Glory to each and to all and the charge that they made Glory to all three hundred and all the Brigade Everyone has heard of the charge of the Light Brigade a suicidal cavalry attack caused by confused orders which somehow sums up the Crimean War 1854 6 Far less well known is what happened an hour earlier when General Scarlett s Heavy Brigade charged a Russian army at least three times its size That fight of heroes to use the phrase of William Russell the world s first war correspondent was a brilliant success whereas the Light Brigade s action resulted in huge casualties and achieved nothing This is the first book by a military historian to study the men of the Heavy Brigade from James Scarlett who led it to the enlisted men who had joined for the queen s shilling and a new life away from the hard grind of Victorian poverty It charts the perils of travelling by sea in cramped conditions with horses panicking in rough seas It tells the story through the men who were there of the charge itself where it was every man for himself and survival was down to the random luck of shot and shell It looks too at the women of the Crimea the wives who accompanied their menfolk Best known were Florence Nightingale the lady with the lamp and Mary Seacole the Creole woman who was doctress and mother to the men But there were others like Fanny Duberly who wrote a graphic journal and Mrs Rogers who dutifully cooked and cleaned for the men of her husband s regiment the 4th Dragoon Guards