Crimean War
- Period
- October 1853 – March 1856
- Sides
- Russia vs Ottomans, Britain, France & Sardinia
- Battles
- 23
The Crimean War was fought between Russia and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom, and Sardinia from October 1853 to February 1856. Geopolitical causes of the war included the Eastern question, the expansion of Russia in the preceding Russo-Turkish wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe.
Sources: Wikipedia — Crimean War · CC BY-SA 4.0
Battles 23
November 1853
Battle of Sinop
The Battle of Sinop, or the Battle of Sinope, was a naval battle that took place on 30 November 1853 between Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire during the opening phase of the Crimean War (1853–1856). It took place at Sinop, a sea port on the southern shore of the Black Sea. A Russian squadron attacked and decisively defeated an Ottoman squadron anchored in Sinop's harbor. The Russian force consisted of six ships of the line, two frigates and three armed steamers, led by Admiral Pavel Nakhimov; the Ottoman defenders were seven frigates, three corvettes and two armed steamers, commanded by Vice Admiral Osman Pasha.
November 1853
Battle of Oltenița
The Battle of Oltenița was fought on 4 November 1853 and was the first engagement of the Crimean War. In this battle an Ottoman army under the command of Omar Pasha was defending its fortified positions from the Russian forces led by General Peter Dannenberg, until the Russians were ordered to withdraw. The Russian attack was called off just when they reached the Ottoman fortifications, and they retreated in good order, but suffered heavy losses. The Turks held their positions, but did not pursue the enemy, and later retreated to the other side of Danube.
November 1853
Battle of Akhaltsikhe (1853)
The Battle of Akhaltsikhe occurred on 13 November 1853 during the Crimean War when a Georgian-Russian force of 7,000 defeated a Turkish army of 18,000 men near the Akhaltsikhe fortress in the Caucasus.
December 1853 – January 1854
Battle of Cetate
The Battle of Cetate was fought during the Crimean War. In this battle a large Ottoman force under Ahmed Pasha unsuccessfully attempted to capture the village of Cetate which was controlled by Russian Colonel Alexander Baumgarten.
December 1853
Battle of Başgedikler
The Battle of Başgedikler occurred on 1 December 1853 during the Crimean War when a Russian army attacked and defeated a large Turkish force near the village of Başgedikler in the Trans-Caucasus.
February 1854 – May 1854
Siege of Calafat
The siege of Calafat took place in 1854 during the Crimean War. The Russians unsuccessfully besieged the Ottoman army at this place for four months before finally withdrawing.
May 1854 – June 1854
Siege of Silistria (1854)
The siege of Silistria, or siege of Silistra, was a key engagement in the Crimean War, fought from 11 May to 23 June 1854 between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire in present-day Bulgaria. The Russian army, numbering up to 90,000 men with 266 guns, attempted to capture the Danubian fortress of Silistria as part of a broader strategy to outflank Ottoman defences and pre-empt an expected Allied landing at Varna. The garrison, 12,000 to 18,000 Ottoman troops and Egyptian auxiliaries, was bolstered by British military advisers and successfully withstood a six-week siege.
May 1854
Battle of Nigoiti
The battle of Nigoiti took place between 20 and 27 May 1854 the village of Nigoiti in Guria during the Crimean War.
June 1854
Battle of Choloki (1854)
The Battle of Choloki took place on 4 June 1854 on the outskirts of village Kakuti in Guria, Georgia during the Crimean War. Under the command of General Ivane Andronikashvili, the invading Turks were successfully repelled and defeated.
August 1854
Battle of Kurekdere
The Battle of Kürekdere took place on 6 August 1854 as part of the Crimean War. The battle occurred when an Ottoman army from the Ottoman fortress of Kars marched out to confront a marauding Russian detachment near the village of Kürekdere in the Trans-Caucasus.
September 1854
Battle of the Alma
The Battle of the Alma took place during the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20 September 1854. The allies had made a surprise landing in Crimea on 14 September. The allied commanders, Maréchal Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud and Lord Raglan, then marched toward the strategically important port city of Sevastopol, 45 km away. Russian commander Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov rushed his available forces to the last natural defensive position before the city, the Alma Heights, south of the Alma River.
October 1854
Battle of Balaclava
The Battle of Balaclava, fought on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War, was part of the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55), an attempt by the British, French and Ottoman allies to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol, Russia's principal naval base on the Black Sea. The engagement followed the earlier Allied victory in September at the Battle of the Alma, where the Russian General Menshikov had positioned his army in an attempt to stop the Allies progressing south towards their strategic goal. Alma was the first major encounter fought in the Crimean Peninsula since the Allied landings at Kalamita Bay on 14 September, and was a clear battlefield success; but a tardy pursuit by the Allies failed to gain a decisive victory, allowing the Russians to regroup, recover and prepare their defence.
October 1854 – September 1855
Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)
The Siege of Sevastopol lasted from October 1854 until September 1855, during the Crimean War. The allies landed at Eupatoria on 14 September 1854, intending to make a triumphal march to Sevastopol, the capital of the Crimea, with 50,000 men. Major battles along the way were Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, Tchernaya, Redan, and, finally, Malakoff. 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.
October 1854
Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade was a military action undertaken by British light cavalry against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, resulting in many casualties to the cavalry. On 25 October 1854, the Light Brigade, led by Lord Cardigan, mounted a frontal assault against a Russian artillery battery which was well-prepared with excellent fields of defensive fire. The charge was the result of a misunderstood order from the commander-in-chief, Lord Raglan, who had intended the Light Brigade to attack a different objective for which light cavalry was better suited, to prevent the Russians from removing captured guns from overrun Turkish positions. The Light Brigade made its charge under withering direct fire and reached its target, scattering some of the gunners, but was forced to retreat immediately.
October 1854
Thin Red Line (Battle of Balaclava)
The Thin Red Line described an episode of the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854, during the Crimean War. In the incident, around 500 men of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders led by Sir Colin Campbell, aided by a small force of 100 walking wounded, 40 detached Guardsmen, and supported by a substantial force of Turkish infantrymen, formed a line of fire against the Russian cavalry. Previously, Campbell's Highland Brigade had taken part in actions at the Battle of Alma and the Siege of Sevastopol. There were more Victoria Crosses presented to the Highland soldiers at that time than at any other. The event was lionised in the British press and became an icon of the qualities of the British soldier in a war that was arguably poorly managed and increasingly unpopular.
November 1854
Battle of Inkerman
The Battle of Inkerman was fought during the Crimean War on 5 November 1854 by the allied armies of Britain and France against the Imperial Russian Army. The battle broke the will of the Russian Army to defeat the allies in the field, and was followed by the siege of Sevastopol. The role of troops fighting mostly on their own initiative due to the foggy conditions during the battle has earned the engagement the name "The Soldier's Battle."
February 1855
Battle of Eupatoria
The Battle of Eupatoria occurred on 17 February 1855 during the Crimean War when the army of the Russian Empire unsuccessfully attempted to capture the Crimean port city of Eupatoria held by the forces of the Ottoman Empire.
June 1855 – November 1855
Siege of Kars
The siege of Kars was the last major operation of the Crimean War. In June 1855, attempting to alleviate pressure on the defence of Sevastopol, Emperor Alexander II ordered General Nikolay Muravyov to lead his troops against areas of Ottoman interest in Asia Minor. Uniting disparate contingents under his command into a strong corps of 25,725 soldiers, 96 light guns, Muravyov decided to attack Kars, the most important fortress of Eastern Anatolia.
June 1855 – September 1855
Battle of Malakoff
The Battle of Malakoff or the Storming of the Malakhov Kurgan was a series of French attacks against Russian forces on the Malakoff redoubt. The first attack was unsuccessful, and occurred on 18 June 1855; subsequent capture of the redoubt was on 8 September 1855. The assaults were parts of the Crimean War and the siege of Sevastopol. The French army under General MacMahon successfully stormed the Malakoff redoubt on 8th, while a simultaneous British attack on the Redan to the south of the Malakoff was repulsed. In one of the war's defining moments, the French zouave Eugène Libaut raised the French flag on the top of the Russian redoubt. The battle of Malakoff resulted in the fall of Sevastopol on 9 September, bringing the 11-month siege to an end.
August 1855
Battle of the Chernaya
The Battle of the Chernaya was fought at the Traktir Bridge on the Chernaya River during the Crimean War on August 16, 1855. The battle was fought between Russian, French, Piedmontese and Ottoman troops. The Chernaya River is on the outskirts of Sevastopol, near the line of the allies' siege of the city.
September 1855
Battle of the Great Redan
The Battle of the Great Redan was a major battle during the Crimean War, fought between British forces against Russia on 18 June and 8 September 1855 as a part of the Siege of Sevastopol. The French army successfully stormed the Malakoff redoubt, whereas a simultaneous British attack on the Great Redan to the south of the Malakoff was repulsed. Contemporary commentators have suggested that, although the Redan became so important to the Victorians, it was probably not vital to the taking of Sevastopol. The fort at Malakhov was much more important and it was in the French sphere of influence. When the French stormed it after an eleven-month siege that the final, the British attack on the Redan became somewhat unnecessary.
October 1855
Battle of Kinburn (1855)
The Battle of Kinburn, a combined land-naval engagement during the final stage of the Crimean War, took place on the tip of the Kinburn Peninsula on 17 October 1855. During the battle a combined fleet of vessels from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy bombarded Russian coastal fortifications after an Anglo-French ground force had besieged them. Three French ironclad batteries carried out the main attack, which saw the main Russian fortress destroyed in an action that lasted about three hours.
November 1855
Siege of Taganrog
The siege of Taganrog is a name given in some Russian histories to Anglo-French naval operations in the Sea of Azov between June and November 1855 during the Crimean War. British and French forces were implementing a strategy of destroying the supply lines for the main Russian army which ran through the Sea of Azov. Taganrog was one of the major logistical hubs of the Russian army and was attacked and its military depot destroyed on 3 June 1855 as part of a series of attacks on all major Russian supply bases in the area, except Rostov-on-Don, which could not be reached due to the large shoals not admitting any available warship.
Earlier and later events nearby
- 1709Battle of Poltava
- 1727First Ottoman printing press
- 1839Tanzimat reforms begin
- October 1853 – March 1856Crimean WarThis page
- 1876Promulgation of the Ottoman constitution
- 1877–1878Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
- 1912–1913First Balkan War
Who ruled this land
States that held this place in the historical borders data (Cliopatria). Years are approximate, as fine as the data's snapshots (every few years to a century). Tap to open the map for that year.
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