A RECOLLECTION OF BALAKLAVA. 563 
as a support and moving away to its right was occupied for a time in 
protecting the retreat of the Turks then streaming in disorderly rout 
from the Redoubt (No. 1) on Canrobert’s Hill, which had about that 
time been captured; and afterwards in checking the advance of a 
body of the enemy which threatened to issue from the gorge betwixt 
that hill and Kamara; but beginning to feel the fire opened on it by 
some Russian batteries which had been pushed forward it received 
orders to retire towards its camp. It was at this moment that “I” 
Troop and the Greys coming down from the position which they had 
been occupying were directed to form a line and cover the retirement. 
This movement was executed with great steadiness, the Greys falling 
back by alternate squadrons and the guns by half-troops, though the 
former had some horses killed or disabled by the fire from Canrobert’s 
Hill and its vicinity. As this line passed the village of Kadikoi the 
Troop (which was on the right) was met by Captain Shakespear, with 
the waggons, who halted it, replenished the exhausted limbers, and 
took over the command. He had gone with the waggon horses, 
as usual, early in the morning to Balaklava to assist in the trans- 
port of siege matériel to the front, but anxious at the continuous 
firing he returned to camp and brought the waggons into the field. 
The limbers having been filled up and various casualties made good 
the guns moved off to rejoin the Cavalry Division, which was found 
drawn up not far from No. 4 Redoubt and close under the precipitous 
steeps of the plateau of Sevastopol. Soon after, the Heavy Brigade 
filed off in the direction of Kadikoi and “I” Troop was left with the 
Light Brigade under the command of Lord Cardigan. 
The ground in the vicinity of No. 4 Redoubt is very irregular, being 
broken up by numerous small hillocks, so that the view from the spot 
occupied by the Light Brigade was confined and obstructed; and to 
this cause also it is probably due that the Officer in Command of the 
Brigade was so completely unaware of certain important events that 
were transpiring close at hand. By some means or other it at last 
came to his knowledge that only a few hundred yards away a dense 
column of the enemy’s cavalry was in motion to his left front and 
beginning to pass over the Causeway Heights from the outer to the 
inner plain. “I” Troop was immediately pushed forward a short 
distance and brought into action, but was not permitted to advance 
sufficiently to the front to obtain an uninterrupted view of the enemy. 
It however succeeded in putting a few shot into the column as it 
pressed forward, so soon to meet defeat at the hands of Scarlett’s 
gallant horsemen. 
Kinglake alludes incidentally to “I” Troop firing into the column, 
but he makes a mistake, not an unpardonable one considering the 
rapid passage of events, in his supposition as to the time when this 
occurred. He says it was as the column was retreating whereas, as 
as we have seen, it was during its advance. 
The passage is as follows :— 
“The troop of Horse Artillery which accompanied the Light 
Brigade had by this time some pieces in battery which 
discharged a few shots at the retreating horsemen.” ! 
1 Kinglake, Vol. IV., p. 202, 
