Battle of Balaklava
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- Also spelled:
- Battle of Balaclava
- Date:
- October 25, 1854
- Participants:
- France
- Ottoman Empire
- Russia
- United Kingdom
- Context:
- Crimean War
- Major Events:
- Charge of the Light Brigade
Battle of Balaklava, indecisive military engagement on October 25 (October 13, Old Style), 1854, during the Crimean War that is best known as the inspiration of the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade.” In this battle, the Russians failed to capture Balaklava, the Black Sea supply port of the British, French, and Turkish allied forces in the southern Crimea; but the British lost control of their best supply road connecting Balaklava with the heights above Sevastopol, the major Russian naval center that was under siege by the allies. For this reason, the Russians considered the battle a victory and the following day paraded captured British guns in Sevastopol.
The “Thin Red Line” and the Charge of the Heavy Brigade
On September 14, 1854, the allies landed troops in Russian Crimea, on the north shore of the Black Sea, and began a yearlong siege of the Russian fortress of Sevastopol, an important Russian naval base some 30 miles to the south. Four east-west rivers—the Bulganek, Alma, Katelia, and the Belbeck—separated the allies from the port of Sevastopol. As the allies marched south along the coast, a brief skirmish with Russian forces occurred at the Bulganek on September 19, but the Russians quickly retreated. At the next river, the Alma, the Russians held their ground, and the first major conflict of the Crimean War, the Battle of the Alma, occurred on September 20. The Russians, heavily bombed from allied navies along the coast, were soundly defeated, suffering some 5,700 casualties, not least from the British use of the novel spinning Minié ball (which would be used to such devastating effect in the U.S. Civil War). The allies (which had lost some 3,300 men in the battle) then blundered, deciding not to pursue a decisive victory against the badly wounded enemy. The Russians had sunk their ships to block the allied navies from entering the harbor at Sevastopol, and without the support of the navy, the French refused to proceed, and without the support of the French, the British decided against proceeding as well. Consequently, the Russians were allowed to escape southward, regroup, and dig in for a defense of Sevastopol. Had the allies continued their pursuit and not hesitated, the coveted port may have been taken easily, but instead they opted to prepare for a protracted siege of Sevastopol.
The allies restarted their march south on September 23, setting the stage for the Battle of Balaklava on the 25th. Early in the battle the Russians occupied the Fedyukhin and the Vorontsov heights, bounding a valley near Balaklava, and quickly attacked a redoubt held by 500 poorly trained Tunisian troops in the service of the Ottoman Empire; those troops abandoned their position, leaving three British cannons behind, and were joined by another 500 Tunisian soldiers from nearby redoubts. British officers accused the Ottoman soldiers of cowardice and later blamed the failure of the allied forces at Balaklava on them.
The Russians pressed on but were prevented from taking the town by General Sir James Scarlett’s Heavy Brigade and by the kilted infantry of Sir Colin Campbell’s 93rd Highlanders. Told by Campbell that they must win or die where they stood, the infantry beat off two Russian cavalry charges by forming up in line on the plain and firing disciplined volleys. This heroic defense was venerated by the British press as the “thin red line,” which was an abbreviated version of a description by war correspondent William Russell (“a thin red streak topped with a line of steel”). The Russian cavalry was then routed by Sir James Scarlett’s Heavy Brigade: Scots Greys, dragoons, and horse artillery. The fact that this force of 300 attacked uphill at a trot against some 2,000 Russian cavalry makes the designation of this action as the “charge of the Heavy Brigade,” as Tennyson would later describe it, something of a misnomer.
The British had lost only ten or so men and fewer than a hundred wounded, while the Russians had 40–50 killed and some 200 wounded. It was still only 9:30 in the morning of the day of the battle, and the British had already registered two astounding victories, one defensive and the other offensive. But once again victory was followed up by blunder, with Lord Cardigan, commander of the Light Brigade, refusing to follow up the attack with an advance on the vulnerable Russians during their disorderly retreat back over the heights, claiming that he was told to stand his ground no matter what. Even though his troops protested, yelling at him, “Why are we kept here?” Some broke ranks and joined the attack. but the Russians had retreated too far to close the distance effectively.
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The ten-minute charge of the Heavy Brigade would doubtless had been more famous in history had it not been for the calamity that ensued a couple hours later. Lord Raglan, overall commander of British forces, had gained a good vantage point over the whole area of the battle. He observed the Russians moving artillery from the captured redoubts on the Vorontsov heights and sent orders for the Light Brigade—lancers, hussars, and light dragoons—under the command of Lord Cardigan, to disrupt the operation. As Raglan phrased the order, “…advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy from carrying away the guns.” However, by the time the order reached Cardigan, it had passed between several commanders and had been shortened to “advance rapidly.”
Cardigan thought the order was absurd, attacking in a valley surrounded by Russian artillery and forces on three sides instead of attacking the isolated Russians on the surrounding heights, but he had to obey what he thought were Raglan’s wishes. He led a charge straight down the center of North Valley to attack the Russian artillery battery sited there. The brigade advanced slowly at first and then at full charge, all the time fired on by the Russian guns on the heights as well as the battery in front of them.
The allies had suffered heavy losses by the time they reached the Russian battery, where they were also threatened by a counterattack from the Russian cavalry. Lord Raglan, watching the charge from a distance, sensing the hopelessness of the situation, and wanting to stem his losses, then halted his Heavy Brigade from following in the wake of the Light Brigade’s charge, thereby denying the Light Brigade any second-wave backup. The Russians noticed this and swept down from the valley’s surrounding heights. The Light Brigade was now virtually encircled. The Light Brigade noticed as well that the Heavy Brigade had not followed in support, and in fierce battle with sabers and hand-to-hand combat, the survivors from the charge battled gallantly through the Russian line behind them in a desperate retreat. Out of respect for the bravery of their foe, a brigade of Polish lancers sent to cut off their escape allowed the survivors to pass.
Out of more than 660 men who had embarked on the charge, 113 were killed, 134 were wounded, and another 45 were captured; some 375 horses had also been killed or were destroyed afterward. It is noteworthy that, for all their losses, the Light Brigade killed or wounded 180 Russians in the defensive lines.
The bloody charge and ensuing melee—which had lasted a mere 20 minutes—was over by noon. Lord Raglan had watched from a distance in dismay. He then abandoned attempts to retake the heights and pulled his infantry divisions back to form up defensive positions against further Russian attacks. The British hailed the heroic survivors of the charge as a symbol of their army’s courage and perseverance.
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.
The Charge of the Light Brigade was immortalized by Tennyson in a famed poem published two months after the event. Tennyson also wrote the poem “Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava.” Never popular, it is little known except to literary scholars.
In all, the Battle of Balaklava cost each side some 620 men.
Tony Bunting