The National Army Museum Book of the Crimean War: The Untold Story

The Crimean war is one of the most famous conflicts in history. The Charge of the Light Brigade, the Thin Red Line, the Lady of the Lamp, the Soldiers' Battle at Inkerman: all have passed into legend. No less familiar are the tales told of wholesale incompetence and of the sufferings of the troops; how a failure of supply, coupled with exposure and disease, led to the deaths of thousands during the cruel Crimean winter spent before a besieged Sevastopol. Never before - and rarely since - has a war so impinged on the national consciousness.
Although this book does not neglect the familiar, it has - as the subtitle indicates - many new stories to tell. Drawing on the hitherto under-exploited Crimean War archive of the National Army Museum, the vast majority of material used in this book has never before been published. Read for the first time, in his own words, what Captain Nolan was really thinking in the weeks before his fateful intervention at the Battle of Balaklava. Learn the full extent of the animosity between the harsh disciplinarian Sir George Brown and his dark horse subordinate, General Codrington. Encounter the debut in print of the cocksure Tom Harvey, the malingering Major Mundy, the conscientious Surgeon Bellew, and many, many others.
The viewpoint of the British soldier in the Crimea, from the commander-in-chief Lord Raglan to the lowliest private, is represented as never before. Whether it is Victoria Cross winners, tragic friendships, shattered nerves, accusations, rivalries, friendly fire incidents, looting, amputations, decapitations, sexual disease or transvestism, the untold stories are at last revealed.