“Syracuse Herald Journal,” Syracuse, New York, USA
24 Oct 1954
Light Brigade Vet Lived in
Sangerfield
By George W. Walter
ONEIDA – Monday will mark the 100th
anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War,
immortalized in the famous poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. In Oneida and
Madison Counties onlt a few people now remember that Daniel Dowling,
formerly of Sangerfield, was the last surviving Crimean War veteran of the
immortal Charge. Dowling died in Rome, July 15, 1913, at the age of 81.
A niece, Miss Lucy Dowling,
resides at 1131 Summit pl., in Utica, and a nephew was the late Supreme
Court Justice William Dowling, also of Utica.
DAN DOWLING was born in County
Carlow, Ireland, in 1832, a member of a large family. He grew up in
Ireland, a handsome, red-headed, wiry man. He enlisted in the British Army
when the war fever swept through the British Isles in January, 1854, just
a few weeks before England joined with France and Turkey to sweep Russia
from the Baltic and Crimea. Dowling became one of the cavalrymen in the
Light Brigade.
On Oct. 25, 1854, he was with the
700 members of the Brigade under Lord Cardigan, stationed at the western
end of the valley under the heights of Chersonese, awaiting orders to
plunge into the battle of Balacava. The English Heavy Brigade had already
attacked.
In a desperate effort to recapture
Turkish guns lost in the morning fighting, Lord Raglan gave the order for
the Light Brigade to try and prevent the Russians from removing the guns.
The orders became hopelessly jumbled in their transmission and the Light
Brigade rode directly into the Russian guns… into the Valley of Death. The
Brigade would have been annihilated if it had not been for the brilliant
charge of the French 4th Chasseurs d’Afrique against the
Fedoukine Hills. Only 200 of the Light Brigade survived. One of them was
Dan Dowling.
He fought bravely through the
war. In the battle of Inkerman he was struck by a shell fragment in the
head and badly wounded. He was taken to one of the crude hospitals that
was in charge of a brave English nurse named Florence Nightingale.
After his wound healed he returned
to duty. After the treaty of peace he saw service at other British
outposts at Malta, in Egypt, India, Australia and South America.
Letters from home related that two
of his brothers, William and John Dowling had migrated to the United
States. Dan Dowling resigned from the army when he had only one year more
to serve to obtain a life pension.
A younger sister, Margaret
Dowling, married young and with her husband, moved to Australia. She was
never heard from again, although Dan Dowling traveled twice around the
world searching for her.
Source: Sue Clement