That is why Scouts
to-day have as their motto the single word,
"BALACLAVA"
to remind them that if they get an order which it is a bore or even a
danger to perform, their duty is to do as their brave fathers did at
Balaclava, and carry it out cheerily and well.
Now I will tell you about the charge of the Heavy Brigade,
* * * * *
"THE THIN RED LINE."
You have often heard the British Army talked of as "the thin red
line." Well, it got that title at Balaclava. Four hundred men of the
93rd Highlanders and a battalion of Turks were posted to guard the
road leading to the harbour of Balaclava, when the Russians, some
twenty thousand strong, proceeded to attack them. The Turks didn't
like the look of things, so they turned tail and bolted but the brave
Sir Cohn Campbell, who was in command of the Highlanders, said to
them:
"My lads, remember there is no retreat from here. You must die where
you stand."
And the gallant fellows meant to do it if they had to die--but they
were not the sort to say die before they were dead They formed a
line--a "thin red line," as it was afterwards described--on a small
rising ground, and received the first charge of the Russian cavalry
with so well-aimed and deadly a fire, at close range, that it put the
others off charging for a while.
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