The Crimean War: A reappraisal

The Crimean War is famous as a source of heroic and horrific legend. The stand of the 'thin red line', the Charge of the Light Brigade, the lasting achievements of Florence Nightingale, have all been extensively documented. Philip Warner's concern in his reassessment of the campaign has been to uncover the true course of the war, to place the heroics in their proper context in this 'most determined and bloody contest' and to show how General Simpson's description of the assault on the Redan can be applied tot he whole war. The author quotes extensively from contemporary sources, including recently discovered, first-hand American accounts - and especially from previously unpublished Allied and Russian soldiers' letters and diaries which, often hastily scribbled in the intervals of battle, provide haunting glimpses of the realities of war. Philip Warner's expert knowledge of fortification and siege warfare and his understanding of nineteenth-century armies have combined to make this book both a valuable work of scholarship and an intensely readable account of the battles.