The Battle of the Bloodstalks

Lord Tennyson's famous poem about the Crimean War was based on a misunderstanding of reality. The British army's cavalry horses were infinitely better than those of the Russians and indeed the French. After the battle, wounded British horses were bought by Russian noblemen as bloodstalk. But Florence Nightingale is the heroine of the war because she's the only middle class person who's really standing out in this whole conflict. So Lord Lucan and Lord Cardigan are actually whipping boys for completely different agenda.