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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
The Crimean war has been the victim of much conceptualization. For modern historians, drawn to the phenomenon of a European conflict conveniently sited in the middle of a century of comparative peace, much can be made to hang on it. Whether it is an aberration, or the expression of suppressed feelings, or indeed the beginning of a current that is to grow stronger until 1914, diplomats, soldiers, politicians and economists have taken it as a dividing line. It is simultaneously the continuance of the Peninsular tradition in warfare and an array of technological novelties tempting the variously applied title, ‘the first modern war’. But while its impact on domestic politics and European diplomacy has been scrutinized, and while Captain Nolan has failed to convey his breathless order to the Light Brigade correctly on innumerable occasions, the bridge between the two, between – at its most banal – politics and tactics, has not been so closely examined.
1 An exception is Gooch, Brison D., The new Bonapartist generals in the Crimean War (The Hague, 1959)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which however is primarily concerned with French motives. This article is an attempt to analyse British strategy: the division is no more than a reflexion of the scant attention paid to each other's plans by the allies.
2 ‘It might be a complex task to prove that the rule of the English in Hindostan is connected with the stability of the Sultan's dominions in a far distant region of the world’, Kinglake, A. W., The invasion of the Crimea (8 vols., Edinburgh, 1863–1888), 1, 34.Google Scholar
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6 Wellington to Fitzroy Somerset, 5 Jan. 1838, on the occasion of the rebellion in Canada, Wellington papers.
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36 Gurwood to Wellington, 22 Sept. 1840, Wellington papers.
37 United Service Magazine, 1854, 1, 26, 68.
38 Wellington to Grey, 13 Nov. 1851, 3rd Earl Grey papers, Department of Palaeography and Diplomatic, Durham University.
39 Ibid. 29 June 1849.
40 Hardinge to Airey, 2 Feb. 1855, Airey papers, Hereford County Record Office, G/IV/A/412; Hardinge to Prince Albert, 28 Dec. 1854, Hardinge papers, McGill University Library.
41 For example, Grey to Sir Charles Grey, 13 Dec. 1851, condemning advice from the Horse Guards; Grey's evidence in the Report of the select committee on military organization (Parl. Papers, 1860, VII), dismissing the role of soldiers in army reform; memorandum by Sir George Brown, referring to Grey's attitude, 28 Jan. 1852, Wellington papers.
42 Wellington to Lord John Russell, 30 Nov. 1849, Wellington papers.
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50 Newcastle to Graham, 20 Jan. 1854, Graham papers; Newcastle to Queen Victoria, 10 and 11 Feb. 1854, Newcastle papers, NeC 9785, fos. 41, 43.
51 Palmerston to Graham, 19 Jan. 1854, Graham papers.
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53 Clarendon to Graham, 22 Jan. 1854, Graham papers.
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55 Newcastle to Raglan, 10 Apr. 1854, Raglan papers, 6807/281.
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57 Newcastle to Raglan, 13 Apr. 1854, Raglan papers, 6807/283.
58 Palmerston to Newcastle, 31 Mar. 1854, Newcastle papers, NeC 10035.
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132 Journal entry for 12 Sept. 1854, Jurien de la Gravière papers, Archives Nationales, Paris, BB4 1798 bis (Marine). See also entry for 1 Sept. I am most grateful to Dr C. I. Hamilton for this reference, and indeed for other comments.
133 Raglan to Newcastle, 23 Oct. 1854, Newcastle papers, NeC 9890.
