Two Deep at Balaclava: The Sutherland Tartan and the Men Who Would Not Move

On the morning of 25 October 1854, a thin line of Scottish soldiers stood between a Russian cavalry force and the port of Balaclava in the Crimea. They did not form a square. They did not hide behind walls. They stood in the open, only two men deep, and they waited.

Their stand lasted only minutes, but it became one of the most famous moments of the Crimean War. A newspaper reporter watching from the hills gave them a name that has never faded: the Thin Red Line. This is the story of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, their tartan, and the order that told them there was no retreat.

Quick Facts

The Road to Balaclava

The Crimean War began in 1853, with Britain and France fighting alongside the Ottoman Empire against the Russian Empire. In September 1854, British and French forces landed in the Crimea and won the Battle of Alma. They then moved south to besiege the great Russian naval base at Sevastopol.

The British army depended on the small port of Balaclava for supplies. Ships brought food, ammunition, and winter goods into the harbor, and a road carried those supplies up to the siege lines. If the Russians could take Balaclava, the British position would be in serious danger.

The defenses of the port were weak. A line of small redoubts on the Causeway Heights held Turkish troops and guns, but the ground force near the village of Kadikoi was thin. The main Highland force there was the 93rd Regiment, part of Sir Colin Campbell and his Highland Brigade. The regiment had already fought at Alma and was known for its discipline and its strong Highland identity.

On 25 October, a large Russian force moved against Balaclava. The redoubts on the heights were attacked and some were taken. Turkish troops fell back. Russian cavalry pushed forward into the valleys, and the battle that followed produced two famous actions on the same day: the charge of the Heavy Brigade, the stand of the 93rd, and later the charge of the Light Brigade.

The Sutherland Highlanders and Their Tartan

The 93rd had been raised in 1799 and 1800 from the Sutherland estates in the far north of Scotland. General William Wemyss raised the regiment on behalf of Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland. Family accounts describe fit young men being lined up by parish, with those chosen receiving a pinch of snuff, a dram of whisky, and their bounty money. When the regiment first mustered at Skail in Strathnaver in August 1800, every man selected is said to have reported.

Many of the first recruits had served in the Sutherland Fencibles, a home defense force. The regiment drew heavily on tenants of the Sutherland estates, and some historians describe this raising as one of the last large uses of old feudal duty in the Highlands. The bond between the regiment and its home county stayed strong for decades. In the early 1850s, it was reported that only about 30 men in the unit were not from Sutherland, Ross, or Inverness.

The uniform was full Highland dress, with a feather bonnet and a kilt and plaid of Sutherland tartan. The Sutherland sett is closely related to the Government or Black Watch tartan, with the same basic pattern of dark green, blue, and black checks. The Sutherland version is described in regimental sources as lighter in tone, with a paler blue in place of the darkest navy shade. In later army use, a lightened form of the sett became known as Government No. 1A.

The tartan mattered because it marked who these men were. At Balaclava, the red coats formed the famous line, but the kilts, bonnets, and Sutherland pattern told their own story: this was a county regiment, raised from one Highland community, standing far from home on a Crimean hillside. In 1881, the 93rd joined with the 91st to form the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and the Sutherland tartan, the badger head sporran, and the feathered bonnet of the 93rd all shaped the new regiment and its dress. The regimental museum at Stirling Castle still tells the Balaclava story as a central part of that history.

Two Deep: The Stand Itself

As the Russian cavalry came over the Causeway Heights, one part of the force turned toward Balaclava itself. In its path, near Kadikoi, stood Campbell and the 93rd. Two Turkish battalions in the area fled as the Russians advanced, leaving the Highlanders as the last formed body between the cavalry and the port.

A commander with nervous troops might have formed a square, the standard defense against cavalry. Campbell did something else. He drew the 93rd up in line, only two ranks deep, on rising ground where the men could use their rifles to full effect. The line was supported by about 100 walking wounded, a small party of Guardsmen, and Turkish infantry on the flanks, but the red center of the position was the 93rd itself.

The famous words came as Campbell rode along the line. He told the men, in the version most often quoted, that there was no retreat from here and that they must die where they stood. A soldier named John Scott answered for the regiment: Aye, Sir Colin, and needs be, we will do that. The exchange has been repeated in regimental histories ever since because it captures the mood of the moment in a few plain words.

The Russian horsemen advanced. The Highlanders held their fire until the range closed, then fired volleys at long range by the standards of the day, with accounts describing a first volley at extreme range and a second volley as the cavalry came closer. The charge did not break. Instead, it split, wheeled away to the sides, and withdrew. Some of the younger Highlanders, caught up in the moment, started forward as if to charge with the bayonet. Campbell stopped them at once with a shout that became part of the legend: 93rd, 93rd, damn all that eagerness.

The whole action was brief. No great melee took place. The cavalry never reached the line. What won the moment was steady fire, good ground, and a formation that refused to move. The Russians gave up the direct attempt on Balaclava from that direction, and the port stayed in British hands.

The Reporter Who Named Them

Watching from the heights was William Howard Russell, the war correspondent of The Times. Russell was one of the first modern war reporters, and his reports from the Crimea shaped how the British public saw the war. Looking down at the scene, he saw the Russian cavalry on one side and, on the other, only the Highland line between the horsemen and the base.

His famous description spoke of a thin red streak topped with a line of steel. The steel was the line of bayonets and rifle barrels catching the light. The red streak was the row of red coats, two deep, stretched across the ground. In print and in public memory, the phrase was soon shortened to the Thin Red Line.

The image caught the public imagination at home. The wider war was troubled by disease, supply failures, and poor management, and readers were hungry for proof of the ordinary soldier and his courage. The stand of the 93rd gave them exactly that. The artist Robert Gibb later painted the scene in his well known 1881 painting The Thin Red Line, showing the Highlanders at the moment of the volleys, and the painting fixed the visual image of the event for later generations.

Why the Stand Still Matters

The Thin Red Line became more than a battle report. It became a lasting phrase in the English language for a small force holding a position against heavy pressure. It has been used for soldiers, police, and other groups who stand in harm’s way to protect others, and it began with a line of Sutherland men in 1854.

For the regiment itself, Balaclava joined Alma and Sevastopol in a Crimean record that later included service in India during the rebellion of 1857. The 93rd won great fame in that later campaign as well. Yet Balaclava stayed special because it was so simple: no charge, no pursuit, just a line that would not move.

Historians add useful balance. The Russian cavalry force that faced the 93rd was only one part of a much larger Russian army that day, and its commander may have doubted the attack once the Highlanders stood firm and fired in good order. The Heavy Brigade also played a major part in defeating the Russian cavalry that morning. None of that takes away from the stand itself. A single regiment, in an exposed position, was tested and did not flinch, and an experienced enemy chose not to press the attack. That is why the story has lasted.

FAQs

What does two deep mean?

It means the soldiers stood in a line with only two ranks, one behind the other. A line two deep is thin and can look fragile, but it lets nearly every soldier fire his rifle at once. Sir Colin Campbell chose this formation instead of a closed square.

Who coined the phrase Thin Red Line?

The phrase comes from W. H. Russell, the correspondent of The Times, who watched the battle from the hills. He first wrote of a thin red streak tipped with a line of steel. The public shortened it to the Thin Red Line, and the name stuck to the 93rd.

What tartan did the 93rd wear?

The regiment wore the Sutherland tartan in its kilts and plaids. The sett follows the Government or Black Watch pattern in a lighter shade, with a paler blue. After 1881, that tartan continued with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

Did the Russian cavalry reach the Highland line?

No. The cavalry advanced, received volley fire, split to the sides, and withdrew without reaching the line. The stand succeeded through steady fire and discipline rather than hand to hand fighting.

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Final Thoughts

Two deep at Balaclava is a story of place, cloth, and character. The place was an open slope above a vital port. The cloth was a Sutherland tartan kilt under a red coat, tying city readers at home to a county regiment from the far north of Scotland. The character was simple discipline: men who were told to stand, and who stood.

On 25 October 1854, Sir Colin Campbell trusted the training and nerve of the 93rd, and the 93rd proved him right. A reporter gave their stand a name, a painter gave it a face, and the phrase Thin Red Line entered history. Behind the legend, the facts are strong enough on their own: about 500 Highlanders, in a line two deep, faced down cavalry and held the road to Balaclava.