The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-24

called. near the Heavy Brigade. We
! were close 10 them when they had their
engagement with the Russians, but we
| were not ordered into action IL was a
brilliant affair, but there were not many
lives lost. The Russians attacked them
| when they We're unprepared, some of
| them at breakfast, l think, and some gone
| to water their horses anyway they were
| all tangled up, but they soon got straight
| ened out ana made splendid charge,
! driving the Russians before them. OF
course they were all very large men, and
1 their horses were large. The Russians
had small horses. They would shrink
| and scatter all sorts when the Heavies
charged them.
After that we unanswered around a
! little, and were finally stationed over in
/ the North Valley, little knowing that the
| events of the next hour would make the
spot so famous that histories would con-
| tain dozens Of maps OF it and every nil
/ lock, almost, would be subject of inter-
| est. 1t was little valley about five
/ hundred yards wide ! suppose, at the
narrowest part and sloping gently down
| in front of us for about a mile to Rus
| sian battery. behind and around which
| the main army lay. There were Russian
/ batteries on the Causeway nights, which
| were at our right, and among the Fediou-
I kline nights, al the left.
~ did not see the arrival of the order
| for us to move, and of course when we
were ordered forward / hardly knew
what we were going to do. was a non
commissioned Oficer and consequently at
the end of the line, right flank
of the second squadron in the Seventeenth
Lancers, tthey were known of the Death
or Glory lancers). AS we started down
the slope | saw the action of Capt. Nolan
which has been the subject of so much
controversy. He was the aide-de-camp
who brought the order for US to move
After Lord Cardigan and the brigade had
struck a good trot Nolan saw that the
| movement was directed straight down
the valley, instead of against
| the batteries at the right. He
shouted and waved his sword TO
ward the right. My troop leader, Capt
Winter, evidently understood IL for he
gave the order, Second squadron,
threes right" and we obeyed. This
brought the right troop of the second
squadron in the rear of the left troop of
the first squadron. At this moment a
piece Of she'll struck Nolan, and killed
him. He gave a most peculiar, unearthly
scream, and his morse galloped back,
throwing his lifeless body off, as it
turned and dashed through the intervals
between the lines. / heard Corpl. Nun
nerley, still living at Ormskirk, shout
"Threes left, forward ~ and we went
left, and on down the valley at great
spead In the next instant a shell
| burst right in our troop, and killed or
! dismounted dozen or so. My horse was
knocked down, but not wounded, and got
up without throwing me.
GOOD GUNNER.
"All that happened in the first few hun
dred yards. BY that time the uproar OF
the cannon and the smoke and the coufu-
sion from so many falling in front and all
around US was so great that no one could
tell very clearly what was going on. Capt
| Winter our squadron commander, was
killed before we had gone far His body
was never seen, Capt. Webb fell out,
mortally wounded, our troops were left
without leaders, but on we went like mad
! Ihe batteries at the right and left were
bad enough, but they had a slight disad-
vantage in having to shoot down hill
| The guns in front did the most destruc-
ton They had a fair sweep and raked
us through and through. The Russians
were good gunners. The cannon went II
in our faces in terrific volley Just as we
reached them, and the next instant we
were through them, over them, round
them, some way, struggling groups of US
lighting the gunners and supports.
Lord Cardigan on his white-legged
horse, was one of the first persons ! saw
after we passed the guns, but l was look
ing for officers of my troop. The Lancers
and Thirteenth Light Dragons wore blue
uniforms with white facings very similar
/ saw an officer thought belonged to the
Seventeenth and rode up to him. 1t was
Lieut.. Jarvis, Of the Thirteenth Light
Dragons, one of the bravest men and
most gallant officers that ever knew. |
said TO him. There's Lord Cardigan
over there He said: Never mind, let's
take this gun We rode up to a cannon
the Russians were already moving off
Jarvis pulled out his revolver, and shot
one of the horses, while slashed away at
the gunners with my sword and they dis
appeared and left us with the gun. We
did not get far with it before the
Cossacks came after US. They
swarmed around US like bees. | wanted
to get on the other side of the gun,
but if had taken time to get to the other
side the Cossacks could have killed me
with their lances. They carried lances
about twelve feet long. So the only thing
to do was to ride at them pell-mell, and |
got through them, but lot of them
chased me into body of cavalry, and
had to ride through that. Then a Rus
sian officer attacked me. My lance had
been shot away coming down, but was
good swordsman. He cut my sword half
through, and gave me such a blow on my
head that nothing but my heavy dress cap
saved my skull. / managed to get blow
across his face that satisfied him. All
this separated me from Jarvis, but l saw
no other officer so far down as he and his
conduct at the gun and through should
have entitled him to the Victoria Cross
''Then we were fighting all tangled up
! together, l saw Corpl. Hail. covered
with blood, his lance trailing. I shouted
| TO him to throw it away. / wanted TO get
! itmyself, but l had no time. They took
! the poor fellow prisoner, and he died
under amputation amoug the Russians.
saw body of forty or so of our men
driving a brigade of Russian Hussars
! down the valley. 1t was madness, and |
rode down the rear and shouted TO them
to turn back. ! saw young Clifford, of
our troop, ride in among them and cut to
pieces and killed, and others. The Hus-
sars came to halt and came about. We
were half a mile beyond the guns then.
I saw regiment of lancers with flaqs on
their lances advancing down the valley |
rode toward them, thinking at first they
were French Lancers who had come to re-
enforce us. When ] was within thirty
yards they fired on me and l saw the long
gray coats of the JopotlSine Lancers
rode back little and shouted to our
men and they rallied round me The
Hussars were coming up and these lancers
were in front. In two or three minutes
we would all have been prisoners. Lieut..
Wightman joined me at that moment.
BY the way, in an article he wrote for the
Nineteenth Century, May, 1892, he