Charge of the Light Brigade

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Charge of the Light Brigade by Richard Caton Woodville (1825-1855).

The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava by William Simpson (1855), illustrating the Light Brigade's charge into the "Valley of Death" from the Russian perspective.

The Timeline of the Charge taken from Forgotten Heroes: The Charge of the Light Brigade (2007).^[1]

Officers and men of the 13th Light Dragoons, survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade, a few months after the battle.

A 2005 view of the "Valley of Death" in which the Charge of the Light Brigade was fought. Now occupied by vineyards, it was open ground in 1854.

The Charge of the Light Brigade was a disastrous cavalry charge led by Lord Cardigan during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. It is best remembered as the subject of a famous poem entitled The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, whose lines have made the charge a symbol of warfare at both its most courageous and its most tragic.

[edit] Events

The charge was made by the Light Brigade of the British cavalry, consisting of the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, 17th Lancers, and the 8th and 11th Hussars, under the command of Major General the Earl of Cardigan. Together with the Heavy Brigade comprising the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the 5th Dragoon Guards, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons and the Scots Greys, commanded by Major General James Yorke Scarlett, himself a past Commanding Officer of the 5th Dragoon Guards, these units were the main British cavalry force at the battle. Overall command of the cavalry resided with Lieutenant General the Earl of Lucan.

Lucan received an order from the army commander Lord Raglan stating that "Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns. Horse artillery may accompany. French cavalry is on your left. Immediate." Raglan in fact wished the cavalry to prevent the Russians taking away the naval guns from the redoubts that they had captured on the reverse side of the Causeway Heights, the hill forming the left side of the valley (from the point of view of the cavalry). Raglan could see what was happening from his high vantage-point on the west of the valley, but Lucan and the cavalry were unaware of what was going on owing to the lie of the land where they were drawn up.^[2] The order was drafted by Brigadier Airey and was carried by Captain Louis Edward Nolan, who 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, by 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.^[3] As he was to be killed during the charge his reason for this remains conjecture.

In response to the order, Lucan instructed Cardigan to lead 673 (some sources state 661) cavalry men straight into the valley between the Fedyukhin Heights and the Causeway Heights, famously dubbed the "Valley of Death" by the poet Tennyson. The opposing Russian forces were commanded by Pavel Liprandi and included approximately 20 battalions of infantry supported by over fifty 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.

The Light Brigade set off down the valley, with Cardigan out in front leading the charge. Almost at once Nolan was seen to rush across the front, passing in front of Cardigan. It may be that he had now realized 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. Despite a withering fire from three sides that decimated their force on the ride, the Light Brigade was able to engage the Russian forces at the end of the valley and force them back from the redoubt, but suffered heavy casualties and was soon forced to retire. Lucan failed to provide any support for Cardigan, and it was speculated that he was motivated by an enmity for his brother-in-law that had lasted some 30 years and had been intensified during the campaign up to that point. The troops of the Heavy Brigade entered the mouth of the valley but did not advance further: Lucan's subsequent explanation was that he saw no point in having a second brigade mown down and that he was best positioned where he was to render assistance to Light Brigade survivors returning from the charge. The French cavalry, the Chasseurs d'Afrique, were more effective in that they broke the Russian line on the Fedyukhin Heights and later provided cover for the remaining elements of the Light Brigade as they withdrew.

Cardigan survived the battle. Although stories circulated afterwards that he was not actually present,^[4] he led the charge from the front and, never looking back, 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 all he could think about was his rage against Captain Nolan, who he thought had tried to take over the leadership of the charge from him. After cantering back up the valley he considered he had done all that he could and then, with astonishing sang-froid, left the field and went on board his yacht in Balaclava harbour, where he ate a champagne dinner.^[5] He subsequently described the engagement in a speech delivered at the Mansion House in London, which was quoted in length in the House of Commons afterwards:

We advanced down a gradual descent of more than three-quarters of a mile, 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 Tirailleurs [riflemen] 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.

But what, my Lord, was the feeling and what the bearing of those brave men who returned to the position. Of each of these regiments there returned but a small detachment, two-thirds of the men engaged having been destroyed? I think that every man who was engaged in that disastrous affair at Balaklava, and who was fortunate enough to come out of it alive, must feel that it was only by a merciful decree of Almighty Providence that he escaped from the greatest apparent certainty of death which could possibly be conceived. [1]

[edit] Aftermath

The brigade was not completely destroyed, but did suffer terribly, with 118 men killed, 127 wounded. After regrouping, only 195 men were still with horses. The futility of the action and its reckless bravery prompted the French Marshal Pierre Bosquet to state "C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre." ("It is magnificent, but it is not war.") Rarely quoted, but he continued: "C'est de la folie"- "it is madness."^[6] The Russian commanders are said to have initially believed that the British soldiers must have been drunk.^[7] The reputation of the British cavalry was significantly enhanced as a result of the charge, though the same cannot be said for their commanders.

Slow communications meant that news of the disaster did not reach the British public until three weeks after the action. The British commanders' dispatches from the front were published in an extraordinary edition of the London Gazette of 12 November 1854. Raglan blamed Lucan for the charge, claiming that "from some misconception of the order to advance, the Lieutenant-General (Lucan) considered that he was bound to attack at all hazards, and he accordingly ordered Major-General the Earl of Cardigan to move forward with the Light Brigade." Lucan was furious at being made a scapegoat: Raglan claimed he should have exercised his discretion, but throughout the campaign up to that date Lucan considered Raglan had allowed him no independence at all and required that his orders be followed to the letter. Cardigan, who had merely obeyed orders, blamed Lucan for giving those orders. He returned home a hero and was promoted to Inspector General of the Cavalry.

Lucan attempted to publish a letter refuting point by point Raglan's London Gazette dispatch, but his criticism of his superior was not tolerated and in March 1855, Lucan was recalled to England. The Charge of the Light Brigade became a subject of considerable controversy and public dispute on his return. He strongly rejected Raglan's version of events, calling it "an imputation reflecting seriously on my professional character". In an exchange of public correspondence printed in the pages of The Times of London, Lucan blamed Raglan and his deceased aide-de-camp Captain Nolan, who had been the actual deliverer of the disputed order. Lucan subsequently defended himself with a speech in the House of Lords on 19 March.

Lucan evidently escaped blame for the charge, as he was made a member of the Order of the Bath in July of that same year. Although he never again saw active duty, he reached the rank of General in 1865 and was made a Field Marshal in the year before his death.

The charge of the Light Brigade continues to be studied by modern military historians and students as an example of what can go wrong when accurate military intelligence is lacking and orders are unclear. Sir Winston Churchill, who was a keen military historian and a former cavalryman, insisted on taking time out during the Yalta Conference in 1945 to see the battlefield for himself.

The fate of the surviving members of the Charge was investigated by Edward James Boys, a military historian, who documented their lives from leaving the army to their deaths. His records are described as being the most definitive project of its kind ever undertaken.

In 2004, on the 150th anniversary of the Charge, a commemoration of the event was held at Balaklava. As part of the anniversary, a monument dedicated to the 25,000 British participants of the conflict has been unveiled by the HRH Prince Michael of Kent.[2]

[edit] Poem

Main article: The Charge of the Light Brigade

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the then Poet Laureate, wrote evocatively about the battle in his poem The Charge of the Light Brigade. Tennyson's poem, published December 9, 1854 in The Examiner, praises the Brigade, "When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made!", while mourning the appalling futility of the charge: "Not tho' the soldier knew, someone had blunder'd… Charging an army, while all the world wonder'd." Tennyson wrote the poem inside only a few minutes after reading an account of the battle in The Times, according to his grandson Sir Charles Tennyson. It immediately became hugely popular, even reaching the troops in the Crimean, where it was distributed in pamphlet form.

[edit] Representation in media

[edit] Film

The Charge of the Light Brigade has been the subject of three films.

• The first, made in 1912 by the Edison Company, is a single reel silent picture lasting a mere 12 minutes directed by J. Searle Dawley. It was shot in Cheyenne, Wyoming and 800 troopers from the US Cavalry played the part of the Light Brigade.
• The second, made in 1936 by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and David Niven, was a "Hollywood" account inspired by Kipling, blending English public school bravado and a mythical image of British imperialism.
• The third, deeply critical, film was made in 1968, directed by Tony Richardson and written by Charles Wood from a first draft by John Osborne. It starred John Gielgud and Trevor Howard, and aimed to be brutally authentic, based in part on the research in Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Reason Why (1953). The film included animations by Richard Williams, based on the contemporary graphic style of Punch Magazine, in order to explain the political events surrounding the battle.

[edit] Music

• The psychedelic folk band Pearls Before Swine recorded an album entitled Balaklava, inspired by the charge, and containing an archive recording from 1890 by Trumpeter Landfrey (or Lanfried), one of its survivors.
• The British heavy metal band Iron Maiden has a song about the charge, "The Trooper".
• "The Charge" by New Model Army compares the charge with the miners' strike and Thatcherism.
• The American thrash metal band Megadeth has an instrumental "Into the Lungs of Hell" inspired by this charge
• The UK band The Divine Comedy make reference to the attack by way of Tennyson's poem in the song "Charge".
• The music publisher E. T. Paull (known for his beautifully lithographed covers) entitled a descriptive march "The Charge of the Light Brigade", in 1896.
• The British band Kasabian wrote a song in their 2006 album, Empire, that was inspired by the Charge of the Light Brigade and more specifically the men of the 11th Hussars Regiment.
• The British band The Crimea made a song on their 2007 album Secrets of the Witching Hour called "Light Brigade".
• AC/DC's hit song T.N.T., from their debut album High Voltage, features the lyrics "Women to the left of me and women to the right", evoking the Tennyson poem.
• The industrial rock band KMFDM features the lines from the poem "Yours is not to ask why, yours is to do and die" in their song "Professional Killer", in reference to an executioner.
• Canadian artist Corb Lund mentions the event and several other historical cavalry battles in his song "Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier"

[edit] Fiction

• Robert Trevelyan describes the Light Brigade in his novel Pendragon (Late of Prince Albert's Own). John Pendragon, a young officer of the 11th Hussars, is the main character in the novel.
• Garry Douglas Kilworth recounts the Charge of the Light Brigade in the third of his 'Sergeant Crossman' Crimean War novels, The Valley of Death.
• George MacDonald Fraser used the Crimea campaign and the Charge of the Light Brigade in his novel Flashman at the Charge.
• Chapter 34 of Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty vividly describes the charge from the point of view of one of the horses.
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card makes frequent reference to the Charge of the Light Brigade as an example of disastrous military planning.
• In Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Mr. Ramsay repeats various passages from the Tennyson poem in part one, "The Window", an extension of the character's self-dramatisation and a hint towards the postponed journey and also human suffering in part two, "Time Passes".
• Michael Crichton's 1975 novel The Great Train Robbery calls the Charge of the Light Brigade "a spectacular feat of heroism which decimated three-quarters of [Lord Cardigan's] forces in a successful effort to capture the wrong battery of enemy guns". (Chapter 16).

[edit] Other

• A piece of the poem was paraphrased, "The world wonders", in security padding from Admiral Chester Nimitz to Admiral William Halsey, Jr. at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which occurred on the 90th anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade.^[8]
• The charge provides the background theme for the episode "The Light Brigade" of the television series The Outer Limits. The last survivors of a space battle, despite radiation poisoning, launch a desperate final strike against the alien enemy. The Light Brigade is the name of their ship, and the poem is also quoted by several of the characters.
• In the episode "Sacrifice of Angels" of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the poem is quoted in the battle to re-take Deep Space Nine and secure the Bajoran wormhole.
• In the film The Eagle Has Landed, Admiral Canaris remarks: "This operation could make the Charge of the Light Brigade look like a sensible military exercise!"
• The poem was quoted in the film Clue by the butler, Wadsworth.
• Lines from the poem are quoted by Adam Elvin in Peter F Hamilton's book Judas Unchained.
• Lines 1-4 of the third verse are twice recited by the character Geoffrey of the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in episode seven of season one.
• The character Cpl. Upham quotes the poem in the movie Saving Private Ryan.
• The character Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) recites the poem in the 1936 Our Gang (Little Rascals) comedy Two Too Young.

[edit] See also

• Charge of the Heavy Brigade
• The Thin Red Line (1854 battle)
• British military history
• Eastbourne Redoubt
• Edwin Hughes
• Canon William Lummis
• Battle of Somosierra

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• The Reason Why, Story of the Fatal Charge of the Light Brigade, Cecil Woodham-Smith, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-139031-X, first published in 1953 by McGraw-Hill.

• Hell Riders: The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade, Terry Brighton, Henry Holt and Co, ISBN 0-8050-7722-7, published November 2, 2004.

• Forgotten Heroes: The Charge of the Light Brigade, Roy Dutton, InfoDial Ltd, ISBN 0-9556-5540-1, published October 25, 2007.
• The Charge of the Light Brigade Contemporary eyewitness account from journalist William Howard Russell .

[edit] External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Charge of the Light Brigade

• LIST OF NAMES of troopers who took part in the Charge
• The National Archives: Charge of the Light Brigade
• The Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord Alfred Tennyson
• A copy of the poem hand-written by Tennyson
• BBC News illustrated history of the Charge of the Light Brigade
• Roger Fenton photographs
• The Last of the Light Brigade by Rudyard Kipling
• Casualty list .
• NPR: Retelling the Tale of the Light Brigade
• The monument to the charge in Ukraine - from Find-A-Grave
• Trumpeter Landfrey plays the charge he sounded at the Charge of the Light Brigade. He uses a bugle which was previously used by Wellington's forces at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Edison cylinder recording, August 2 1890, London.