General Liprandi had ordered Jerobkine's Uhlans from the redoubts to move down into the North Valley to block the withdrawal. Their uniforms were unfamiliar to the Russians, being mistakeable at a distance for 17th Lancers (This was almost a costly mistake for both Lord Paget and Lt Col Douglas separately) It was a fatal mistake for some of the uhlans as they passed the Odessky squares, because one battalion opened up on them. This took a fair time to sort out, allowing many penny packets of survivors to slip through the net. In the event, the net turned out to have gaping holes as neither the uhlans on the north nor the south side had the stomach seriously to take on the two ad hoc Light Brigade groups, apart for one skirmish involving the 11th Hussars. Their Sgt Bentley was attacked by a group and was in trouble till Lieut Dunn came to his aid. In Sgt Major Loy Smith's words: 'He was a fine young fellow, standing six feet three, mounted on a powerful horse and wielding a terrific sword, many inches longer than the regulation...he saved the life of Sergeant Bentley when surrounded by Russians by cutting them down left and right. So conspicuous was his gallantry that Colonel Douglas justly recommended him for the Victoria Cross which he received at the hands of Her Majesty. Strange to say he was the only officer who rode in the Charge on whom this honour was conferred and, much stranger still, Kinglake (The official war historian) never mentions him.'
Maybe the fact that he later ran off with Colonel Douglas' wife to Canada had something to do with it. Loy Smith must have been aware of what had been a juicy regimental scandal - do we discern a Regimental joke in his description of Dunn's 'sword'?
