A. W. Kinglake: A Biographical and Literary StudyTuckwell, William
General
A. W. Kinglake: A Biographical and Literary Study
Tuckwell, William
Kinglake, Alexander William, 1809-1891
English general;—when the long-borne strain of disappointment and anxiety
sapped at last Lord Raglan’s vital forces, and the hard fierce Frenchman
stood for upwards of an hour beside his dead colleague’s bedside, “crying
like a child.”
The lieutenants of Lord Raglan in the Crimea have long since passed away,
but in artistic epical presentment they retain their place around him.
Airey, his right hand from the first disembarkation at Kalamita Bay,
strong-willed, decisive, ardent, thrusting away suspense and doubt,
untying every knot, is vindicated by his Chief against the Duke of
Newcastle’s wordy inculpation in the severest despatch perhaps ever
penned to his official superior by a soldier in the field. Colin
Campbell, with glowing face, grey kindling eye, light, stubborn, crisping
hair, leads his Highland brigade tip the hill against the Vladimir
columns, till “with the sorrowful wail which bursts from the brave
Russian infantry when they have to suffer loss,” eight battalions of the
enemy fall back in retreat. Lord Lucan, tall, lithe, slender, his face
glittering and panther-like in moments of strenuous action, wins our
hearts as he won Kinglake’s, in spite of the mis-aimed cleverness and
presumptuous self-confidence which always criticised and sometimes
disobeyed the orders of his Chief. General Pennefather, “the grand old
boy,” his exulting radiant face flashing everywhere through the smoke,
his resonant innocuous oaths roaring cheerily down the line, sustains all
day the handful of our troops against the tenfold masses of the enemy.
Generous and eloquent are the notices of Korniloff and Todleben, the
great sailor and the great engineer, the soul and the brain of the
Sebastopol defence. The first fell in the siege, the second lived to
write its history, to become a valued friend of Kinglake, to explore and
interpret in his company long afterwards the scenes of struggle; his book
and his personal guidance gave to the historian what would otherwise have
been unattainable, a clear knowledge of the conflict as viewed from
within the town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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