CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 97, 24 April 1912, Page 11

CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

IMPORTANT MEMORANDA t i NEW LIGHT ON HEROIC BLUNuIL'K. [TSOII OUR OWtt COaEKSPONDINT.] ♦ LONDON, 6th March. An extremely important memorandum by Lord Cardigan, the leader of the Light Brigade, has just been published. Lord Cardigan's account of the famous charge ■was written for Mtb. Norton, an authoress, and a. copy was gi»en to Major-Gpn-eral Alfred Light, who died last year. The document throws an entirely new. light on tho circumstancfts which led up l to the famous charge. Lord Cardigan 'says:— "The Brigade was suddenly ordered to mount, upon which I sent one of my aides-de-camp to reconnoitre the ground. 'Lord Lucan then came- in front of my Brigade, and said, 'Lord Cardigan, you Trill attack the Russians in the battery.' I said, 'Certainly, my lord; but allow me to point out to you that there is a battery in front, a battery on each flank, and that the ground is covered with RusBian riflemen.' Lord Lucan answered, 'I cannot help that; it is Lord Raglan's positive order that the Light Brigade is to attack the enemy,' upon which he ordered the 11th Hussars back to support the 17th Lancers. After advancing about eighty yards a. shell fell within reach of my horse's feet, and Captain Nolan, who was riding across the front, returned with bis arm up, through the intervals of the Brigade. I lad straight down to the battery without seeing anybody eke in front of me. I had to restrain some ot my officers, who got very much excited within eighty yards of the battery by the heavy fire. "I led into the batttry and through the Russian guns, limber carriages, and ammunition wagons in the rear; I rod© within twenty yards of the line of Russian cavalry, was ' attacked by two Cossacks, slightly wounded by their lances, and with difficulty got away from them, they trying to surround mo. On arriving at the battery, through which I had led, X found no part of the Brigade. "I rode slowly up the hill and met General Sparlett. I said to him, 'What do you think, General, of after such' an order being Brought _to us which has destroyed the Light Brigade, the officor riding to th& rear and screaming like a. woman?' Si* John Scarlett replied, 'Do not say any more, for I havo ridden over his body.' •„ ''Lord Lucan was present. at w tho conversation. I then rode to tho" place from which wo had turned off, and found all my Brigade there, and upon having them counted," them were 193 mounted men out of 670. I immediately rodo to Lord Raglan to make my report, who said in a very angry way, 'What do you' mean, bir, by attacking a battery in front contrary to all usages of warfuro and the custom of tho Service?' Upon which I said. 'My lord,. I hope you will not blame me, for I received my orders to attack from my superior in front of oho troops.' I thon narrated what I had done as ,described abovo. "Tho Charge of tho Light Brigade only lasted twenty minutes." THE OLD VERSION. •i'Un account materially differs from trui. generally accepted. There has not in eviousljr been given any account of a personal interview between Lord Lucan, the Commander of the Cavalry Division, and Lord Cardigan before the charge. The commonly-accepted version is ac follows: — That Captain Nolan, Lord Lucan's aide-de-camp, came to Lord Cardigan with, the message, "The Light Brigade will advance." Lord Cardigan asked what was to be hjs objective, and Captain Nolan, pointing with his sword to the Russian battery in front, said, in the presence of the troops, "My lord, there are your enemy." The soldierly honour of Lord Cardigan was stung, and he immediately ordered the advance of the brigade "into the valley of death." Captuin Nolan, n, hot-headed Irishman, seeing that a disastrous misunderstanding had occurred, rode across the front of the brigade, and, with gestures of his Bvrord, endeavoured to divert them to their true objective, which wua Ihe right flunk of the Rustfhme. He was, however, instantaneously killed; but the stiffened muscles kept him on his horso, and he rode, a dead man, through the ranks of the brigade, with his sword-arm uplifted, ac Lord Cardigan describe*. Lord Cardigan's words that he rode "screaming like a won>an," however, seenus to show that life, though not consciousness, remained for a season. The now version vindicates the memory of Captain Nolau. If it i& accepted, it flhows that the blame for tho blunder rests* on Lord Lucan himself. Nolan's share was confined to the attempt to direct the brjgajde; ■ftu^.tft. ilfl Jtfua^ubjecVtise. ... J