Confusion, Siege and Peace

Following the Battle of Inkerman, a British council of war met to decide whether Sebastopol should be assaulted, various views were put forward from an immediate assault to withdrawing Crimea altogether. It was finally decided to provide winter quarters on the heights above Sebastopol and await reinforcements. Had they been properly provided for, the army would have taken winter in its stride, instead administrative chaos and confusion riddled the army, terrible storms lashed the army and British ships suffered catastrophic losses in the storm of November 14^th, when Balaclava harbor masters denied entry to the ships. Tents were shredded and tree were uprooted. Equipment was ruined and the troops were freezing under the sky. In Balaclava, there was no lack of food, clothing or stores. The problem lie in moving the stores to the heights, this task proved beyond the Commissariat because there was not enough forage to feed the pack animals. The Cavalry horses were also starved of forage and were eating each others tails and manes. It took until January, 1855 before the problem was partially rectified when British navies built the Balaclava railway line up to the heights.

Much of the blame is cast at Admiral Boxer, the man who was in charge of transport arrangement at Constantinople. Due to his inefficiency ships arrived at Balaclava without notice and with nobody sure what supplies they carried. Some sailed into Constantinople and were sent back unloaded. In Balaclava, the quayside was confusion. Flour poured out of split sacks in damp lumps, ammunition boxes, wood, rotting meat and powder barrels lay jumbled together. The harbor was full of refuse and Turkish soldiers lied dying in makeshift hospitals. The problems all stemmed from the multitude of administrative army branches who did not communicate with each other. It was not until March, 1855 that a Land Transport Corps was formed and in June, 1855 a new Medical Corps was set up to provide hospital services. Some officers displayed unlimited luxury, while others battled to save their men. Lord Raglan, General Airey and others were unable to maintain morale, which deteriorated sharply. Lord Raglans refusal to appear among the men didn't help things either, he believed secretive visits to the encampments, mostly at night, served the best purpose.

By the end of November, The London Times was finally moved to attack the administrative chaos and muddle in the Crimea. At Scutari, Florence Nightingale battled valiantly to improve conditions and save lives of wounded and dying soldiers. Dysentry, erysipleas, fever and gangrene were rife. She first arrived on November 5, 1854 with 38 nurses recruited in England on the prompting of the Secretary at War, the doctors refused her help, and only allowed her nurses to undertake menial duties. But the flood of wounded and sick forced officialdom's hand, and Florence Nightingale's influence grew accordingly. She had a fund of £30,000 to manage, and out of this purchased some of the necessities needed at the Barrack Hospital. She also worked with incredible energy and devotion, often going without sleep, superintending the multiple tasks that confronted her cleansing the wards, ensuring that fresh bed linen was available, tending the dying and arranging the preparation of special nutritious diets.

Her relentless mind enabled her to dominate and browbeat those that came into contact with her. Doctor John Hall, the Inspector General of Hospitals, and Raglan's Principal Medical officer, immediately recognized her inconvenient strength and tried, by subterfuge, to get her shipped back home, and after avoiding the trap, entertained a deep dislike of Hall. Her success is beyond doubt, on her arrival at Scutari the death rate was 44%, six months later it had plummeted to 2.2%. She was rewarded with the adulation of the Victorian public, which surrounded her with a sentimental idolization. She died in 1910, still held in the highest regard.

In February 1855, the huge volume of public criticism and complaint toppled the Aberdeen government and Lord Palmerston became Prime Minister with Lord Panmure becoming Secretary at War. This resulted in some improvement in the organization and administration of the British Army, and as spring approached the chaos was slowly cleared. The railway line was completed and more Turkish labor was recruited for improvements. Transport was borrowed from the French and boatloads of Spanish mules arrived and the confusion in Balaclava was similarly addressed and the cheating contractors and sutlers were purged. By March 1855, the morale was largely restored and the army stirred itself from its lethargy and despair, ready once again, to attack Sebastopol.

Having failed to attack the town of Sebastopol when the opportunity arose earlier, the Allies now had no opportunity but to reduce Sebastopol by gunfire. This in truth, was no siege, both avenues to the north and east were wide open, Russian troops could march in and out at will and supplies could be brought in at any time to sustain the garrison. By the beginning of February, the British army had a numerically fit strength of 11,000 men and the French had 90,000. The British also had 23,000 sick and wounded. The Turks were supplementing the besieging forces by 20,000 men and 30 guns. The French were by now the decidedly Senior partners in the campaign. There were also the foreign mercenaries, 9,000 men of the German legion, 3,000 men of the Swiss Legion and a Polish Legion of 1,500 men. In May 1855, 15,000 Sardinians arrived led by De La Marmora.

Despite these reinforcements, Sebastopol remained a formidable obstacle. There was no continuous defensive stone wall. There was hardly any stone in the original defenses except for the round tower of the Malakov and another in the Old Town. Todleben's defenses were earthworks reinforced with timber, brushwood and earth filled baskets known as gabions. The great earth rampart was defended by a palisade of sharpened stakes, then a ditch, beyond which was a rifle pit. Beyond the rifle pit were other obstacles, abbatis (a tangle of trees and branches), fougasses (holes filled with stones beneath which lay a detonating charge) and strewn over the ground were plank with sharp nails punched through. Beneath the ground, each side mined and searched for the other sides mines, destroying them as they found them.

In general the Russian resistance to the allied operations was comparatively easy. Any allied threat was promptly answered, mostly overnight, by the Russian engineers and sappers. At night raiding parties from the advanced Russians counter parallels and rifle pits crept up to the allied trenches and attacked their unsuspecting occupants. The British role in the siege was now a modest one, as in alignment with their modest manpower. They occupied a small sector in the middle of the siege front, across the Woronzov Road, and facing the Redan and the Greenhill Cemetery. The rest of the army was stretched out on the heights above Balaclava. The French left attack on Sebastopol was directed against the Flagstaff battery, the Central Bastion and the Quarantine Bastion. The French right was opposite the Malakov, the Little Redan and by the end of February 1855, the Mamelon.

The Mamelon was taken by the Russians on the night of February 22^nd, and quickly converted into a redoubt faced with stone. The capturing of the Mamelon became an urgent priority for the allies, since the British argued that such a success would enable them to attack the Redan, and the French that they would then stand a good chance of taking the Malakov.

On March 6^th it was reported that Tsar Nicholas I had died, and had been succeeded by his son Alexander II. Raglan urged Canrobert to strike immediately against the Mamelon since Russian morale may have been affected by the Tsars death. Canrobert refused. Probably because General Adolphe Niel, the Emperor's aide-de-camp and confidant, had arrived in the Crimea with wide powers of supervision and even control. The Emperor had decided to come to the field and take command himself, badgering Canrobert with instructions and advice. The Emperor had come to the conclusion early in 1855 that Sebastopol would never be taken unless it was properly invested and closed in from all sides. Lord Raglan never accepted this hypothesis, but Canrobert came to accept it, though somewhat grudgingly. At any rate, the French commander remained unwilling to risk a premature assault on Sebastopol.

While the allies vacillated, the Russians pushed their lines forward throughout March and continued to build up their defenses. On March 22^nd, the Russians made a sortie against the French on the Victoria Ridge and were for a time able to established themselves in the French lines, they then turned against the north flank of the British right attack, but were eventually driven off by artillery fire. It was an embarrassment to the besiegers and led to acrimonious exchanges between the British and French as to how the Russians had been able to open up the French flank.

On April 9^th, the Allies began their second great bombardment of Sebastopol. 520 allied guns, 138 of which were British, poured 165,000 rounds into the towns defenses and were answered by 998 Russian guns firing about 90,000 rounds in reply. The guns thundered for ten days, inflicting 6,131 Russians, 1,587 French and 263 British casualties. Unfortunately the Russians were repairing the defenses at night, although the Flagstaff Bastion was given up as lost. The French maneuvered to within a hundred yards of the Bastion, but Canrobert deferred an attack after being harassed by Imperial directives. Relations between the British and French understandably suffered during these inconclusive and abortive events.

Events outside the Crimea also added pressure and confusion in march and April. A conference on March 15^th opened in Vienna attended by representatives of all the combatant powers to see if any progress could be made towards peace. A month later, Napoleon III touted his own plan for a successful conclusion to the war at Windsor castle, and in the end did not descend on the Crimea to lead his armies himself, and instead continued to pepper Canrobert with instructions, and was rendered doubly potent when the electric telegraph from Varna to allied headquarters was completed at the end of April.

This was demonstrated on May 2^nd, a British conceived and combined expedition set sail to Kertch to open the Sea of Azof to the Allied ships which could then attack Russian supplies coming from the mainland, but the emperor ordered, in a telegram two hours after the expedition sailed, that all ships be sent to Constantinople and forbidding him to divert any troops from the reduction of Sebastopol, this was done with no knowledge of the expeditionary force which had sailed however. The French component of the force was recalled, and the British had no choice but to accompany them due to insufficient numbers.

A few days later, Canrobert presented the emperor's plan to an allied council of war. It was not well received in light of the recent fiascos, and Canrobert asked the Emperor to relieve him of command of the French force and give him a divisional command instead on May 16^th. General Pelissier became French Commander-in-Chief, while Canrobert took over as commander of the 4^th Division.

Map: Allied Positions around Sebastopol in May 1855

On May 22^nd, Pelissier opened his book with a savage night assault on the Russian defenses between the Central Bastion and Quaratine Bay, and also gave permission for the Kertch expedition to go ahead. The night attack was costly but attained its objective. The Kertch expedition was surprisingly successful, Kertch and Yenikale were captured, a hundred guns taken, thousands of tons of corn and flour destroyed, Russian boats sunk and depots and arsenals demolished. The sea of Azof was laid open to Royal Navy gunboats which continued to wreak tremendous havoc in the area.

Pelissier rejected the Emperors commands and even cut the telegraph line once. At the beginning of June the French commander launched a joint assault on Mamelon, after having received a communiqué from the Emperor forbidding the action. He claimed it had been received late, and only obeyed it after Mamelon had been taken. On June 6^th, the third bombardment of Sebastopol had taken place, and allied artillery pounded the Mamelon, the White Works and the Quarries. By June 9^th, desperate Russian counter-attacks had failed to prevent allied success when the French swept into Mamelon and the British lay before the Redan.

Napoleon II order Pelissier to take the campaign to the field, and Pelissier replied that his orders were impossible, the Emperor must allow him to proceed how he saw fit or he would resign. As Pelissier waited for a reply, a major attack was planned. On June 17^th, the Allied artillery once again ripped into the earthworks and it was planned for the British to take the Redan and the French Malakov. Both attacks were disastrous failures as the Russians had prior knowledge of the assault, a quarrel between Pelissier and Bosquet and Pelissier also moved the attack forward to 3 am and dispensed with the preliminary bombardment. Lord Raglan was not consulted and simply had to conform, new orders were issued and once again, confusion reigned. The French suffered badly and Pelissier withdrew his troops by 8:30 am. The British fared equally badly, the troops went in over a quarter of a mile of open ground through a terrifying barrage of grape shot and musketry, it was an appalling defeat. The British lost 1,500 troops, the French lost 1,500 dead and 1,600 wounded.

This reverse was a further blow to Lord Raglans spirits and he was by now exhausted, battered by the presses attacks and the failure of the assaults on Sebastopol. Cholera returned to ravage the army once again, claiming General Estcourt on the June 14^th and Raglan suffered a violent attack of diarrhea. On June 28^th, Lord Raglan died peacefully in his sleep and the army was grief stricken by the sudden death of its Commander-in-Chief. The body was shipped off to Bristol for a quiet burial at the family home. Sir George Brown was already under medical orders to return home, so the army command fell to Sir James Simpson who assumed command on July 1^st, he was soon oppressed by the difficulties facing him and had little military experience apart from the Peninsular War.

Omar Pasha wasted to move the Turkish forces from the Crimea to protect the fortress of Kars, south-east of Trebizond in Asia Minor. Napoleon III was vehemently opposed to any such scheme and the siege continued. On August 16^th, the Russian commander Gorchakov, who had replaced Menshikov, launched an attack with four infantry division and two artillery brigades across the Chernaya river in an attempt to recapture ten Fediukine Heights as a base for further operations against Balaclava and the Sapoune Heights. The Battle of the Chernaya ended in a decisive Russian defeat in which only some British cavalry and artillery units took part. It was the last Russian effort to break the siege by operations in the field, Gorchakov sent a dispatch to the Minister of War after this stating that it was mistaken to prolong the defense of Sebastopol.

Simpson continued to be appalled by his responsibilities and wrote letters to Lord Panmure in such a pessimistic tone that the latter upbraided him on July 28^th and urged him to lead, and soon was discussing his successor with Panmure. The long beseiged citadel finally fell on September 8, 1855. At 11:30 am a thunderous artillery barrage opened up, forty minutes later, the Zouaves of General MacMahon's division spearheaded an assault on the Mahakov within ten minutes the Malakov was captured, and was held against a fierce Russian counterattack. the British attack on Redan was less successful, the troops being pinned down at the foot of the Redan and refused to move from the cover of the parapet. They turned and fled after a few minutes. The Russians destroyed all the defenses during the night and fled, the Allied army marched into the ruins after eleven months of siege.

After Sebastopol fell, the Crimean theater petered out. At Vienna the combatants representatives hammered out a peace treaty. The Russians dug into the heights north of Sebastopol and Napoleon III urged Pelissier to attack and was again ignored. General Bazaine undertook operations to occupy Kinburn with success at the emperors urging which blocked the Russians communications between Nicolev, Kherson and Odessa. By November 1855, the French were ready to conclude a peace. The British were willing to continue as the British army had now reached a peak, and in January 1856, Sir William Codrington succeeded Simpson as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army.

Codrington prepared for a spring offensive and the winter was a mild one and this time the French suffered from illness as the British were this time round, well fed, sheltered and clothed. An armistice was arranged in February 1856 following a vigorous initiative by the Austrians which came into effect on March 14^th. On March 30^th the final peace treaty was signed in paris.

The peace treaty returned the Crimea to Russia and Kars to Turkey, the black Sea was to be neutralized, no naval bases or arsenals were to be maintained on its shores and ships of war were denied access to or exit through the Bosphorus. Though both Turkey and Russia were allowed to keep some light warships in the Black Sa. the Danube was declared an open waterway and Russia was also ceded a small area of Southern Bessarabia which they had seized in 1828. Turkish sovereignty was to be maintained in the Danubian provinces although they became Romania, and the Sultan declared he was prepared to improve conditions for all Christians within the Ottoman empire. The Allies began to pull out once the Treaty was signed. The last French soldiers left on the July 4^th and the last British soldiers on the July 12^th.

Fourteen years later Russian denounced the treaty and built a new black sea fleet. In 1877 war loomed with Russia once more, which was only ended by the Treaty of Berlin a year later. The allies had prevented Russian expansion and stabilized the Turkish empire until it was dismantled by the Victorious Allies after the First World War.