Wolseley, Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount

Wolseley, Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount

(wo͝olz`lē), 1833–1913, British field marshal. He fought in Burma (present-day Myanmar; 1852–53), the Crimea (1854–56), India (1857–58), and China (1860), and was an observer in the American Civil War. Later he went to Canada as commander of the Red River expedition (1870), and suppressed the rebellion led by Louis RielRiel, Louis
, 1844–85, Canadian insurgent, leader of two rebellions, b. Manitoba, of French and Métis parentage. In 1869–70 he led the rebels of the Red River settlements, mainly Métis (people of mixed European–indigenous descent) and indigenous
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 at Fort Garry. After conducting the AshantiAshanti
or Asante
, historic and modern administrative region, central Ghana, W Africa. The region is the source of much of Ghana's cocoa. It is inhabited by the Ashanti, a matrilineal Akan people who constitute one of Ghana's major ethnic groups. Before the 13th cent.
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 campaign (1873–74), he served as high commissioner of Cyprus (1878) and as an administrator in South Africa (1879–80). His most famous achievements were the brilliant defeat of Arabi Pasha, leader of an Egyptian army revolt, at Tell el Kebir in 1882 and his attempt to relieve General Charles G. GordonGordon, Charles George,
1833–85, British soldier and administrator. He served in the Crimean War, went to China in the expedition of 1860, taking part in the capture of Beijing, and in 1863 took over the command of F. T.
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 at Khartoum (1884–85), for which he was made a viscount. A tireless advocate of army reform, he became (1871) assistant adjutant general at the war office and worked with Viscount CardwellCardwell, Edward Cardwell, Viscount,
1813–86, British statesman. He entered Parliament (1842) as a supporter of Sir Robert Peel, under whom he was secretary to the treasury (1845–46).
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 to achieve shorter periods of enlistment, abolition of the purchase of commissions, and the creation of an army reserve. As quartermaster general (1880–82), adjutant general (1882–90), commander in chief for Ireland (1890–95), and commander in chief of the army (1895–1901), he continued to press for reform and was responsible for the modernization of training and equipment. He wrote The Story of a Soldier's Life (1903).

Bibliography

See his The American Civil War: An English View, ed. by J. A. Rawley (1964); his Khartoum journal, In Relief of Gordon (1967), his South African diaries (1971) and journals (1973), all three ed. by A. Preston; biography by J. H. Lehmann (1964); L. Maxwell, The Ashanti Ring (1985).