author
Thomas Morley
1831–1906
A veteran of the Charge of the Light Brigade who later fought in the American Civil War, he wrote from direct experience rather than distant history. His best-known work revisits Balaclava with the voice of someone who was actually there.
1 Audiobook
The Cause of the Charge of Balaclava
by Thomas Morley
About the author
Born in 1831 or 1832, Thomas Morley was a British cavalryman whose life took him through two major 19th-century wars. He served with the 17th Lancers in the Crimean War and survived the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, an experience that shaped the book he is remembered for.
Morley later went to the United States and served in the American Civil War with the 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry. His memoir-like historical work, The Cause of the Charge of Balaclava, stands out because it combines argument, memory, and eyewitness detail, giving readers a ground-level view of one of the era's most famous military disasters.
Later accounts of his life say he was injured in the 1893 collapse at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and that he returned to Britain in his final years. He died in 1906. Though he left only a small body of writing, his work remains valuable for its firsthand perspective and unusual life story.