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land but probably more to the point was the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Russian desire for a warm water port.
From an operational standpoint, the British expedition was a disaster: not enough food, not enough water, not enough room on the ships, bad reconnaissance (when there was any at all), and rampant disease. The successes the British did enjoy, such as forcing a crossing of the Alma, were due entirely to the courage and fighting ability of the soldiers themselves.
The last third of the book details the campaign leading up to the famous charge. It’s one of the finer battle narratives I’ve ever read.
Someone had blunder'd indeed. When captured British guns were in danger of being pulled off the battlefield, Lord Raglan ordered an attack to a re-take them. His order was so purely worded however as to invite disaster, and disaster accepted. Raglan didn’t specify which guns to attack and Captain Nolan, who delivered the order, indicated the cannon at the far end of what Tennyson aptly called the “Valley of Death.” The nearer guns were obscured by the terrain—something Raglan didn’t know because he was observing the battle from a heights nearly 600 feet above the battlefield.
In his order, Raglan also failed to give his commanders any discretion at all. General Lee is still sometimes criticized for adding “if practicable” to his attack order at Gettysburg nine years later, but Lee often add that prepositional phrase, specifically to avoid the sort of debacle, Lords Lucan and Cardigan found themselves in: galloping into the mouths of cannon with enfilade fire pouring into both flanks.
I used to have a strange prejudice against older works of history, feeling that newer books had more complete evidence and access to more scholarship on the subject, etc. etc. I’ve long ago dropped this silly idea--contemporary histories have their own biases, their own prejudices. It’s depressing to consider if I hadn’t and I would’ve spent my life missing out on books like these.
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LibraryThing member jhw
Points of interest:
Lord Hill in 1836 consented to the re-employment of Lord Cardigan, after he had been dismissed from his command, "because I am unable to endure the distress of this noble family".
Lord Cardigan was said to spend £10,000 p.a. from his own income on 11th Hussars.
Lord Cardigan would
172 duels are known to have been fought 1760-1820; 91 persons were killed, but death penalty was imposed only twice. It was imposed again in 1838 after a duel between two men not in high life.
"The Duke must observe that in the whole of his experience he has never known the time of the staff of the Army to be taken up in so useless a manner as in the present instance, that if any other Regiment in Her Majesty's Service gave such trouble and could not be commanded without such voluminous correspondence and such futile details an additional Staff would be necessary for conducting the affairs of the Regiment", Wellington to Cardigan, 1843.
in 1854 Lod Lucan had not commanded troops for 17 years and in the meantimes the words of command had been changed, and his attempts at drilling caused confusion. He solved the problem by making the troops return to the old system.
"...Lord Lucan's unpopular practice of turning out his division an hour before daybreak..."
There are three or four inaccuracies in the account of the irish famine, and the explanation of the outbreak of the Crimean War is unsatisfactory. The absence of references is sometimes irritating, though the source can usually be judged from the context. The bibliography is imposing, especially the section on manuscript sources, but the text suggests that a good mabny of the manuscript collections proved of little value.
The book amounts to a clear, vividly-written and withering condemnation of aristocratic mismanagement. It is shocking that such men as Cardigan and Lucan should have been allowed to retain high command, and still more so that they should have received subsequent promotion. But incompetent though they were, one wonders if they were quite as dangerous as they are painted here. Cardigan's regiment did after all attain a high reputation, and Lucan did think of having a dawn stand-to. Again, one wonders how representative they were. Lord Raglan was clearly no better, but many of the regimental officers seem to have been good and the stir that Cardigan's conduct as a Commanding Officer produced showed that it must have been unique. The book would be more convincing if there were more background against which the characters could be judged.
Lord Hill in 1836 consented to the re-employment of Lord Cardigan, after he had been dismissed from his command, "because I am unable to endure the distress of this noble family".
Lord Cardigan was said to spend £10,000 p.a. from his own income on 11th Hussars.
Lord Cardigan would
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disregard letters from Lord Hill, and the latter apparently could do nothing.172 duels are known to have been fought 1760-1820; 91 persons were killed, but death penalty was imposed only twice. It was imposed again in 1838 after a duel between two men not in high life.
"The Duke must observe that in the whole of his experience he has never known the time of the staff of the Army to be taken up in so useless a manner as in the present instance, that if any other Regiment in Her Majesty's Service gave such trouble and could not be commanded without such voluminous correspondence and such futile details an additional Staff would be necessary for conducting the affairs of the Regiment", Wellington to Cardigan, 1843.
in 1854 Lod Lucan had not commanded troops for 17 years and in the meantimes the words of command had been changed, and his attempts at drilling caused confusion. He solved the problem by making the troops return to the old system.
"...Lord Lucan's unpopular practice of turning out his division an hour before daybreak..."
There are three or four inaccuracies in the account of the irish famine, and the explanation of the outbreak of the Crimean War is unsatisfactory. The absence of references is sometimes irritating, though the source can usually be judged from the context. The bibliography is imposing, especially the section on manuscript sources, but the text suggests that a good mabny of the manuscript collections proved of little value.
The book amounts to a clear, vividly-written and withering condemnation of aristocratic mismanagement. It is shocking that such men as Cardigan and Lucan should have been allowed to retain high command, and still more so that they should have received subsequent promotion. But incompetent though they were, one wonders if they were quite as dangerous as they are painted here. Cardigan's regiment did after all attain a high reputation, and Lucan did think of having a dawn stand-to. Again, one wonders how representative they were. Lord Raglan was clearly no better, but many of the regimental officers seem to have been good and the stir that Cardigan's conduct as a Commanding Officer produced showed that it must have been unique. The book would be more convincing if there were more background against which the characters could be judged.
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LibraryThing member plb1934
"The Reason Why remains the classic study of the intriguing and sadly ludicrous episode in military history known as the Charge of the Light Brigade. The author, coming from an Army family and relying heavily on the writings of officers, largely neglects the experience of the private soldier and
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concentrates on the main characters in the drama. The story is dominated by these extraordinary personalities, serving as a reminder that war is an inherently human drama. On a second level, it is a criticism of the privilege system of the British Army of the mid-nineteenth century. In retrospect, one is hard pressed to believe such a purchase system could have ever won a victory at Waterloo. Intolerant aristocrats with no experience in battle, paltry leadership skills, and maddening unconcern for the soldiers under their command, bought their commissions. The Charge of the Light Brigade illuminated all of the faults of the system and proved that bravery alone was insufficient for victory. While human blunders led to the debacle that was the Charge of the Light Brigade, the British military system was intrinsically to blame." HAVING BEEN TO THE CRIMEA AND TO THE SITE OF THE CHARGE I FOUND THE BOOK RATHER GOOD-PLB Show Less
LibraryThing member Steelwhisper
Woodham-Smith does the complex topic full justice, without becoming overbearing. This is THE book to read to comprehend what led to this disastrous action.
I've been and still am currently studying the Great War and am dumbfounded by the similarities and the fact that indeed the British general
I've been and still am currently studying the Great War and am dumbfounded by the similarities and the fact that indeed the British general
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staff had ample proof of its defunct tactics and concepts already in 1853-1856. It was all there: trench warfare, the prototype of machine gun action, grape and canister shot, shelling--alongside with those utterly senseless massive losses that any war of attrition, whether planned for or unplanned, will cause. I suggest that any historian hell-bent on revising WWI history and attempting to prove that Haig and Kitchener were surprised and needed time to devise new responses to industrial warfare had better study the Crimean War. The Light Brigade stands in for all the dead at the Somme--with the sole exception of having been fewer. Show Less
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
This is a very popular account of the early part of the Crimean War, there is no coverage of Baltic operations or the Turkish involvement because of the book's focus on "The Charge". But the prose is clear and the mythology of the war is laid out in a colourful fashion. I've read this book twice.
LibraryThing member Tendulkar01
an excellent book on the historical background behind the charge of the light brigade
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
When I record the title of a book I use the title page, and if there is no subtitle shown on the title page I do not record it, even if the slipcover has a subtitle. So the book I read did not have the subtitle on the title page. But I remember that I was hugely interested in this event--I
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memorized Tennyson's poem on my own volition when I was a child--one of the first poems I memorized that was not assigned for memorization by any teacher. Over the years I memorized many poems, even though now I am old I have not recited them and so some are not longer readily recitable any more. There are some tricky lines in Tennyson's poem and I would not guarantee I could recite it accurately any more. But this book being read by me is evidence of my huge interest in the event. Show Less
LibraryThing member BruceCoulson
The definitive history of the Charge of the Light Brigade.
LibraryThing member martinhughharvey
Most older Brits have heard of the Charge of the Light Brigade - a catastrophic destruction of 600 British cavalry in the Crimean War - but also an act of supreme reckless courage against overwhelming odds romantically imortlized by Tennyson in "All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred"
and
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die."
This was the British Army at its nadir and certainly not the creature of Wellington who 40 years before had beaten Napoleon. The poem refers to "blundered" which is certainly true however, still not clear what and why but the whole British army was a blunder. Its soldiers referred to as brutes led by nobles. However, the nobles all bought their commission, were never a product of a military college or trained, but singularly unflinchingly brave to a man. The main protagonists in the story are Lords Lucan and Cardigan, neither with any combat experience, reporting to Raglan who at least was a survivor of the Napoleonic wars including Waterloo.
This book was written six decades ago and by a woman. Puzzling when reading the book is she starts it in Cromwellian times and spends most of the book on Lucan and Cardigan and their toxic and notorious relationship - even though they were closely related. At the time it seemed puzzling but made so much sense in the fog surrounding the charge which while led by Cardigan Lucan was in reserve with the heavies.
She also adds an amazing and informative chapter on the Irish Famine where Lucan was infamous in Mayo for hios indifference to the suffering. Apparently his son, Lucan IV, was much kinder to his Irish “tenants”/
The chapter on the charge is breathless and staggering and amazingly only covers about twenty minutes! While a disaster and a defeat the light brigade - including the Inniskellens, The Scots Greys” and other less famous regiments braved enfilading musketry and artillery and made it to the guns slaughtering many and driving off much more numerous Russian cavalry. One French general watching the event stated “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre: c'est de la folie” Cardigan survived the charge even though he led the whole charge ahead of his troops.
While the author states a better Army was a benefit of the catastrophic war she fails to mention Florence Nightingale who became much more than the nurse she is primarily remembered for.
Very different times. Superb book.
Rode the six hundred"
and
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as the title refers to "Someone had blundered.Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die."
This was the British Army at its nadir and certainly not the creature of Wellington who 40 years before had beaten Napoleon. The poem refers to "blundered" which is certainly true however, still not clear what and why but the whole British army was a blunder. Its soldiers referred to as brutes led by nobles. However, the nobles all bought their commission, were never a product of a military college or trained, but singularly unflinchingly brave to a man. The main protagonists in the story are Lords Lucan and Cardigan, neither with any combat experience, reporting to Raglan who at least was a survivor of the Napoleonic wars including Waterloo.
This book was written six decades ago and by a woman. Puzzling when reading the book is she starts it in Cromwellian times and spends most of the book on Lucan and Cardigan and their toxic and notorious relationship - even though they were closely related. At the time it seemed puzzling but made so much sense in the fog surrounding the charge which while led by Cardigan Lucan was in reserve with the heavies.
She also adds an amazing and informative chapter on the Irish Famine where Lucan was infamous in Mayo for hios indifference to the suffering. Apparently his son, Lucan IV, was much kinder to his Irish “tenants”/
The chapter on the charge is breathless and staggering and amazingly only covers about twenty minutes! While a disaster and a defeat the light brigade - including the Inniskellens, The Scots Greys” and other less famous regiments braved enfilading musketry and artillery and made it to the guns slaughtering many and driving off much more numerous Russian cavalry. One French general watching the event stated “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre: c'est de la folie” Cardigan survived the charge even though he led the whole charge ahead of his troops.
While the author states a better Army was a benefit of the catastrophic war she fails to mention Florence Nightingale who became much more than the nurse she is primarily remembered for.
Very different times. Superb book.
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LibraryThing member bookmarkaussie
The author goes back decades to reveal the personal history between the main decision makers on the day of the charge of the light brigade. It makes for fascinating reading, which does provide us with the reasons why the charge took place. First rate!
LibraryThing member Quickpint
So this is narrative history. The emphasis is on the former rather than the latter: there is no pretension of neutrality (only a sort of assumed common decency, of which the author is of course a natural and self-proclaimed advocate), it is light on sources, and it avoids troubling ambiguities and
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questions. Instead we have a brief and rip-roaring yarn that will place the charge of the Light Brigade firmly and vividly in your historical memory. It concentrates on two protagonists, Lord Lucan and Lord Cardigan, and reduces them to something like caricatures. Perhaps they were, but I doubt it. I suspect real history is more nuanced than this blithe twentieth century critique of Britain's mid-Victorian ruling classes. But it is an accessible book, and easy to read; you don't have to agree with the author; and her assertions and conclusions are easily ignored. Indeed, they are the least valuable part of the book. One example of author bias that occurs to me to mention: she is full of praise for the Indian Army, and full of scorn for those Victorian English officers who failed to appreciate it. Fair enough. But her father was a career officer of the Indian Army, so too her brother, I think. If this book causes you to think and reflect about things outside the text it can only be a worthwhile read, and it is certainly and enjoyable one, but I do not think serious minds will return to it. Show Less
LibraryThing member emilymcmc
Aside from being one of the most accessible accounts of what the English did to the Irish ... this is one of those books that pulls together threads you know and threads you don't into one unstoppably readable story.
LibraryThing member markm2315
This history is largely a biography of the two principal characters involved in the 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade, Lords Cardigan and Lucan. It is unusually well written and, as the saying goes, “reads like a novel”. The sad pleasure that one finds in reading the history of great
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The author attributes the extravagant behavior of one or two characters to their being of Irish and Italian heritage, yet she does not attribute the behavior of the two mental deviants about whom the story is told to their being British.
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catastrophes is strongly stimulated in this account of two unpleasant and imperious aristocrats who almost seem to have been specifically created to end up bumbling into disaster in Crimea. The only possible structural flaw is an inserted chapter on the Irish potato famine, but it does bear on the life of Lord Lucan; the author, Cecil Blanche Woodham-Smith, wrote a book about the famine that was published nine years later in 1962. I also plan to find a copy of her biography of Florence Nightingale published in 1950.============================
The author attributes the extravagant behavior of one or two characters to their being of Irish and Italian heritage, yet she does not attribute the behavior of the two mental deviants about whom the story is told to their being British.
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Subjects
Awards
Notable Books List (1954)
Original language
English
Original publication date
1953