The Globe-republican., 1900-02-01
SOMEONE BLUNDERED
FAMOUS CHARGE OF LIGHT
BRIGADE.
lord Tennyson Immortaiized 1T by q
String Poem-The Isritons Are Prone
BIunder but Always with q Drawers
that Is Even Admirable to Foes .

Tt would appear that a considerable
portion of the history of active war
fare is a record of blunders, says the
Kansas City Star. There was a saw
age little battle down in northern
Arkansas, in the days of the civil war,
and after it was over the story spread
among the union soldiers that one of
their commanders had said of the
days fighting: I'VE Numbered in and
we blundered OUT Whoever will read
the late Lord Tennyson's spirited poem
on the Charge of the Light Brigade.
will be struck by the lines:
Forward the Light Brigade.
Was there a man dismayed?
MOI Tho the soldier knew
Some one had blundered''
The charge of the light brigade was
a palpable blunder, and presumably
the common soldiers who were sent
to their death knew at the time it was
a mistake That was why the verse
was written:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and die,
Into the valley of death
Rode the six hundred
Exactly who b1undered is not
known, or has been covered up. By
some it is supposed that Capt. Nolan
was trying to explain the blunder
when he rode across the front of the
Cardigan, to which that gallant Of
f1cer paid no attention. but Nolan WIS
killed and the brigade rode ahead in
the further execution of its fatefu1
O1under.
History repeats itself. Forty-four
years after the Ba1a1Iava b1under Eng
land is again at war for the first time
with civilized people and there are
more blunders- Gen. White and Gen
Gatacre and Gen. Lord Methuen and
Gen Butler have all made plumbers of
the same kind-the rushing of their
enemy, with a severe loss in killed.
wounded and captured. But there has
not been another poem in glorifcation
of laundering, and there has not been
another b1under exactly like the charge
of the light brigade. The unfortunate
British detachments which have been
fed, it were, to the enemy in South.
Africa have been surprised. They
have marched into the muzzles of the
Beers rifles and field guns without
knowing Snere they were going. The
great and glorious feature of the
incident, as sung by the
poet, was that everybody knew from
the first that the brigade going
to useless destruction and nobody was.
IN South Africa this
foreknowledge seems to have been
lacking. Hence, the blunder has been
has been wanting.
It is not a little singular that
army should retain the same charac-
teriStics for centuries. OF one of the
old battles in the low countries it was
written: 'eThe English officers fought
with their usual ignorance of war and
contempt of DEATH The ignorance of
war is of the sort that produces blum
1ers, and the ignorance keeps up and
the plumbers go on. There seems to
be no readiness, no capacity to change
Or seize the situation. trap being
set by the enemy, the brave brigade
PUSHES into it, and the commander
records with pride that the few who
got away marched off with ranks
dressed and at the regulation step. To
01under with pertinacity and perfect
courage seems to be the historic ira
iition of the British army.
Queer Wedding Music.