October 25, 1854 India, Muslims, and Oil Major General the Earl of Cardigan in a speech at the Mansion House in London about the Crimean War: “We advanced down a gradual descent of more than three-quarters of a mile, with the batteries vomiting forth upon us shells and shot, round and grape, with one battery on our right flank and another on the left, and all the intermediate ground covered with the Russian riflemen; so that when we came to within a distance of fifty yards from the mouths of the artillery which had been hurling destruction upon us, we were, in fact, surrounded and encircled by a blaze of fire, in addition to the fire of the riflemen upon our flanks.” The Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord Alfred Tennyson, describes a disastrous cavalry charge led by Lord Cardigan during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.: “Half a League, half a league Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death, Rode the six hundred. Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns’ he said: Into the valley of Death Rode six hundred.   Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volley’d and thunder’d; Stom’d at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that had fought so well Came thro’ the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred. “ Source: Brighton, Terry (2004). Hell Riders: The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Henry Holt and Co..