Lucan in turn complained that Raglan’s orders had been unclear and unwise.įor his part, Cardigan complained the Heavy Brigade should have charged too, to support his men. The charge was supposed to target Russian cannons on the heights, not in the valley. Raglan complained the Lucan had ineptly misinterpreted his orders. Either unit could charge cannons, but normally from their defenceless flanks, not head-on into their gunfire. It could overpower lighter cavalry or charge against infantry lines. The Heavy Brigade had larger, stronger horses. In battle it typically charged enemy troops who were disorganised or retreating.
The Light Brigade rode smaller, faster horses. The British army commander, Lord Raglan, had issued notoriously vague orders to his cavalry commander, Lord Lucan: “Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, and to try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns.”īut which cavalry: the Light Brigade alone or the Heavy Brigade too? Which guns: those in the valley or those on the adjacent Causeway Heights? The British leaders immediately blamed each other for the fiasco. Outnumbered 11-to-1, the 195 survivors retreated. The ‘Valley of Death’ĭuring the charge, Lord Cardigan’s light cavalry brigade attacked Russian cannons in “the valley of death.” The brigade defeated the gunners, but was counter-attacked by roughly 2,160 Russian light cavalry. It quickly inspired a magnificent poem by Lord Tennyson and later a colourful movie. But it became infamous for its brave soldiers, incompetent leaders and senseless bloodshed.
That was a small engagement that ended the inconclusive Battle of Balaclava on Oct. However, another of its features also remains in our memories: The Charge of the Light Brigade. That war is largely forgotten now, apart from its famous nurse Florence Nightingale. Those descriptions sound like Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea.īut they also applied 150 years earlier during The Crimean War between Russia and a British-French-Turkish alliance. Western nations’ warships in the Black Sea.
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