Charge of the Light Brigade 1854 | History’s Most Famous Military Blunder On October 25, 1854, during the Crimean War, the Charge of the Light Brigade became one of history’s most infamous blunders. A miscommunication sent 600 British cavalry charging headlong into Russian artillery at Balaclava. Cannons tore them apart, and half the brigade never returned. Their doomed bravery lived on in poetry—but the “noble charge” was a disaster written in blood and smoke. Charge of the Light Brigade 1854,