surprise.  If so, it is an amazing thing that a commander should permit a Russian cavalry force (3500) to make its way, in broad daylight, directly through the camp ground of his own troops.

After the charge Lord Lucan ordered the remnant of the Light Brigade six miles off on the hills near Inkerman to recuperate.  In a few days the rain came down and every thing became a mass of mud, impossible to procure either meat, drink, or clothing.  All the water we could get to drink was ladled off the ground.  The supply consisted of small holes the horses made with their feet and all kinds of filth being on the ground helped to make things worse.  We were left to die without having any medicine or even a cup of hot water.  Several weeks elapsed before Lord Lucan found it out, for everyone seemed afraid of him and Cardigan, and these two never talked together.  Lord Lucan occupied all the houses in Balaclava Harbour, while Lord Cardigan lived on his yacht seven miles from his command, and never visited them, although they were dying of hunger and starvation, and even when we went into action at Balaclava and Inkerman he still lived aboard.  It was twelve o’clock when he arrived at Inkerman and his command never went under fire again during his service.

At last a storm came on the 14th of November, 1854, which continued for three days, and not a tent could be made to stand up.  Some were blown away and never found again.  Think of men dying under such conditions.  The horses also were dying of hunger some of them eating all the hair off their bodies.  If it had not been for Lord George Paget I do not know what would have become of us.  He marched us down to Balaclava but the journey proved too much for our horses, over 100 stuck fast and died in the mud.  The Light Brigade received several hundred horses that broke loose on from the Russians on the night of October 25th, 1854, or I would not be counting horses by the hundred.  (See Lord George Paget’s Book for proof.)

Lord Cardigan died serenely satisfied because he had destroyed his command in obedience to orders, after stating in the Times, “No one man surpassed another in gallantry.”  He is the only officer who had a command that returned back mounted, and that did not give a helping hand.  He lost the whole of his command, five regiments and staff, and returned back by himself.  He states in Kinglake, “I rode slowly up the hill and met General Scarlett.  I said to him, ‘What do you think, General, of the aide de camp after such an order being brought to us which has destroyed the Light Brigade, riding to the rear and screaming like a woman’?  Sir J. Scarlett replied, ‘Do not say any more, for I have ridden over his body.’”

Lord Cardigan, in less than six months after, published a letter in the Times newspaper, dated April 6th, 1855, viz.:—“The Light Brigade had not advanced more than 100 yards when they were fired upon, and Captain Nolan, who had placed himself in front of a squadron of the 13th Light Dragoons, was killed.”  Lord Cardigan’s statement to Kinglake, published in the appendix 14 years after the charge, viz.:—“After advancing about eighty yards a shell fell within reach of my horse’s feet, and Captain Nolan, who was riding across the front retreating with his arms up through the interval of the brigade.”

I should like to know which statement is true about Captain Nolan.  It was impossible for him to be killed in front of the 13th Light Dragoons.  It was impossible for him to be retreating with his arms up through the interval in front of Lord Cardigan.  The interval was in the rear of him, and he would have to look back.  Did Nolan scream in front or rear of Cardigan?  How did he get in front of Lord Cardigan without him seeing him go?  Lord Cardigan was in front of his command a minute or less before the attacking line commenced the charge, and this is why so many saw him.  Captain Nolan would not dare take command if Lord Cardigan had been there.  What kind of leading was he doing not to see him; and the 17th Lancers go “threes’ right” and take ground to the right.  Many things I should like to explain if I had space.