Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-12
BACK FROM JAWS
Of DEATH HE LIVES
IN PEACE IN IOWA
Survivor Of Charge of Light
Brigade Tells of Great
Moment.

Cedar Rapids, Ia.-(Correspondence
of the Associated Press).-Ellis Cut
ting of this city rode into the valley of
death with the immortal six hundred.
Sitting at his home here, this man
who rode Into the jaws of death. into
the mouth of hell" recalls the charge
of the Light brigade at Balaklava in
the Crimean war. He saw Captain
Nolan, suave young aid-de-camp of the
British commander, Lord Raglan, dash
up and hand Lord Lucan, cavalry com
mander, a note. Mr.. Cutting, then a
17-year-old British trooper, did not
know what the note contained. His
tory says it contained these terse
orders:
Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to
advance rapidly to the front and try
to prevent the enemy carrying away
the guns-French cavalry is on your
left"
Forward, the Light Brigade"
The command rang. There was a
flash of sabers. Down into the val
ley dashed the line of British horse
men, to certain destruction.
Cutting. who for 40 years was a
railroad employe at Iowa Falls and
Cedar Falls. retired two years ago and
is now making his home in this city.
He is now So years old and was II
when be enlisted in the Eleventh Hus-
sars of her majesty, Queen Victoria.
Mr.. Cutting believes he is among the
last. if not the last, of the men who
were immortalized by Tennyson.
He wildly recalls the charge. He
says he saw nothing, knew nothing.
heard nothing, but felt within him the
insane urge that drove him forward
with a furious desire to bury his saber
in a Russian breast.
The Light Brigade Mr.. Cutting
says, was composed of the Fourth
and Thirteenth Dragons, the Eighth
and Eleventh Hussars and the Seven
teenth Lancers. 1t was commanded
by Lord Cardigan. The men wore red
trousers and blue jackets which gained
for them the name of 'Cherrylegs.
THE brigade had been lying mac
tive during the progress of the fight
ing until the order to charge came.
The battle had hardly begun until it
was over. Blindly a few ~stragglers,
clambering over moaning comrades,
struggling through heaps of dead and
dying, horses and men in death throes,
pools of blood. fought their way to
the rear of the line"
Mr.. Cutting disagrees with history
as to the number who returned. He
says there were only six.
ne WAS dshtu HudI was lnC SCNACt
of the futile and merciless command.
Cutting said Lord Raglan denied to
| Lord Lucan that he had ever given
the order to charge, and that then
Lord Lucan pulled the order from his
glove where he had tucked it.
rs that your handwriting?" Lord
! Llcan asked.
Mr.. Cutting does not know what the
reply was. but for 10 minutes he saw
them engaged in a battle of words.
He believes Lord Raglan CAV it in
good faith but that instead of rushing
in the cavalry. the infantry should
lave been sent in to maneuver.
After the Crimean war. Mr.. Cutting
went to India with the British troops,
and passed through the mutiny. He
marched from Delhi to Lucknow ard
fought IN that famous siege. Once he
was wounded. He passed through
Egypt and was in active service in
South Africa in 1857. In June. 1860.
he received his discharge from the
British army, and IN 1871 he came TO
the United States.