"Sir John Adye who was present on the occasion describes 'the Flank march' as the one great strategic success of the whole War.
"'The fortunate result of the flank march, by giving the allied generals possession of the excellent, though diminutive, harbour of Balaclava, and thus affording them a safe communication with their fleets, relieved them of one of the anxieties hitherto attending their movements, and enabled them to devote all their attention to the one great object of the expedition—the capture of Sebastopol.'
"Considering the immense importance of this little harbour, the only depot of the English Army and considering its isolated position, it being several miles from the plateau on which the infantry of the army was encamped its defence was a cause of keen anxiety.
"It can scarcely be supposed that a few Turkish redoubts with the 93rd Highlanders under Sir Colin Campbell was a suitable defence for such a place—and yet what was there besides the Cavalry encamped in the plain?
"The Cavalry it is true had been reinforced by the arrival of the heavy Cavalry Regts (since the flank march described above) which had been left at Varna on the other side of the Black Sea: and their performance on the occasion of the coming battle is perhaps as well known as any incident during the Crimean War. But the battle was not merely a dash and a ride, and to understand what took place requires some sifting of the circumstances so as to arrive at a definite notion of the day's work.
"After the middle of October the first reinforcements for Prince Menschikoff's army having arrived the enemy had been observed for some days hovering in the neighbourhood of Balaclava and the troops there were constantly kept on the alert.
"At day break on the 25th October General Liprandi with 20,000 infantry, supported by a strong force of cavalry and about 40 guns made a determined attack and in the words of Sir E. Hamley the battle commenced by 'the Russian guns on the eminences and in the valley opened a cannonade on the outposts held by the Turks. A troop of Horse Artillery and a field battery supported by the Scots Greys were ordered up to Balaclava to the slopes between the outposts and found themselves opposed to the fire of several field batteries and service guns of position which covered an advance of infantry against the hills on the right. As the troop was armed with only 6-pounders, it and the field battery were quite over-matched, both in metal and in numbers; nevertheless our artillery maintained the contest till its ammunition was exhausted, when it retired, having lost a good many horses and a few men besides Maude the Captain of the troop, who was severely wounded by a shell which burst in his horse.'
"Time had still to be given to the infantry to arrive from the plateau miles away, therefore the squadrons had to be withdrawn very gradually, all the time being under the fire of Liprandi's guns.
"Thus opened the Battle of Balaklava, the engagement continued through the day with separate incidents, with intervals between them, and marked by singular interest. Sir Edward Hamley, after speaking with measured words of one of these incidents which immediately preceded the well-known cavalry charge of the Heavy Brigade, says, 'There was something almost theatrical in the grandeur of this portion of the spectacle; the French stationed on the heights, and the English passing along them, looked down, as if from the benches of an amphitheatre, on the two bodies of cavalry meeting in mortal shock on the level grassy plain, which enclosed on every side by lofty mountains would have been a fit arena for a tournament of giants.'"
The next home movements of the Regiment were: 1857, Newbridge; 1858 and 1859, Dublin; 1860, Newbridge; 1861, Dublin; 1862 and 1863, Edinburgh; 1864, Birmingham; 1865, Aldershot; 1866, Newbridge; 1867, Dublin; 1868, Dundalk; 1869, Cahir; 1870, Dublin; 1871, Longford; 1872 and 1873, Edinburgh; 1874, Aldershot; 1875, Brighton; 1876 and 1877, Leeds; 1878, York; 1879 and 1880, Dundalk; 1881, Dublin; 1882 and 1883, Ballincollig; 1884 and 1885, Edinburgh; 1886 and 1887, Aldershot; 1888, Brighton; 1889 and 1890, Dundalk; 1891 and 1892, Newbridge; 1893, Dublin; 1895 and 1896, Aldershot; 1897, Hounslow; 1898 and 1899, Edinburgh; 1900, 1901, and 1902, South Africa; 1903 and 1904, Stellenbosch in Cape Colony; 1905, Norwich; 1906, Edinburgh; 1904, Middelburg.