Balaklava, Battle of

(Oct. 25, 1854) Indecisive military engagement of the Crimean War.

The Russians sought to capture the Black Sea supply port of Balaklava, which was controlled by the British, French, and Turks. The Russians occupied positions on the heights above a nearby valley. To disrupt the Russian troop movements, Baron Raglan gave an ambiguous order for Lord Cardigan's Light Brigade to attack. Instead of leading his cavalry against the Russian guns on the heights, Cardigan swept down the valley after the retreating Russian cavalry. The battle ended with the loss of 40% of the Light Brigade and inspired the 1855 poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

* * *

▪ European history

Balaklava also spelled  Balaclava 

  (Oct. 25 [Oct. 13, Old Style], 1854), indecisive military engagement of the Crimean War, best known as the inspiration of the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson's (Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron) Charge of the Light Brigade. In this battle, the Russians failed to capture Balaklava, the Black Sea supply port of the British, French, and Turkish forces in the southern Crimea; but the British lost control of their best supply road connecting Balaklava with the heights above Sevastopol (Sevastopol, Siege of), the major Russian naval centre that was under siege.

      Early in the battle the Russians occupied the Fedyukhin and the Vorontsov heights, bounding a valley near Balaklava, but they were prevented from taking the town by General Sir James Scarlett's Heavy Brigade and by Sir Colin Campbell's 93rd Highlanders, who beat off two Russian cavalry advances. Lord Raglan (Raglan, FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron) and his British staff, based on the heights above Sevastopol, however, observed the Russians removing guns from the captured artillery posts on the Vorontsov heights and sent orders to the Light Brigade to disrupt them. The final order became confused, however, and the brigade, led by Lord Cardigan, swept down the valley between the heights rather than toward the isolated Russians on the heights. The battle ended with the loss of 40 percent of the Light Brigade. Tennyson's Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava, never popular, is unknown except to literary scholars.

* * *