Blair of Balaclava A HERO OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE BY ESCOTT LYNN Author of ‘When Lion Heart was King,’ ‘Under the Red Rose,’ ‘With Robin Hood in Sherwood,’ &c. WITH SIX COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS by W. H. C. Groome LONDON: 38 Soho Square, W. W & R. CHAMBERS, LIMITED EDINBURGH: 339 Hight Street Edinburgh: Printed by W. & R. Chambers, Limited. TO MY BROTHER FRED AND THE OFFICERS NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE ‘DEATH OR GLORY’ BOYS PREFACE. Inkermann has been called ‘The Soldiers’ Battle.’ With equal truth the whole Crimean campaign might be called ‘The Soldiers’ War.’ It was the vindication of the regimental officer and the rank and file; it showed to the world the ineptitude of the general staff as it existed at that day. Those entrusted with the conduct of the campaign were mostly old men long past the age when brilliant service in the field could be expected of them. Some had seen war-service in the Peninsula forty years before, the interim being spent doing office-work at the Horse Guards; many had never heard a shot fired in anger in their lives, their services being confined to Hyde Park or the Curragh Camp. Family or political influence procured them their appointments, while younger men who had already rendered splendid war-service in the East were either passed over, snubbed, or relegated to subordinate positions. The miseries of Varna, the unparalleled sufferings of the troops before Sebastopol, and the awful blunder of Balaclava give testimony to the unwisdom of the selections. During the long peace since Waterloo the army had grown unpopular. It had been neglected. Even the Duke of Wellington was averse to making any military display for fear that what army there was should be further reduced. The force which left England for the East was one of the worst equipped and most badly organised that ever left our shores. On the contrary, the men of which it was composed were the finest. They were all long-service men, of grand physique and of an unrivalled spirit. Before the Crimean war a red coat was looked on with disdain; after the war the wearer was hailed as a friend. He had proved that he was a worthy descendant of the heroes of the Peninsula, that he could perform as gallant deeds on the blood-stained slopes of the Alma or in the valley of Balaclava as had his forebears at Waterloo, that he could die of disease and starvation as uncomplainingly before Sebastopol as did his predecessors in Spain or Portugal.