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 Before
Sebastopol, Dec. 16, 1854.
My Lord Duke,
- I regret to be under the necessity of forwarding to your Grace
the copy of a letter which has been addressed to me by Lieutenant-General
the Earl of Lucan. When I received it I placed it in the hands of
Brigadier-General Airey, the Quartermaster-General, and requested
him to suggest to his lordship to withdraw the communication, considering
that it would not lead to his advantage in the slightest degree;
but, Lord Lucan having declined to take the step recommended, I
have but one course to pursue - that of laying the letter before
your Grace and submitting to you such observations upon it as I
am bound in justice to myself to put you in possession of. Lieutenant-General
the Earl of Lucan complains that in my despatch to your Grace of
the 28th of October I stated that "from some misconception of the
instruction to advance the Lieutenant-General considered that he
was bound to attack at all hazards." His lordship conceives this
statement to be a grave charge, and an imputation reflecting seriously
upon his professional character, and he deems it to be incumbent
upon him to state the facts, which he cannot doubt must clear him
from what he respectfully submits is altogether unmerited. He has
referred to my despatch, and, far from being willing to alter one
word of it, I am prepared to declare that not only did the Lieutenant-General
misconceive the written instruction that was sent him, but that
there was nothing in that instruction which called on him to attack
at all hazards, or to undertake the operation which led to such
a brilliant display of gallantry on the part of the light brigade,
and, unhappily, at the same time occasioned such lamentable casualties
in every regiment composing it. In his lordship's letter he is wholly
silent with respect to a previous order which had been sent him.
He merely says that the cavalry was formed to support an intended
movement of the infantry. That previous order was in the following
words:- "The cavalry to advance and take advantage of any opportunity
to recover the heights. They will be supported by infantry, which
has been ordered to advance on two fronts." This order did not seem
to me to have been attended to, and therefore it was that the instruction
by Captain Nolan was forwarded to him. Lord Lucan must have read
the first order with very little attention, for he now states that
cavalry was formed to support the infantry, whereas he was told
by Brigadier-General Airey "that the cavalry was to advance and
take advantage of any opportunity to recover the heights, and that
they would be supported by infantry" - not that they were to support
the infantry; and so little had he sought to do as he had been directed
that he had no men in advance of his main body, made no attempt
to regain the heights, and was so little informed of the position
of the enemy, that he asked Captain Nolan "where and what he was
to attack, as neither enemy nor guns were in sight." This, your
Grace will observe, is the Lieutenant-General's own admission. The
result of his inattention to the first order was, that it never
occurred to him that the second was connected with and a repetition
of the first. He viewed it only as a positive order to attack at
all hazards (the word "attack", be it observed, was not made use
of in General Airey's note) an unknown enemy, whose position, numbers,
and composition he was wholly unacquainted with, and whom, in consequence
of a previous order, he had taken no step whatever to watch. I undoubtedly
had no intention that he should make such an attack - there was
nothing in the instruction to require it - and therefore I conceive
I was fully justified in stating to your Grace what was the exact
truth - that the charge arose from the misconception of an order
for the advance, which Lord Lucan considered obliged him to attack
at all hazards. I wish I could say, my lord duke, that, having decided
against his conviction to make the movement, he did all he could
to render it as little perilous as possible. This, indeed, is far
from being the case in my judgment. He was told
that the Horse Artillery might accompany the cavalry. He did not
bring it up. He was informed that the French cavalry was on his
left. He did not invite their co-operation. He had the whole of
the heavy cavalry at his disposal. He mentions having brought up
only two regiments in support, and he omits all those precautions
either from want of due consideration or from the supposition that
the unseen enemy was not in such great force as he apprehended,
notwithstanding that he was warned of it by Lord Cardigan after
the latter had received the order to attack. I am much concerned,
my lord duke, to have to submit these observations to your Grace.
I entertain no wish to disparage the Earl of Lucan in your opinion,
or to cast a slur upon his professional reputation, but, having
been accused by his lordship of having stated of him what was unmerited
in my despatch, I have felt obliged to enter into the subject, and
trouble your Grace at more length than I could have wished in vindication
of a report to your Grace in which I had strictly confined myself
to that which I knew to be true. I had indulged in no observations
whatever, or in any expressions which could be viewed either as
harsh or in any way grating to the feelings of his lordship.
I
have, &c,
RAGLAN.
To his Grace
the Duke of Newcastle.
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