'Charge of the Heavy Brigade. 25th Octr 1854'

Coloured tinted lithograph by E Walker, 1855. One of 40 lithographs from 'The Seat of War in the East - First Series' after William Simpson, published by Paul and Dominic Colnaghi and Company, 18 January 1855.

On 25 October 1854, Russian forces mounted an attack on the British position at Balaklava. A large body of some 3,000 Russian cavalry threatened the road to the harbour of Balaklava itself. The British Heavy Brigade, about 800 strong, consisted of ten squadrons of heavy cavalry, commanded by Major-General (later General) The Honourable (later Sir) James Yorke Scarlett. Seeing the Russian horsemen halted, and thus vulnerable to attack, Scarlett immediately charged uphill with three of his squadrons, being successively reinforced by the remaining seven squadrons of his Brigade. Reeling from this series of attacks, the Russian cavalry retired in disorder a few minutes later.