Their’s not to make reply, Their’s not to reason why, Their’s but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. On October 25, 1854, at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, Lord Cardigan led the British light cavalry—the Light Brigade—in a suicidal charge against a well-armed Russian artillery battery. Lord Raglan, overall commander, had intended to send the Light Brigade to pursue and harry a retreating Russian artillery battery near the front line, a task well suited to light cavalry. Due to miscommunication at some level in the chain of command, the sabre-armed Light Brigade was instead sent on a frontal assault into a different artillery battery, one well-prepared with excellent fields of defensive fire. Although reaching the battery under withering direct fire and scattering some of the gunners, the badly mauled brigade was forced to retreat immediately, producing no decisive gains and very high British casualties. It is best remembered as the subject of the poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published just six weeks after the event, whose lines emphasize the valor of the cavalry in bravely carrying out their orders, regardless of the obvious outcome. Blame for the miscommunication has remained controversial, as the original order from Raglan itself was vague. More recently, the charge is also the subject of Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” (1983).
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 01:07:23 +0000
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