What happened in the battle of balaclava?

Answer 1

The Battle of Balaclava took place October 25, 1854 and was one of the most significant engagements in the Crimean War, a War in which British and French troops allied with the Turks and invaded the Crimean peninsula in southern Russia. Their strategy was to surround and beseige the city of Sevastopol, which they did with a length of forts ending at the south at the town of Balaclava. The Russians perceived that the line at the southern end was undermanned and vulnerable.

The Turks and British had set up forts along a ridge called the Causeway Heights, and the Russians started off by taking these. They then pressed forward with a view to cutting the British off from Balaclava, but their attack was repulsed by the 93rd Highlanders who were formed up on a hill, and were famously described as "the thin red line". The Russians were driven back into a strong defensive position in the valley north of the Causeway Heights. The Light Brigade, some 660 cavalrymen, then charged this position, with a surprising amount of success, but no support was forthcoming (the attack was probably not even ordered in the first place) so they were obliged to retreat.

The end result was that the Russians improved their position somewhat, and so the engagement may be considered a Russian victory. However, the lasting legacy of the battle is: 1) the expression "the thin red line", 2) Tennyson's poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, 3) The comment "C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre" (It's magnificent, but it is not war) made by the French Officer Pierre Bosquet about the Charge, and 4) the balaclava helmet or ski mask, named for the battle.