" I received the order," says Lord Cardigan, " to attack; and, although I should not have thought of making such an attack without orders, arid though I differed in opinion as to the propriety of the order, I promptly obeyed it. I placed myself at the head of my brigade, and gave the word of command. We advanced; but before we had gone twenty yards a shell burst between me and the Staff" Officer who had brought the order, and was riding within thirty yards of my side, killing him and leaving mo untouched. From that moment there was nothing to be done but to obey the order, and to attack the battery in the valley. We proceeded; we advanced down and along a gradual descent of more than three-quarters of a mile, with one of the batteries opposed to us vomiting forth shells, round shot, and grape; with a battery on the right flank, a battery on the left, and a distant battery, which had been lost by the Turks; and all the intermediate ground covered with Russian riflemen; so that when we came down within a distance of thirty yards to their artillery, which had been firing at us, we were, in fact, surrounded and encircled by a blaze of fire, and raked by the riflemen, who fired upon us in flank. As we passed, the oblique fire of the artillery was brought upon our rear. Thus we had a strong fire on the front, in the rear, and on both our flanks. We entered the battery, — ^we went through the battery, — the two leading regiments cutting down a great number of the Russian gunners. In the two regiments which I had the honour to lead, every officer was either killed or wounded, or had his horse shot under him, except one. Those regiments having proceeded on, were followed by the second line, consisting of two more Cavalry regiments, which continued to cut down the Russian gunners. Then came the third line, consisting of tAvo other regiments, who also nobly performed their duty. The result was, that this body of about 600 Cavaby succeeded in passing through a body of, as we have since learnt, 5600 Russian Cavalry. I know the number of the Russian regiments, and the name of the General Officer who commanded the brigade. We did as much execution as we could, and sufiered an immense loss of life ourselves. After riding through the Russian Cavalry we came upon the Tchernaya river. There we were stopped; and we had to retire by the same route by which we came, destroying as many of the enemy as we could. I believe we succeeded in destroying the greater part of the Russian gunners, and in doing great execution among the Russian Cavalry. The scene on retiring was lamentable in the extreme; still, nothing could be accomplished more regularly or with greater order. There was no confusion, no hurry, no galloping about, no desire to retreat too hastily, — but the whole thing was conducted as coolly and systematically as upon parade. As we returned up the hill we had descended we had to run the same gauntlet, and incur the same risk from the flank fire of the Russian riflemen. Numbers of men and horses were shot down, and many soldiers, who had lost their -chargers, were killed whilst endeavouring to escape on foot. The consequence was, that when we reached the top of the hill there was but about one-third of the whole brigade left. I think, when I went round to count them, 195 only remained. The rest were gone, — destroyed in that charge! "
The Light Cavalry charge was over; a glorious and ineffaceable page had been added to the records of chivalry, and to the annals of England; but at what a cost! Twenty-six officers and 276 non-commissioned officers and private soldiers, making a total of 300, were killed and wounded in this action alone; and for months the Light Cavalry brigade was but a name.