commanded troops in battle for 40 years and lacked
both the experience and the intelligence to win battles.
The most that can be said of him is that he was an old
man who did his best. Unfortunately, his best was not
good enough, and thousands of men died needlessly as
a result.
References: Lloyd, Ernest Marsh, “Somerset, Lord Fitz-
roy James Henry, First Baron Raglan,” in The Diction-
ary of National Biography, 22 vols. 8 supps., edited by
Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee, et al. (London:
Oxford University Press, 1921–22), 18:645; Russell, Sir
William Howard, Complete History of the Russian War,
from Its Commencement to Its Close (New York: J. G.
Wells, 1857); Tyrrell, Henry, The History of the War with
Russia: Giving Full Details of the Operations of the Allied
Armies... (London: The London Printing and Publish-
ing Company, 1855–58); “The Battle of Balaclava and
the Charge of the Light Brigade, 25 October 1854,” in
Eyewitness to History, edited by John Carey (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 333–344; “An-
ecdotes of Lord Raglan,” Harper’s New Monthly Maga-
zine 14, no. 83 (April 1857): 631.
Ramses II (Ramesses II, Rameses II, Ramses the
Great) (ca. 1314–1224 b.c.) Egyptian king
Ramses II, the son of Seti I and grandson of Ramses I,
was one of the most important Egyptian kings, serving
for a total of 66 years, from the time he was 24 until his
death at 90. Sources disagree on the exact dates of his life
and reign, which is given variously as 1290–24, 1279–
12, and 1304–1237 b.c., as well as other date ranges.
(This book prefers a beginning reign date of 1290 b.c.
and 1224 b.c. as Ramses’ date of death.)
As king of Egypt, Ramses II used his power to
launch a great revolution in building. During his reign,
the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, known as one of the
greatest achievements of mankind, was constructed, and
his face is said to be one of the huge statues carved into
the structure. Although renowned as a great builder,
Ramses is best known as a warrior. In the early years of
his reign, he fought the Nubians and Libyans and led ex-
peditions into the area of what is now modern Israel and
Syria. His greatest military achievement came just four
or five years into his reign when he took on the Hittites
at Kadesh (or Qadesh, near today’s Beirut) (1285 b.c.).
Historian Arthur Ferrill writes:
Although Egypt was well protected by deserts
and relatively isolated from the other centers of
civilization in Syria-Palestine, Asia Minor, and
Mesopotamia, the pharaohs always had an army.
Under warlike pharaohs, such as Tuthmosis III
and Ramses II, the mobile field army numbered
around 20,000. It consisted of light infantry
armed with spears, swords, and bows, and of
fast, light horse-drawn chariots. At the Battle of
Kadesh in 1285 b.c., Ramses II marched several
hundred miles out of Egypt into Syria where he
fought the king of the Hittites in a major battle.
Although the Egyptian army was caught in an
ambush as it marched up to Kadesh and was hit
hard in the flank, Ramses personally rallied his
panic-stricken troops and led them to a tactical
victory over the Hittites. They were not able to
take the fortified city, however, and the campaign
ended in a strategic stalemate.Historian Robert Collins Suhr, in his landmark
1995 article on Kadesh and its impact on world history,
notes:The Battle of Kadesh holds great interest to
scholars of military strategy but, as pointed
out by Egyptian press attaché and Egyptolo-
gist Ahmed Nouby Moussam, its epilogue was
equally historic in the realm of international
diplomacy. After a dynastic struggle, Khattusilis
III succeeded Muwutallis and subsequently in-
vited Egyptian plenipotentiaries to Hattusas for
what would amount to the first summit confer-
ence between two equally matched powers. In
1280 b.c., Ramses and Khattusilis signed his-
tory’s oldest recorded international agreement,
establishing a condominium [the joint control
of a state’s affairs by other states] between the
two empires. After 13 years of peace, Ramses
sealed the treaty by marrying one of Khattusilis’
daughters.In the seventh or eighth year of his reign, Ramses
led his forces in storming the city of Askalon, now in
Israel, and the following year he conquered towns and
villages in Galilee. In his 10th year, he again fought the
Hittites at Katna and Tunip. Ramses came to realize that
he could not hold territory he had conquered, leading RAmSeS ii