The Crimean War

Then and Now

David R Jones

• Publisher: Frontline Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781848324916
• eBook ISBN: 9781848324930
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

Following repeated visits to the Crimea over a number of years, Dr David Jones, with the help of local guides, was able to identify and photograph every important location related to one of the nineteenth centurys most deadliest conflicts. These have been set besides original paintings and photographs to produce a collection of the most fascinating images ever seen of the Crimean War. The locations of the great battles of the Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman and the Allied batteries and encampments of the siege lines in front of Sevastopol are all presented in glorious full colour.With detailed explanations of the significance of each set of images, placed within the context of the war, The Crimean War Then and Now provides the reader with an unprecedented visual record. Dr Jones major work is certain to be regarded as the definitive pictorial study of the war in the Crimea.

Invasion

The Landings at Kalamita Bay

The Allied invasion fleet gathering offshore at Varna in present-day Bulgaria steamed off into the Black Sea on 5 September 1854, with orders to re-group off the Crimean coast. Because the beach at the Katcha estuary originally chosen for the landing was now deemed unsuitable, another reconnaissance of the coast began on 10 September 1854 by high-ranking officers on board the steamship HMS Caradoc. Eventually it was agreed that disembarkation should take place at Kalamita Bay on a beach about thirteen miles to the southeast of the port of Eupatoria. The fleet anchored two to three miles off Eupatoria just after 15.00 hours on 13 September 1854 and soon afterwards the local governor surrendered the virtually defenceless port to a landing party. At 20.00 hours that evening, orders were issued for the fleet to move during the night to locations opposite the landing beaches prior to disembarkation the next day. The long awaited invasion would then begin in earnest. How had it come to this?

The drift towards war in the Crimea began as a result of Russia’s perceived weakness of the Ottoman Empire and its likely imminent collapse, plus the opportunities such a collapse presented for the expansion of its own influence and territory. Russia sought to control the Black Sea and to gain access for its ships to the Mediterranean through the Bosphorus and Dardanelle Straits. To achieve this goal, it needed to change the political landscape in the Balkans. Czar Nicholas I referred to Turkey as the ‘sick man’ of Europe in conversations with the British Ambassador Sir George Hamilton Seymour in 1853 and tried to persuade Britain to collaborate and cooperate with Russia when the time came to ‘carve-up’ the region. However, Britain was immediately hostile to Russia’s plans as it would upset the balance of power that kept mainland Europe in check and threaten its overland and sea routes to India and the Far East.

Since 1740, France had been the protector of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Lands, which was part of the Ottoman Empire, and this gave it custody of the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church and Grotto of the Nativity. However, the situation changed when Christians were allowed to visit the Levant in the 1830s, as Russian saw itself as a protector of Christians in Turkish dominions though the Orthodox Church. France did not want Russia meddling in Turkish domestic affairs and, in 1850, decided to re-stake its claim to the keys of Christian antiquities. This led to a quarrel between Russia and France, who both strove to influence the Turks.

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the elected president of France, was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. As Napoleon III, he was eager for military victory and argued for a combined European action against Russia. When Turkey decided that France should retain its possession of the keys to the holy places and subsequent negotiations between Russia and Turkey broke down, the Czar then issued Turkey with an ultimatum – it either backed down or Russian would invade its provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia. This demand was unacceptable to Turkey and the Pruth River border was duly crossed by Russian forces in July 1853. War between Turkey and Russia seemed inevitable.

In early October, Turkey finally declared war on Russia. The Czar then ordered the Russian fleet to sail from Sevastopol in the middle of November and on 30 November 1853 its warships attacked a Turkish squadron in the harbour of Sinope on the southern shore of the Black Sea. Admiral Pavel Nakhimov caught the Turkish warships at anchor and modern explosive shells fired from Russian guns did much damage. The fight was one-sided and became even more so when Vice-Admiral Vladimir Kornilov arrived with steamships. The Turkish squadron was destroyed with the estimated loss of 4,000 lives. The only surviving ship was sent to Constantinople with the news, which reached London and Paris on 11 December. The Sinope incident outraged Britain and France, who had pledged to protect Turkey, and the public of both countries wanted revenge. Lord Aberdeen, the British Prime Minister, ordered the British fleet into the Black Sea in January 1854.

Britain and France Join Turkey in Declaring War on Russia

On 27 February 1854, Britain and France issued an ultimatum to the Czar to the effect that Russia must agree within six days to the withdrawal of all Russian troops from the Danubian provinces of Turkey by 30 April 1854 or there would be war. The Czar did not send a reply and his refusal only became known on 19 March 1854. War was declared on 27 March 1854. However, fearing the worst, the first British troops had already left Britain for Malta the previous month. By May 1854, most of those in the British expeditionary force had arrived in Turkey and had established camps in either Gallipoli or at Scutari across the Bosphorus from Constantinople.

Meanwhile, the Turks had confronted the Russians in its Danubian provinces shortly after their declaration of war in 1853. Prince Mikhail Gorchakov led the invading Russian army of 80,000 men, while the Turks deployed behind defensive positions in towns along the Danube. About 20,000 Turkish troops under Omar Pasha also advanced over the river to engage the Russians. After a few clashes, the Russians were held in check just before the onset of winter.

An advance by Russia in January 1854 to Citate was countered by Turkey. Nevertheless, the Turks under Ahmed Pasha fell back on Kalafat. In the spring of 1854, the Russians captured two towns to give them a foothold on the Upper Danube. In April 1854, Silistria was besieged by 40,000 Russians, who attacked the town a number of times, but failed to overcome the garrison. After Turkish reinforcements arrived, the Russian position was weakened and they abandoned the siege on 23 June 1854. By this time, British and French troops in Turkey had been moved up to Varna on the western coast of the Black Sea and were preparing to throw their weight behind the Turks further north, who had been successful in defending their territory. Faced with an ultimatum from the King of Prussia to vacate the Danubian provinces or else, the Czar wisely decided to give up the struggle on 24 July 1854 and, by 7 September 1854, most Russian troops were back across the Pruth River. About half of the original force of 80,000 Russians were now dead, most through sickness.

The Russian army was not the only one to have health problems. Cholera had reared its ugly head in the British and French armies camped around Varna and took its toll on the as yet untested Allied soldiers. Over 200 men of the British Light Cavalry Brigade were sent on a patrol on 24 June 1854 to determine if the Russians really were pulling back. They returned from their so-called ‘sore-back reconnaissance’ much the worse for wear on 11 July 1854, with both men and horses exhausted. However, it was confirmed that the Russians had indeed gone. A French force of cavalry followed by infantry also went raiding and engaged some Russians before being decimated by cholera with hundreds dying in one day alone. The expedition was rather pointless with an estimated 7,000 troops being affected by disease.

With the retreat of the Russians back over their borders, a diplomatic initiative may well have ended the war. However, this was not a desired outcome for the Allies, who wanted to teach the Czar a lesson. With navies and armies in place, the mood was for the war to continue with the objective of severely diminishing Russia’s military capabilities in the Black Sea region. In particular, revenge had to be extracted for the destruction of the Turkish ships at Sinope by Russia’s Black Sea fleet. This fleet’s base at Sevastopol was the obvious target. On 19 July 1854, the steamship HMS Fury left Varna in the company of protecting warships to reconnoitre the Crimean coast for a suitable landing place in preparation for an invasion. The embarkation was planned for the end of the month or the beginning of the next, but it was delayed by cholera spreading to ships’ crews.

In early August, there was a great fire in Varna with many shops and most of the commissariat stores burnt. Looting also occurred. The cholera became worse with all hospitals full and new marquees having to be erected. Troops sickened and died within hours. However, conditions began to improve later in the month and, on 24 August 1854, British and French troops camped in the countryside began to converge on Varna prior to boarding transports.

The Crimea was not the only object of offensive moves against Russia. British and French fleets also attacked Russian possessions in the Baltic with isolated actions also taking place in the White Sea and on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East. However, it was the war in the Crimea peninsula that gripped public attention.

Disembarkation

William Howard Russell, the war correspondent for The Times, described the landing site at the ‘Old Fort’ location on Kalamita Bay as follows:

The place thus selected for our landing was a low strip of beach and shingle, cast up by the violence of the surf, and forming a sort of causeway between the sea and a stagnant salt-water lake. The lake is about one mile long and half a mile broad … frequented by vast flocks of wildfowl. The causeway was not more than two hundred yards broad, leading, at the right or southern extremity of the lake, by a gentle ascent, to an irregular table-land or plateau of trifling elevation, dotted with tumuli or barrows … Towards the sea this plateau presented a precipitous face of red clay and sandstone, varying in height from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet … Thence towards the south there was a low sandy beach, with a fringe of shingle raised by the action of the waves above the level of the land, and saving it from inundation … The post carriage from Sevastopol to Odessa was also seen rolling leisurely along, and conveying probably, news of the great armament with which the coast was menaced.

Aerial view of the landing beaches and hinterland today. The isthmuses between the salt lakes and the Black Sea where the British, French and Turkish armies landed are indicated. The low plateau, where the British army bivouacked uncomfortably in the rain the first night of the invasion, forms low cliffs on the Black Sea coast. Today’s dirt track to the British landing beach from the main coastal highway near Ivanivka is indicated by a white dashed line to the south of Lake Kyzyl-Yar. A four-wheeled drive vehicle would be needed to reach the beach in wet weather. (Adapted from Google Earth™ image).

It was arranged for a buoy to be placed off shore at the centre of the beach to separate French and British landing sectors. The French and Turks were to land to the south while the British were to land to the north. However, during the hours of darkness, the French placed the buoy at the extreme north end of the beach. As to land at the chosen location would now result in confusion and, rather than move the buoy and possibly annoy the French, a similar beach to the north of the low cliffs that stretched for one and two thirds of a mile north from the ‘Old Fort’ beach was quickly decided upon as a suitable alternative landing site by the British. This too was an isthmus behind which was another salt-water lake.

According to Russell, the French were the first to get a boat ashore soon after 07.00 hours on the morning of 14 September 1854. A flagstaff was quickly erected and soon a tricolour was flying over the scene. There was no enemy in sight. A gun was fired by the French admiral at 08.00 hours and the French began landing troops in earnest. As more men reached the shore, the troops began to reconnoitre the ground and spread out over the hinterland like a fan. About 6,000 troops were ashore in little under an hour.

At about 09.00 hours, one black ball was run up to the fore of HMS Agamemnon and a gun was fired to draw attention to this signal, which meant the first stages of disembarkation of the British infantry and artillery should begin. Russell recalled that almost immediately, ‘the sea was filled with launches, gigs, cutters splashing through the water, some towing flats.’ As this flotilla was approaching the shore, a Russian was seen observing the goings-on from the cliff top and making a sketch of the fleet. This Russian stayed for an hour and was joined during that time by several Cossacks, who were seen gesticulating towards the French advancing from the coast about half a mile away further south.

The very first British boat landed on the isthmus to the north of the low sea cliffs and was soon followed by more. Lieutenant General Sir George Brown, Commander of the Light Division, and Brigadier General Sir Richard Airey, who had recently been in command of the 1st Brigade of the Light Division, but was now Quartermaster General, were in this first wave of boats and among the first to disembark. They walked south along the beach and began to ascend the low cliffs. A number of native carts were seen on the brow of the plateau beyond and it appears Airey turned back at this stage, possibly to organise their capture. Five minutes later, Brown was observed running down the coastal bluff. Cossacks hidden less than a hundred yards away from him had attempted an interception. Brown was short-sighted and most likely unaware of the danger until the Cossacks were close. He was saved by fire from men of the nearby 7th (Royal Fusiliers) Regiment, who caused the Cossacks, already concerned about their path to safety being cut off by the French, to rapidly retreat. A local youth attending the carts on the plateau was shot in the foot at this time. He was the first casualty of the war in Crimea. The fourteen carts abandoned by the Cossacks were found to contain fruit and firewood. The landings continued unabated all through the morning.

Brigades were assembled in contiguous columns along the beach. By 11.00 hours, the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade and the 7th and 23rd (Royal Welch Fusiliers) regiments in the Light Division had been inspected and marched from the left to the right across the front of the other regiments and up the slope onto the low plateau. By noon, the previously empty and isolated beach was full of soldiers. By 13.00 hours, most regiments of the Light Division had moved inland across the plateau. The 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade with skirmishers ahead eventually reached a village four-and-three-quarters-of-a-mile from the beach. By 15.00 hours, 14,200 men had landed and two batteries of artillery.

Against the general flow of troops inland, long strings of soldiers were winding their way down the hillside and back onto the beach in twos carrying horizontal burdens. These were sick or dying soldiers lying on ambulance stretchers. Graves were dug at the bottom of the bluff for those who didn’t survive long enough to be rowed back to the ships. Tartars began arriving with food stuffs to sell. Some begged Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, better known as Lord Raglan, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, for muskets and powder to help fight their Russian masters.

The morning had been sunny and calm. However, the wind increased in the afternoon and by evening the surf made the disembarkation increasingly difficult, if not hazardous. Nevertheless, by the time night fell, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Divisions of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Invasion: The Landings at Kalamita Bay
• Chapter 2 The Battle of the Alma: An Allied Victory on the Road to Sevastopol
• Chapter 3 The March from the Alma to Balaklava: A Rethink of Strategy
• Chapter 4 Balaklava: The British Army’s Supply Port in the Crimea
• Chapter 5 The Battle of Balaklava: The Russians go on the Offensive
• Chapter 6 Kadikoi: The Inner Line of Defence Before Balaklava
• Chapter 7 The Battle of Inkerman: Carnage on the Heights above the Chernaya
• Chapter 8 The Cavalry Camp and St George’s Monastery
• Chapter 9 British Army Headquarters in the Crimea: Finding Raglan’s Command Centre
• Chapter 10 A Winter of Discontent: The Initial Unsuccessful Struggle to take Sevastopol
• Chapter 11 Sevastopol Falls! Victory Finally Achieved
• Chapter 12 Cathcart’s Hill: Infantry Camps and Views of Sevastopol
• Chapter 13 The Valley of the Shadow of Death: Images of Round Shot on Roads
• Chapter 14 The Fall of Sevastopol Until the End of Occupation
• Chapter 15 Sevastopol City and the South Harbour after the Siege
• Chapter 16 The Karabelnaya, Roadstead and Sea Forts
• Appendix 1 Profiles of the principal artists whose work appears in this publication
• Appendix 2 Ariel image maps
• Sources of Information and Additional Reading