Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The Crimean War of 1853-56 saw Russia pitted against a coalition of the British, French and
Ottoman Empires and Piedmont-Sardinia. Often regarded as the first 'modern' war, it fea-
tured improved support services, such as the transformation of military nursing brought about
by Florence Nightingale and others, and the use of railways to move troops. Events on the
front line were also subject to greater scrutiny than ever before. The electric telegraph en-
abled senior officers to communicate with their governments and war correspondents to send
reports to their newspapers. Alongside the more traditional media of sketches, maps and the
written word, photography was used to capture people, places and events.
Although Russia's opponents attacked her on several fronts, including her Baltic and Pa-
cific coasts, the most important engagements were concentrated around the Black Sea, with a
particular focus on the Crimean Peninsula, which lent its name to the war. The coalition spent
nearly eleven months trying to capture the strategic Russian naval base of Sevastopol, which
they eventually achieved in September 1855. This foreshadowed Russia's eventual defeat the
following February.
The Battle of Balaklava on 25 October 1854 achieved notoriety because of the skirmish
portrayed on this hand-drawn map, the Charge of the Light Brigade. Major-General James
Brudenell, the Earl of Cardigan, led a 600-strong force of lightly-armoured cavalry into the
valley between the Fedyukhin Heights and Causeway Heights. Having misunderstood an or-
der from Lord Raglan, who was in command of the British at Balaklava, Cardigan expected
to pursue some retreating enemy forces. Instead, the Light Brigade faced heavy fire from the
Russian artillery. The map shows how British forces (marked in pink) swept diagonally from
lower left to upper right along the dashed line until they encountered the Russians (marked in
green). Large numbers of British men and horses were killed, and many others were seriously
injured or taken prisoner.
The poet Alfred (later Lord) Tennyson famously represented the Charge as a heroic defeat
in the 'Valley of Death' - an evocation mirrored by the rugged and menacing landscape
depicted here. Contemporary public opinion largely followed Tennyson and saw Cardigan
as 'the hero of Balaklava'. By contrast, his immediate superior the Earl of Lucan (also his
brother-in-law and rival), shouldered much of the blame for the disaster.
Not everyone shared this view. Colonel Somerset Gough Calthorpe (who had been one of
Lord Raglan's aides-de-camp) published a topic that presented a negative assessment of Car-
digan's actions in Crimea. In 1863 the outraged Cardigan unsuccessfully sued Calthorpe for
libel in the Court of Queen's Bench. This map was used to illustrate two of the many affi-
davits that were presented to the court. Colonel George Wynell Mayhow and Captain Daniel
Hugh Clutterbuck - both survivors of Balaklava - supported Calthorpe's version of events.
