Soldiers of the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot at Scutari in May 1854, before they deployed to Varna and then to the Crimea. They are equipped with the Pattern 1851 Minié rifle, later replaced by the Pattern 1853 Enfield. The 93rd formed part of the Highland Brigade under Major-General Colin Campbell. At the Battle of Balaklava, they held off a Russian cavalry charge in a formation only two ranks deep. Journalist William Howard Russell famously described them as a “thin red streak tipped with a line of steel,” giving rise to “The Thin Red Line”.
James Robertson