Hell Riders: The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade [Hardcover]

Terry Brighton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2004

On the 150th anniversary of the world's most famous cavalry charge comes a revisionist retelling of the battle based on firsthand accounts from the soldiers who fought there

In October 1854, with the Crimean War just under way and British and French troops pushing the tsar's forces back from the Black Sea, seven hundred intrepid English horsemen charged a mile and a half into the most heavily fortified Russian position. In the seven minutes it took the cavalry to cross this distance, more than five hundred of them were killed. Celebrated in poetry and legend, the charge of the Light Brigade has stood for a century and a half as a pure example of military dash and daring. Until now, historical accounts of this cavalry charge have relied upon politically motivated press reports and diaries kept by the aristocratic British generals who commanded the action.

In Hell Riders, noted historian and Crimean War expert Terry Brighton looks, for the first time, to the journals recorded by survivors-the soldiers who did the fighting. His riveting firsthand narrative reveals the tragically inept leadership on the part of the British commander in chief, Lord Raglan, whose orders for the charge were poorly communicated and misinterpreted, and an unfathomable indifference on the part of British officers to the men who survived the battle and were left to tend their wounds and bury the dead in the freezing cold. While the charge overran the Russians, it gained nothing and the war continued for another two years. In finally capturing the truth behind the charge of the Light Brigade, Brighton offers a stirring portrait of incredible bravery in the service of a misguided endeavor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Even for the British, knowledge of the Charge of the Light Brigade begins and ends with Tennyson's poem—and it's debatable how many Americans could even tell you which war the battle took place in. Brighton, a curator at the British museum devoted to the regiment that led the charge, deftly explains the circumstances leading to the 1854–1856 Crimean War and the Light Brigade's misbegotten confrontation with Russian artillery at Balaklava, outlining the difficulties the soldiers faced in the weeks leading up to the fateful battle. A minute-by-minute account dealing with the battle itself builds tension through effective crosscutting of passages from eyewitness accounts by several survivors along with the author's own thoughtful analysis. Later sections address nagging controversies, such as whether the brigade's commander abandoned his troops mid-fight, while Brighton does his best to pin down just how many soldiers rode into the valley of death and concludes that, despite the heavy losses, the brigade did not lose at Balaklava. His story is an example to all popular historians of how to combine a gripping yarn with deep insight into the social and cultural forces driving the action.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The Crimean War (1853-56) was the first general European conflict since the Congress of Vienna established a balance of power among major European states. It was a brutal, pointless struggle motivated primarily by British, French, and Russian imperial ambitions. The war is remembered primarily for the nursing ministrations of Florence Nightingale and the charge of the Light Brigade, immortalized by Tennyson's poem. The charge has been viewed either as a tribute to military valor or a sordid example of military incompetence. As this splendid examination illustrates, it was both. Brighton begins with a cogent explanation of the causes of the war, then describes several of the key players in the charge--his portrayal of the pivotal officers, Lord Lucan and Lord Cardigan, is both revealing and infuriating. Brighton describes the charge itself in horrifying detail, effectively utilizing the recollections of survivors. Finally, his analysis of the process of mythmaking that arose from the charge is incisive, and ultimately this is an outstanding work that strips away much of the nonsense that has surrounded a tragic military blunder. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; First Edition edition (October 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805077227
• ISBN-13: 978-0805077223
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,171,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You are there, January 11, 2005

By 

kevin m antonio (rumford, ri United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hell Riders: The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade (Hardcover)

Terry Brighton's writing of the actual minute by minute unfolding of the charge was so well written I felt I was in the middle of it. Utterly captivating.
As for the rest of the book, he does an excellent job looking at the causes of the Crimean War, and delves into things I would never have thought about; transporting all the horses by ships for one thing.
Two chapters that could have been left out were about who blew the bulge for the charge and about Florence Nightingale's involvement after the charge. Both interesting, but they seemed to be vestigial.
I am not a big fan of military history, but this was an engrossing book.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rivetting Account Of The Ill-Fated Charge, January 24, 2005

By 

Andrew Smith (Howrah, Tasmania Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hell Riders: The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade (Hardcover)

Brighton briefly sketches the events that led to the Crimean War, but never loses focus on the Light Brigade. His account of the famous Charge is very detailed, and extends for over 100 pages. He skilfully allows the original participants (through their memoirs) to describe the action, and thus his descriptions have a first-hand 'feel' to them absent in some other books on the Charge. Brighton weaves these accounts together effectively. Despite the extraordinary detail of the section on the Charge, I never lost interest -- and was filled with admiration for the cavalrymen who rode up the valley and then down it in the hellfire of the Russian guns. Brighton examines Nolan's actions in (and after) relaying Raglan's orders to Lucan, and although apportioning most of the blame on Lucan, doesn't adopt a one-eyed strategy of making scapegoats of people. Instead, his discussions appear to be well balanced.

There are useful maps at the beginning of the book (though one showing the 'Thin Red Line' and the Heavy Brigade's repulsing of the Russians, prior to the Light Brigade's famous charge, would have been useful); and Brighton includes a list of those who rode in the Charge.

A great read and history 'brought to life' by those who created it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, March 21, 2011

By 

Hancock the Superb "Chris S." (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hell Riders: The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade (Hardcover)

I've recently read two books regarding the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade: Cecil Woodham-Smith's classic account, The Reason Why, and Terry Brighton's more recent Hell Riders. Both are excellent books, and complement each other very well. While Woodham-Smith's account focuses primarily on the officers involved, Brighton provides a grunt's-eye view of the Charge, focusing on the troopers who fought and died in the Crimean War.

The Charge was part of the larger Battle of Balaklava, during the Crimean War between an Anglo-French-Turkish alliance and Russia. On October 25th, 1854, Russian troops attacked the Allied army approaching Sevastapol. Lord Raglan, the British commander-in-chief, ordered Lord Cardigan's Light Brigade to attack a Russian position. Due to miscommunication between Captain Nolan, Raglan's aide, and the cavalry Commander Lord Lucan, and differing perspectives of the battlefield, the "noble 600" charged into the teeth of a Russian artillery redoubt, incurring horrendous casualties but winning immortality. For years, the Charge has been either the exemplar of gallant heroism, the apex of military folly, or some combination of both. And controversies about the event - who was to blame? what did the Charge achieve? - continue to rage.

Brighton provides a fresh, remarkably vivid account of this famous event. He provides a quick sketch of the Crimean War, but keeps his focus on the brigade. The clash of personalities between Lords Raglan, Lucan and Cardigan, and Captain Nolan is discussed, though it's not the focus as in other works. Brighton makes fine use of primary sources, such as diaries, correspondence and testimony of the participants, to depict the harsh life of a 19th Century cavalryman. The travails of the Crimean War - poor supplies, inadequate medical treatment, problems with horses, harsh exposure to disease and weather - are vividly described. His account of the Charge takes up nearly a third of the book, and it's a brilliant bit of narrative history. Mixing vivid prose, eyewitness testimony and commendable attention to detail, it's really gripping and immediate, providing a visceral "you are there" feel.

Besides his riveting account of the Charge itself, Brighton examines a variety of attendant controversies in depth. The obvious question is whose responsibility the charge is, and Brighton makes a convincing (though not conclusive) argument that the blame lay with Lucan. He also presents a layered (if not sympathetic) portrayal of the much-maligned Lord Cardigan, an arrogant and pompous man, but not a coward. More esoteric arguments - which musician blew the charge? - are also addressed. Perhaps the most affecting chapter, however, is his account of the post-war lives of these men, most of whom ended up destitute or in workhouses, ignored by the country who'd celebrated them as heroes.

Hell Riders is a fine addition to the pantheon of Light Brigade literature. Brighton didn't write the definitive account, but it's certainly a superb examination of a controversial event.