"The Charge of the Light Brigade." Of this poem there are three distinct versions.
It first appeared in the "Examiner" of Saturday, December 9, 1854.[1]
It was next printed, with considerable alterations, in the "Maud" volume, in the summer of 1855.
A month or two later the third and final version[2] appeared on a quarto sheet of four pages, with the following note at the bottom:—
"Having heard that the brave soldiers before Sebastopol, whom I am proud to call my countrymen, have a liking for my Ballad on the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, I have ordered a thousand copies of it to be printed for them. No writing of mine can add to the glory they have acquired in the Crimea; but if what I have heard be true, they will not be displeased to receive these copies of the Ballad