The Irish standard., 1898-01-29
AT THE BATTLE OF BALAKLAYA
No Light Brigade as Described By
the Poet Tennyson.
AND NO CANNON DID THUNDER.
British Soldiers Only Charged the
Russian Cavalry.

In recent ISSUE of the Chicago Trib-
une there appeared sketch of Old Jerry
Ryan, an ex-soldier of the queen, who
claims he charged with the Light Rri-
gade at Balaklava, and says there was
no Light Brigade and no cannon thun-
nered.
In personal npeparance Old Jerry Ry
an is type. He is typical both of the
honest old Irishman and of the veteran.
Straight and strong to this day. he de-
clares in spite of his frozen foot, stiff
knee and twisted eye, that he is as good
as any man Of his age in the city.
Grizzled, but not white hair; slant
ing forehead; big nose; heavy eyebrows
and moustache just turning gray and
prominent chin make up Old Jerry's hon
est Irish face. His eyes are kindly and
blue, but one Of them has ever admired
the other since the charge at Balaklava.
Dressed in close-buttoned dark brown
overcoat, striped trousers, a felt hat, and
heavy shoes remodeled to provide ease
for his once frozen foot, Old Jerry, with
: his blackthorn cane in his hand looks
every inch the veteran.
According to the following story, told
by Jerry, the poets idea of a cavalry
charge into the teeth of hundreds Of
death-dealing cannon is sadly shattered
In this does poetry differ from prose,
fiction from history.
II was born in the county Of Limerick,
Ireland, .sixty-two years ago last St.
Thomas day. In the spring of 1854 en-
listed in her majesty's Third Light Drag
oons. You mustn't make the mistake of
supposing light cavalry and heavy cav
airy are the same. The light cavalry is
made up of alert, athletic young men,
mounted on picked horses, most of them
thoroughbred, and they are sight to
make your eye snap. The heavy
dragons are older and heavier men,
mounted on draft and farm horses, and
aren't to be compared with our soldiers,
who were the pride of the whole British
army. The Cossacks, who were, the Rus
sian cavalry we got SO we'll acquainted
with, are a light horse, too. The men
are big-great six-foot fellows-but The
horses are small. So you cannot see
much but Russian when they are coming
at you. Yet their little horses are awfullv
fast and the men are good fighters.
My regiment went into barracks at
Neenagh, in Tipperary county, 1t wasn't
long after enlisted before we were or
dered to Portsmouth, where we took
transport ships. We went by Gibraltar,
l remember, but as for the rest of the
way, couldn't tell much, being no nayi-
gator. Besides, 1 was pretty seasick.
know we reached the Dardanelles at last
and sailed through them into the Black
Sea. 1t was a handsome sight going
by Constantinople. You ought to see the
great Turkish fortresses there. They
are the finest in the world, always ex-
cept Gibraltar. Then we landed some-
where on the coast on the snow and got
ready to go to fighting.
Lord Cardigan was in command of ,1l
the cavalry. think he was away off in
the country, though, when it was dis
covered that the Cossack horse were all
punched short distance from us around
a hill. Captain Nolan was second in
command of the horse, and I think ne
was responsible. He wanted to be a
brlgadler general, and guess he thought
this would be good chance to win the
promotion So he thought he would
make sudden attack on the Russians
and rout them before they knew what
was happening.
Anyway, it was Capt. Nolan who ran
the whole affair. He ordered all the
hght horse out on parade. Then he
went down the line and picked out all
the men he wanted. Whenever he saw
good-looking, daredevil young fellow
on pretty horse he called him out of
the line. Near the middle he got to me
Stand up there" said he. What's
your name?'
Jerry Ryan, said l.
Where do you come from?
Limerick SIR
Good, want you,' said he, and rode
along down the line choosing out more
men, When he had 600 he stopped and
formed them up into one company. They
were from half a dozen regiments and
troops and were all light cavalry, but
they didn't have any name like the
Light Brigade of course.
Some of them were English and some
Scotch, but the most were Irish, Hike
Captain Nolan himself. Why did lie
choose the Irish? Because they are the
wickedest fighters on earth. They arc
little afraid on the first fire, but after