I gave up history at school - Clive and the battle of Plassey, who cares? Then in my twenties I went with a friend to see the film, "The Charge of The Light Brigade". Chatting about it afterwards he said, "You need to read, The Reason Why". He lent me a copy, and I found myself immersed in the arrogant, privileged lives of 19th Century English aristocrats, the amateur soldiers with delusions of grandeur who were at the head of the British army. History wasn't about dates and events, it was about people, their character, their lives and their ambitions and I've been hooked on history ever since.
The 25th of October 1854 saw one of the most foolish and disgraceful actions ever seen on a battlefield. About 700 mounted men of the British Light Brigade attacked a Russian army positioned at the end of a shallow valley in Crimea.
The order to attack, written on a piece of paper, was short, ambiguous and misunderstood. Despite knowing it was against all rules of war, the brigade trotted into the valley and into a cauldron of cannon fire. Shells hurtled down from the sides of the valley, from the Russian guns ahead and burst among them. The slaughter of horses and men was terrible. Yet many still reached the Russian guns and attacked the gunners, but as they passed through the smoke beyond the guns they met the massed ranks of Russian cavalry. They had no option but to retreat and run the gauntlet of the shells once again. It was worse than the advance. Only 195 of the 700 returned to safety.
When the poet Tennyson read the report of the charge in The Times he wrote his well-known poem which contains these lines:
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Someone had blundered but what was the reason why? Cecil Woodham Smith answers the question by diving deep into the organisation of the British Army and the background of the three main personalities, Lords Raglan, Lucan and Cardigan.
The highest ranks in the army were held by aristocrats, and these ranks were obtained by purchase. This bizarre system was supposed to prevent a revolution in which the army was turned against the monarchy and parliament since all the commanders were part of the establishment. Experienced lower ranked officers who had seen action under Wellington or who had served in India and who knew their craft, were subordinate to amateurs who had never led troops in battle.
"The unpleasant truth was that they were completely ignorant of the art of war, they had no experience, no education and no ability."
The ill-fated Charge of The Light Brigade was just one of a long catalogue of blunders in the Crimean campaign.
Woodham Smith has this to say about Lord Cardigan, who led the charge:
He was completely absorbed in one object himself. It was not, as one realised when one became familiar with him, that he deliberately disregarded other man's opinions and feelings, they simply did not exist for him. Like a child playing in a corner of a nursery with his toys, he was wholly absorbed in himself. The rest of the world was an irrelevance. Nor did he ever attempt to conceal his absorption. ... Like a child, however, he found opposition intolerable, and surprise was swiftly succeeded by furious indignation…….. The truth rushed in on him, there was a conspiracy against him.
Cardigan was under the command of Lord Lucan, the head of the cavalry. The two men were brothers-in-law, yet they despised each other, and Cardigan had no intention of being commanded by Lucan, a man of extreme stubbornness, and irritability, always certain that he was in the right.
Lucan had estates in Ireland at the time when most of the population survived on potatoes grown on land they rented. Lucan was determined to bring in agricultural reform which he did with ruthlessness, driving tenants off his land with little regard to their suffering. When potato blight struck and the people began to starve, Lucan became an object of hatred. However, it seems this ruthless quality was the reason he was given command of the cavalry in the Crimea.
The third main character, Lord Raglan was Commander in Chief of the army. For forty years he had been the Duke of Wellington's right-hand man but had never himself conceived plans or taken decisions. He was a staff officer and had never led men in battle. He was absolutely unfit to command the army in the Crimea.
"The Reason Why" has 14 chapters with the charge of the Light Brigade coming at chapter 12. In the previous 11 chapters, Woodham Smith builds up to this debacle like a barrister presenting the case for the prosecution. She does this with skill and energy and a compelling style. The Reader takes in the evidence and sits as Judge and Jury. So what is my verdict?
Raglan, looking down into the valley from his command post on the heights above, and seeing the Russians removing British guns from southern ridge, issued this ambiguous order:
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| Lord Raglan's Original Order |
"Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy & try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns. Troop Horse Artillery may accompany. French cavalry is on your left. Immediate."
Lucan, down on the vally floor, reads the order but the only guns he can see are the Russian guns at the head of the valley. He is a man of rigid mind-set, incapable of questioning an order. Cardigan has been irritated throughout the day because his Light Brigade has not been used, which he blames on Lucan, so he is eager for action. Their arrogance, ambition, and mutual contempt prevent any rational discussion of what they clearly see is an act of suicide.
So who was at fault? A case can be made against all these foolish men, the product of a rigid class system that placed title, privilege and wealth above ability and intelligence. So the final verdict must be against the system itself. Unfortunately, the system changed too slowly to prevent further disasters in the Zulu & Boer wars a few years later.
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| Cannon balls litter the valley. Photograph taken after the charge. |
The Charge of the Light Brigade
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell.
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
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