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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.
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 *** and 5,000
workmen, totalling just over 35,000 men.
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.
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 Russian 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.
The British assault on the Redan failed
but the French under General de Mac-Mahon
managed to seize the Malakoff redoubt 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.
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.