FIELD-MARSHAL LORD RAGLAN.
Lord Raglan, Commander-in-Chief of the English army, is a descendent of the Somersets, the youngest son of the fifth Duke of Beaufort. He was born in Sept. 1788, and christened Fitzroy James Henry Somerset. He was a cornet in the 4th light dragoons at sixteen, and rose in military rank, as the boyish sons of Dukes do rise, over the heads of their seniors. He was a captain at twenty. He went with the troops to Portugal, and fought in the first great battle—that of Talavera, in which the French and English armies fairly and singly tried their strength against each other.
Lord Fitzroy Somerset was then under one-and-twenty, and it was not the first battle he had seen since he landed in the Peninsula. He learned much of his military science within the lines of Torres Vedras, and was severely wounded at the battle of Busaco.
LORD RAGLAN
By this time, the young soldier had won the notice and strong regard of Wellington, who had made him, first, his aide-de-camp, and then his military secretary, a singular honor for a man under two-and-twenty. The duties of his various functions kept him diligently occupied during the whole of the Peninsular War. He was present and active in every one of the great Peninsular battles, and was, in the intervals, the medium of the Duke’s commands and arrangements. The Duke’s avowed opinion was, that the successes of that seven years’ war were due, next to himself, to his military secretary. He became Major in 1811, and Lieutenant-Colonel the year after. He returned to England after Bonaparte’s abdication, in 1814.
Lord Fitzroy Somerset married in the August of that year the second daughter of Lord Mornington, and thus became the nephew, by marriage, of the Duke of Wellington. None then dreamed what misfortune awaited the young bridegroom within the first year of his marriage. On Napoleon’s return from Elba, the Secretary went out with the Commander-in-Chief, and as his aide, he was on the field during the three days of June, which ended the war.
The Duke was wont to offer to bear the responsibility of an omission in the Battle of Waterloo—the neglecting to break an entrance in the back wall of the farmstead of La Haye Sainte, whereby the British occupants might have been reinforced and supplied with ammunition. It was the want of ammunition which gave the French temporary possession of the place, and that temporary possession cost many lives, and Lord Fitzroy Somerset his right arm.
He came home to his bride thus maimed before he was twenty-seven, but with whatever compensation an abundance of honor could afford. For nearly forty years afterwards it was supposed by himself and the world, that his wars were ended, and he devoted himself to official service at home.
He entered Parliament in 1818. He was always in request for secretaryships at the Ordnance and to the Commander-in-Chief. He rose in military rank at intervals, and became a Lieutenant-General in the year 1838.
When the Duke of Wellington died, and Lord Hardinge was made Commander-in-Chief, Lord Fitzroy Somerset became Master-General of the Ordnance, and was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Raglan.
It presently appeared that his wars were not over. During the long interval he had sent out his eldest son in the service of his country, and lost him in the field at Ferozeshah in 1845. Nine years after this bereavement, the father went out himself once more, and this time in full command.
When war with Russia was determined on, with Lord Raglan dwelt the traditions of the Iron Duke, and no one was so thoroughly versed in the wisdom which had for seven long and hard years won the successes of the Peninsular war. No one seemed so well to know the army and its administration, and no one else so effectually combined the military and practical official characters, a combination which, if always necessary to make a good general, is most emphatically so in the country which is the scene of the present war. To Turkey, therefore, he went, and after the battles of Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman, was raised to the rank of Field-Marshal.
Public opinion is divided in this country as to his merits as a general; but the sequel will show, should the war be continued, whether he is capable of occupying the place inherited from Wellington.