Waterloo and Balaclava

Two generals, two outcomes

On 18 June 1815 the Duke of Wellington, forty-six, stood on a ridge south of Brussels with some 68,000 men from five nations and held it for nine hours against 72,000 French under Napoleon, until 50,000 Prussians arrived on the French flank and the Emperor lost his army and his throne. On 25 October 1854 Lord Raglan, sixty-six, one-armed since Waterloo, stood on the heights above the harbour of Balaclava and sent down an order that nobody below could understand. Twenty minutes later about 670 riders of the Light Brigade had charged a mile and a half into Russian guns and about 110 of them were dead. The exam asks for the outcome of each battle and the role of each commander, and then it asks you to compare, explain and judge. This module gives you both battles with the detail that earns marks, and the three question shapes that use it.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the battle it belongs to, because a term without a battle is worth half a mark.

Two days of battle, in order

Put these six moments in the order they happened.

• Rain all night at Waterloo delays the French attack until late morning
• The Union Brigade, Scots Greys among them, charges and breaks the first French infantry attack
• The Imperial Guard advances in the evening and is thrown back by the allied line as the Prussians arrive
• Russian columns take the Turkish redoubts on the Causeway Heights above Balaclava
• The Heavy Brigade charges uphill and scatters Russian cavalry
• The Light Brigade rides down the North Valley into the Russian guns

Why did Wellington win?

Napoleon had the larger army on the field and the better artillery, and he attacked all day. Which explanation best accounts for the allied victory?

• Wellington chose a ridge he had noted the year before, kept his infantry behind its crest and in squares when the cavalry came, garrisoned the farms in front so that every French attack was broken up, and held on because he knew that Bluecher had promised to march to him.
• Wellington had far more men than Napoleon.
• The British cavalry won the battle with a single charge.
• Napoleon was ill and took no part.

Outcome and the role of the commander

The spec asks for the outcome and the role of the general. Set the two side by side and the comparison question answers itself.

The order that went wrong

Five statements about the Charge of the Light Brigade. Tap the TWO that give a reason for the disaster connected with communication, as opposed to describing what happened.

• From the heights Raglan could see the Russians dragging the captured British guns off the Causeway ridge; from the valley floor Lucan could see no such thing, only the Russian battery a mile and a half away at the end of the North Valley.
• The order was carried by Captain Nolan, who, when Lucan asked which guns, is said to have flung out his arm towards the valley and said, there is your enemy, there are your guns.
• Cardigan led the brigade at a trot and then a gallop down the valley with Russian guns on three sides.
• The French Chasseurs d Afrique charged the Russian guns on the Fedioukine Heights to cover the survivors coming back.
• Russell of The Times watched from the heights and his account reached London within three weeks.

Balaclava: which are true?

Select the THREE statements that are true of the battle of 25 October 1854.

• Earlier that morning the Heavy Brigade under Scarlett charged uphill into a larger body of Russian cavalry and drove it off.
• The 93rd Highlanders, two deep and without forming square, stopped a Russian cavalry attack with rifle volleys.
• Of about 670 riders in the Light Brigade, about 110 were killed and some 375 horses were lost, in roughly twenty minutes.
• The Light Brigade captured the Russian guns and held them.
• Raglan led the charge in person.
• The Russians took the harbour at Balaclava.

Weighing the commander

The spec wording is the role of Wellington and the role of Raglan. A role is a judgement about how far the outcome depended on the man, and the examiner wants it weighed against everything else. Wellington. Much of the victory was his: the ground, the farms, the squares, the reserves, the discipline to hold. But he did not win alone. The rain slowed Napoleon; the French attacked frontally and late; and without the Prussians at Plancenoit the ridge would have been turned by dusk. Wellington knew it, which is why he waited. Raglan. The disaster was not only his. Lucan and Cardigan detested each other and did not talk; Nolan waved at the wrong valley; the whole system of command by handwritten note over a mile of hillside was unfit for the ground. But the order was Raglan's, it was vague, and he had sent three before it. A commander who cannot be understood has failed at the one thing he is there to do. The comparison the exam likes: both men fought with an army raised, officered and armed in much the same way, thirty-nine years apart. What differed was the general, and what the public could learn about him.

Two headquarters

Four decisions, two at Waterloo and two at Balaclava. Choose what was actually done, and notice what it cost or won.

• Evening, 17 June 1815. You are Wellington, retreating from Quatre Bras with Napoleon behind you. Where do you stand?
• About four in the afternoon. Ney is sending thousands of French cavalry up the slope at your centre, again and again. What do your infantry do?
• Eleven in the morning, 25 October 1854. You are Raglan on the heights, and you can see Russians dragging the captured guns off the Causeway ridge. You want the cavalry to stop them. What do you send?
• You are Lucan on the valley floor. The note says the guns. You can see one battery, at the far end of the North Valley, with Russian guns on the heights either side. Nolan is pointing at it. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

Because Wellington kept his infantry behind the crest, the French guns spent the morning firing at an empty _____. Because the farms in front were held, every French attack arrived broken up. Because _____ had promised to march from Wavre, holding on made sense, and by evening the Prussians were at Plancenoit. Because Raglan could see the Causeway guns from the heights and Lucan could not, the note about the _____ pointed each man at a different valley. And because the only guns Lucan could see were at the end of the North Valley, the _____ Brigade rode at those, and Russell made sure that _____ knew it within the month.

Count the cost of the charge

About 670 men rode in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava and about 110 of them were killed. What percentage of the riders were killed, to the nearest whole number?

Question 3: similarity or difference

Question 3 reads: Explain one way in which the role of the commander at Waterloo in 1815 was different from the role of the commander at Balaclava in 1854. It is marked one point of comparison plus detail from each battle. Which answer scores all four marks?

• Wellington commanded from within his line, riding along it under fire and ordering squares and reserves as each French attack came, whereas Raglan commanded from the Sapoune Heights, six hundred feet above a field his generals could not see as he did, by handwritten notes carried down by aides.
• Raglan commanded from the heights and sent a vague order that led to the Charge of the Light Brigade.
• Wellington was a much better general than Raglan and that is why he won.
• At Waterloo the infantry had muskets whereas at Balaclava the 93rd had Minie rifles.

A 12-mark paragraph, marked

Question 4: Explain why the Charge of the Light Brigade ended in disaster. One reason for the disaster was the way the order reached the cavalry. Raglan, on the Sapoune Heights, could see Russian teams dragging away the guns captured from the Turkish redoubts on the Causeway ridge, and dictated a note telling the cavalry to advance rapidly and prevent the enemy carrying away the guns. Lucan, on the valley floor, could see no redoubts and no captured guns; the only battery in his view was the Russian one a mile and a half away at the end of the North Valley, with more guns on the heights to either side. This meant that an order which was clear to the man who wrote it named a target that its recipient could not see, and when Lucan asked Nolan which guns, Nolan waved at the valley. The brigade rode where the note appeared to point. The order was not the only cause, since Lucan and Cardigan were barely on speaking terms and neither queried it, but without the gap between what Raglan saw and what Lucan saw there would have been nothing to misread. What earned the marks: a cause named in the first sentence; specific support (the heights, the redoubts, the wording of the note, the distance, Nolan); the link phrase this meant that; and a closing sentence that returns to the question and weighs the cause. Two more paragraphs, on the quarrel between the generals and on the state of command in 1854, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the 12-mark answer

Explain why Wellington won the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. You may use the following in your answer: the reverse slope; the Prussians. You must also use information of your own.

• Support that counts: a time, a place on the field, a formation, a number or a name
• Causes of your own: the farms of Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte, the squares against Ney, the rain, or the mistakes of the French

Question 5: how far do you agree?

Question 5 might read: "The quality of the commander was the main reason for the outcome at Waterloo and at Balaclava." How far do you agree? A student has written the case FOR. Which is the strongest point to set AGAINST it?

• At Waterloo the decisive event was not a decision of Wellington at all but the arrival of 50,000 Prussians on the French flank from late afternoon, without which the ridge would have been turned; and at Balaclava the outcome of the day, the harbour saved, owed more to Scarlett and Campbell than to Raglan, whose order changed the memory of the battle rather than its result.
• The soldiers on both sides were very brave.
• It rained the night before Waterloo.
• Captain Nolan was killed in the first minute of the charge.