Death of the Prince Imperial: Was Carey a coward, or did he get a raw deal?

[gloriousbattle]

My take is that Capt. Carey got alot of bad press.
I would think it would be hard to tell a Prince that he could not do this or do that.
After the Prince was killed, they had to blame someone.
After all Carey was " in charge."

As is probably obvious from the OP, my sympathies lie with Carey.  In fact, I think that if it was me given that assignment, I'd have been shaking in my boots.  That was a mission that could only end in oblivion or very badly for the officer in command.

However, let's try the Devil's advocate position:  My understanding is that neither Carey nor any of his troops fired a single shot.  Is it possible that the prince got so far ahead that they could neither see nor hear him?  Or did Carey simply not want to risk bringing the Zulus down on him?

The primary charge of cowardice against Carey was laid not so much because he didn't fight but because he and the couple of other scouts (three? four?) actually paused to meet and wheeled round on their mounts to look on the scene without so much as firing a shot at the Zulus.

...I find it interesting that the scouting party didn't take a swipe at the Zulu band that ambushed them.

Granted, he was on a scouting mission, not a "let's see if we can kill the whole impi by ourselves" mission, but still... one of their own had gotten into a mess.

Also, there remains the fact that word got around in the army itself that Carey had acted badly, not just simply in the civilian press.

[gloriousbattle]

I believe that I got this guy killed at last years BLAM in the game produced by Malamute and Captain Blood.

Link to some of the photos from the game in this thread.
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=23177.0

The Prince was killed by dinosaurs?  

Well, never heard that take before...

[gamer Mac]

The Prince was killed by dinosaurs?  

Well, never heard that take before...

Loads of picture of the weekend.
Try from this one down

[Geudens]

Are we certain that Flashman was not involved somehow? One of the scouts perhaps? I would blame him.

Unfortunately, the book "Flashman at Ulundi"  was never written, but - if my memory serves me well - I believe some mentioning of the incident is made by sir Harry in one of the other books.  I'm sure - if "Flashman at Ulundi" would be written, he would be involved, be it unofficial, and his wounded body would be found nearby the prince's (he probably would have stumbled trying to outrun Carey, hit his head and fallen unconscious into the long grass where the Zulus failed to notice him).  No doubt a medal for bravery would be the result of it all  .

[Lowtardog]

Many moons ago I read a paperback called Captain Careys blunder, retold the story and the subsequent investigation etc, not sure if still around

Wowe, just googled and its by Don Featherstone!!!!

http://www.ebooknetworking.com/books_detail-0450022080.html

[gloriousbattle]

Loads of picture of the weekend.
Try from this one down

    

Nice pics, btw!