Produced by Al Haines. [Illustration: Cover art] [Illustration: The 95th Charge Home] Boys of the Light Brigade A Story of Spain and the Peninsular War BY HERBERT STRANG AUTHOR OF "TOM BURNABY" With a Preface by Colonel WILLOUGHBY VERNER late Rifle Brigade Illustrated by William Rainey, R.I. BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY 1905 To Spain they sent The Rifle Corps To teach the French the Art of War! —_Old Rifleman’s Song_. DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO FIELD-MARSHAL HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT AND STRATHEARN K.G., K.T., K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E, G.C.V.O., COLONEL-IN-CHIEF AND TO THE OFFICERS OF THE RIFLE BRIGADE (Formerly 95th Rifles) *Preface* Mr. Herbert Strang has asked me to write a few words explanatory of the title he has chosen for this book. "The Light Brigade" was the name given to the first British Brigade of Light Infantry, consisting of the 43rd Light Infantry, 52nd Light Infantry, and the 95th Rifles, which were trained together as a war-brigade at Shorncliffe Camp in the years 1803-1805, just a century ago, by General Sir John Moore, the Hero of Corunna. These regiments subsequently saw much service together in various quarters of the globe; they were engaged in the Expedition to Denmark in 1807, the Campaign in Portugal in 1808 under Sir Arthur Wellesley, including the Battle of Vimeiro, and the famous Corunna Campaign under Sir John Moore. In July, 1809, The Light Brigade, consisting of the same three corps, was re-formed under the gallant Brigadier-General Robert Craufurd (afterwards slain at their head at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812), at Vallada, in Portugal, and it was in the same month that it made the forced march, famous in all history as "the March of the Light Division", of some fifty miles in twenty-four hours to the battle-field of Talavera. In June, 1810, when at Almeida, in Spain, "The Light Brigade" was expanded into "The Light Division" by the addition of Ross’s "Chestnut Troop" of Horse Artillery,[#] the 14th Light Dragoons,[#] the 1st King’s German Hussars, and two regiments of Portuguese Caçadores. [#] The present "A" Battery, R.H.A., which bears its proud title of "The Chestnut Troop" in the army lists to this day.