Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)

Siege of Sevastopol
Part of the Crimean War
Siege of Sevastopol by Franz Roubaud
Date October 17, 1854 – September 9, 1855 Location Sevastopol, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) Result Allied victory
Belligerents
France British Empire Ottoman Empire Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont)	Russia
Commanders and leaders
General François Canrobert (later replaced by General Pélissier) Lord Raglan (later replaced by General Sir James Simpson) Ottoman Empire Omar Pasha Abdullah Pasha Marzioğlu Iskender Pasha Halil Pasha	Admiral Vladimir Kornilov (later replaced by Admiral Pavel Nakhimov) Lt. Col. Eduard Totleben
Strength
October 1854 67,000, July 1855 total strength 175,000 of which: French 75,000 British 35,000 Ottoman 60,000 Piedmontese 15,000 Arriving in August: British Ottoman Contingent 22,000 German Legion 9,000 Swiss Legion 3,000 Polish Legion 1,500 Italian Legion 2,000 French Reserve Army at Constantinople 30,000 British Reserve Army at Malta15,000+	October 1854 garrison 36,600, May 1855 garrison 43,000 and 42,000 army in the Crimea, with 8,886 naval gunners
Casualties and losses
French: 10,240 killed in action; 20,000 died of wounds; 75,000 died of disease British: 2,755 killed in action; 2,019 died of wounds; 16,323 died of disease Piedmontese: 2,050 died from all causes Total Deaths: 128,387	102,000 killed, wounded and died from disease.

The Siege of Sevastopol (sometimes rendered "Sebastopol") was a major siege, lasting from September 1854 until September 1855, during the Crimean War. They landed at Eupatoria on 14 September 1854, intending to make a 35 mile triumphal march to Sevastopol the capital of the Crimea, with 50,000 men. To traverse the 35 miles, the British forces fought for a year against the Russians. Inscribed on the monument are names of the battles the British army fought to reach the capital: "Alma" (September 1854), "Balaklava" (October 1854), "Inkerman" (November 1854), "Tchernaya" (August 1855), "Redan" (September 1855), and, finally, "Sebastopol" (September 1855). (During the siege, the British navy made six bombardments of the capital: October 17, 1854; April 9, June 6, June 17, August 17, and September 5, 1855.) Sebastopol is one of the classic sieges of all time. The culminating struggle for the strategic Russian port in 1854-5 was the final bloody episode in the costly Crimean War.

During the Victorian Era, these battles were repeatedly memorialized. The Siege of Sevastopol was the subject of Crimean soldier Leo Tolstoy's Sebastopol Sketches and the subject of the first Russian feature film, Defence of Sevastopol. The Battle of Balaklava was made famous by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and Robert Gibb's painting Thin Red Line. (Treating the wounded from these battles was celebrated English nurse Florence Nightingale.)

Description

In September 1854, Allied troops (French, Ottoman and British) landed in the Crimea and besieged the city of Sevastopol, home of the Tsar's Black Sea Fleet which threatened the Mediterranean. Before it could be encircled, the Russian field army withdrew.

At the start of October, French and British engineers, moving from their base at Balaclava, began to direct the building of siege lines along the Chersonese uplands to the south of Sevastopol. The troops dug redoubts, gun batteries and trenches.

File:Old Burial Ground Halifax.jpg

Monument to Sevastopol, Halifax, Nova Scotia - Only Crimean War Monument in North America

With the Russian army and its commander Prince Menshikov gone, the defence of Sevastopol was led by Vice Admirals Vladimir Kornilov and Pavel Nakhimov, assisted by Menshikov's chief engineer, Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Totleben. The military forces available to defend the city were 4,500 militia, 2,700 gunners, 4,400 marines, 18,500 naval seamen and 5,000 workmen, totalling just over 35,000 men.

The Russians first began scuttling their ships to protect the harbour, then used their naval cannon as additional artillery and the ships' crews as marines. Those ships deliberately sunk by the end of 1855 included Grand Duke Constantine, City of Paris (both with 120 guns), Brave, Empress Maria, Chesme, Yagondeid (84 guns), Kavarna (60 guns), Konlephy (54 guns), steam frigate Vladimir, steamboats Thunderer, Bessarabia, Danube, Odessa, Elbrose and Krein.

By mid-October 1854, the Allies had some 120 guns ready to fire on Sevastopol; the Russians had about three times as many to return fire and defend against attacking infantry.

On October 17, 1854 (old style date, October 29 new style) the artillery battle began. The Russian artillery first destroyed a French magazine, silencing their guns. British fire then set off the magazine in the Malakoff redoubt, killing Admiral Kornilov, silencing most of the Russian guns there and leaving a gap in the city's defences. However, the British and French withheld their planned infantry attack and a possible early end to the siege was missed.

At the same time, the Allies' ships pounded the Russian defences, taking damage but inflicting little in return before their retirement. The bombardment resumed the following day; but, working overnight, the Russians had repaired the damage caused. This would become the pattern repeated throughout the siege.

During October and November 1854, the battles of Balaclava and Inkerman took place beyond the siege lines. Balaclava provided a morale boost to the Russians and convinced them that the allied lines were thinly spread out and undermanned. But after being defeated at Inkerman, the Russians saw that the Sevastopol siege would not be lifted by a battle in the field and instead moved their troops piece by piece into the city to aid the defenders. Toward the end of November, the weather broke and winter brought a storm which ruined the Allies' camps and supply lines. Men and horses became sick and starved in the poor conditions.

While Totleben extended the fortifications around the Redan, the Flagstaff Bastion and the Malakoff, the British chief engineer John Burgoyne sought to take the Malakoff, which he saw as the key to Sevastopol. Siege works were begun to bring the Allied troops nearer to the Malakoff; in response, Totleben dug rifle pits from where the Russians could snipe at the besiegers. In a foretaste of the trench warfare that became the hallmark of the First World War, these pits became the focus of Allied assaults.

Once winter subsided, the Allies were able to restore many supply routes. A new railway, the "Grand Crimean Central Railway" built by the contractors Thomas Brassey and Samuel Peto, was used to bring supplies from Balaclava to the siegelines, delivering more than five hundred guns and plentiful ammunition. Starting on April 8, 1855 (Easter Sunday), the Allies resumed their bombardment of the Russian defences. On 28 June (10 July), Admiral Nakhimov died from a head wound inflicted by an Allied sniper.

Attack on the Malakoff by William Simpson.

On 24 August (5 September) Allies started their sixth and the most severe bombardment of the fortress. 307 cannons fired 150,000 rounds, with Russians suffering 2,000 to 3,000 casualties daily. On 27 August (8 September) 13 Allied divisions and one Allied brigade (total strength 60,000) began the last assault. The British assault on the Great Redan failed but the French under General de Mac-Mahon managed to seize the Malakoff redoubt and the Little Redan making the Russian defensive position untenable. By morning 28 August (9 September) Russian forces abandoned the Southern Side of Sevastopol.

Although defended heroically and at the cost of heavy Allied casualties, the fall of Sevastopol would lead to the Russian defeat in the Crimean War.

Most of the Russian defenders of the city killed during the siege were buried in Brotherhood cemetery in over 400 collective graves. The three main commanders (Nakhimov, Kornilov, Istomin) were interred in the purpose-built Admirals' Burial Vault.

Battles during the siege

• Battle of Malakoff
• Battle of Redan

Fate of Sevastopol cannons

The British sent a pair of cannons seized at Sevastopol to each of the most important cities in the Empire. Additionally, several were sent to the Royal Military College Sandhurst and the Royal Military Academy Woolwich, and these cannons now all reside at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (renamed after the closing of RMA Woolwich shortly after the Second World War) and are displayed next to cannons from Waterloo, and other battles, in front of Old College.

The cascabel (the large ball at the rear of old muzzle-loaded guns) of several cannons captured during the siege are used to make the British Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the British Armed Forces. The metal from these cascabels is in danger of running out and there is some uncertainty as to what metal will be used once this occurs. There is also some doubt as to the origin of the metal used in some of the medals awarded during the First World War.

Gallery

Franz Roubaud. Panorama Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)

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  Museum Panorama Defence of Sevastopol
• 
  British lithograph published March 1855, after a water-colour by William Simpson, shows winter military housing under construction with supplies borne on soldiers' backs. A dead horse lies by the roadside partially buried in snow.
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  Siege of Sevastopol 1855 by Grigoryi Shukaev
• 
  A view of the "Valley of the Shadow of Death" near Sevastopol, taken by Roger Fenton in March 1855. It was so named by soldiers because of the number of cannon balls that landed there, falling short of their target, during the siege.
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  Map of the French (blue) and British (red)
  lines during the siege. The defenders' positions are in green.
• 
  Supply lines from the port of Balaklava, 1855. The Grand Crimean Central Railway is shown as "Chemin de Fer Anglais"
• 
  Map of Sevastopol

More images from the siege appear in the Franz Roubaud page.

See also

• Sebastopol Sketches, cycle of three historical fiction short stories written by Leo Tolstoy
• Defence of Sevastopol, Russia's first feature film

External links

• Letters and Papers of Colonel Hugh Robert Hibbert (1828–1895) Mainly relating to service in the Crimean War, 1854–1855.