The key battles of the Crimean War

Commanders of the British Army

• Lord Raglan (Commander-in-chief of the British Army during the Crimean War)
• The Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan) (Commander of the Cavalry Division which included the Heavy Brigade and the Light Brigade)
• The Earl of Cardigan (Lord Cardigan) (Commander of the Light Brigade)

The Thin Red Line

Early on in the Battle of Balaclava, Russian soldiers advanced on the British line, organised in an unusual formation of two rows. The 93rd Highlanders stopped the Russians by firing volleys of musket shots.Watching from the hills above, William Howard Russell memorably depicted the soldiers as a 'thin red streak'. The soldiers of the Thin Red Line have been remembered as a symbol of the determination and heroism of the British soldier.

The Charge of the Light Brigade

During the Battle of Balaclava, Lord Raglan issued a hurried and poorly explained order to Lord Lucan to charge at the Russian guns. Lord Raglan intended Lucan to focus upon retaking British guns that the Russians had taken. His orders were vague and Captain Nolan, the officer in charge of delivering the message to Lord Lucan was not able to clarify the order properly. Lucan pushed ahead with the charge and mistakenly sent the Light Brigade down a valley where they were surrounded by Russian forces who attacked them from higher ground.
The Charge of the Light Brigade had gone down in history as a horrendous military blunder accompanied by astonishing heroism of ordinary soldiers but this had been challenged by recent historians. Of the 661 who set off on the charge, 113 were killed, 134 were wounded and 45 were taken prisoner- the Russian casualty rate was similar. However, the Light Brigade were only saved from complete destruction by a French charge. Eye witness accounts like Russell's created the impression of a monumental error of army leadership and a tragic waste of life. Depictions such as Tennyson's poem reinforced this picture of blunder redeemed by the bravery and heroism of soldiers.

http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html