The Times reported that 800 cavalry had been engaged of whom only 200 had returned; the Illustrated London News that only 163 had returned safely from the charge. From such reports the story quickly spread of a tragic ‘blunder’ redeemed by heroic sacrifice – the myth set in stone by Alfred Tennyson’s famous poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, published only two months after the event. ‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’ Was there a man dismay’d? Not tho’ the soldiers knew Someone had blundered: Their’s not to make reply, Their’s not to reason why, Their’s but to do and die: Into the valley of
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