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and asking, "Where are we to go to?- wounded hussars were riding home to the what guns are we to take?" Captain camp, with ghastly countenances, their horses covered with blood." The first line was almost annihilated soon after entering the battery. When they reached the guns, and had cut down or disabled the artillerymen in charge of them, there were very few left to make a retreat. Finding it impossible to carry off the guns, the dragoons and hussars retired in small parties; but falling-in with the second line, on its advance, they turned, and rode in the rear of that line, which shared, in a great measure, the fate of the first, being cut to pieces by the incessant fire of the flank batteries. Lord Cardigan was then seen defending himself against four or five Cossacks. The third line came up, and met with the same fate; and when the Russians saw that this, the last of the brigade, had reached the battery, they sent a large body of Cossacks of the Don to cut off their retreat. Thus this daring and heroic brigade of between six and seven hundred men, found the whole Russian army opposed to them; and a body of cavalry interposed to prevent their return. "Assailed on every side, by every arm, and their ranks utterly broken, they were compelled to fight their way through, and to regain their position under the same artillery fire that had crashed into their advance. Singly, and in twos and threes, these gallant horsemen returned, some on foot, some wounded, and some supporting a wounded comrade. The same fire which had shattered their ranks, had reached the heavy cavalry on the slope behind, who also suffered severely. The loss would have been greater, but for the timely charge of a body of French cavalry, which descending from the plateau, advanced up the heights in the centre of the valley, where they silenced a destructive battery."||

Nolan, impatiently, pointed over the ridge, to the valley beyond, and said-"There, my lord, is your enemy, and there are our guns." The cavalry (both brigades) was then dismounted. The light brigade was suddenly ordered to mount; and Earl Lucan, going to the front, ordered Lord Cardigan to attack the Russians in the valley. His lordship replied-" Certainly, sir; but allow me to point out to you that the Russians have a battery in our front, and there are batteries and Russians on each flank." Lord Lucan replied "I cannot help that it is Lord Raglan's positive order that the light brigade attack immediately." Earl Cardigan at once moved off the brigade, being in command of, and leading, the first line, consisting of the 13th light dragoons, and the 17th lancers. The 11th hussars, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Douglas, and supporting the left flank of the 17th lancers, formed the second line. The third line consisted of the 4th light dragoons and the 8th hussars, led by Lord George Paget. The distance from the point from which they started, to the battery in the lower part of the valley in front of them, was quite a mile and a quarter, if not more. The brigade advanced directly upon, and in face of the battery, which directed a murderous fire upon the troops as they rapidly approached; and Captain Nolan, who accompanied the brigade, being in front, was killed by the first discharge. On arriving within eighty yards of the battery, which consisted of about twelve or fourteen pieces of heavy ordnance, a fire was opened upon the brigade along the whole line. It was a very exciting moment; but the squadrons reached the battery in good order, and at the regular charging pace.† Many officers and men were killed-"Still, on they dashed," Earl Cardigan at their head, "and flew into the batteries, cutting down the gunners at their post-their sabres flashing above the smoke. The scene now became very awful: the plain was covered with dead men and horses; loose troopers were galloping about in all directions; and

• The Past Campaign. Mr. Woods says the account was given to him by two officers, who were present, and heard all that passed.

This account is taken from an affidavit made by Earl Cardigan, in the cause Cardigan v. Calthorpe, tried in June, 1863.

Thus ended this chivalrous charge, which Lord Lucan thus describes in his despatch:¶

"This attack of the light cavalry was very brilliant and daring. Exposed to a fire from heavy batteries on their front and the two flanks, they teries of the enemy, and cleared them of their gunadvanced, unchecked, until they reached the batners; and only retired when they found themselves

Lieutenant Peard.

$ Affidavit of Lieutenant Thomas George Johnson, 13th hussars, made on the trial of Cardigan v. Calthorpe.

|| Lieutenant-colonel Hamley.
Sent to Lord Raglan.

engaged with a very superior force of cavalry in the rear. Major-general the Earl of Cardigan led this attack in the most gallant and intrepid manner; and his lordship has expressed himself to me, as admiring, in the highest degree, the courage and zeal of every officer, non-commissioned officer, and man that assisted."

The whole affair, from the moment the brigade moved off, until the débris re-formed on the ground from which it started, did not occupy more than twenty minutes. When the troops were re-formed, Lord Cardigan (who was received with cheers by the survivors) had them counted by the brigade-major: there were then only 195 men present out of 670 who had gone with his lordship into action.* More stragglers came in subsequently; but nearly 300 were killed and wounded. Probably there was never so great a loss of life in so brief a space of time. Many officers were put hors de combat; the following being killed:Major Hackett, 4th light dragoons; Captains Good and Oldham, and Cornet Montgomery, 13th light dragoons; Captain Lockwood, 8th hussars, aide-de-camp to Lord Cardigan; Cornet Houghton, 11th hussars; Captain White and Lieutenant Thomson, of the 17th lancers; Captain Charteris, 92nd regiment, aide-de-camp to Lord Lucan.

After this affair, "the enemy made no further movement in advance;" but our "4th division marched close to the heights; and Sir George Cathcart caused one of the redoubts to be reoccupied by the Turks, affording them his support; and he availed himself of the opportunity of silencing two of the enemy's guns." He also proposed to recapture, with his division, the redoubts and lost guns; but the movement was not thought advisable, and nothing more was done. "At the close of the day, the brigade of guards of the 1st division, and the 4th division, returned to their original encampment:" the Highlanders remained with Sir Colin Campbell; so did one brigade of the French 1st division: the rest of the French troops returned to the plateau. The Russians, also, gradually withdrew their troops to the high ground beyond Kamara, leaving only a part of their cavalry and artillery in the valley, apparently to prevent their flank from being turned by any attack of the allies. Before the commanders-in-chief returned

Earl Cardigan's affidavit.

+ Lord Raglan's despatch to the Duke of Newcastle. Ibid.

to their quarters, they "held a consultation together, and decided, that it would only be a useless sacrifice of life to attempt to retake the redoubts," which the Russians still retained; "as it was not their intention to occupy them again, not having an adequate force at their disposal to defend so extensive a line of works."§ Lord Raglan, therefore, resolved, "in concurrence with General Canrobert, to withdraw from the lower range of heights, and to concentrate his force (which was to be increased by a considerable body of troops, to be sent from the ships, under the authority of Admiral Dundas) immediately in front of the narrow valley leading into Balaklava, and on the precipitous heights on the right."||

While the battle was going on, Captain Tatham, of the Simoom, who was in charge of the harbour of Balaklava, received a message from Lord Raglan, to the following effect:-"The Russians will be down upon us in half-an-hour; we will have to defend the head of the harbour: get steam up." Captain Tatham understood this to mean that the harbour was to be evacuated, and he gave orders that all vessels should prepare to leave. This order was carried out; and when the fighting ceased, those preparations were continued. "All night long the vessels were slipping their cables, and the tugs towed them out as fast as they cast off. The commissariat shipped all their money, and the stores were reembarked from the ordnance and quartermaster-general's departments. The ships anchored outside the bay;" and thus the way was prepared for a heavy loss on a subsequent day.

While the English in Balaklava were thus preparing to evacuate the port-and the allied army, though not defeated (for the very utmost that the Russians could claim is, that it was a drawn battle; though, in fact, they had been repulsed in every attack, except in those on the redoubts held by the few undisciplined Turks), was dispirited at the loss of so many gallant comrades, in an affair which was justly characterised by a French general, as "Very fine; but it was not war"-the Russians were rejoicing in Sebastopol, as it was proclaimed that a great victory had been achieved; and the captured cannon § Letters from Head-quarters. Lord Raglan's despatch. The Past Campaign.

were triumphantly taken into the city. A salvo of artillery was fired to celebrate the event, and a heavy cannonade was opened against the English lines, from which, however, little injury was sustained.

The loss of the allies in the encounters of the day would have been insignificant, but for the "cutting-up" of the light brigade. The following were the casualties in that "brilliant but unfortunate" charge:

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Besides 335 horses, which were either killed in action, or had to be destroyed in consequence of their wounds. The loss of the English, in infantry and artillery, did not exceed one hundred. The Chasseurs d'Afrique, in their charge, lost two officers and fifty-three men; and, of the 1st division, about fifty were put hors de combat. The Turks lost nine officers, and nearly 300 men, all killed or prisoners. The worst consequence to the English was, the loss of the Woronzoff road, which afforded the readiest communication between the camp and Balaklava.

Sir Colin Campbell remained all night in the redoubt on the heights to the east of Balaklava, where the 93rd Highlanders were placed to support the marines. Another attack from the Russians was apprehended, and this was the reason why the ships were ordered outside the harbour. Two battalions of the fugitive Turks, who had been collected together and reorganised, were also marched up to those heights, where they passed the night. The enemy, however, did not renew his attack. The next morning, as soon as they had breakfasted, Lord Raglan and his staff rode down to Balaklava, where they had a long consultation with Sir Colin Campbell and the officers who were chiefs of the military department. At this council of war, it was arranged, that "a line-of-battle ship should be anchored across the upper part of the harbour: that," in the event of another descent of the enemy, "an overwhelming

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battery of the heaviest artillery should sweep the usual approaches to Balaklava. That all the works on the heights, and in front of the town, should be materially strengthened. That, as the Turks did not appear able to fight, they should be employed chiefly in working parties, both at Balaklava and also in the trenches. For that purpose, 1,500 of them were sent up," during that day, to be distributed in the left and right attacks of the English. "The 42nd Highlanders were placed in the rear of the redoubt at Kadikoi, and the 79th between them and the 93rd, on the eastern heights. These regiments,' if not called into the field, 66 were to strengthen the redoubt, and construct a parapet and ditch across the valley, to connect the works on the opposite side. The French brigade, under General Vinoy, camped to the east of Kadikoi, was to fortify the ground it occupied, and complete the defence of the position before Balaklava."* The harbour of Balaklava was placed under the charge of Captain Dacres, of the Sanspareil, and Rear-admiral Sir Edmund Lyons commanded in the roadstead: both officers kept up daily communication with Lord Raglan. His lordship, on the 27th, gave orders to suspend the preparations for entirely evacuating the harbour of Balaklava; but Captain Christie, the harbour-master, was authorised, by Sir R. Airey, to anchor the transports (all of which, he said, Lord Raglan wished to be got out of the harbour), and the magazine ships, "at a convenient distance," but "only as a precautionary measure." Unfortunately, it proved to be a measure which entailed great loss upon individuals and the public.

As this town was the head-quarters of the commissariat and medical departments, and the place where all the civil business of the army was transacted as well as being the entrepôt of all supplies and stores required for the use of the troops-too much care could not be taken to defend its approaches. They were so strengthened, ultimately, that it would have been almost impossible to force them; and, perhaps, from that cause no other attempt was made upon that position.

* Letters from Head-quarters,

CHAPTER IX.

ATTACK ON THE 2ND DIVISION; LORD RAGLAN'S GENERAL ORDER; FLAG OF TRUCE TO SEBASTOPOL; RETIREMENT OF SIR DE LACY EVANS; PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE; WEAKNESS OF THE BRITISH ARMY; RUSSIAN REINFORCEMENTS; ARRIVAL OF THE GRAND DUKES; BATTLE OF INKERMANN,

THE capture of the English guns, and the establishment of Liprandi on the left bank of the Tchernaya, induced Prince Mentschikoff to direct an attack on another part of the English position, which had been left very inadequately protected. On the morning of the 26th of October, he assembled the garrison of Sebastopol, to whom he described, in glowing colours, the events of the day before, when the enemy had been defeated, and their cavalry destroyed: it only, therefore, remained, he said, to disperse their infantry, which he was sure the Russian soldiers would effect. The men received the address with cheers, and demanded to be led to the attack, and to victory.*

The cannonade from the town was commenced that morning with even more than usual vigour. A 16-inch mortar was landed from one of the ships in the harbour, and threw its immense shells into the intrenchments of the allies; one of which fell into the magazine of the French principal battery, blew it up, and silenced that battery for the remainder of the day: another dismounted nine guns on the British right.t At the time that this fierce firing was kept up, a part of the garrison was making preparations to attack the British 2nd division, stationed on the extreme right of the allied encampment. -A glance at our plan of Sebastopol will detect a road which ran past the English head-quarters, to the Woronzoff road, and from that road took a northern direction, slightly inclining to the east. "On this road the 2nd division was encamped, upon the slope of an eminence. The road, passing over this ridge," first inclines to the left, and "then turns to the right, running down a deep ravine to the valley. To the left of this road, the ground, which slopes gently down from the crest in front of the site occupied by the camp of the 2nd division, rises against a second emi

*Two Russian officers, taken prisoners on the 26th of October, are the authorities for this statement.

nence, called Shell Hill, about 1,200 yards in front of the first. From this second ridge a spectator looked down, across the head of the harbour in front, on the town and allied attack on the left, and on the ruins and valley of Inkermann on the right. To the right of the road, the ground, first sloping upwards, then descends to the edge of the heights, opposite Iukermann. From the first, the Russians showed great jealousy of any one advancing on any part of the ground beyond the ridge. As soon as a party, if even but two or three in number, showed itself there, a signal was made from a telegraph on the Russian side of the valley, to the ships in the harbour, which (though the spot was not visible from their position) immediately sent off shot and shell at a tolerably good range. As the ridge in front was rather higher than that behind which the 2nd division was posted, and as the road, as well as the slopes from the valley on the left of it, afforded facilities for the advance of an enemy, not found at any other part of the heights, this was, notoriously, the weak point of the British position."

The morning of the 26th of October passed away with no other manifestations, on the part of the enemy, than the fierce cannonade. About one o'clock, some of the out-pickets of the 2nd division saw a body of infantry, cavalry, and artillery leave the north-east quarter of Sebastopol. The movement, however, excited little attention, as it was supposed to be a detachment en route to join Liprandi in the Tchernaya valley. This force, consisting of 4,500 infantry, with two squadrons of Cossacks, and a field battery of twelve guns-all having volunteered for the service after Prince Mentschikoff's addresspassed through the valley of Inkermann, when it divided, and one portion ascended the Shell Hill; whilst the other advanced by the road leading from that valley to the + The Past Campaign. Lieutenant-colonel Hamley.

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