=Charge of the Light Brigade.=--Lord Raglan, being desirous that the withdrawal of the Russians should be taken advantage of to regain the heights, and fearing that the enemy might attempt to remove the guns from the redoubts captured from the Turks, gave orders for the Light Cavalry to be moved forward. Captain Nolan misconstrued the order, and indicated to Lord Lucan that the heavy battery of guns a mile away, supported by masses of cavalry and infantry, with other batteries on either flank, was to be charged. Lucan hesitated to carry the mad order into effect, but ultimately decided that it was his duty to do so, and gave the order to the Earl of Cardigan to take the terrible odds which he saw arrayed against him. Cardigan, like Scarlett, was a brave and daring cavalry leader, and into the "valley of death" he rode with his Light Brigade of 621 men. Encircled by fire they charged down the valley, dashed through the guns, sabred the gunners where they stood, cut their way through a brigade of Russian cavalry and a company of infantry, turned about, what was left of them, when four squadrons of Lancers were hurled at them, but they met the charge gallantly, and then the Russian artillerymen, recovering from their shock, but without regaining their senses, turned their guns upon the daring British cavalry and their own men who were struggling with them! The Greys and Enniskilleners, and the Chasseurs d'Afrique created a diversion, otherwise it is doubtful whether a single man of that brave little band, which rode so fearlessly and fought so uselessly, would have survived to receive the plaudits of his countrymen, and--shame of shames--as was the case with several of them, to end his days in the workhouse or eke them out with the aid of charity. It were almost idle for the poet to sing: "Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!" Four hundred and twenty-six of the brigade were placed _hors de combat_, 13 officers and 162 men were killed or taken prisoners, the former including Captain Nolan, who was struck early in the charge by a piece of shell and killed; 27 officers and 224 men were wounded. There struggled back to camp, in scattered groups, a remnant of 195 mounted men. In this charge Quartermaster Charles Wooden, whose group of medals forms the frontispiece to this volume, as Sergeant-Major in the 17th Lancers, gained the Victoria Cross by assisting Surgeon Mouat in saving the life of Lieutenant-Colonel Morris of his own regiment when lying exposed to a heavy fire of shot and shell, and carrying him to a place of safety. The Sergeant-Major had a horse shot under him.