The Thin Red Line ( Battle of Balaclava ) The Thin Red Line was a military action by the Sutherland Highlanders red - coated 93rd ( Highland ) Regiment at the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 , during the Crimean War . In this incident , the 93rd , aided by a small force of Royal Marines and some Turkish infantrymen , led by Sir Colin Campbell , routed a Russia n cavalry charge . Previously , Campbell ’ s Highland Brigade had taken part in actions at the Battle of Alma and the Siege of Sevastopol . There were more Victoria Cross es presented to the Highland soldiers at that time than at any other . The event was galvanized in the British press and became an icon of the qualities of the red coat in a war that was poorly managed and increasingly unpopular . The battle . The Russian cavalry force of 2 , 500 was on the road to Balaklava . About 400 of them were involved in the incident . It was early morning , and the sole force that lay between the oncoming cavalry and the disorganised and vulnerable British camp was the 93rd Regiment . Campbell is said to have told his men , " There is no retreat from here , men . You must die where you stand . " Sir Colin ' s aide John Scott is said to have replied , " Aye , Sir Colin . If needs be , we ' ll do that . " ( Campbell ' s relationship with his men was almost family - like . ) Campbell formed the 93rd into a line two deep — the " thin red line " . Convention dictated that the line should be four deep . However , Campbell , a veteran of 41 years military service , had such a low opinion of the Russian cavalry that he did not bother to form four lines , let alone a square , but met the charge head on with the 2 - deep firing line . As the Russian cavalry approached , the 93rd discharged three volleys : at 600 , 350 and 150 yards respectively , however they did not get a chance to discharge one at point - blank ( as at Minden in 1759 ) range as in popular belief . This is due to the fact that the Russian commander , seeing such a thin line of infantry , concluded that this was a diversion and that there was a much stronger force behind the 93rd , and ordered the cavalry to withdraw . At that , some of the Highlanders started forward for a counter - charge , but Sir Colin stopped them with a cry of " 93rd , damn all that eagerness ! " " The Times " correspondent , William H . Russell , wrote that he could see nothing between the charging Russians and the British regiment ' s base of operations at Balaclava but the " thin red streak tipped with a line of steel " of the 93rd . Popularly condensed into " the thin red line " , the phrase became a symbol of British sangfroid in battle . The battle is represented in Robert Gibb ' s 1881 oil painting of the same name , which is displayed in the Scottish National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle . It is also commemorated in the assembly hall of Campbell ' s former school , High School of Glasgow , where there is a painting of the action hung in the grand position , a tribute to one of the school ' s two generals , the other being Sir John Moore who was dismembered by a cannonball during the Peninsular War . Later uses of the term . " The Thin Red Line " has become an English figure of speech for any thinly spread military unit holding firm against attack . The phrase has also taken on the metaphorical meaning of the barrier which the relatively limited armed forces of a country present to potential attackers . The term " the thin red line " later referred to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and their job to defend the Empire and the United Kingdom after the incorporation of the Argylls and Sutherlands into a single regiment now known as the Argyll and Sutherland battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland . The derived term The Thin Blue Line refers colloquially to the police , which soon gave birth to the equal term of the " Thin Red Line " which refers colloquially to the fire brigade . Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem " Tommy " that has the lines " Then it ' s Tommy this , an ' Tommy that , an ' Tommy , ' ow ' s yer soul ? / But it ' s " Thin red line of ' eroes " when the drums begin to roll , " – " " Tommy Atkins " " being slang for a common soldier in the British Army . Author James Jones wrote a novel about American soldiers fighting in Guadalcanal during World War II and entitled it " The Thin Red Line " . The book was adapted into feature films in 1964 and in 1998 . George MacDonald Fraser describes the Thin Red Line , the Charge of the Heavy Brigade , and the Charge of the Light Brigade in his novel " Flashman at the Charge " . In " Carry On . . . Up the Khyber " , a soldier draws a thin red line on the ground with paint and brush , arguing that the enemy will not dare to cross it . Musical references . Iron maiden - the trooper - the song is based on the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava 1854 , which took place during the Crimean War , and inspired by Lord Tennyson ' s poem of the same name