Hooves are knocking on the firmament, Cannons loom in the distance
Straight to Death Valley
Six squadrons entered."
Alfred Tennyson "Attack of the Light Cavalry".
On October 25 (13), 1854, one of the largest battles of the Crimean War took place - the Battle of Balaklava. On the one hand, the forces of France, Great Britain and Turkey took part in it, and on the other, Russia.
The port city of Balaklava, located fifteen kilometers south of Sevastopol, was the base of the British expeditionary force in the Crimea. The destruction of the Allied forces at Balaklava disrupted the supply of British forces and could theoretically lead to the lifting of the siege of Sevastopol. The battle took place north of the city, in a valley bounded by Sapun Mountain, the low Fedyukhin hills and the Black River. This was the only battle of the entire Crimean War in which the Russian forces were not inferior to the enemy in numbers.
By the fall of 1854, despite the persistent bombing of Sevastopol, it was clear to both sides that the assault would not follow in the near future. Marshal François Canrobert, commander-in-chief of the French army, who replaced Saint-Arnaud, who died of illness, knew well that he needed to hurry. With the onset of winter, it will be more difficult for transports to sail on the Black Sea, and spending the night in tents is not at all good for the health of his soldiers. However, he did not dare to begin preparations for the assault on Sevastopol, or to attack Menshikov's army. In order to get hold of ideas and plans, he even got into the habit of going to his colleague in Balaklava, the commander-in-chief of the British army, Lord Raglan. However, Fitzroy Raglan himself was used to receiving instructions from the highly experienced French headquarters. Both commanders needed some kind of push - and he followed….
Prince Menshikov, commander-in-chief of the Russian army, did not at all believe in the success of the ensuing war. However, the sovereign did not even think about the loss of Sevastopol. He did not give rest to the Most Serene Prince, encouraging him in his letters and expressing regret that he could not be personally with the troops, instructing him to thank the soldiers and sailors on his behalf. To show at least some semblance of active hostilities, Alexander Sergeevich decided to attack the Allied camp near Balaklava.
Photo by Roger Fenton. British warship at the pier in Balaklava Bay. 1855
Photo by Roger Fenton. British and Turkish military camp in the valley near Balaklava. 1855
It should be noted that a small Greek village with a population of several hundred people turned into a bustling city in September 1854. The entire coast was littered with cannonballs, planks and various equipment brought here from England. The British built a railway, an embankment, a camp and many warehouses here, built an aqueduct and several artesian wells. There were many warships in the harbor, as well as several yachts of members of the high command, in particular the Dryyad of the commander of the light cavalry, James Cardigan. To protect the town on low hills nearby, in mid-September, the Allies set up four redoubts. Three of them were armed with artillery. These redoubts covered the Chorgun-Balaklava line, and in each of them there were about two hundred and fifty Turkish soldiers. The British correctly calculated that the Turks knew how to sit behind fortifications much better than to fight in an open field. By the way, the unfortunate soldiers of Omer Pasha did the dirtiest and hardest work in the Allied army. They were fed very poorly, they were not allowed to communicate with other soldiers and residents, they were beaten with mortal combat for offenses. Transformed into vanguard fighters, they were planted on redoubts in order to defend the English camp with their chest. The British forces in this place consisted of two cavalry brigades: the heavy cavalry of General James Scarlett and the light cavalry of Major General Cardigan. The general command of the cavalry was carried out by Major General George Bingham, aka Lord Lucan, a mediocre commander who was not particularly popular with his subordinates. Scarlett's forces were located south of the redoubts, closer to the city, Cardigan's forces were located to the north, closer to the Fedyukhin Mountains. It should be noted that members of the largest aristocratic families of England served in the light cavalry, which was an elite branch of the army. All the British Expeditionary Force was commanded by Lord Raglan. French units also took part in the future battle, but their role was insignificant.
On October 23, near the village of Chorgun on the Black River, under the command of General Pavel Petrovich Liprandi, who served as Menshikov's deputy, the Chorgun detachment of about sixteen thousand people was assembled, including servicemen from the Kiev and Ingermanland hussars, Donskoy and Ural Cossacks, Odessa and Dnieper Polkovs. The purpose of the detachment was the destruction of the Turkish redoubts, access to Balaklava and artillery shelling of enemy ships in the port. To support Liprandi's troops, a special detachment of Major General Joseph Petrovich Zhabokritsky, numbering five thousand people and with fourteen guns, was supposed to advance to Fedyukhin Heights.
The Balaklava battle began at six in the morning. Having set out from the village of Chorgun, the Russian troops, having broken into three columns, moved to the redoubts. The central column stormed the first, second and third, the right one attacked the fourth redoubt that was standing aside, and the left one occupied the village of Kamara on the enemy's right flank. The Turks, who had been sitting quietly for several weeks, only at the last moment saw to their horror how, after the artillery shelling, the Russians rushed at them. Taken by surprise, they did not have time to leave the first redoubt, a battle ensued in it, during which about two-thirds of the Turkish subjects were killed. At seven o'clock, Russian soldiers, capturing three guns, captured the first fortification.
The Turks left the rest of the redoubts with the utmost speed; Russian cavalrymen pursued them. Among other things, eight guns were thrown in the rest of the fortifications, a lot of gunpowder, tents and a trench tool. The fourth redoubt was immediately dug down, and all the guns in it were riveted and thrown from the mountain.
Curiously, the surviving Turks near the walls of the city also suffered from the British. One British officer recalled it this way: "The Turks' troubles here were not over, we took them in with the edge of a bayonet and did not allow them to enter, seeing how cowardly they behaved."
Lieutenant General Pavel Petrovich Liprandi.
Commander of the Russian detachment in the Battle of Balaklava
At the beginning of the ninth, Liprandi took possession of the Balaklava heights, but this was only the beginning. After a half-hour break, Pavel Petrovich sent all his cavalry into the valley. Behind the captured redoubts was the second row of allied fortifications, and behind them were brigades of light and heavy cavalry of the British, which by that time had already begun to move. The French general Pierre Bosquet has also already dispatched the Vinois brigade to the valley, followed by the African Jaegers d'Alonville. Separately from the cavalry, the ninety-third Scottish regiment under the command of Colin Campbell acted. At first, this regiment unsuccessfully tried to stop the fleeing Turks, and then, waiting for reinforcements, stood in front of the village of Kadykovka on the path of the advancing Russian cavalry with an approximate number of two thousand sabers. The Russian cavalrymen were divided into two groups, one of which (about six hundred horsemen) rushed to the Scots.
It is known that Campbell told his soldiers: “Guys, there will be no order to retreat. You must die where you stand. " His adjutant John Scott replied: “Yes. We will do it. " Realizing that the front of the Russian attack was too wide, the regiment lined up in two lines instead of the required four. The Scots fired three volleys: from eight hundred, five hundred and three hundred and fifty yards. Having approached, the horsemen attacked the highlanders, but the Scots did not flinch, forcing the Russian cavalry to withdraw.
The reflection of the cavalry attack by the infantry regiment of the Highlanders in the Battle of Balaklava was named "The Thin Red Line" in accordance with the color of the uniforms of the Scots. This expression was originally coined by a journalist from The Times, who in the article compared the ninety-third regiment with "a thin red stripe bristling with steel." Over time, the expression "Thin Red Line" has turned into an artistic image - a symbol of self-sacrifice, fortitude and composure in battles. This turn also denotes a last-ditch defense.
At the same time, the remaining forces of the Russian cavalry under the command of General Ryzhov, who led the entire cavalry of the Chorgun detachment, entered into battle with the heavy cavalry of General Scarlett. It is curious that, noticing the slowly moving Russian cavalry on his left flank, the English general decided to forestall the attack and was the first to rush with ten squadrons into the attack. The brigade commander, fifty-year-old James Scarlett, had no experience in military affairs, but he successfully used the tips of his two assistants - Colonel Beatson and Lieutenant Elliot, who were distinguished in India. The Russian cavalrymen, not expecting an attack, were crushed. During the terrible seven-minute felling of the hussars and Cossacks with the British dragoons, several of our officers were seriously wounded, and General Khaletsky, in particular, had his left ear cut off.
Throughout the battle, Cardigan's light cavalry stood still. The fifty-seven-year-old lord did not participate in any military campaign before the Crimean War. Companions offered him to support the dragoons, but James flatly refused. A brave warrior and a born rider, he considered himself humiliated from the moment he entered the command of Lord Lucan.
Seeing that more and more units of the allies were in a hurry from all sides to the place of the battle, Lieutenant General Ryzhov gave the signal to withdraw. The Russian regiments rushed into the Chorgun gorge, and the British pursued them. A six-gun horse battery that came to the aid of the dragoons opened fire with buckshot at the backs of the hussars and Cossacks, inflicting significant damage on them. However, the Russian artillery did not remain in debt. Retreating, Ryzhov's troops seemed to accidentally pass between the two redoubts captured in the morning (the second and the third), dragging the British along with them. As Scarlett's column of dragoons drew level with the fortifications, cannons rang out to the right and left. Having lost several dozen people killed and wounded, the British rushed back. At about the same time (ten o'clock in the morning), the troops of Joseph Zhabokritsky arrived on the battlefield, located on the Fedyukhin Heights.
The onset of the calm was used by both sides for regrouping the troops and considering the further situation. It seemed that the Battle of Balaklava could have ended at this, but the successful attack of Scarlett's dragoons led Lord Raglan to repeat this maneuver in order to again take possession of the guns captured by the Russians in the redoubts. François Canrobert, who was present nearby, remarked: “Why go to them? Let the Russians attack us, because we are in an excellent position, so we will not get under way from here. " If the post of French commander-in-chief were still held by Saint-Arno, then perhaps Lord Raglan would have obeyed the advice. However, Marshal Canrobert had neither the character nor the authority of Saint-Arno. Since the British 1st and 4th Infantry Divisions were still quite far away, the British commander-in-chief ordered cavalry to attack our positions. To this end, he sent Lucan the following order: “The cavalry go ahead and use every opportunity to capture the heights. The infantry will advance in two columns and will support it. " However, the cavalry commander misinterpreted the order and instead of immediately attacking the Russians with all his might, he limited himself to moving the light brigade a short distance to the left, leaving the dragoons in place. The riders froze in anticipation of the infantry, which, according to their commander, "had not yet arrived." Thus, the most opportune moment for the attack was missed.
Fitzroy Raglan waited patiently for his orders. However, time passed, and Lucan's cavalry stood still. The Russians at that time slowly began to take away the captured guns, no new attacks were foreseen from their side. Not understanding what caused the inaction of the chief of the cavalry, Raglan decided to send him another order. General Airy, the former chief of staff of the British army, wrote the following directive under his dictation: “The cavalry must move forward quickly and not allow the enemy to take away the guns. Horse artillery can accompany her. On the left flank you have French cavalry. Immediately". The order ended with the word "immediate". The paper was handed over to Lord Lucan by Captain Lewis Edward Nolan.
It should be noted that by that time the Russian troops had settled down in a "deep horseshoe". Liprandi's troops occupied the hills from the third redoubt to the village of Kamara, Zhabokritsky's detachment - Fedyukhin's height, and in the valley between them there were Ryzhov's cavalrymen, who retreated a rather long distance. For communication between the detachments, the Consolidated Uhlan Regiment (located at the Simferopol road) and the Don battery (located at Fedyukhin Heights) were used. Lord Lucan, who finally realized the true order, asked Nolan how he imagined this operation to himself, because the British cavalry, deepening between the ends of the "horseshoe", would fall under the crossfire of Russian batteries and would inevitably die. However, the captain only confirmed what he was told to convey. Much later, information appeared that, when handing the order to Nolan, Raglan added orally: "If possible." Lord Lucan testified under oath that the captain did not convey these words to him. The British officer himself could not be questioned, by that time he had already died.
General George Lucan, commander of the British cavalry
Thus, the commander of all British cavalry found himself in a difficult position: he clearly understood all the madness of the undertaking and at the same time held in his hands a piece of paper with a clear order from the commander-in-chief. "Orders must be carried out," apparently with such thoughts, George Bingham headed with his staff to the Cardigan light cavalry. Passing the contents of the note, he ordered him to advance. "Yes, sir," Cardigan replied coldly, "but let me say that the Russians have riflemen and batteries on both sides of the valley." “I know that,” Lucan replied, “but that's what Lord Raglan wants. We do not choose, we execute”. Cardigan saluted the lord and turned to his light brigade. At that moment, there were six hundred seventy-three people in it. The sound of a trumpet sounded and at 11:20 the cavalry moved forward at a step. Soon the cavalry went to a trot. These were the finest units, striking in the splendor and beauty of the equestrian staff. The English cavalry moved in three lines, occupying a fifth of the width of the valley along the front. She had to overcome only three kilometers. And to the right of them, a heavy brigade, led by Lucan himself, also advanced in three lines.
The British commander-in-chief Fitzroy Raglan, who lost his right hand in the battle of Waterloo, was never a combat general and, according to many historians, was a mediocre commander and leader. There is evidence that when the British cavalry rushed at full speed to the Russian troops, Raglan with visible pleasure celebrated the magnificent spectacle of the orderly formations of his elite troops. And only real military men, like Canrobert and his staff officers, not knowing about the content of the order, belatedly (by their own admission) began to understand what was happening in front of them.
As soon as our troops saw the movement of the enemy cavalry, the Odessa Jaeger regiment withdrew to the second redoubt and formed a square, and rifle battalions armed with rifle guns, together with batteries from Fedyukhin and Balaklava heights, opened crossfire at the British. Grenades and cannonballs flew at the enemy, and as the riders approached, buckshot was also used. One of the grenades exploded next to Captain Nolan, riddling the Englishman's chest and killing him on the spot. However, the Cardigan riders continued to advance, passing under a hail of shells at a gallop, breaking their formation. They got it from the Russian artillerymen and heavy cavalry. Lord Lucan was wounded in the leg, and his nephew and aide-de-camp, Captain Charteris, was killed. Finally, unable to withstand heavy fire, the commander of all cavalry stopped Scarlett's brigade, ordering it to retreat to their original positions.
Robert Gibbs. The Thin Red Line (1881). Scottish National War Museum at Edinburgh Castle
After that, the Cardigan cavalry became the main target of the marks of the firing of Russian riflemen and artillerymen. By that time they had already reached the Russian heavy Don battery of six guns located across the valley. The riders, circling the battalions of the Odessa Jaeger Regiment, were greeted with shots from there, and then the battery fired a final volley with grapeshot at close range, but could not stop the British. A short and fierce battle began on the battery. As a cover, forty paces behind her stood six hundred soldiers of the first Ural Cossack regiment, who had not yet taken part in the battle and had not suffered losses. And behind them, at a distance of forty meters, two regiments of hussars were lined up in two lines, and Colonel Voinilovich was put in command after Khaletsky was wounded.
Photo by Roger Fenton. Chorgunsky (Traktirny) Bridge (1855)
Lancers of the seventeenth regiment broke through the battery's defenses and swooped down on the Cossacks. Clouds of dust and smoke hid the true forces of the attackers from them, and suddenly the Urals, seeing the uhlans flying out, panicked and began to retreat, crushing the hussar regiments. Only a few groups of soldiers who retained their fortitude rushed to the rescue of the gunners. Among them was Colonel Voinilovich, who, rallying several privates around himself, rushed to the British. In the fight, he was struck by two shots in the chest. The hussars and Cossacks, mixed into the crowd, together with a light horse battery and the remnants of the personnel of the temporarily captured Don battery, retreated to the Chorgunsky bridge, luring the enemy behind them. When the enemy cavalry was already near the bridge, General Liprandi, foreseeing such a development of events, dealt the final blow. Six squadrons of the Consolidated Uhlan Regiment, stationed near the second and third redoubts, attacked the British. At the same moment, Russian artillery opened fire again, from which the enemy cavalry suffered significant damage, and it fell to our horsemen as well. By this time, the hussars regrouped, the Cossacks of the 53rd Don Regiment arrived in time.
Richard Woodville. Light brigade attack. (1855)
The Russian lancers pursued the Cardigan brigade to the fourth redoubt and would undoubtedly have exterminated every last man if it had not been for the help that came. The French, led by François Canrobert, fully comprehended what was happening only when, after the artillery shelling, the Russian cavalry, together with the infantry, rushed to finish off the British. One of the best French generals, Pierre Bosquet, shouted in indignation at the British staff: “This is not a war! This is madness!". Canrober's order to rescue what was left of the English light cavalry thundered deafeningly. The first to rush to Cardigan's rescue was General d'Alonville's renowned fourth regiment of African equestrian rangers. They clashed with the Plastun battalion of the Black Sea Cossacks. Foot Cossacks-scouts acted in loose formation. Dodging the blow of the saber, they fell to the ground prone as the French horsemen approached, and when the horseman flew past, they stood up and shot in the back. Now the French side also suffered tangible losses. And the light brigade of the British at that time on wounded, tired horses, showered with bullets and buckshot, scattered into single horsemen and small groups, slowly went up the valley. Their pursuit by the Russians was not active, although later it was called "a hare hunt." In total, the tragic British attack lasted twenty minutes. The battlefield was littered with the corpses of men and horses, more than three hundred men of the English brigade were killed or maimed. Only in their positions did the remnants of the once glorious British regiments again see the brigadier commander, whom they knew nothing about from the moment the battle began on the Russian battery.
Further battle was limited to a skirmish of the Allied troops, who occupied the fourth redoubt, with the nearest Odessa battalions. At four o'clock in the evening, the cannonade ceased, and the battle was over. The commanders-in-chief of the allied forces decided to leave in the hands of the Russians all the trophies and fortifications, concentrating the troops at Balaklava. General Liprandi, content with the successes achieved, deployed the troops: in the village of Kamara, at the bridge on the Black River, in the first, second, third redoubts and near them. Zhabokritsky's detachment still stood on the Fedyukhin Hills, and the cavalry settled in the valley.
For the fiftieth anniversary of the Sevastopol defense in 1904, a monument to the heroes of the Battle of Balaklava was erected near the Sevastopol-Yalta road, where the fourth Turkish redoubt was located. The project was developed by Lieutenant Colonel Yerantsev, and the architect Permyakov made some changes to it. During the Great Patriotic War, the monument was destroyed and only in 2004, military builders, according to the project of the architect Schaeffer, restored the monument.
Paul Filippoto. Light Brigade Attack led by General Allonville
The Balaklava battle left ambiguous impressions. On the one hand, it was not in the slightest degree a victory for the allies, on the other hand, it was not a complete victory for the Russian army. The capture of the city - the base of the British - would put the Allied troops in an almost hopeless position. Many of the British commanders later admitted that the loss of Balaklava would have forced the allied troops to leave Sevastopol, radically changing the entire Crimean War. Tactically, the battle at Balaklava was successful: Russian troops captured the heights surrounding the city and several guns, the enemy suffered significant damage and constrained the range of their actions, limiting themselves to direct cover of the city. However, the capture of the redoubts and the extermination of the English cavalry did not bring any significant strategic consequences. On the contrary, the battle showed the allies their weakest point, forcing them to take measures to repel a new blow. Our command also did not support the courage of the Russian soldiers, showing surprising indecision. After some time, the captured redoubts were abandoned, almost nullifying the results of the battle.
Drawing by Roger Fenton. Attack of the Light Cavalry Brigade, 25 October 1854, under the command of Major General Cardigan (1855)
The only positive factor was that after the news of the Battle of Balaklava, both in Sevastopol and in our entire army there was an extraordinary rise in fighting spirit. Stories about the captured trophies and the fallen English cavalrymen, exactly like the stories about the extraordinary courage with which the Russian soldiers fought, were passed from mouth to mouth. Here is what Liprandi wrote about the behavior of his troops after the battle: “The detachments, realizing their high mission to defend their native land, were eager to fight the enemy. The whole battle is one heroic deed, and it is very difficult to give someone an advantage over others."
The Cossacks taking part in the defeat of the English cavalry caught the horses after the battle, in their own words, "crazy cavalry" and sold expensive blood trotters at a price of fifteen to twenty rubles (while the true cost of the horses was estimated at three or four hundred rubles).
The British, on the other hand, after the battle had a painful feeling of defeat and loss. There was talk about military ignorance and mediocrity of the main command, which led to completely senseless losses. In one English brochure from the period of the Crimean War it is written: "Balaklava" - this word will be recorded in the annals of England and France, as a place commemorating the deeds of heroism and the misfortune that happened there, unrivaled until then in history. " October 25, 1854 will forever remain a mourning date in the history of England. Only twelve days later, a message about the fatal event, sent by the well-known Russian hater Lord Radcliffe, arrived in London from Constantinople. The light cavalry, which fell near Balaklava, consisted of representatives of the English aristocracy. The impression from this news in the capital of Great Britain was overwhelming. Until the war of 1914, pilgrims went from there to explore the "valley of death" where the flower of their nation died. Dozens of books and poems have been written about the disastrous attack, many films have been made, and researchers of the past are still arguing over who is really to blame for the deaths of the English aristocrats.
Photo by Roger Fenton. Raglan Headquarters Council
(the general sits on the left in a white hat and without his right hand) (1855)
By the way, following the results of the incident, a special commission was created. Commander-in-Chief Fitzroy Raglan tried to put all the blame on Lucan and Cardigan, telling them when they met: "You ruined the brigade" (Lucan) and "How could you attack a battery from the front against all military rules?" (To Cardigan.) The Commander-in-Chief created a whole accusation against George Bingham, who, in his opinion, missed an opportune moment. The press and the government supported Raglan so as not to undermine the prestige of the high command. Under pressure from the public rebelling against the cavalry generals, Lucan asked for a more thorough investigation of his actions in the battle, and Cardigan started a lengthy lawsuit with Lieutenant Colonel Calthorpe, who claimed that the commander of the light brigade fled the field before his subordinates galloped to the Russian guns.
According to the order of the Russian emperor, it was decided to perpetuate the memory of all the troops that took part in the defense of Sevastopol from 1854 to 1855. Under the leadership of a member of the State Council, Pyotr Fedorovich Rerberg, a lot of materials were collected on the wounded and dead Russian soldiers in key battles on the Alma, in Inkerman, on the Black River and near Balaklava. In the materials presented to the sovereign, Pyotr Fedorovich mentioned four officers who died in the Battle of Balaklava:
• Captain of the Dnieper Infantry Regiment Dzhebko Yakov Anufrievich, killed by a cannonball in the head during the capture of the village of Kamara;
• Captain of the Saxe-Weimar (Ingermanlad) hussar regiment Khitrovo Semyon Vasilyevich, seriously wounded during a fight with the dragoons of Scarlett, who was captured and died in it;
• cornet of the hussar Saxe-Weimar regiment Konstantin Vasilyevich Gorelov, who was killed by buckshot during the regiment's retreat after a battle with Scarlett's cavalrymen;
• Colonel of the hussar regiment Voinilovich Joseph Ferdinandovich, who was killed during the attack of the English light brigade on the Don battery.
According to the British command, the losses of the light brigade amounted to more than a hundred killed (including nine officers), one and a half hundred wounded (of which eleven were officers) and about sixty prisoners (including two officers). Many of the crippled people later died. More than three hundred and fifty horses were also lost. The total damage inflicted on the allies that day amounted to about nine hundred people. According to later estimates, the losses reached a thousand soldiers, and some historians even claim that one and a half thousand soldiers died. The losses of the Russian troops amounted to six hundred and twenty-seven people, of whom two hundred and fifty-seven were among the hussars most severely affected by the English cavalry. In February 1945, after the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill visited the Balaklava Valley. One of his Marlboro ancestors died in the battle. And in 2001, the brother of the Queen of Great Britain, Prince Michael of Kent, visited the memorable place.
Monument to the Fallen British in the Balaklava Valley
