Siege of Sevastopol (1854-1855)

Siege of Sevastopol
Part of the Crimean War
Siege of Sevastopol by Franz Roubaud
Date 17 October 1854 – 9 September 1855 Location Sevastopol, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire Result Decisive Allied victory
Belligerents
France  United Kingdom  Ottoman Empire  Sardinia	Russia
Commanders and leaders
François Canrobert Aimable Pélissier Lord Raglan Lord Lyons Sir James Simpson Sir William Codrington Omar Pasha Abdullah Marzioğlu İskender Pasha Halil Pasha	Vladimir Kornilov † Pavel Nakhimov † Eduard Totleben
Strength
October 1854: 67,000 July 1855 total strength: 175,000, consisting of: 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 Malta: 15,000+	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, 50,000 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	Total casualties: 102,000 killed, wounded, and died from disease

The Siege of Sevastopol (at the time called in English the Siege of Sebastopol) lasted from September 1854 until September 1855, during the Crimean War. The allies (French, Ottoman, and British) landed at Eupatoria on 14 September 1854, intending to make a triumphal march to Sevastopol, the capital of the Crimea, with 50,000 men. The 56-kilometre (35 mi) traverse took a year of fighting against the Russians. Major battles along the way were Alma (September 1854), Balaklava (October 1854), Inkerman (November 1854), Tchernaya (August 1855), Redan (September 1855), and, finally, Sevastopol (September 1855). During the siege, the allied navy undertook six bombardments of the capital, on 17 October 1854; and on 9 April, 6 June, 17 June, 17 August, and 5 September 1855.

Sevastopol is one of the classic sieges of all time. The city of Sevastopol was the home of the Tsar's Black Sea Fleet, which threatened the Mediterranean. The Russian field army withdrew before the allies could encircle it. The siege was the culminating struggle for the strategic Russian port in 1854–1855 and was the final episode in the 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 The Thin Red Line, as well as by a panorama of the siege painted by Franz Roubaud. Treating the wounded from these battles were celebrated English nurses Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale.

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