The Cause of the Charge of Balaclava

Thomas MorleyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0

Word count: 99K words
Chapters: 10

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Cause of the Charge of Balaclava by Thomas MorleyAuthor: Morley, Thomas, 1832?-1906,Language: English, Class: DK: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Russia, Former Soviet Republics, Poland, Release Date: Apr 2, 2014

Editor's review

This book examines the famous Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War. Its author, Thomas Morley, seeks to trace what actually caused this costly cavalry charge, analyzing key moments such as the transmission of orders, battlefield judgment, and command responsibility. Its value lies not in dramatizing the charge's glory, but in restoring a repeatedly retold military disaster to a chain of cause and effect open to questioning. It suits readers interested in military history and in how the Victorian British army operated. The original is a public-domain English e-book, brief in length with a clear line of argument. It can serve as introductory material for understanding the historical debates surrounding the battle, and is also suitable for reading alongside related campaign histories to observe how the same event is emphasized differently in different accounts. Readers should maintain a critical awareness of historical sources and note how the author's stance and era influence his judgments.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Military history readers interested in the Crimean War and the Charge of the Light Brigade
Readers who want to understand command and order transmission in the nineteenth-century British army
Students who need English public-domain historical sources for coursework or writing
Readers who prefer shorter works arguing around a single historical event

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a comprehensive general history of the Crimean War
Readers who prefer novelistic narrative and strong literary dramatization
Those who struggle with English reading and are unwilling to use reference tools

Reading tips

First learn the basic facts of the Charge of the Light Brigade, then read this book to follow the author's analysis more easily.
Mark the orders, testimony, and timeline the author cites as you read, distinguishing fact from inference.
Read alongside other campaign histories and compare how different authors explain where responsibility lay.
After finishing, restate the author's core causal judgment in your own words to test whether you have truly understood it.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a historical study?

It is a historical discussion of the causes of the Charge of the Light Brigade, belonging to historical writing rather than fiction. The author focuses on analyzing causation and command responsibility; readers should treat it as one argued interpretation, not the only conclusion.

Can I understand it without background on the Crimean War?

Yes, but it is advisable to first acquire some basic background, such as the rough dates of the war, the belligerents, and the course of the Charge of the Light Brigade. With that timeline, the author's questions about orders and judgment will be easier to follow.

What should I keep in mind when reading an English public-domain e-book?

The original is in English and comes from a public-domain e-book project, which usually has no modern annotations. When encountering nineteenth-century names, ranks, and place names, it is advisable to look them up and take brief notes, so unfamiliar terminology does not lead to misreading the argument.

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About the author

Thomas Morley Author

Morley, Thomas (1832?–1906) is an author whose exact dates and nationality are not clearly recorded in publicly available sources; only one work by this author is held in the collection. The representative work is The Cause of the Charge of Balaclava, whose title suggests a study of the origins of the charge at Balaclava during the Crimean War, placing it in the field of military history or campaign analysis. Because public information is limited, details of Morley's life, education and professional identity remain unknown, and it is difficult to determine whether the book combines archival research with personal argument. On the available evidence, Morley's significance rests mainly on this work's discussion of the events surrounding the Battle of Balaclava; its actual influence on scholarship and readers awaits further documentation.