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Lieutenant-General Robert Ballard Long (4 April 1771 – 2 March 1825) was an officer of the British and Hanoverian Armies who despite extensive service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars never managed to achieve high command due to his abrasive manner with his superiors and his alleged tactical ineptitude. Although he remained a cavalry commander in the Peninsular War between 1811 and 1813, the British commander Wellington became disillusioned with Long's abilities. Wellington's opinion was never expressed directly, though when the Prince Regent manoeuvred his favourite, Colquhoun Grant into replacing Long as a cavalry brigade commander, Wellington conspicuously made no effort to retain Long. Other senior officers, including Sir William Beresford and the Duke of Cumberland, expressed their dissatisfaction with Long's abilities. The celebrated historian, and Peninsula veteran, Sir William Napier was a severe critic of Beresford's record as army commander during the Albuera Campaign; in criticising Beresford he involved Long's opinions as part of his argument. The publication of Napier's history led to a long running and acrimonious argument in print between Beresford and his partisans on one side, with Napier and Long's nephew Charles Edward Long (Long having died before the controversy reached the public arena) on the other.〔Napier, W.F.P. History of the War in the Peninsula and the South of France 1807-1814, London 1828-1840, Vol. III (2nd Ed.), pp. xxi-xxv, also A Letter to Lord Viscount Beresford in Napier, Vol. VI, pp. xxxv-xxxvi.〕 Recently Long's performance as a cavalry general has received more favourable comment in Ian Fletcher's revisionist account of the British cavalry in the Napoleonic period.〔Fletcher, I. Galloping at Everything: The British Cavalry in the Peninsula and at Waterloo 1808-15, Spellmount, Staplehurst (1999).〕 ==Background and early military career== Long was born the elder of twin sons to Jamaican planter Edward Long and his wife Mary at Chichester in 1771. Long received a formal education, attending Dr Thomson's School in Kensington until age nine and then being sent to Harrow School until 18 in 1789. After three years at the University of Göttingen studying military theory, Long was commissioned into the 1st King's Dragoon Guards as a cornet in 1791. With the aid of his family's substantial financial resources, Long had been promoted to captain by November 1793 and served with his regiment in Flanders during the Duke of York's unsuccessful campaign there.〔(Long, Robert Ballard ), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', H. M. Chichester, Retrieved 27 November 2007〕 In the winter of 1794/95, Long had left his regiment and was attached to the staff of General Sir George Don during the retreat into Germany and return to England. Following his arrival, Long spent time as aide-de-camp to General Sir William Pitt who commanded the defences of Portsmouth and the friendship between the two men served Long well in his future career. By the middle of 1796 Long had again transferred however, joining the Hanoverian Army first as a non-serving officer in the York Rangers and then in command of the Hompesch Mounted Riflemen with a commission he purchased from Baron Hompesch himself for £2,000. This regiment was amongst those dispatched under Sir John Moore in putting down the Irish Rebellion of 1798, Long serving in the town of Wexford.〔 At the conclusion of the rebellion, Long served with the York Hussars, another Hanoverian cavalry unit at Weymouth until the Peace of Amiens. Long spent the peace studying at the Senior Division of the new Royal Military College at High Wycombe, where he became friends with its lieutenant-governor John Le Marchant, and at the return of war joined the 16th Light Dragoons as a lieutenant colonel, transferring to the 15th Light Dragoons in 1805 under the Duke of Cumberland. It was with this regiment that Long caused the first of his many upsets, almost immediately falling out with his superior officer. The situation deteriorated so much that the two both attempted to command the regiment without consulting each other, resulting in years of arguments and hostility between the two.〔 Part of the friction was due to Long's objection to Cumberland's penchant for excessive corporal punishments, such as 'picketing.'〔In the punishment termed 'picketing' the miscreant, or victim, was suspended by the wrists a short distance above the floor, immediately below his bare feet a wooden stake (picket) sharpened at both ends was driven into the ground. The victim could relieve the pain of suspension only by putting weight on the sharpened stake and was thus given a choice between two agonies.〕 Long was with the regiment for two years during which time it was remodelled as a hussar formation. Eventually the name too changed, becoming the 15th 'King's' Light Dragoons (Hussars).〔The 7th and 10th Light Dragoons were converted to hussars at the same time as the 15th, the 18th Light Dragoons followed suit somewhat later; the 'conversion' amounted to little more than a change of uniform and the adoption of moustaches.〕 Long is mentioned frequently in the anonymously authored book "Jottings from my Sabretasch." The author, a troop sergeant of the 15th Light Dragoons, looked upon Long as a peerless commander. He ascribed virtually all of the superiorities of organisation or training that he claimed for his regiment, over the rest of the British cavalry, to Long's initiatives when in command.〔Anonymous, Jottings from My Sabretasch, by a Chelsea Pensioner, London (1847).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Ballard Long」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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