The Cause of the Charge of BalaclavaMorley, Thomas
History
The Cause of the Charge of Balaclava
Morley, Thomas
Balaklava, Battle of, Balaklava, Ukraine, 1854; Crimean War, 1853-1856; Morley, Thomas, 1831 or 1832-1906
J. W. Wightman, late 17th Lancers, in _Nineteenth Century_, May,
1892.—“We heard the familiar voice of Corporal Morley, of our regiment, a
great, rough, bellowing man from Nottingham. He had lost his lance hat,
and his long hair was flying out in the wind as he roared, ‘Coom ’ere!
coom ’ere! Fall in, lads, fall in!’ Well, with shouts and oaths he had
collected some twenty troopers of various regiments. We fell in with the
handful this man of the hour had rallied to him, and there joined us also
under his leadership Sergeant-Major Ranson and Private John Penn, of the
17th. Penn, a tough old warrior who had served with the 3rd Light in the
Sikh war, had killed a Russian officer, dismounted, and with great
deliberation accoutred himself with the belt and sword of the defunct, in
which he made a great show. A body of Russians blocked our way. Morley,
roaring Nottingham oaths by way of encouragement, led us straight at
them, and we went through and out at the other side as if they had been
made of tinsel paper. As we rode up the valley, pursued by some Hussars
and Cossacks, my horse was wounded by a bullet in the shoulder, and I had
hard work to push the poor beast along. Presently we were abreast of the
Infantry who had blazed into our right as we went down; and we had to
take their fire again, this time on our left. Their firing was very
impartial; their own Hussars and Cossacks following close on us suffering
from it as well as we. Not many of Corporal Morley’s party got back.”
After Wightman fell I kept a group together through the battery, again in
position and then ordered them to separate for safety. Private James
Cope died in India, and James McGregor, 4th Light Dragoons, since dead,
reported to our regiment with me. We were the last to get back to the
regiment.
The names of Cope and McGregor are appended to my first application, 17th
October, 1856.
Second as to the battle of Inkerman:—
At the battle of Inkerman, November 5th, Cornet Cleveland was mortally
wounded. He fell from his horse in front of me just as the regiment was
ordered to retire. After we had retired some distance I rode to the
commanding officer of the regiment and asked to be allowed to fall out to
go back for Cornet Cleveland. He told me to go to the Sergeant-major and
tell him to send two men to assist me. He told his brother James O’Hara
and went himself. In the act of carrying Cornet Cleveland off the field,
both James O’Hara and myself had our dress hats shot off our heads by a
cannon ball. I annex a letter from Lord Tredegar, commanding officer, in
support of this statement:—
TERDEGAR PARK, NEWPORT, ENGLAND,
APRIL 6th, 1889
MORLEY,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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