Remembering the Light Brigade

Today, October 25, is the anniversary of that ill-fated charge conducted by the 13th and 14th Light Dragoons, the 17th Lancers, and the 8th and 11th Hussars under the Earl of Cardigan during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.

The event is immortalized in stirring verse by Lord Alfred Tennyson:

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

The event had all the classic symptoms of a gigantic clusterfuck. Over-eager officers, hierarchical rivalries, poor intelligence and simple general stupidity all contributed to that charge into "the Valley of Death". In short, it has the makings of all that is wrong in even the most just of wars. And yet, in all this wrongness shines still that valor in men all too often cloaked except in times of war. War may be hell, but there are few events in the life of man and the convulsions of nature that more effectively bring out that hidden nobility in the human spirit than war. War brings out not just the worst in man, but the best as well.

Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!