On the 25th the 1st Battalion was ordered out to repel the attack on Balaklava. They fell in between eight and nine o’clock, and starting at the double took up a position on the side of a hill. The Russians had driven the Turks out of the forts in their occupation. The Riflemen arrived just after the heavy cavalry charge. After the light cavalry charge the 4th Division was ordered to advance, the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade leading by wings. The right wing under Colonel Horsford took up a position with its left resting on the road from Sebastopol to the Traktir bridge; the 68th being deployed in line on its right; and the left wing under Major Rooper being on the right of the 68th in support of Captain Barker’s battery. The enemy brought forward a field battery of six guns and opened fire on the line. This fire became very troublesome on the right flank, and Lieutenant Godfrey with a few men was sent to try to silence these guns. This they did most effectually in a very short time. The task was difficult, for the ground afforded no cover; the utmost shelter they could get being some slight undulation in the surface. However the Riflemen lay down on their stomachs and picked off the gunners whenever they attempted to handle their guns; and in about twenty minutes forced the Russian guns to retire.
The Battalion remained in the same order and in the same position until dark; but no further attack being made by the enemy, and it having been resolved to abandon these forts, the Battalion returned to its camp.
One man was wounded, being struck in the leg by a round shot.
On the 26th at noon the Russians came out from Sebastopol and attacked the extreme right of the English position, which was occupied by the 2nd Division. The enemy having advanced in a mass of columns, our guns opening upon them within easy range caused them such loss that they quickly retired. On this occasion the 1st Battalion, although the most distant from the right of the position, turned out so quickly, with Sir George Cathcart at its head, that it was on the scene of action in a very short time, but not till the enemy had retired.
On this occasion a picquet, under Lieutenant W. T. Markham of the 2nd Battalion,[237] which was on duty in the five-gun battery, joining some men of the Guards under Captain Goodlake in the Careenage ravine, had an obstinate combat with a strong Russian column. They kept them back for a considerable time; and eventually the Riflemen succeeded in driving them out of the cave there, known as the Magazine Grotto; but not without a hard fight in which 5 Riflemen were wounded. They however inflicted considerable loss on their opponents; and a Russian officer and many men were taken prisoners.[238]
On November 1 the morning state of the 1st Battalion was as follows:—
| Field officer | Captains | Subalterns | Staff | Sergeants | Buglers | Rank and file |
| 1 | 5 | 11 | 6 | 38 | 18 | 550 |
showing a decrease of 5 sergeants, 1 bugler and 141 rank and file since the arrival of the Battalion before the place.
Early on the 2nd the enemy’s batteries opened a cannonade, by which four men of the 2nd Battalion, forming part of a company which was going to relieve in the trenches, were wounded.