Today I learned something interesting: the character who starred in one of the most spectacular military events in British history issue is the same that gave its name to cardigans.
I'm talking about James Brudenell, the seventh Earl of Cardigan, and the famous historical fact I speak of is the load the Light Brigade. This happened can be seen as one of the largest samples of courage or, at the same time as one of the most spectacular examples of military incompetence. Took place on October 25, 1854 as part of the Crimean War, the first major conflict in which Britain participated since Napoleon, and that faced this country, France, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia against Russia because of a dispute over control of the Holy Land. The particular episode took place on October 25, 1854 during the Battle of Balaclava. In one of the sets, the Marshal Lord Raglan, commander of allied forces wanted to prevent the Russians appropriated artillery pieces belonging to a position that had recently captured. To this end, through Captain Nolan, sending the order to the Earl of Lucan , commander of the cavalry, to send their units to prevent it.
What Raglan did not know was that the only guns that could be seen from the position of Lucan were the bulk of the Russian batteries, on the other side of the valley. Therefore gave the order to Lucan Cardigan, who was in charge of the Light Brigade, that took some six hundred seventy of their horses and charged against this position, which was located about a mile away. Cardigan
obeyed the order and, at the head, rushed to the load through the valley. Russian batteries, firing from the front and sides, heavy casualties perpetrated in the contingent of cavalry, which however failed to reach its target and penetrate Russian lines. Cardigan, however, to the gross inferiority of forces, was forced to withdraw. Of the hundred-odd initial troops, returned to riding only a few hundred. About 120 died, a similar number were wounded and the rest had to return on foot. Three weeks later, the event was published in The Times by William Howard Russell , One of the first war reporters. Although the number of casualties was not so high (a fraction of the tens of thousands of deaths suffered by the allies during the war), the spectacular nature of the blunder raised a great interest and controversy in the British public. The poet Tennyson would ensure that the military exploits became legend with his poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade " but in a less heroic vein, both Lucan and Raglan were accused of being responsible the disaster on the assumption of an order blindly clearly irrational and suicidal. Nolan, who died in the course of shipment, also was identified as the culprit for failing to transmit the order correctly.
model was discredited aristocratic army, the officers, who traditionally had been haven for those who could afford the huge amounts needed to maintain his post, was accused of incompetence, arrogance and contempt for human lives of the troops. It was also interesting to note that during the Crimean War when Florence Nightingale became famous for his fight to improve conditions for British war casualties.
The Earl of Cardigan, the protagonist of this story, also has its place in history as one who popularized jackets of the same name. Interestingly, there is another piece of coat whose name is due to these historical events, but only in English. I speak of balaclava, which is what the British call the mask.
More information:
The Charge of the Light Brigade (In Our Time, BBC Radio 4) ,
Charge of the Light Brigade (Wikipedia in English ; in English) , Why the charge of the Light Brigade Still Matters (BBC) ,
