The Times Great Military Lives: Leadership and Courage – from Waterloo to the Falklands in Obituaries. Ian Brunskill
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.
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, and for a few years he tried various occupations in civilian life at various places, finally going to Galena, Illinois, in 1859, to join his father, who was a tanner.
When the American civil war began, in the spring of 1861, Grant’s fortunes were at a low ebb and he was ready for almost anything that promised an improvement. The opening of the civil war found the country without an army, and the entire North aflame to raise a volunteer soldiery. The few men in different parts of the States who had been officers of the regular army, and particularly those who had seen active service in Mexico and on the frontier, at once advanced to a high place in the popular estimation, as the main reliance in officering the new force. A company of volunteer troops was formed at Galena and selected Grant for its captain. He was 39 years of age when, a day or two after the firing upon Fort Sumter, he marched his company to Springfield, the capital of Illinois, and offered his services to the Governor of the State.
The next few weeks saw a remarkable uprising, military organizations forming and drilling all over the country, and being made up into regiments and sent to the seat of war. Governor Yates selected Captain Grant as his aide-de-camp and mustering officer to organize the State troops of Illinois, and this service occupied him nearly two months. He organized 21 regiments, and on June 1, 1861, was commissioned as colonel of the 21st Illinois Regiment. During the remainder of this month he drilled his regiment, and in July crossed over the Mississippi river and was ordered to guard the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, which crosses the northern part of the State of Missouri, and was in constant danger of destruction by guerilla raids. Promotion was rapid in the early part of the civil war, especially for veteran officers, and August found him practically in command of all the troops in Northern Missouri, a part of the force under General John Pope, and on August 23 he was made brigadier-general of volunteers, his commission being dated May 17, 1861.
The qualities of General Grant, both as a fighter and as a strategist, were early recognized, and his remarkable military career may be regarded as beginning in August, when he was sent to take command at Cairo, the point of junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This important post was threatened by Confederates in Kentucky, and also by a disaffected element in Southern Illinois and Missouri; and a large force of Union troops was concentrated there. Grant had not been there long before he made up his mind that safety would be best assured by holding the strategic points of the Mississippi river below the Ohio river, and also those on the Kentucky shore of the latter stream. In September he seized and garrisoned Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee river, and Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland river, and thus got control of Western Kentucky. His firm, straightforward, and sententious character was shown in his proclamation to the citizens of Paducah, in which he said, ‘I have nothing to do with opinions, and shall deal only with armed rebellion and its aiders and abettors.’ Having thus cared for the