24 Hours at Balaclava

Voices from the Battlefield

The Battle of Balaclava, 1854, is one of the Crimean War’s stand out battles. The Russians took advantage of an ill-manned area near Balaclava, forcing the British back to the Thin Red Line. A heroic and unlikely victory from the heavy brigade’s charge halted the Russian advance, putting them on the defensive. However, that was before a misinterpreted order from Raglan led to a final Allied cavalry charge, and one of the most famous and ill-fated events in British military history.Here acclaimed military historian Robert Kershaw creates a vivid, intimate account of this famed battle, using human stories from eyewitness accounts, diaries and letters to illustrate the 24 hours of the Battle of Balaclava, and to place the reader shoulder to shoulder with the cavalry as it charged.