The Times Great Military Lives: Leadership and Courage – from Waterloo to the Falklands in Obituaries. Ian Brunskill

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      At Wellington’s death Lord Fitzroy was raised to the peerage by the title, now so familiar, of Lord Raglan, and when, a short time afterwards, it was resolved to despatch an army to the succour of the Sultan, he received the command of it. How naturally this appointment was suggested by circumstances will appear from what we have remarked above, and if the expedition had proved what it was at first probably expected to be – if it had turned out a species of military demonstration, requiring, indeed, the discretion of a practised soldier and the conciliatory courtesy of a judicious commander, but without calling for the display of the highest military powers – if the operations had been even limited to such ordinary battles or coups de main as might have been achieved with ordinary prowess, the result might have been regarded with unalloyed satisfaction. Unfortunately, the army found itself in circumstances which might have tried the talents of a Caesar or a Turenne, and though Lord Raglan’s unrivalled tact of manner and genuine kindness of disposition preserved the harmony of our alliance without a rupture throughout all these trials, they did not avail to extricate our troops from sufferings of the most terrible kind. Nothing, indeed could surpass the true amenity of his manners, and many of those whose duties compelled them to speak aloud upon the sufferings of the army found it impossible all the while to forget the generous courtesies of its chief.

      In this respect, at any rate, he excelled, his old commander. Wellington could rarely, except by the sheer force of his victories, conciliate the affections of his soldiers, whereas Lord Raglan seems invariably to have inspired all those immediately around him with sentiments of unfeigned regard. In his own capacity in short or in his own sphere, his gifts were almost unequalled. With unchangeable suavity of manner he combined immense professional experience, untiring application, excellent habits of method, and singular powers of endurance. That these faculties are not sufficient to form a first-rate general is true but at the present moment it in more agreeable to think on what was given than to enlarge upon what was not forthcoming.

      The author of this obituary makes no serious attempt to disguise the fact that Field Marshal The Lord Raglan was not the man to command the British Army in the Crimea but, given the 40 years of peace that had elapsed since Waterloo, there was no alternative senior officer available who might have made a better fist of it. Moreover, that same long period of peace had allowed the army to fall back on the non-essentials of elaborate uniforms and parades that inhibit rather than strengthen ability to fight, when that is the priority. In terms of tactics, communications, joint action by infantry, cavalry and artillery, logistics and care for the wounded, the army in the Crimea was woefully inadequate.

      Experienced staff officer that he was, Raglan was not slow to appreciate this situation once it became clear that the campaign would be prolonged and face conditions of dreadful hardship in the Russian winter. Yet the courtesy brought about by his upbringing prevented him from setting out these critical shortcomings in his despatches with sufficient frankness to cause some effect. It took the correspondent of The Times in the Crimea, William Russell, through his reports to the newspaper, to expose the failings of competence, industry and lack of the necessary means for better organisation of the army to cause a national outcry and government reaction, albeit much of it too late to have real benefit on the ground.

      In view of the publicity it received after the return of Major-General The Lord Cardigan to England in 1855, it is surprising that no mention is made in this obituary of the part played by Lord Raglan in the saga of the charge of the Light Cavalry Brigade-commanded by Cardigan – at the Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1855. That six hundred horseman charged down a valley held on both sides by the enemy towards a concentration of field artillery at the far end was due, of course, to a misunderstanding. Raglan’s order, ‘Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns,’ was clear to him on the heights overlooking the valley, from where he could see Russians about to drag away some captured artillery pieces, a sensible target for light cavalry supported by horse artillery, which he authorised. Unfortunately, on the valley floor only the Russian guns at the far end of the valley were visible. Raglan might have anticipated this and made clear to which guns he referred, but his chief of Staff, Sir Richard Airey, who wrote the message and the galloper who carried it, Captain Nolan, were chiefly responsible for what occurred.

      Raglan cared deeply for the loss of any of his men and worked long into the night writing letters to the families of officers who lost their lives in the fighting or through disease.

       GRANT

       Master strategist of the Union Army

      24 JULY 1885

      

      ULYSSES S. GRANT, GENERAL ON the retired list of the United States Army, and eighteenth President of the United States, who died yesterday morning after a long illness at Mount M’Gregor, near Saratoga, New York, was born in the State of Ohio, at a small village called Point Pleasant, April 27, 1822. His ancestry was Scotch, and his parents were in humble circumstances. He was named Hiram Ulysses Grant, and during his infancy his parents removed to Georgetown, Ohio, where his boyhood was passed. He had but moderate opportunities for education in early life, and when 17 years of age the member of Congress from the district in which he lived appointed him a cadet at the United States’ Military Academy at West Point, New York. By a blunder his name in the appointment was written ‘Ulysses S. Grant,’ and this name he had to adopt.

      He served the usual four years’ military course at the Academy without special distinction, although he showed some proficiency in mathematics, and in 1843 graduated number 21 in a class of 39. His first commission was brevet second lieutenant of infantry in the army, and he was sent to join a regiment guarding, and sometimes fighting the Indians on the Missouri frontier, where he continued for two years, when the war between the United States and Mexico began, and his regiment was sent to the Texan frontier to join the army corps then forming under the command of General Zachary Taylor, who afterwards became President of the United States. On September 30, 1845, young Grant was commissioned second lieutenant, and he entered with ardour upon the campaign of invasion of Mexico, which began the following spring. He developed fine soldierly qualities, and first saw bloodshed at the opening battle of that invasion at Palo Alto in May, 1846. He took part in all the battles of that active campaign, which included the capture of Monterey and the siege and capture of Vera Cruz.

      In April, 1847, Grant was made the quartermaster of his regiment, the 4th Infantry, and he participated in the battles fought by the American troops on their victorious advance into the interior after the capture of Vera Cruz. For his gallantry at the battle of Mo lino del Rey, in September, he was made a first lieutenant on the field, and at Chapultepec, a few days later, he commanded his regiment, and did such good service that he was brevetted captain. Colonel Garland, who commanded the brigade to which his regiment was attached, called especial attention to Grant in his report describing the operations of the day, and said, ‘I must not omit to call attention to Lieutenant Grant, 4th Infantry, who acquitted himself most nobly upon several occasions under my own observation.’ The subsequent capture of the city of Mexico and the dictation of terms of peace by the victors ended the war.

      When the United States troops were withdrawn, Captain Grant returned with his regiment, and was afterwards located at various posts on the Canadian border. He married in 1848, his wife being the sister of a classmate, Miss Julia T. Dent, who is still living. For several years his life was without special feature. His regiment was ordered to the Pacific coast, and he accompanied it, being for two years in California and Oregon, where he was commissioned a full captain, August 5, 1853. In July, 1854, he resigned from the army and settled at St. Louis as a farmer and real estate agent. His business talents were poor and he had ill-success, СКАЧАТЬ