New Brooms - Part 2
If Lord Raglan had anticipated a respite as a result of only having to man the now relatively narrow centre of the siegeworks, his relief was to be strictly temporary. A new but equally potent source of stress was shortly to materialise following the appointment of Lord Panmure as his political superior.
Nicknamed 'The Bison' as much for his stubborn nature as for his proportionately overlarge head and skyward protruding hair tufts, the new Secretary for War was confident that he knew what measures to implement to put the Army to rights. No one could argue with his qualifications. He had served in the 79th Highlanders for 12 years up to the rank of Captain, after which in government as Secretary at War he had worked closely with the Duke of Wellington and the now Lord Raglan. He had formed the opinion that Raglan was a good man if told what to do, painstaking with the detail but lacking in command qualities and uninclined to take on-the-spot initiatives. In fact the very characteristics which had commended Raglan to the Duke as a faithful aide for all those years were now acting to the detriment of the Army.
The Bison was totally behind the regimental system, reasoning that it had been perfectly adequate for success in most of the colonial skirmishes which had characterised the first half of the century. But when it came to a grand scale campaign like the Crimea, no proper mechanism existed to cope with provisioning, transport and welfare of many regiments operating together. One of his first acts was to send out a Chief of Staff, General James Simpson, to identify staff shortcomings and their sources. Perhaps not the wisest choice; Simpson had been a subaltern in the Peninsula and was wounded at Waterloo, and therefore likely to be totally supportive of his contemporary, Raglan, as proved to be the case, rightly or wrongly.
Panmure wrote to Raglan on 12th February to advise him of this appointment in blunt terms, making it plain he considered his performance inadequate. In particular he reproached Raglan for his reports, claiming they were scanty and uninformative. This would now change, and he was to be required to submit fortnightly reports following a detailed laid down format. (Devised by the Prince Consort - fair enough, Germans being renowned already as thorough organisers.) And another thing, he wasn't getting out and about to visit the troops enough and that was going to have to change. And whilst he was about it he should get rid of Airey and Estcourt.
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