Saturday, October 25, 2014
"Into the valley of Death, Rode the Six Hundred"
One hundred and sixty years ago today the Light Brigade of British cavalry charged the Russian guns during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. It suffered 278 casualties (killed, wounded and missing) out of approximately 670 troopers and officers who took part in the Charge, a casualty rate of over 41%. 335 of the Brigade's horses were killed in action, or so badly hurt that they had to be put down afterwards.
The Charge was, of course, a colossal mistake that should never have happened. It was the result of confusion caused by badly worded orders, their confusing delivery, and different perspectives visible to the various officers concerned on different parts of the battlefield. The war correspondent of the Times, William Russell, opined, "Our Light Brigade was annihilated by their own rashness, and by the brutality of a ferocious enemy." Controversy over the Charge began almost as soon as it was over, and has continued ever since.
The Charge became legendary through the poem written about it by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. If ever a unit was immortalized in words, it was the Light Brigade.