The outstanding Crimean War Battle of Balaklava 25 October 1854 Thin Red Line Officer and subsequent siege of Sebastopol 3 August 1855 casualty and Legion d’Honneur and Indian Mutiny Relief of Lucknow and Second Battle of Cawnpore casualty group to Major George Cornwall, 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot, formerly 95th Derbyshire Regiment of Foot. From a wealth landed family in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, he was originally commissioned as an Ensign into the 95th Foot in July 1836, and then transferred across as a Captain into the 93rd Highlanders in June 1852. As a Company Commander, he saw considerable active service was during the Crimean War with Russia as part of Brigadier-General Sir Colin Campbell’s Highland Brigade. Initially present at the Battle of Alma on 20 September 1854, it was however at the Battle of Balaklava on 25 October 1854 that his regiment would go down in history, and earn the nickname of ‘The Thin Red Line’ when repelling the charge of the Russian Cavalry after deploying into lines two deep, not a standard tactic against charging cavalry, but one Sir Colin Campbell had faith in. The 93rd - about 500 including a few walking-wounded of other units - stood behind a ridge in the road to avoid the artillery turned against them. As the Russian cavalry came nearer the 93rd moved forward and stood in line astride the road to the port and the British supplies. Sir Colin Campbell rode down the line: There is no retreat from here men, you must die where you stand. A chorus was taken up by the 93rd in answer, Aye Sir Colin, and needs be we'll do that. On a hill above, London Times correspondent William Howard Russell watched and wrote of nothing standing between the cavalry and the supply base but the thin red streak tipped with steel. As the Russian cavalry approached, the 93rd discharged three volleys: at 600, 350 and 150 yards respectively. They commenced fire by files. The cavalry split in half and veered to the left and right wheeling back. The Grenadier Company wheeled right to fire once more into the horsemen to refuse the flank and insuring the enemy's retreat. At that, some of the Highlanders started forward for a counter-charge, but Sir Colin stopped them with a cry of 93rd, damn all that eagerness!” Cornwall subsequenrly participated in the Kertch Expedition of May 1855, aimed at cutting off Russian supplies from the port of Kertch on the Sea of Azoff. He was present at both the capture of Kertch and Yenikale, before returning to operations in front of Sebastopol and was then present in the unsuccessful first assault on the Redan on 18 June 1855. Slightly wounded in the trenches on 3 August 1855, he was nevertheless present for the final assault on and fall of Sebastopol on 8 September 1855. In August 1856 he was gazetted with the Knight 5th Class Grade of the French Legion d’Honneur, one of only four members of his regiment to receive this honour at this level for the Crimean War. Later he saw service with distinction during the Indian Mutiny as part of the forces involved in the relief of Lucknow in November 1857. The regimental history recalls that during the relief of Lucknow operations, on 1 November 1857, ‘one of the companies, under Captain Cornwall, formed part of a small force which had a severe but successful engagement with a considerable body of the rebels near Fatehpur. This severely contested affair was fought with such spirit and gallantry as to excite the admiration of Captain Peel, Royal Navy, who had commanded the force.’ Cornwall was however severely wounded in the Second Battle of Cawnpore between 19 November and 6 December 1857, and Cornwall was severely wounded during this action. He was invalided home, and for his services was promoted to Brevet Major in March 1858. In that same year he received a fine presentation sword from the townspeople of Bandon, County Cork ‘in testimony of his long and gallant services’.
Group of 4: Crimea Medal 1854-1856, 3 Clasps: Alma, Balaklava, Sebastopol, unnamed as issued, complete with three-pronged silver ribbon buckle pin, this unmarked; Indian Mutiny Medal 1857-1859, 1 Clasp: Relief of Lucknow; (CAPTN. G. CORNWALL, 93RD. HIGHLANDERS.), complete with three-pronged silver ribbon buckle pin, this bearing makers details for Loewenstarr & Sons 210. Strand, London; France - Second Empire: Legion d’Honneur, 5th Class Knight’s Grade, silver and enamels with gold centres, complete with three-pronged silver ribbon buckle pin, this bearing makers initials for ‘W.J.D.’ and silver hallmarks for Birmingham with date letter ‘J’ - this possibly for 1858 but missing the Queen Victoria head; Turkish Crimea Medal 1855, British issue, unnamed as issued, complete with three-pronged silver ribbon buckle pin, this unmarked.
Condition: This with extensive enamel damage and with gold centres depressed, otherwise Good Very Fine or better.
George Cornwall was born in 1815 in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, the son of William Cornwall and his wife, Jane de la Cour. The Cornwall’s were a wealthy landed family, who by the 1870’s still held over a 1,000 acres in County Cork.
Cornwall was commissioned into the British Army as an Ensign by purchase into the 95th Derbyshire Regiment of Foot on 8 July 1836 and was promoted to Lieutenant by purchase on 9 March 1838, and then to Captain on 30 June 1848 and shortly afterwards, he exchanged on 18 June 1852 into the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot.
Cornwall’s first opportunity for active service was during the Crimean War with Russia, and his regiment embarked for Turkey from Plymouth on 27 February 1854, and having sailed via Malta, landed in the Crimea on 14 September, and began operations in front of Sebastopol. As part of Brigadier-General Sir Colin Campbell’s Highland Brigade, in the Battle of Alma on 20 September 1854.
On 25 October 1854, the 93rd Highlanders were stationed outside the British-controlled port of Balaklava as part of its very thin defences. The Russian Army sent a large force to attack Balaklava, precipitating the Battle of Balaklava.
Several thousand Russian cavalry had swept down and captured artillery batteries overlooking a small valley. They rode on with about five thousand continuing on the road to Balaklava, the others diverting to be cut down by the charge of the Heavy Brigade. The 93rd - about 500 including a few walking-wounded of other units - stood behind a ridge in the road to avoid the artillery now turned against them. As the Russian cavalry came nearer the 93rd moved forward and stood in line astride the road to the port and the British supplies. On either flank stood a battalion of their Turkish allies who fired an ineffectual volley at 800 yards, then broke and ran. It may seem from a correspondence from a 93rd officer at the time that 50 casualties suffered by the Turks may have come from a volley purposely fired by a company of the 93rd into their fleeing allies!
Sir Colin Campbell rode down the line: There is no retreat from here men, you must die where you stand. A chorus was taken up by the 93rd in answer, Aye Sir Colin, and needs be we'll do that. Campbell did not form the regiment into the usual square formation to withstand cavalry but rather left them in line, later commenting, I knew the 93rd, and knew there was no need to form square.
Convention dictated that the line should be four deep. However, Campbell, a veteran of 41 years military service, had such a low opinion of the Russian cavalry that he did not bother to form four lines, let alone a square, but met the charge head on with the 2-deep firing line. As the Russian cavalry approached, the 93rd discharged three volleys: at 600, 350 and 150 yards respectively. They commenced fire by files. The cavalry split in half and veered to the left and right wheeling back. The Grenadier Company wheeled right to fire once more into the horsemen to refuse the flank and insuring the enemy's retreat. However they did not get a chance to discharge one at point-blank range as in popular belief. This is due to the fact that the Russian commander, seeing such a thin line of infantry, concluded that this was a diversion and that there was a much stronger force behind the 93rd, and ordered the cavalry to withdraw. At that, some of the Highlanders started forward for a counter-charge, but Sir Colin stopped them with a cry of 93rd, damn all that eagerness!”
On a hill above, London Times correspondent William Howard Russell watched and wrote of nothing standing between the cavalry and the supply base but the thin red streak tipped with steel. This news report gained the Regiment immortality and gave them their nickname. The phrase was popularly condensed to become The Thin Red Line.
The casualties in the 98rd Highlanders at the Battle of Balaclava only amounted to two men wounded. One of these, Private Charles McKay, lost his leg below the knee by a round shot, the other received a contusion.
The morning of the 26th of October showed the Russian force still in the same positions they had held the previous evening, and as another attack was momentarily to be apprehended, Sir Colin Campbell commenced intrenching and strengthening that occupied by the Highland Brigade, Marines, and Turks in front of Balaclava, which the large force of the enemy, whose pickets were little more than a mile in his front, rendered a very precarious one. The duties then became very harassing, constant fatigue parties from daylight to sunset on the entrenchments. And at night the whole regiment remained fully accoutred, one-half being outside in the trenches, and the remainder in their tents, each man with his firelock beside him. As false alarms were frequent, the regiment was often under arms two and even three times during the night.
About the 28th October, Nos. 2 and 8 companies were sent to the heights under Captain Cornwall, and placed in reserve in rear of the 79th Highlanders. The weather, which up to this period had been extremely fine, now broke — the rains were heavy and incessant. Few knapsacks had been as yet received, the clothing the men wore was rapidly falling to rags, and such as it was — from the heavy fatigues the men underwent, and from their lying out all night in the open trenches, was saturated with wet and mud, without the means of getting it either changed or dried. Indeed, the inside of the single bell tents, to each of which fourteen men were apportioned, afforded from their worn and tattered state, little or no shelter from wind or rain, and were, like the rest of the camp, ankle deep in mud.
Despite observing the Battle of Inkermann on 5 November 1854, neither Cornwall or the men of the 93rd Highlanders were engaged, and therefore they did not gain the clasp for this action, but continued in their duties in front of Sebastopol. In May 1855, Cornwall accompanied the force under Sir Colin Campbell on the Kertch Expedition, aimed at cutting off Russian supplies from the port of Kertch on the Sea of Azoff. Kertch had been Sebastopol's lifeline, enabling the city to withstand the siege. Once the Allied expedition reached it, the port was flattened and Russian naval power ceased to exist overnight. Cornwall was present at both the capture of Kertch and Yenikale, before returning to operations in front of Sebastopol and was then present in the unsuccessful first assault on the Redan on 18 June 1855. Slightly wounded in the trenches on 3 August 1855, he was nevertheless present for the final assault on and fall of Sebastopol on 8 September 1855.
Cornwall was subsequently awarded the Knight 5th Class Grade of the Legion d’Honneur by the Emperor of France for his gallant and distinguished services during the Crimean War, he being one of only four members of his regiment to receive this honour at this level, and one of only five from his regiment to be decorated with the Legion d’Honneur. The other recipients of this decoration in the rank of a 5th Class Knight were Brevet Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander Ewart; Captain Robert Crowe; Colour Sergeant Alexander Knox. In addition, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Sebastian Leith Hay was appointed a 3rd Class Commander of the same decoration. Cornwall’s award was announced in the London Gazette for 4 August 1856.
Cornwall embarked for home with his regiment in June 1856, however, exactly one year later his regiment embarked for India owing to the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny. It arrived at Calcutta in September 1857 and was welcomed by General Sir Colin Campbell, and it then took part in the operations leading to the relief of Lucknow in November 1857. Under heavy enemy fire, the regiment, together with the 4th Punjab Infantry Regiment, took part in the storming and capture of Sikandar Bagh, a walled garden fortification, on 16 November 1857. Six Victoria Crosses were awarded to members of the regiment for their service in this action. At daybreak on 17 November 1857 the Regimental colour was hoisted on top of a tower as a signal to the beleaguered garrison of the Residency at Lucknow. On the night of 19 November 1857 the regiment provided covering fire as the evacuation of the Residency took place.
The regimental history recalls that during the relief of Lucknow operations, on 1 November 1857, ‘one of the companies, under Captain Cornwall, formed part of a small force which had a severe but successful engagement with a considerable body of the rebels near Fatehpur. This severely contested affair was fought with such spirit and gallantry as to excite the admiration of Captain Peel, Royal Navy, who had commanded the force.’
The regiment then saw action again at the Second Battle of Cawnpore between 19 November and 6 December 1857, and Cornwall was severely wounded during this action. It seems he did not take any further active part in the campaign owing to these wounds and he was sent home to recover. Cornwall was promoted to Brevet Major on 24 March 1858 and then Major without purchase on 16 April 1858.
The same year, Major Cornwall was presented with a fine presentation sword by the townspeople of Bandon in County Cork, a gift form the town of his birth, and in recognition and appreciation of his military achievements. It is inscribed on the blade, ‘TO MAJOR GEORGE CORNWALL. 93RD HIGHLANDERS, THE GIFT OF HIS FELLOW TOWNSMEN IN TESTIMONY OF HIS LONG & GALLANT SERVICES. BANDON. MDCCCLVIII.’
In addition, on 19 June 1858, by special licence in Dublin, Major Cornwall married Augusta Anne, second daughter of the late Brigadier Wilson. Cornwall retired shortly afterwards by sale of his commission in 1860, and went on to have two daughters and a son. He died on 21 January 1874 in London.
