Lord Cardigan. Col. 11th Hussars, 1855

planetFigure

Help Support planetFigure:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
The popular account of Cardigan after the Charge


The popular account of Cardigan after the Charge has it that, when questioned of the loss of his men, Cardigan casually replied that "it is no fault of mine," rode back to his yacht, and enjoyed a bath, dinner, and a bottle of champagne. The truth is considerably different, and it provides Lord Haw-Haw with some depth of character.

For one thing, Cardigan's "no fault of mine" remark was made to his own men, when they cheerily offered to go back in against the Russian guns. Cardigan refused, saying that the charge was "a mad-brained trick, but it is no fault of mine." He visited some of the wounded, and then slept on the ground near his wounded aide Maxse. A nurse reports that Cardigan spent half an hour soothing the bugler; others who were there reported that Cardigan spent the following days in gloom and grief. And the obvious point: in the one great military skirmish of his life, and the one chance when he too might capture some of the glory that many of his peers had acquired at Waterloo, Cardigan acquitted himself surprisingly well.

There was a flash of popularity for Cardigan upon his return. Despite the increasing public skepticism of the follies of the upper classes in warfare, Cardigan was given a hero's welcome back to England. Even Punch, which had ridiculed him for so long, ran a patriotic cartoon of the Charge captioned "A Trump card . Cardigan himself told the story of the Charge to Queen Victoria and her children, but he also told the Queen of the soldiers' hardships and the inadequacies of their equipment.

Even this one victory turned sour for Cardigan, Once it was realized that the Charge was a monumental blunder, the leaders of the Crimean war broke into a blind panic of writing to the newspapers, accusing everyone else of having given the order. Suddenly, the Lord Haw-Haw image resurfaced, and Cardigan spent months defending himself in what was, for obvious reasons, a matter of high personal honor. But eventually even that controversy faded away, and Cardigan settled into life in the landed gentry, scandalizing the upper classes by marrying a woman many years his junior and of course, retelling the story of his charge at the head of the Six Hundred.
 

Attachments

  • post-85-1103602239.jpg
    post-85-1103602239.jpg
    20 KB
Dear Roc,

I have been following your interesting thread, as usual. I like your style of presentation, providing us with a brief history of the character before proceeding with the SBS of your painting. Like you, I always enjoy reading up and researching on my characters and trying to be as accurate as possible in both the sculpting and painting.

Keep up the good work and looking forward to more from you.


regards :)
 
Hello Wong, Thanks my friend, I'm glad you like my presentaion, I love reading and researching the subject matter.

Stay safe my friend.

Cheers

Roc :)
 
Officer Uniforms

Officer's dress and undress uniforms for the 1830s including an officer's for the 15th Regiment of Foot, 34th Regiment of Foot, and the Commissariat Department. These uniforms included coatees, swords, accoutrements, shakos, cocked hats, breast plates, and so on. The following illustrations speak for themselves.


34th Officer's Coatee, 1829-31 Regulations
34th.jpg


Lace Detail Image of Same
lacedetails.jpg


34th Officer's Epaulet
officersepaulette.jpg


34th Officer's Bell Top Shako, 1830-40
belltoshako.jpg


34th Officer's Breast Plate
officersbreatsplate.jpg



Cheeers

Roc :)
 
Commissariat Officer coatee with Boxed Epaulets, 1831 Regulations
untitled.jpg


Cocked Hat of the Commissariat Department
offiucershat.jpg


Undress British Infantry Officer Epaulets, 1831 Regulation
epaulettes.jpg


Pattern 1822 Swords with Knot
sword.jpg


Cheers
Roc :)
 
Hey Roc,

I missed this while I was gone but he is looking really nice. I see you are painting the face last. :) I look forward to seeing it all come together.

Joe
 
Back
Top