Crimean War

During the , a miscommunication led a small band of around six hundred British cavalrymen to ride into a valley surrounded by twenty Russian battalions armed with heavy artillery. While the British cavalry was resoundingly and tragically defeated, and their commanders sharply criticized for the heavy casualties, the bravery of the men who charged into the “valley of death” was celebrated and honored in many forms — none more famous than this poem by Tennyson.