The Charge
of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light
cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of
Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan had intended to
send the Light Brigade to prevent the Russians from removing captured guns from
overrun Turkish positions, a task for which the light cavalry were well-suited.
However, there was miscommunication in the chain of command and the Light
Brigade was instead sent on a frontal assault against a different artillery
battery, one well-prepared with excellent fields of defensive fire. The Light
Brigade reached the battery under withering direct fire and scattered some of
the gunners, but they were forced to retreat immediately, and the assault ended
with very high British casualties and no decisive gains.
The events
were the subject of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's narrative poem "The Charge of
the Light Brigade" (1854), published just six weeks after the event. Its
lines emphasise the valour of the cavalry in bravely carrying out their orders,
regardless of the nearly inevitable outcome. Responsibility for the
miscommunication has remained controversial, as the order was vague and Louis
Edward Nolan delivered the written orders with some verbal interpretation, then
died in the first minute of the assault.
The charge
was made by the Light Brigade of the British cavalry, which consisted of the
4th and 13th Light Dragoons, 17th Lancers, and the 8th and 11th Hussars, under
the command of Major General James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan. Also
present that day was the Heavy Brigade, commanded by Major General James Yorke
Scarlett, who was a past Commanding Officer of the 5th Dragoon Guards. The
Heavy Brigade was made up of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the 5th
Dragoon Guards, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons and the Scots Greys. The two
brigades were the only British cavalry force at the battle.
The Light
Brigade were the British light cavalry force. It mounted light, fast horses
which were unarmoured. The men were armed with lances and sabres. Optimized for
maximum mobility and speed, they were intended for reconnaissance and
skirmishing. They were also ideal for cutting down infantry and artillery units
as they attempted to retreat.
Charge of
the light brigade -Our fighting services - Evelyn Wood pg451.jpg
The Heavy
Brigade under James Scarlett was the British heavy cavalry force. It mounted
large, heavy chargers. The men were equipped with metal helmets and armed with
cavalry swords for close combat. They were intended as the primary British
shock force, leading frontal charges in order to break enemy lines.
Overall
command of the British cavalry resided with Lieutenant General George Bingham,
3rd Earl of Lucan. Cardigan and Lucan were brothers-in-law who disliked each
other intensely. Lucan received an order from the army commander Lord Raglan
stating: "Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front,
follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns. Troop
horse artillery may accompany. French cavalry is on your left. Immediate."
Raglan wanted the light cavalry to prevent the Russians from successfully
withdrawing the naval guns from the redoubts they had captured on the reverse
side of the Causeway Heights, the hill forming the south side of the valley.
This was an optimal task for the Light Brigade, as their superior speed would
ensure the Russians would be forced to either quickly abandon the cumbersome
guns or be cut down en masse while they attempted to flee with them.
Raglan
could see what was happening from his high vantage point on the west side of
the valley. However, the lie of the land around Lucan and the cavalry prevented
him from seeing the Russians' efforts to remove the guns from the redoubts and
retreat.
The written
order which led to the Charge
The order
was drafted by Brigadier Richard Airey and carried by Captain Louis Edward
Nolan. Nolan carried the further oral instruction that the cavalry was to
attack immediately. When Lucan asked what guns were referred to, Nolan is said
to have indicated with a wide sweep of his arm—not the causeway redoubts—but
the mass of Russian guns in a redoubt at the end of the valley, around a mile
away. His reasons for the misdirection are unknown because he was killed in the
ensuing battle.
In response
to the order, Lucan instructed Cardigan to lead his command of about 670
troopers[4] of the Light Brigade straight into the valley between the Fedyukhin
Heights and the Causeway Heights. In his poem, "The Charge of the Light
Brigade" (1854), Tennyson dubbed this hollow "The Valley of
Death".
The
opposing Russian forces were commanded by Pavel Liprandi and included
approximately 20 battalions of infantry supported by over 50 artillery pieces.
These forces were deployed on both sides and at the opposite end of the valley.
Lucan
himself was to follow with the Heavy Brigade. Although the Heavy Brigade was
better armoured and intended for frontal assaults on infantry positions,
neither force was remotely equipped for a frontal assault on a fully dug-in and
alerted artillery, much less one with an excellent line of sight over a mile in
length and supported on two sides by artillery batteries providing enfilading
fire from elevated ground. The semi-suicidal nature of this charge was surely
evident to the troopers of the Light Brigade, but if there were any objection
to the orders, it was not recorded.
The Charge
The charge
was from left to right, with the Russian batteries at the extreme right
The Light
Brigade set off down the valley with Cardigan in front, leading the charge on
his horse Ronald. Almost at once, Nolan rushed across the front, passing in
front of Cardigan. It may be that he realised that the charge was aimed at the
wrong target and was attempting to stop or turn the brigade, but he was killed
by an artillery shell and the cavalry continued on its course. Captain Godfrey
Morgan was close by and saw what happened:
The first
shell burst in the air about 100 yards in front of us. The next one dropped in
front of Nolan's horse and exploded on touching the ground. He uttered a wild
yell as his horse turned round, and, with his arms extended, the reins dropped
on the animal's neck, he trotted towards us, but in a few yards dropped dead
off his horse. I do not imagine that anybody except those in the front line of
the 17th Lancers saw what had happened.
We went on.
When we got about two or three hundred yards the battery of the Russian Horse
Artillery opened fire. I do not recollect hearing a word from anybody as we
gradually broke from a trot to a canter, though the noise of the striking of men
and horses by grape and round shot was deafening, while the dust and gravel
struck up by the round shot that fell short was almost blinding, and irritated
my horse so that I could scarcely hold him at all. But as we came nearer I
could see plainly enough, especially when I was about a hundred yards from the
guns. I appeared to be riding straight on to the muzzle of one of the guns, and
I distinctly saw the gunner apply his fuse. I shut my eyes then, for I thought
that settled the question as far as I was concerned. But the shot just missed
me and struck the man on my right full in the chest.
In another
minute I was on the gun and the leading Russian's grey horse, shot, I suppose,
with a pistol by somebody on my right, fell across my horse, dragging it over
with him and pinning me in between the gun and himself. A Russian gunner on
foot at once covered me with his carbine. He was just within reach of my sword,
and I struck him across his neck. The blow did not do much harm, but it
disconcerted his aim. At the same time a mounted gunner struck my horse on the
forehead with his sabre. Spurring "Sir Briggs," he half jumped, half
blundered, over the fallen horses, and then for a short time bolted with me. I
only remember finding myself alone among the Russians trying to get out as best
I could. This, by some chance, I did, in spite of the attempts of the Russians
to cut me down.
The Light
Brigade faced withering fire from three sides which devastated their force on
the ride, yet they were able to engage the Russian forces at the end of the
valley and force them back from the redoubt. Nonetheless, they suffered heavy
casualties and were soon forced to retire. The surviving Russian artillerymen
returned to their guns and opened fire with grapeshot and canister shot,
indiscriminately at the mêlée of friend and foe before them. Captain Morgan
continues:
When clear
again of the guns I saw two or three of my men making their way back, and as
the fire from both flanks was still heavy it was a matter of running the
gauntlet again. I have not sufficient recollection of minor incidents to
describe them, as probably no two men who were in that charge would describe it
in the same way. When I was back pretty nearly where we started from I found
that I was the senior officer of those not wounded, and, consequently, in
command, there being two others, both juniors to me, in the same position —
Lieut. Wombwell and Cornet Cleveland.
Lucan and
his troops of the Heavy Brigade failed to provide any support for the Light
Brigade—they entered the mouth of the valley but did not advance further.
Lucan's explanation was that he saw no point in having a second brigade mown
down, and he was best positioned to render assistance to Light Brigade
survivors returning from the charge. The French light cavalry, the Chasseurs
d'Afrique, was more effective by clearing the Fedyukhin Heights of the two
half-batteries of guns, two infantry battalions, and Cossacks to ensure that
the Light Brigade would not be hit by fire from that flank, and it provided
cover for the remaining elements of the Light Brigade as they withdrew.
War
correspondent William Howard Russell witnessed the battle and declared:
"Our Light Brigade was annihilated by their own rashness, and by the
brutality of a ferocious enemy."
Cardigan
survived the battle, although stories circulated that he was not actually
present. He led the charge from the front, never looking back, and did not see
what was happening to the troops behind him. He reached the Russian guns, took
part in the fight, and then returned alone up the valley without bothering to
rally or even find out what had happened to the survivors. He afterwards said
that all he could think about was his rage against Captain Nolan, who he thought
had tried to take over the leadership of the charge. After riding back up the
valley, he considered that he had done all that he could. He left the field and
boarded his yacht in Balaklava harbour, where he ate a champagne dinner. He
described the engagement in a speech delivered at Mansion House, London which
was quoted in the House of Commons:
We advanced
down a gradual descent of more than three-quarters of a mile [1.2 km], with the
batteries vomiting forth upon us shells and shot, round and grape, with one
battery on our right flank and another on the left, and all the intermediate
ground covered with the Russian riflemen; so that when we came to within a
distance of fifty yards from the mouths of the artillery which had been hurling
destruction upon us, we were, in fact, surrounded and encircled by a blaze of
fire, in addition to the fire of the riflemen upon our flanks.
As we
ascended the hill, the oblique fire of the artillery poured upon our rear, so
that we had thus a strong fire upon our front, our flank, and our rear. We
entered the battery—we went through the battery—the two leading regiments
cutting down a great number of the Russian gunners in their onset. In the two
regiments which I had the honour to lead, every officer, with one exception,
was either killed or wounded, or had his horse shot under him or injured. Those
regiments proceeded, followed by the second line, consisting of two more
regiments of cavalry, which continued to perform the duty of cutting down the
Russian gunners.
Then came
the third line, formed of another regiment, which endeavoured to complete the
duty assigned to our brigade. I believe that this was achieved with great
success, and the result was that this body, composed of only about 670 men,
succeeded in passing through the mass of Russian cavalry of—as we have since
learned—5,240 strong; and having broken through that mass, they went, according
to our technical military expression, "threes about," and retired in
the same manner, doing as much execution in their course as they possibly could
upon the enemy's cavalry. Upon our returning up the hill which we had descended
in the attack, we had to run the same gauntlet and to incur the same risk from
the flank fire of the Tirailleur as we had encountered before. Numbers of our
men were shot down—men and horses were killed, and many of the soldiers who had
lost their horses were also shot down while endeavouring to escape.
11th Hussars
With the
exception of a short spell in Egypt in 1801, the regiment did not see active
service again until it was sent to Portugal in April 1811, where it joined the
Peninsular War campaign. In August, one of its squadrons was forced to take
cover in an orchard at San Martín de Trevejo in Spain, an incident that may
have been the derivation of its nickname, the Cherry Pickers. It fought at
Badajoz in April 1812 and the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812 before returning
to Britain. During the campaign of 1815, it was part of Vandeleur's 4th Cavalry
Brigade, fighting at Quatre Bras and Waterloo.
The 11th
Hussars on the 1884 Nile Expedition
In 1819,
the regiment moved to India, where it remained until 1836. Shortly before
returning to Britain, the Earl of Cardigan became lieutenant-colonel; he
embarked on a series of changes, which were intended to increase regimental
prestige but resulted in a number of highly publicised disputes, including the
so-called 'Black Bottle' affair.
In 1840, it
was named 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussars after Prince Albert, Queen
Victoria's consort, who became colonel of the regiment. Prince Albert's interests
included military tactics and equipment and he helped design a new uniform for
the regiment named after him. Purely by coincidence, this included
"cherry" or crimson coloured trousers, unique among British regiments
and worn ever since in most orders, except battledress and fatigues.
The
regiment served in the Crimean War, as part of the Light Brigade commanded by
Cardigan, now a Major General and fought at the Battle of Alma in September
1854. It was also involved in the Charge of the Light Brigade in October 1854;
due to miscommunication, Cardigan led the brigade against unbroken and more
numerous Russian forces and while able to withdraw to its starting position, it
suffered heavy losses as a result.
The 11th
lost three officers and 55 men in the debacle, while Lieutenant Dunn was
awarded the Victoria Cross for rescuing two members of his troop. Edward
Woodham of the 11th Hussars later acted as Chairman of the organising committee
for the 21st Anniversary dinner held at Alexandra Palace for survivors of the
Charge. The regiment was renamed the 11th (or Prince Albert's Own) Hussars in
1861. A detachment took part in the 1884 Nile Expedition and during the Second
Boer War, it participated in the February 1900 Relief of Ladysmith.
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