A large Russian assault on the allied supply base to the southeast at Balaclava is rebuffed on October 25, 1854.

The Battle of Balaclava is remembered in the UK for the actions of two British units.

At the start of the battle, a large body of Russian cavalry charges the 93rd Highlanders, who are posted north of the village of Kadikoi.

Commanding them is Sir Colin Campbell.

Rather than 'form square', the traditional method of repelling cavalry, Campbell takes the risky decision to have his Highlanders form a single line, two men deep.

Campbell had seen the effectiveness of the new Minie rifles, with which his troops were armed, at the Battle of Alma a month before, and he is confident his men can beat back the Russians.

His tactics succeed.

From up on the ridge to the west, Times correspondent William Howard Russell sees the Highlanders as a "thin red streak topped with steel", a phrase which will soon become the "Thin Red Line".

A Russian cavalry movement is countered soon after by the Heavy Brigade, who charge and fight hand-to-hand until the Russians retreat.

This causes a more widespread Russian retreat, including a number of their artillery units.

When the local commanders fails to take advantage of the retreat, Lord Raglan sends out orders to move up and attack some Russian guns located across the valley.

Raglan can see these guns due to his position on the hill; when in the valley, this view is obstructed, leaving the wrong guns in sight.

The local commanders ignore the demands, leading to the British aide-de-camp (Captain Nolan) personally delivering the quickly written and confusing order to attack the artillery.

When Lord Lucan questions which guns the order refers to, the aide-de-camp points to the first Russian battery he can see and allegedly says "There is your enemy, there are your guns"—due to his obstructed view, these are the wrong ones.

Lucan now passes the order to the Earl of Cardigan, resulting in the charge of the Light Brigade.

In this charge, Cardigan forms up his unit and charges the length of the Valley of the Balaclava, under fire from Russian batteries in the hills.

The charge of the Light Brigade causes two hundred and seventy-eight casualties of the seven hundred-man unit.

The Light Brigad will be memorialzed in the famous poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade".

Although traditionally the charge of the Light Brigade has been looked upon as a glorious but wasted sacrifice of good men and horses, recent historians say that the charge of the Light Brigade did succeed in at least some of its objectives.

The aim of any cavalry charge is to scatter the enemy lines and frighten the enemy off the battlefield.

The charge of the Light Brigade so unnerved the Russian cavalry, which had been routed by the Heavy Brigade, that the Russians were set to full-scale flight.