A History of the British Cavalry 1816-1919, by The Marquess of Anglesey, Volume 2: 1851-1871

A History of the British Cavalry 1816-1919, by The Marquess of Anglesey, Volume 2: 1851-1871

Published by Leo Cooper in 1998, 519 pages. Hardback with Dust Jacket (N8068X1)

Brand New Book

From the front inside fly leaf: In the second volume of his definitive history of the final hundred years of the British Cavalry, Lord Anglesey deals with a considerably more active period than that which he covered in his first. During the two decades now investigated, the stagnation which had settled on the military scene for the thirty-five years following Waterloo came to an abrupt end.

The army, and especially its mounted arm, were rudely shaken from their slumbers by the traumatic experiences of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. Lord Anglesey describes in absorbing detail the part played by the cavalry in both. Of the Battle of Balaklava particularly, he writes as fully as he has ever done before. He believes that 'inaccuracies of detail and of interpretation have created myths which needed, if not exploding, at least revising so as to resemble more closely what actually happened and to explain "The Reason Why".'

Throughout the volume Lord Anglesey has relied upon considerable numbers of hitherto unpublished documents, mostly letters and diaries. He examines with the greatest thoroughness the social lives of both officers and men, unearthing much obscure but intriguing material from a large variety of sources. He spent many months quarrying in the Blue Books of the period, coming up with facts touching on every conceivable aspect of barrack-room life both at home and abroad-especially in India. Much of this had lain hidden amongst millions of unread, unheeded words for over a century. The picture which results is as vivid as it is startling. It forms a really significant contribution to mid-Victorian social history.

Once again Lord Anglesey pays tribute to the extraordinary bravery and to the immense powers of endurance of officers, other ranks and, last but not least, their long-suffering horses.