On 25 October 1854, at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, about 500 men of the 93rd Highlanders stood between Russian cavalry and the British base. Their commander, Sir Colin Campbell, is said to have told them: “There is no retreat from here, men. You must die where you stand.” He formed them into a line only two deep. The cavalry withdrew.
The Times correspondent William Howard Russell described a “thin red streak tipped with a line of steel.” In later accounts he changed it to “thin red line.”