John Grehan - The Charge of the Light Brigade: Historys Most Famous Cavalry Charge Told Through Eye Witness Accounts, Newspaper Reports, Memoirs and Diaries

The Charge of the Light Brigade

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John Grehan

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

Historys Most Famous Cavalry Charge Told Through Eye Witness

Accounts, Newspaper Reports, Memoirs and Diaries

This edition published in 2017 by Frontline Books,

an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS

Copyright John Grehan

The right of John Grehan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 978-1-84832-942-3

eISBN: 978-1-84832-944-7

Mobi ISBN: 978-1-84832-943-0

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I was stood on the Sapoune Heights in the public viewing area, a little to the left of the place where Lord Raglan sat on his horse during the Battle of Balaklava. I was not in the Crimea to investigate the Charge of the Light Brigade, but the opportunity to visit the famous battlefield was not one to be passed over.

I had therefore read a little about the battle before my visit and I had a fairly fixed idea in my mind of what I would see; but the panorama before me was nothing like the maps and diagrams I had seen in the few books I had consulted. I looked towards the North Valley, the Valley of Death. I expected to see a narrow valley confined by dominating heights. What I actually saw was a wide plain in the centre of which was a low hill with gentle slopes. That hill was the Fedoukine Heights. To my right-centre were the Causeway Heights, the lower slopes of which were even less pronounced. In the middle-distance was a patch of white ground. It was here, our guide told us, that the Light Brigade formed up to charge the Russian guns at the head of the North Valley.

There is an anecdotal tale of three military men travelling in 1855 to see the site of the famous charge, and being as surprised as I later was with what they saw: Well, look yonder at that rising ground; it was there the Russians were posted, said one of the men. I thought it had been on a hill or mountainside, said another. Just what you see, said the third member of the party, little better than an inclined plain of easy ascent.

It is usually said that Lord Lucan, who commanded the Cavalry Division on the valley floor, was unable to see what was happening on the Causeway Heights. In fact, having later moved down from the Sapoune Heights to stand in the exact, or at least in the region of, the position occupied by Lord Lucan, it was as difficult to see down the North Valley as it was to look up the Causeway Heights, both of which were occupied by guns and enemy troops. Of all the reputed and disputed accounts of the Charge of the Light Brigade, the one I can believe wholeheartedly is Lucans question to Captain Nolan, where and which guns?

Having trodden the ground, as it was, and carrying the image of the battlefield in my mind, as well as my camera, I left the Crimea determined to investigate further. I found that the eternal question of who was to blame for the most famous cavalry charge of all time, is still debated. The numerous, well-written and extensively researched books about the charge, all claim to understand, The Reason Why, or purport to reveal the Truth about the loss of the Light Brigade. Many of these can produce no definitive answer, and leave the reader still unsure how it was that Lord Cardigan charged into the muzzels of the Don Cossack battery. A few are bold enough to state their case, deciding that it was Raglan for his wholly inadequate orders, Nolan for his impetuosity, Cardigan for completely misunderstanding his instructions, and Lucan for being, well, Lucan.

It was in fact Lord Lucan who took the fall, having to surrender his command for daring to blame his Commander-in-Chief for the whole debacle. The Earl was adamant that he was only following orders and he made his case before his peers in the House of Lords. With this he seemed to have vindicated himself, and he resumed his military career, reaching the British Armys senior rank of Field Marshal.

The general consensus at the time, and to a great extent since, was that it was Captain Nolan who let everyone down. He was, of course, an easy target, having been the first man to die as the Light Brigade trotted down the North Valley. Lord Cardigan has largely escaped censure, partly because he questioned the orders he had received (unlike Lucan), but also because he actually charged, unflinchingly, at the head of his brigade, into the Valley of Death.

So, with competing theories, the question remains unanswered. Why on earth did the Light Brigade commit to a frontal charge against a formed battery of artillery against all the accepted principles of war? There is, of course, only one way to find out by examining the words and the deeds of those involved.