The Crimean War

(1853-56)

The decline of the Ottoman Empire badly affected the balance of power in Europe.  Russia saw it as an opportunity to gain a much-desired Mediterranean port, and picked a fight with the Turks over the control of the Christian shrines in Jerusalem.

When their unreasonable demands weren’t met, Russian troops began to occupy Turkish Moldavia and parts of Rumania in July 1853.  The Turks declared war in October, and a Turkish army crossed the Danube, defeating the Russians at the battle of Oltenitza in southern Rumania on 4^th November 1853. On 30 November the Russians obliterated a Turkish fleet at Sinope (shell guns were used by the Russians for the first time), but their control of the Black Sea was short lived, as a Franco-British fleet entered the Black Sea in January 1854. On 28^th March 1854, Britain and France declared war on Russia, both being eager to curb the Tsar’s expansionist tendencies, and moved to help the Turks.

On 20^th March 1854, the Russians invaded Turkish Bulgaria, but withdrew in August after Austrian intervention.

Fighting also took place in the Caucasus, where the Russians besieged the Turkish-held fortress of Kars:  forcing it to surrender on 26^th November 1855, only months before peace negotiations ended the war.

However, the most important fighting was on the Crimean peninsular. Austria's intervention had in effect achieved the British and French aims, removing the Russian presence in the Balkans, but it was decided to reduce Russian naval power in the Black sea by the occupation and destruction of the main Russian naval base at Sevastopol.

The campaign in the Crimea is most notable for the poor quality of the leadership of both sides. This was amply demonstrated at the start of the campaign:  the allied expedition sailed before the leaders - Lord Raglan for the British, the seriously ill Marshal Armand de Saint-Arnaud for the French - had even decided where to land, only picking their point once they had reached the Crimea:  choosing to land at Old Fort, an open beach 30 miles north of Sevastopol.

The landing took five days (13^th to 18^th September 1854), and during this time the Russian commander, Prince Alexander Menshikov, showed his lack of ability by failing to take the opportunity to attack the vulnerable allies.

The British and French now started to move towards the Sevastopol, and only now, with the allies outnumbering him, did Prince Menshikov attempt to stop them. An attempt to hold the line of the River Alma on 20^th September 1854 cost Menshikov 5,700 of his 36,400 men, and the allies 3,000 of their 52,000, although Russian reinforcements were already starting to reach the area.

Menshikov pulled back to Sevastopol, which the allies approached on 25^th September, and when the idiocy of their landing point became apparent. With no easy port in their hands, the allies were forced to march around Sevastopol to Balaklava and Kamiesch, south of the city, before they could begin a siege. At the same time Menshikov was moving the bulk of his army away from the city to join with Russian reinforcements, and it was only by chance that the two armies failed to collide. The allies regained contact with their fleets, and established themselves in their new bases, the British at Balaklava, the French at Kemiesch, where the death of Marshal St. Arnaud raised General Francois Canrobert to command.

The allies were now free to concentrate on the siege of Sevastopol, 17^th October 1854 to 8^th September 1855, but to the amazement of the Russian garrison, missed their chance to simply walk into the city before its defences had been completed. Instead, while the bulk of the allied army protected their flank against the Russian field army, the siege was slowly put into place (8^th to16^th October), before the bombardment began on 17^th October. Over the previous weeks, however, Colonel Frants Todleben, the Russian chief engineer, had built up new fortifications that almost totally negated the allied efforts.

The Russians made repeated attempts to disrupt the siege by attacking the vulnerable supply lines between the besieging troops and their ports. The first attempt resulted in the Battle of Balaclava on 25^th October 1854, renown for three significant actions:  the “thin red streak” of Highlanders standing up to a Russian cavalry charge of overwhelming numbers; the successful uphill Charge of the Heavy Brigade, under General Scarlett, into even more Russian cavalry; and, of course, the Charge of the Light Brigade. 

The main result of the battle was to leave Menshikov's army dominating the only proper road between Balaklava and Sevastopol. A second Russian attempt led to the Battle of Inkerman on 5^th November 1854, which degenerated into a formless melee after both the British and Russians lost effective control of their armies. The battle was won by the late arrival of a French division, which drove off the Russians, who suffered by far the heavier casualties. Inkerman is also known as the Fight in the Fog.

The fighting then ended for the winter, but the misery of the allied troops only got worse. Neither the French nor British were fully prepared for a winter siege, while the Russians still commanded the road between Balaklava and Sevastopol. A storm sank thirty transport ships containing most of the British supplies, and cholera raged through the camp, reducing the British army to only 12,000 effective soldiers. For the first time, improved technology allowed news to reach home very quickly, and the telegraph reports sent by William Russell, war correspondent of the Times of London enraged British public opinion to the extent that the government of Lord Aberdeen fell:  the first time the condition of the fighting men had aroused such emotions.

Things slowly improved early in 1855. Florence Nightingale's famous nursing innovations improved the military hospitals, while a newly constructed road and railway improved the supply route between Balaklava and Sevastopol.

Another Russian attempt to intervene, under Prince Michael Gorchakov, on 17^th February 1855, was repulsed by the Turks in the Battle of Eupatoria.

An Easter bombardment (8^th to 18^th April 1855) destroyed a great deal of the Russian defences, while the resignation of Canrobert led to the appointment of General Pelissier, a more able commander.

The capture of Kerch on 24^th May, which secured allied command of the Sea of Azov, severed the Russian overland supply lines and, over the remains of the summer, the allies slowly nibbled at the Russian defences.  The battle of the Traktir on 16^th August 1855 saw the final Russian attempt to relieve the city defeated by French and Sardinian troops.

Finally, on 8^th September 1855, the French launched one of the few well-planned attacks of the war, aimed at the Malakoff, one of the two key strongpoints of the Russian defence. A heavy bombardment was followed by a well timed assault by an entire French corp. Surprise was achieved by the first use of synchronised watches to time an assault, and after intensive fighting the Malakoff was captured. This put the remaining strongpoint under an intolerable strain, and so that night Prince Gorchakov evacuated the city.

The capture of Sevastopol was the last significant fighting of the war. Peace terms were agreed on 1^st February 1856 at Vienna, and the final peace agreed at the Congress of Paris, 28^th February to 30^th March 1856.

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