1853 - 1856

Battle of Balaclava

"Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns.

Troop Horse Artillery may accompany. French cavalry is on your left. Immediate. R.Airey."
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The order which launched the Charge of the Light Brigade, 1854

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In response to Field Marshal Lord Raglan's order, Cardigan led the Charge of the Light Brigade in one of the most infamous blunders in military history. The horsemen charged in the wrong direction towards the entire Russian army, rather than towards the guns the enemy had captured earlier, and straight into the 'Valley of Death'. In an act of reckless bravery, 247 of Cardigan's 673 men were killed or wounded.

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Legacies:

...Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole and the Crimean War.

"Beggars in the streets of London were at that time leading the lives of princes, compared to the life of our soldiers in the Crimea when I arrived on the scene with thirty-six nurses." Florence Nightingale

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“War, like death, is a great leveller, and mutual suffering and endurance had made us all friends.” Mary Seacole

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The world's 1st war correspondent, William Howard Russell, spent 22 months covering the Crimean War. The British government first learned of Russian peace proposals in The Times. Cardigan survived the charge and lived to the respectable age of 70. He is remembered today from the fuzzy, knitted garment that bears his name...the cardigan. Another ingenious British invention is the fuzzy, knitted garment...the Balaclava, named for the fuzzy, full-face masks that the soldiers wore to keep them warm during the freezing Crimean winters.

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