> was seen as a beautiful thing that soldiers would match obediently to their deaths

Poems are full of traps. I think you can read The Charge of the Light Brigade either way, or both ways at once. On the one hand, it calls on us to honor the heroism of the young cavalrymen. But on the other hand, "someone had blundered." Their heroism is futile. Tennyson had to be seen supporting the team, as it were, but when I read the poem, I see his reservations more than anything.