Victoria's Generals

Steven J. Corvi, Ian F. W. Beckett

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781844159185
• eBook ISBN: 9781844688364
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

The senior British generals of the Victorian era - men like Wolseley, Roberts, Gordon and Kitchener - were heroes of their time. As soldiers, administrators and battlefield commanders they represented the empire at the height of its power. But they were a disparate, sometimes fractious group of men. They exhibited many of the failings as well as the strengths of the British army of the late nineteenth-century. And now, when the Victorian period is being looked at more critically than before, the moment is right to reassess them as individuals and as soldiers. This balanced and perceptive study of these eminent military men gives a fascinating insight into their careers, into the British army of their day and into a now-remote period when Britain was a world power.

Chapter 1

Garnet Wolseley

Steven J Corvi

‘I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General’ was the line from the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Pirates of Penzance (1879). Some can draw the similarities between the Gilbert and Sullivan’s character Major General Stanley and Garnet Wolseley, who also permeated Victorian popular culture and slang with the then contemporary term ‘All Sir Garnet’, meaning everything is in good order. The Victorian Imperial period was dominated by two major military figures, Wolseley and Roberts. Where Roberts was the hero in the field, Wolseley was more of the reforming intellectual general. This of course does not discount Wolseley’s vast experience in Victorian campaigns: Crimea, China, Canada, Asante, Egypt and the Sudan. His productive association with Edward Cardwell (Secretary of State for War, 1868–74) proved to be an important step in producing a more professional and highly trained British army. Wolseley said of Cardwell, ‘no British war minister ever responded more readily to demands made upon him by his military advisers’.¹ Wolseley was considered the most influential reforming soldier of the Victorian age, with his firm support of Cardwell’s reforms and his practical battlefield experiences, which left an indelible mark on the British army.

Garnet Wolseley was born on 4 June 1833 in Dublin. He was one of seven children, which included three brothers (Richard, Frederick and George) and three sisters (Matilda, Frances and Caroline). Garnet’s father died when he was only 7 years old and this profoundly affected his life. The family was forced to struggle on a meagre army pension. This poverty had an obvious immediate impact on Garnet’s life and it was also to cause hardship in his then future army career. Garnet Wolseley was forced by circumstances to excel by sheer ability and competency. Since he was not afforded a public-school education, his mother and then, later, tutors educated him. He was forced at 14 to leave school and become a land surveyor in a Dublin office. Garnet considered a life in the Protestant clergy, but could not afford the education to pursue such a career. He then turned to the army and sought commission via a nomination from the Commander in Chief, the Duke of Wellington. He was at first ignored, but finally was gazetted an ensign in the 12th Foot in 1852.

Chronology

4 June 1833	Garnet Joseph Wolseley born at Golden Bridge House, Co. Dublin Educated in Dublin
12 March 1852	Commissioned as Ensign in 12th Foot
13 April 1852	Transferred to 80th Foot
1852–53	Service in Burma
19 March 1853	Severely wounded at Kyault Azein
16 May 1853	Promoted Lieutenant
27 January 1854	Transferred to 84th Foot
24 February 1854	Transferred to 90th Foot
1854–56	Service in Crimea
26 January 1855	Promoted Captain
30 August 1855	Severely wounded at Sebastopol
1857–58	Service in India
24 March 1858	Promoted Brevet Major
26 April 1859	Promoted Brevet Lieutenant Colonel
1860–61	Service in China
15 February 1861	Promoted Major (Unattached)
6 August 1861	Promoted Major in regiment
11 January 1862	Appointed AQMG, Canada
5 June 1865	Promoted Brevet Colonel
4 June 1867	Married Louisa Erskine
1 October 1867	Appointed DQMG, Canada
5 April 1870	Appointed to lead Red River expedition
1 May 1871	Appointed AAG, Horse Guards
6 September 1873	Appointed to command Asante expedition as Local Major General
1 April 1874	Promoted Major General, antedated to 6 March 1868
April 1874	Appointed Inspector General of Auxiliary Forces
16 February 1875	Appointed High Commissioner and GOC, Natal
25 November 1876	Appointed Member of Council of India
25 March 1878	Promoted Lieutenant General
22 July 1878	Appointed High Commissioner and Governor General, Cyprus
23 June 1879	Appointed High Commissioner and Governor, Natal and Transvaal as Local General
1 July 1880	Appointed QMG, War Office
1 April 1882	Appointed AG, War Office
4 August 1882	Appointed C in C, Egyptian expedition as Temporary General
13 September 1882	Victory of Tel-el-Kebir
18 November 1882	Promoted General and created Baron Wolseley of Cairo and Wolseley
1884–85	Commanded Gordon Relief Expedition
19 August 1885	Elevated to Viscount
1 October 1890	Appointed GOC, Ireland
26 May1894	Promoted Field Marshal
1 November 1895	Appointed C in C of the British army
30 November 1900	Retired as C in C
25 March 1913	Died at Menton, France
31 March 1913	Buried in St Paul’s Cathedral

Appointed CB, 1870; KCMG, 1870; KCB, 1874; GCMG, 1874; GCB, 1880; KP, 1885

The army that Wolseley was commissioned into was one that had seemingly declined since the Napoleonic Wars, though some reforms were underway by the late 1840s and early 1850s. The conditions of enlisted service remained substandard, however, and the ‘army life’ only attracted the man without means. Wellington referred to his army as the ‘scum of the earth’. This scum was what Wolseley would inherit and later greatly improve. Caught at a moment of transition, the army would be severely tested in the Crimea and forced to reform further under more modern lines. This was a fortuitous time for Wolseley to enter the army and be a formative edifice for reform.²

Garnet’s career began with active duty in the Second Burma War and he was badly wounded at Kyault Azein, leading an attack on a stronghold. This valorous act earned him a mention in dispatches and a promotion. Wolseley commented in his published biography, ‘I have never experienced the same unalloyed and elevating satisfaction, or known again the joy I then felt as I ran for the enemy’s stockade …’.³ He received, however, a fierce leg wound, which would take him out of action in Burma. He luckily recovered quickly, for he could have just have easily died from this wound or at least have lost his leg, which would have effectively ended his active military career. Wolseley was shipped home to convalesce, and this was just in time for the Crimean War.⁴

Garnet had transferred to the 90th Perthshire Light Infantry (later the Cameronians) in February 1854. Wolseley arrived after the major battles of the war, Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman, had been bungled by Lord Raglan: ‘The first object that greeted Wolseley’s eyes as he stepped out of the boat on to the inhospitable shores of the Crimea, was a firelock which lay half in and half out of the water.’⁵ This was an eerie precursor to the later siege of Sebastopol, the incompetent handling of troops and the use of archaic weapon technology by Wolseley’s regiment. Lieutenant Wolseley volunteered for dangerous duty with the Royal Engineers, which was the best opportunity for action and promotion. During his service with them in the trenches, he started a friendship with young Charles Gordon, whom he would later lead an expedition to save during Gordon’s ill-fated defence of Khartoum (1884–85). He served in ‘Gordon’s Battery’ on 4 January 1855, which inculcated a lasting relationship and earned him a promotion to Captain for his front-line duty.⁶ Wolseley was badly wounded while working on a sap trench with two other Sergeant Sappers, who were killed by the artillery fire. He slowly convalesced at a hospital near Balaclava. He stayed in the Crimea until the Peace of Paris was signed in April 1856.

The origins of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 had deep roots, but it stemmed from the basic principle that the British were trying to convert the Muslim and Hindu soldiers to Christianity. Rumours were circulated that cartridges were greased with beef and pork fat and that the powdered bones of pigs and cows were added to the ration flour, which of course offended both Muslim and Hindus alike serving in native Sepoy regiments. The Mutiny began in Meerut and spread rapidly across British military installations from Agra, Lucknow and the infamous Cawnpore. Wolseley participated in the relief of Lucknow and garnered admiration for his composure under fire in a few engagements. This was to mark Wolseley’s last service as a regimental officer, for he was to serve as a staff officer or commander on future campaigns. He was also promoted to Brevet Major in 1858 and served as Quartermaster General to Major General Sir Hope Grant. At the conclusion of the Indian mutiny campaign, Wolseley was promoted to Brevet Lieutenant Colonel, which made him the youngest colonel in the British army, and the most rapidly promoted officer of this time period.⁷

Wolseley was called upon for an expedition to China, which was initiated to ratify the Treaty of Tientsin that had been agreed after the siege of Canton in June of 1858. Sir Hope Grant commanded the expedition and Wolseley again served on his staff as Quartermaster General. The campaign was a joint venture between British and French forces, focussing on the Taku forts, which fell after a brief engagement. Wolseley was engrossed in logistical planning of the campaign and especially the aftermath.⁸ The peace treaty was finally signed in 1861, but there was another threat that was rising, the Taiping Rebellion, later crushed by Wolseley’s friend Charles Gordon.⁹

After China, Garnet took eighteen months’ leave, and took care of family affairs. He was then ordered to Canada by the War Office and given the duty of Assistant Quartermaster General. Wolseley reached Halifax on 5 January 1862. The American Civil War was raging in the United States and this interested Wolseley very much, especially in the prosecution of a modern industrialised war on such a large scale. Wolseley used his time wisely and took two months’ leave to observe the Confederate armies close up. He had a letter of introduction and travelled with The Times correspondent Frank Lawley, meeting up with the Confederate army at Fredericksburg. Wolseley visited Robert E Lee’s headquarters at Winchester, where he met Lee himself, and his two Corps commanders, ‘Stonewall’ Jackson and Longstreet. This made quite the impression on the young Colonel. He wrote an article for Blackwood’s Magazine about his visit to Lee’s army. This led to later biographical works on Union General William Sherman and Confederate General Nathan Forest. He learned many valuable lessons during his visit of American Civil War battles, which was the only major industrialised war that he witnessed in person. However, Garnet mistakenly still held his belief in the use of cavalry in large-scale operations on Civil War battlefields, a stalwart concept in the arme blanche school that prevailed in many quarters until the First World War.¹⁰ Wolseley himself later switched his ideas on cavalry and derived an immensely more practical idea on the use of horses on the modern battlefield, which was more in line with Havelock and Denison’s theories¹¹ on mounted infantry.¹² There was a scare that the Union forces would invade Canada after they defeated the Confederate forces. This was quickly dispelled when it was realised this was not the intention of the North.

Wolseley wrote the first edition of his The Soldiers Pocket Book for Field Service during his time in Canada, a work that was greatly improved by his new wife’s grammatical input, Wolseley having married Louisa Erskine in 1867. Wolseley was able to put his theories to practical work when he was given command of the Red River expedition on 5 April 1870. In November 1869 French-Canadian residents rose up in rebellion to British rule and the Hudson Bay Company in Fort Garry, Manitoba under the leadership of Louis Riel. This afforded Wolseley his first independent command. He commanded the British regular force of the 1st Battalion, 60th Rifles and a battery of Royal Field Artillery and the Canadian Militia, which consisted of the 1st Ontario Rifles and 2nd Quebec Rifles. The expedition was meticulously planned and it succeeded with the bloodless capitulation of Riel. This expedition was the origin of the first ‘Wolseley Ring’,¹³ which was to be a powerful clique in...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Maps
• List of Plates
• Acknowledgements
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Garnet Wolseley – by Steven J Corvi
• Chapter 2 Evelyn Wood – by Stephen Manning
• Chapter 3 Redvers Buller – by Stephen M Miller
• Chapter 4 George Colley – by Ian F W Beckett
• Chapter 5 Lord Chelmsford – by John Laband
• Chapter 6 Charles Gordon – by Gerald Herman
• Chapter 7 Frederick Roberts – by André Wessels
• Chapter 8 Herbert Kitchener – by Keith Surridge
• Appendix Chronology of Victorian Wars