A staff officer to army commander Lord Raglan, Colonel the Hon. Somerset John Gough Calthorpe, alleged in his book "Letters from a Staff Officer in the Crimea" that Cardigan had survived only because he had fled the scene before the charge made contact with the enemy. In his first edition, Calthorpe allowed that Cardigan's horse may have bolted, but later editions pointedly stated the earl was too fine a horseman for this to be a satisfactory explanation. The horse, "Ronald", a famous charger bred on Cardigan's Deene Park estate, survived the war and returned safely to England. After some preliminary legal skirmishing, Cardigan sought an indictment for criminal libel in 1863, but his action failed, although the bench made plain that it was only his competence, and not his courage, that was in doubt. They found that he had led his men onto the enemy's guns with "valour...conspicuously displayed" but thereafter "his conduct as a General was open to criticism". This conclusion is shared by historian Alexander Kinglake, who concludes that although Cardigan displayed a "want...of competence" after the charge, he had lost contact with his men only through his brave persistence in galloping too far ahead of them.