"Tell Lord Lucan the cavalry is to attack immediately", Ragland shouted.
Lucan was puzzled by Raglan's imprecise order. When Lucan questioned the order an excited Nolan told him he was to attack immediately.
"Attack, sir! Attack what? What guns, sir?"
"There, my Lord, is your enemy!" Said Nolan contemptuously, vaguely waving his arm eastwards. "There are your guns!"
Later, when Commander Cardigan learnt of what was expected of the troop, he questioned the sanity of the order as conveyed to him by Lucan,
"… allow me to point out to you that there is a battery in front, battery on each flank, and the ground is covered with Russian riflemen."
"I know it." Said Lucan. "But Lord Raglan will have it. We have no choice but to obey."
Whatever followed was a symbol of warfare at both its most courageous and its most tragic. What is it?
2 comments:
The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Who is this, btw ?
The charge of the light brigade at the battle of balaclava that was immortalized in Alfred Lord Tennyson's eponymous poem
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