Crimean War

The Crimean War lasted from 1854 to 1856. It was fought between Russia and an alliance of the United Kingdom, France, and the Ottoman Empire, joined somewhat tardily by Piedmont-Sardinia. The majority of the conflict took place around the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea.

Beginning of the war

After a dispute with the Ottoman Empire over the guardianship of several holy towns in Palestine and the protection of Orthodox Christians, Russia invaded Moldavia and Wallachia, both semi-autonomous vassals of the Ottoman Empire, resulting in a declaration of war by the Ottomans in late 1853. The Russians, under the command of admiral Nakhimov, the hero of the Battle of Navarino, sank the Ottoman fleet at Sinop on November 30. The Ottomans were joined by Britain and France on March 28, 1854, and by Sardinia in January 1855. Austria also threatened to enter the war on the Ottoman side, causing the Russians to withdraw from the occupied areas, which were immediately occupied by the Austrians, in August 1854.

Siege of Sevastopol

The following month, though the immediate cause of war was withdrawn, allied troops landed in the Crimea and besieged the city of Sevastopol, home of the tsar's Black Sea fleet and a threat of future Russian penetration into the Mediterranean. The Russians had to scuttle their ships and used the naval cannons as additional artillery, and the ships' crews as marines. Admiral Nakhimov was mortally wounded in the head by a sniper shot, and died on June 30, 1855. The city was finally captured in September 1855.

Final phase and the peace

In the same year, the Russians occupied the Turkish/Armenian city of Kars.

After the occupation of Sevastopol and the accession of Alexander II peace negotiations began. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris (1856).

Characteristics

The war became infamously known for military and logistical incompetence, epitomized by the Charge of the Light Brigade immortalized in Tennyson's poem. Cholera undercut French preparations for the siege of Sevastopol, and a violent storm on the night of November 14, 1854 wrecked nearly thirty vessels with their precious cargoes of medical supplies, food, clothing and other necessaries. In the desperate winter that followed, scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers, which was covered by war correspondents for newspapers, prompted the work of Florence Nightingale, introducing modern nursing methods. The Crimean War introduced the first tactical use of railways.

Most Interesting Side Note: The Crimean War occasioned the invention of hand rolled "paper cigars" - cigarettes - by French and British troops who copied their Turkish comrades in using old newspaper for rolling when their cigar-leaf rolling tobacco ran out or dried and crumbled.

Highlights

• Some action also took place on the Russian Pacific coast, Asia Minor, the Baltic and White Seas
• The roots of the war's causes lay in the existing rivalry between the British and the Russians in other areas such as Afghanistan (The Great Game). Conflicts over control of holy places in Jerusalem led to aggressive actions in the Balkans, and around the Dardanelles.
• Major battles
  • Destruction of the Ottoman fleet at Sinop - November 30, 1853;
  • The Battle of Alma - September 20, 1854
  • Siege of Sebastopol (more correctly, "Sevastopol") - September 25, 1854 to September 8, 1855
  • The Battle of Balaclava - October 25, 1854 (see also Charge of the Light Brigade);
  • The Battle of Inkerman - November 5, 1854;
  • Battle of Eupatoria, February 17, 1855
  • Battle of Chernaya River (aka "Traktir Bridge") - August 25 1855.
  • the Siege of Kars, June to November 28 1855

• It was the first war where the electric telegraph started to have a significant effect; the first 'live' war reporting to The Times, and British generals' reduced independence of action from London due to such rapid communications. Newspaper readership informed public opinion in Britain and France as never before.
• Florence Nightingale

Military commanders

• Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov (Russia)
• Eduard Ivanovich Totleben (Russia)
• Earl of Cardigan (British)
• Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan (Britain)
• Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud (France)
• François Certain Canrobert (France)

Obscure cross-links

• Beryl Bainbridge's novel Master Georgie is set in the Crimean War.
• Stephen Baxter's novel Anti-Ice starts with the siege of Sebastopol, which is shortened dramatically by a new Anti-Ice weapon. The book asks the question - what if nuclear weapons had existed in Victorian times?
• Roger Fenton, Crimean War photographer