The Light Brigade made their famous charge during which war?

The Light Brigade made its famous charge during the Crimean War. The attack took place on 25 October 1854 at the Battle of Balaclava, during the wider Allied siege of Sevastopol.

British cavalrymen were ordered into a valley defended by Russian artillery. The order resulted from confused communication: Lord Raglan intended the cavalry to stop Russian forces removing captured guns, but the instruction was interpreted as an order to attack batteries at the far end of the valley. Lord Cardigan led roughly 600 to 670 light cavalrymen into the assault.

The brigade reached the Russian guns but suffered devastating losses from artillery fire on three sides. The episode became famous partly because of its apparent futility and partly through Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1854 poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

A common mix-up is confusing this event with the Battle of Waterloo or another Napoleonic cavalry action. The Charge of the Light Brigade belongs specifically to the Crimean War, fought from 1853 to 1856 between Russia and an alliance including Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia.