As things stood the battle looked to end in a rather disappointing day for the British and a marginally successful one for the Russians. Then had ensued a waiting game as the Russians consolidated their hold on the high ground and began harnessing the captured guns from the Redoubts. After a sharp fight the outnumbered heavies put the shocked Russians to the right about, thus the port was saved. The ageing General Scarlet had promptly formed his men and charged. Suddenly the men of the red coated heavy brigade under General Scarlet were confronted by another mass of Russian cavalry probing the defences and likely attempting to cut the town off from help. ![]() By this time the British Cavalry were stood too and awaiting developments. ![]() The Highlanders were under the command of the 50 year old Scottish Major General, Sir Colin Campbell, who had them stand their ground, the Russians logically tried their luck, but the consequent volley at close range made them sheer away and trot back to safety with not a few empty saddles. The Highlanders of the 93rd (Sutherland) regiment were formed in a “thin red streak tipped with steel” before the town, not an ideal formation to receive cavalry. It was an excellent cavalry opportunity for the Russian commander. Down on the plain of this basin the Russian cavalry had found only one battalion of British infantry to oppose them unprotected by earthworks. Balaclava sat in the bowl of the protecting hills. After their early success the Russians had sent down a strong body of cavalry to reconnoitre the defences of the port. The Turkish infantry holding the redoubts had held for perhaps an hour and a half before abandoning their position and fleeing back towards the port of Balaclava. The Russians under General Liprandi had launched themselves onto the Redoubts that ringed the distant ridges the first step in their attempt to cut the British lines of communication. The battle had been progressing in a logical fashion since dawn. Bosquet’s small tricolour guidon flapped and cracked behind him, held by a trooper of the Cent Imperial Guard. The breeze from the black sea blew up from Balaclava lifting Bayard’s black mane, making him twitch his ears and bob his head. Their heads turned and their telescopes rose and glinted in the spare eastern sun and the General’s decorations, buttons and trappings shone. The bugle calls of “walk march” where rising from the valley floor and the scatter of officers, war correspondents and hangers on, which included not a few elegant ladies and regimental women, fringing the crest, now took greater notice. The British Cavalry Division was advancing. He was sitting perfectly still, eyes narrowed under thin eyebrows, his right hand casually tucked into his coat, now imitating not only the dimensions of the first Emperor but also his most iconic pose. ![]() But even if you where like the General and showed a generous waist, the dark blue of his coat, the gold of his epaulettes, the jaunty angle of his gilt edged cocked hat and the high shine of his riding boots, enhanced the aura of a Corps commander. The French uniform was especially designed to flatter an elegant body. The ends and tops of these valley’s where in the possession of Russian army. There was one to the south, hidden by the Causeway Heights, and one to his immediate front formed by them and those of the Fedioukine Heights to his left. Sitting with magnificent poise astride his grey horse, Bayard, on the Sapoune ridge, a few miles north of Balaclava, his carefully calculated bombastic features where fixed towards the east were the rocky grey brown hills, covered in a thick jungle of scrub bushes, descended into a number of dry valleys. He had two stern eyes that peered over a warlike Gallic moustache, and gave the impression that he was a formidable yet cultured warrior. General Pierre Bousquet was in his mid forties with the round pugnacious face of a French Bulldog. Today is the anniversary of the Crimean War’s most famous event, the Charge of the Light Brigade but for a bit of a twist I have focused on the men of the French army who helped them escape from the Valley of Death, so read on and see what I’m talking about, hopefully I’ll see you on the other side.
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