The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-15 00:00:00

A DRAGOON'S ACCOUNT OT THII CHARGE.

The worst affair we had was the day before yester-
day. At daybreak the enemy appeared, and advanced,
and in such numbers that they took from the Turks two
of their batteries, and turned the guns upon us. We
were obliged to retreat out of range of the guns ; and
this so elated the enemy that they actually had courage
enough to come into the open field with us, Three re-
giments of their cavalry tried to gain possession of the
Highlanders' (93d) position, and charged them, but they
had not time to repent, for they went down like cut corn ;
what were left of them turned and fled, and we pur-
sued them over their own hills ; hero they were re-
inforced by three more regiments of cavalry, includ-
ing Nicholas's crack Imperial Guards. There were
the Greys and First Royals up at this time, and we
charged them—they had nothing else for it, so they
charged at the same time. Oh God ! I cannot describe
it ; they were so superior in numbers that they " out-
flanked" us, and we were in the middle of them. I
never certainly felt less fear in my life than I did at that
time, and. I hope God will forgive me, for I felt snore like
a devil than a man. We fought our way out of them as
only Englishmen can fight ; and the 4th, sth, and 6th
were there up with I escaped without a scratch, thank
God, though I was covered with blood ; my horse was
not even wounded ; but, oh 1 the work of slau4hter
that then began—'twas truly awful, but I suppose it was
necessary; we cut them down like sheep, and tiny
did not seem to have power to resist. The plain is
covered with dead Russians, and of course we left some
of our poor comrades on the field. We only lost two,
and about seven wounded. Well, when we had finished
this lot, we thought of going home to breakfast ; but,
no ; they (the enemy) had some guns over the hills tb.t
Lord Raglan sent word were to be charged and captured
at any cost: So off we went again. They received
us very quietly into their ground---Lord Lucan lead-
ing the Heavies, and Lord Cardigan the Light
Brigade. The Light charged first this time, took
the guns, cut down the gunners, and then, when
they thought all was right, they were met by thou-
sands of Cossacks who had been in ambush. The
Royals, the Greys, the 4th, sth, and 6th how charged
again. The butchering was repeated ; when suddenly a
cross front and rear fire opened upon us from the hills
—cannon, rifles, and file firing. I cannot attempt to
describe to you the scene that ensued—balls, shells, and
rockets whizzing about our ears. The men on the
right and left of me were both killed on the spot. We
hacked our way out of it as well as we could, but were
obliged to leave the guns. Colonel Yorke bad his leg
broken, and all the officers in the front rank were
wounded. The Heavy Brigade have not lost many.ruen,
hut, sad to tell, out of about 800 of the Li ht
Btbri.gaade
i.
that went into the field, only 400 came out ; but
nothing to what the enemy suffered.
GENERAL LUDERS.
d rs of the Grand
A wounded Russian officer stated tfhathteG2esntobranliLt.u, daenrds
had commanded in chief the attack o
that the cavalry were under the o
w
throughout the Crimea.
Duke Maximilianovitsch. bMoosbtaodf beenertohleleeetrtoedoptshbernadfrom
different garrisons and depots
sent in by Menschikoff,
expected
l
caonudn try,
still had five days' provisions
They had marched frommore. p them,awrittshof th

THE WOUNDED RUSSIANS.
I saw twoat orders
of ono oofrthme edcelaalds,
ownheich had been
of
thedateof tlts,k2,
ftrhoemotthheer cloSl6. On leaving the field of battle I turned
one of the wounded Ilussians over on his back. He
had a fearful sabre cut in his side. Tha poor devil
looked anything but good tempered at me ; they are all
Ftern, determined looking fellows, and if these are a
sample of the army, they are certainly not clothed in
the wretched manner that the majority of the people
of England are led to believe. Their clothes are very
good quite ;
equal to our army, and their arms also I
speak of their cavalry. I did not see any of their in-
fantry among the killed or wounded, as they were not
engaged near the spot.

THE OFFICERS.
In the two leading regiments, including Lord Car-
digan (who led in person) and his staff, we had 19 officers.
Only three came out of action untouched both man and

horse ; all the others were killed, wounded, or prisoners,
or had their horses hurt. The 17th had no field officers,
but five captains. Th6y came out of action commanded
by the junior captain, I believe.