Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/258

 236 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap, many of its pieces at once as to constitute almost L a salvo. Numbers and numbers of saddles were emptied, and along its whole length the line of the 13th Light Dragoons and 17th Lancers was subjected to the rending perturbance that must needs be created in a body of cavalry by every man who falls slain or wounded, by the sinking and the plunging of every horse that is killed or disabled, and again by the wild, piteous intrusion of the riderless charger appalled by his sudden freedom coming thus in the midst of a battle, and knowing not whither to rush, unless he can rejoin his old troop, and wedge himself into its ranks. It is believed by Lord Cardigan that this was the time when, in the 13th Light Dragoons, Captain Oldham, the commander of the regiment, and Captain Goad, and Cornet Montgomery, and, in the 17th Lancers, Captain Winter * and Lieuten- ant Thomson, were killed — when Captain Robert White and Captain Webb and Lieutenant Sir William Gordon were struck down.-J* The survi- saddle, but it seems probable that he had then already received his mortal wound. + Sir William Gordon survived and recovered, but afterwards retired from active service. I have heard that he was an officer of groat ability, with an enthusiastic zeal for his profession ; and his retirement has been quoted to me by cavalry men as an instance of the way in which the perverse arrangements of our military system tend to drive able men from the service. It seems that (upon principles analogous to those adopted by the trades-unions) the sacred rights of mediocrity are main tained with a firmness which too often defeats the patienl ambition of a highly gifted soldier.
 * Captain Winter about this time was seen alive and in his