A heavy brigade is a formation made up from 'Heavy' Cavalry; i.e. Dragoon Guards and

Dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat wi ...

s. The Heavy Brigade was a British heavy cavalry unit commanded by General Sir James York Scarlett at the

Battle of Balaclava The Battle of Balaclava, fought on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War, was part of the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55), an Allied attempt to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol, Russian Empire, Russia's principal naval base on the Bl ...

in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. The Brigade of 800 horsemen made a charge against Russian cavalry. The Russian force was in retreat and had halted. Although the Heavy Brigade's uphill charge was at no more than a trot, it put the much larger Russian force, of around 3,000, into disorder. At the Battle of Balaclava the brigade was composed of 2 squadrons each of the

1st Dragoons The Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons) was a heavy cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1661 as the Tangier Horse. It served for three centuries and was in action during the First and the Second World Wars. It was amalgam ...

(The Royals), the 2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys), the

4th Dragoon Guards The 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Arran's Regiment of Cuirassiers. It was renamed as the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards in 1788 and service for two centuries, inc ...

(Royal Irish), the

5th Dragoon Guards The 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Dragoon Guards was a British army cavalry regiment, officially raised in January 1686 as Shrewsbury's Regiment of Horse or the Earl of Shrewsbury's Horse. By 1687, it was known as Langsdale's Horse, from ...

(Princess Charlotte of Wales's), and the 6th Dragoons (Inniskilling). Terry Brighton: The Truth about the Charge of the Light Brigade. London: Viking, 2004. New York: Henry Holt, 2005. p.93

References

British military units and formations of the Crimean War {{UK-mil-unit-stub

See also

References