HAWARDEN, November 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 1854
.... The heavy cavalry was hereupon ordered to charge a much superior force of Russians, which it did grandly, and entirely broke and dispersed them. All would have been well, and unmixedly satisfactory, if nothing further had been done. But through some mistake of orders, partly from Lord Lucan's, more from an officer of the name of Nolan's, fault, a light cavalry brigade, (The famous charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War) consisting of 609 men was soon charging the Russian army, entirely unsupported, and crossing a plain of half a mile for the purpose of re-taking the guns. The slaughter was prodigious. The number of men who returned was 200 and something. The glorious fellows ! On they rushed to certain, or almost certain, death, and flinched no more than if they were exercising in Hyde Park ! They never paused in that fearful charge, that sent so many into Eternity. " God forgive me," said one of the Scots Greys afterwards, " but I felt like a devil during that charge."
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