Lord Lucan knew that the Russians were in strong force near his pickets,
and yet he did not strengthen them or patrol the small front he had to
protect, while his cavalry pickets knew nothing of the Russian advance
until the Turks opened fire, they just saved themselves from capture or
annihilation by being better mounted than the enemy.
The Turkish General seemed to have understood his duty better than either
Lord Lucan or Sir Colin Campbell, for he advanced his pickets, sent out
patrols, and hoisted ensigns in his three redoubts to signal to the
British that the Russians were advancing. Lord Lucan and Sir Colin
Campbell and staffs and others riding near the Turkish redoubts before
daybreak observed ensigns flying on their parapets and asked one another
what it meant, thus exposing their ignorance, but they did not take the
trouble to find out the meaning of it, and no one can learn from any
history thus far published how long these ensigns had been flying. They
had very likely been flying all night. Had Sir Colin Campbell but thrown
out a Corporal’s guard to watch the redoubts it might have been the means
of getting re-enforcements down from Sebastopol before daylight and
preventing us from losing the guns and redoubts and the annihilation of
the Light Brigade, and the loss of the only road for supplies. Lord
Lucan with his attendant staff went riding round till break of day, when
the Turks opened fire, being the first to find the Russians and the first
to attack them. Lord Paget was with Lord Lucan’s staff and when the
Turks opened fire he galloped to the Light Brigade and took command in
the absence of Lord Cardigan, who was on board his private yacht then
lying in Balaclava Harbour.
The British forces, as was the custom, turned out every morning about two
hours before daylight, and on this eventful morning the men of the
Cavalry Division were standing to their horses for nearly two hours,
shivering in the cold fog.
But at the first or second shot fired they mounted, and the heavy Brigade
advanced at a trot followed by the Light Brigade and Horse Artillery.
The Light Brigade halted near number 3 redoubt and the heavy Brigade
halted two hundred yards in advance of it.
The Horse Artillery took up position just before it came to number 3
redoubt and opened fire on the Russian Artillery, nothing but smoke from
their guns being perceived. The heavy Brigade moved first to its left,
then back again to its right, several times. Lord Lucan calls that a
demonstration. They could not see the Russians, and the Russians could
neither see nor hear the heavy Brigade. If they had, they would not have
been firing at the white smoke above the black fog of the Turkish
redoubts and our Horse Artillery, but would have sent a volley into the
heavy Brigade. Our Artillery was only wasting the ammunition, and when
they finally saw the Russians they had no ammunition, and had made no
provision to get any. Daylight was now approaching and Lord Cardigan
arrived fresh from off his yacht. To think of a General with an
important command during an active campaign sleeping on his yacht while
his command was about to fight the enemy!
Think of his vessel taking up such valuable space in the harbour, while
we could not get ammunition landed nor even medicine! He no sooner
arrived at his Brigade than he ordered it to retire by alternate
Regiments, leaving Lucan and his “demonstration” to their fate. This was
done without orders. We were then supporting the heavy Brigade. The
Light Brigade retired past the Horse Artillery position just as Captain
Maude was being carried off on a stretcher severely wounded. We retired
about one hundred yards past his command and remained in that position
watching the Artillery fire all its ammunition away. When it did finally
retire, the heavy Brigade also retired. Lord Lucan had now found out
that an army of Russians had manoeuvred around his cavalry pickets, and
that thirty guns and ten thousand Infantry had taken up position within
one and half mile of Balaclava and supplies, and opened fire on the three
Turkish redoubts before his cavalry pickets were aware of it.
The Russian General could not see any troops near the three redoubts, as
Lord Lucan had retired with his fifteen hundred cavalry and troop of
Horse Artillery and left the poor badly armed Turks to themselves. No
one had sense enough to order the Turks to fall back to the three
redoubts which had not yet been armed. We had plenty of Artillery Horses
(without ammunition for their guns) which could have removed the seven
guns and the ammunition out of the first three redoubts into the three
redoubts without guns. Had this been done we should not have lost any
guns, but our victory would have been complete and the Light Brigade
would not have been destroyed. The Russians had thirty guns and eight
pieces of heavy calibre firing at number 1 redoubt with three guns, yet
the Turks held on until the Russians stormed it with some thousands of
Infantry. Kinglake says thirty guns opened upon numbers 2 and 3 redoubts
and eleven battallions of Infantry stormed them; the same guns opened
fire on 2 and 3 redoubts. If five hundred Turks were defending number 1
redoubt only seven hundred Turks would be in numbers 2 and 3 redoubts of
two guns each. These ran away before the Russians got near them and also
left their guns unspiked.