The Charge of the Light Brigade

[DemolitionMan]

by History Stories

On October 25, 1854, the commander-in-chief of British troops during the Crimean War issued an ambiguous order that his subordinates misinterpreted, resulting in the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade against a heavily defended Russian position. Facing artillery and musket fire on three sides, British cavalrymen were slaughtered in droves as they galloped headlong down the so-called “valley of death.” Yet because they maintained discipline amid the chaos and even managed to briefly scatter the Russians, the British public glorified them. One participant would later describe it as “the most magnificent assault known in military annals and the greatest blunder known to military tactics.”

A major conflict of the 19th century, the Crimean War claimed at least 750,000 lives, more than even the American Civil War, and had a profound impact on such renowned personalities as British nurse Florence Nightingale and Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It got its start in and around Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire, where Orthodox Christian and Catholic monks had been engaging in fierce, sometimes deadly brawls for years over who would control various holy sites. Following one such violent squabble in 1852, Czar Nicholas I of Russia, a self-proclaimed defender of Orthodox Christianity, demanded the right to exercise protection over the Ottoman Empire’s millions of Christian subjects. Upon being rejected, he then sent his army, the largest in the world, to occupy two Ottoman principalities in present-day Romania. The czar also purportedly had his eyes on Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, which if taken would give his navy unfettered access to the Mediterranean Sea. Unnerved by this expansionism, Britain and France sent their own warships to the area and vowed to defend Ottoman sovereignty

http://www.history.com/news/the-charge-of-the-light-brigade-160-years-ago

[DemolitionMan]

First-hand accounts written by troopers – often long afterwards – are divided on whether they were eager to charge, but are unreliable because they were written for readers with preconceived ideas. Behavioural evidence is more objective, and it is remarkable how many men disobediently joined the ranks as soon as Lucan approved the order. One was even flogged for it afterwards. Most striking was the case of the man placed under arrest for smoking in the ranks after the order. He was stripped of his weapons and ordered to fall out but refused, rode in the Charge unarmed, and was killed.If the men had been merely obeying orders, they would have ridden at the regulation pace allowing them to be redirected if resistance was too heavy. But they rode too fast, and Lord Cardigan found himself in danger of being run down as he tried to regulate their speed. If any bugle calls were made to increase the pace, they only sanctioned what was already happening. A man in the 13th Light Dragoons shouted to his neighbour ‘Come on; don’t let those bastards [the 17th Lancers] get ahead of us’.Military historians and strategists continue to study the disastrous “Charge of the Light Brigade” to underscore the importance of military intelligence and a clear chain of command and communication.

[DemolitionMan]

You have to take ito account that the British had not fought a major war since 1815.