Comparing The British Army And The Attitudes Of British Officers In The Crimean War

Source question. 103.

Access the value of the source for revealing the difficulties provisioning the British Army and the attitudes of the British officers in the Crimean war.

Source 1 is useful in revealing the difficulties provisioning the British army, moreover it is also useful to an extent in generating the broad opinion of the attitudes of British officers in the Crimean war. But due to its informal attitude and by being a letter, the source opens up as an opinion of an officer and so its value reveals more about the problems facing provisioning the British army due to the purpose of the source.

The source suggest a valuable overview on the difficulties provisioning the army during the Crimean War. ‘The communication to Balaclava impossible’

G. Bell is a reputable commanding officer and therefore well informed of problems and difficulties in provisioning. With a high ranking position, and his reputation on the line with his 1st regiment, Bell is well aware of his officers attitudes and inefficiencies of supplying his troops. The constant negativity and bias approach in the draft letter does limit it true value in revealing all difficulties that are being faced and mainly focuses on the issues affecting his regiment (cholera, medical supplies and communication). The Colonel has to reassure his letter is not of linked to an over-exaggerated romantic styled poem ‘There is no romance, it is my duty as C.O.’ in order to maintain the value of the source as being a first hand account in revealing the atrocities occurring in hospitals to provision the army; where nearly 52% of men died due to the lack of sanitary and hygiene conditions. Furthermore, the writing language and bias approach is valuable for revealing difficulties to an extent, but is limited due to the nature of how it is written and

By saying, ‘I can’t do it, I have no power’ clearly reveals the attitude of officers, this shows a common purpose for him writing this. The rank of an officer was most commonly obtained by purchase of a commission, and most rarely through promotion. This suggest that Col. Bell was of a well-off middle class family. The attitude of disbelief and agony in him stating even through his high status and reputation of C.O (Commanding) he is unable to do anything, showing the perception that the attitude of those in command and control

The use of an exclamation mark ’15 more dying’ shows a caring and emphatic point, with these (!) used only to express great surprise/shock. This allows us to see that the reliability of the source is of great representation to the attitudes of his officers and his viewpoint himself. It shows that he