Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)

September 1854 The forces of the allies (the Second French Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) landed at Yevpatoria on 14 September 1854. The Battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854, which is usually considered the first battle of the Crimean War (1853–1856), took place just south of the Alma in Crimea. An Anglo-French force under Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud and FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan defeated General Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov's Russian army, which lost around 6000 troops. Moving from their base at Balaklava at the start of October, French and British engineers began to direct the building of siege lines along the Chersonese uplands to the south of Sevastopol. The troops prepared redoubts, gun batteries, and trenches. With the Russian army and its commander, Generalissimo-Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, gone, the defence of Sevastopol was led by Vice Admirals Vladimir Alexeyevich Kornilov and Pavel Nakhimov, assisted by Menshikov's chief engineer, Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Totleben. The military forces available to defend the city were 4500 militia, 2700 gunners, 4400 marines, 18,500 naval seamen, and 5,000 workmen, totalling just over 35,000 men. The naval defense of Sevastopol included eight artillery batteries: three on the north shore (Konstantin Battery or Fort Constantine, Mikhail battery or Fort Michael, battery no. 4), and five on the northern shore (Pavel battery or Fort Pavel, battery no. 8, Alexander battery or Fort Alexander, battery no. 8). The Russians began by 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), , , , , and Yagondeid (all 84 guns), Kavarna (60 guns), Konlephy (54 guns), steam frigate Vladimir, steamboats Thunderer, Bessarabia, Danube, Odessa, Elbrose, and Krein. October 1854 By mid-October, the Allies had some 120 guns ready to fire on Sevastopol; the Russians had about three times as many. On 5 October (old style date, 17 October new style) the artillery battle began. and Inkerman took place beyond the siege lines. Balaclava gave the Russians a morale boost and convinced them that the Allied lines were thinly spread out and undermanned. the Russians saw that the siege of Sevastopol would not be lifted by a battle in the field, so instead they moved troops into the city to aid the defenders. Toward the end of November, a winter storm ruined the Allies' camps and supply lines. Men and horses sickened and starved in the poor conditions. While Totleben extended the fortifications around the Redan bastion and the Malakoff redoubt, British chief engineer John Fox 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 which Russian troops could snipe at the besiegers. In a foretaste of the trench warfare that became the hallmark of the First World War, the trenches became the focus of Allied assaults. 1855 The Allies were able to restore many supply routes when winter ended. The new Grand Crimean Central Railway, built by the contractors Thomas Brassey and Samuel Morton Peto, which had been completed at the end of March 1855 was now in use bringing supplies from Balaclava to the siege lines. The 24-mile long railroad delivered more than five hundred guns and plentiful ammunition. On 24 August (5 September) the Allies started their sixth and the most severe bombardment of the fortress. Three hundred and seven cannon fired 150,000 rounds, with the Russians suffering 2,000 to 3,000 casualties daily. On 27 August (8 September), thirteen 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 MacMahon, managed to seize the Malakoff redoubt and the Little Redan, making the Russian defensive position untenable. By the morning of 28 August (9 September), the Russian forces had 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. ==Battles during the siege==

• First bombardment of Sevastopol (17 October 1854) • Battle of Balaclava (25 October 1854) • Battle of Little Inkerman (26 October 1854) • Battle of Inkerman (5 November 1854) • Aborted Russian attack at Balaklava (10 January 1855) • Battle of Eupatoria (17 February 1855) • Aborted allied attack at Chernaya (20 February 1855) • Russian army assaults and seizes the Mamelon (22 February 1855) • French assault on the "White Works" repulsed (24 February 1855) • Second bombardment of Sevastopol (9 April 1855) • British assault "the Rifle Pits" successfully (19 April 1855) • Battle of the Quarantine Cemetery (1 May 1855) • Third bombardment of Sevastopol (6 June 1855) • Allies successfully assault the "White Works", Mamelon and "The Quarries" (8-9 June 1855) • Fourth bombardment of Sevastopol (17 June 1855) • Allied assaults on the Malakoff and Great Redan repulsed (18 June 1855) • Battle of the Chernaya (16 August 1855) • Fifth bombardment of Sevastopol (17 August 1855) • Sixth bombardment of Sevastopol (7 September 1855) • Allies assault the Malakoff, Little Redan, Bastion du Mat and the Great Redan (8 September 1855) • Russians retreat from Sevastopol on 9 September 1855 ==Fate of Sevastopol cannon==

, United Kingdom. These were taken from Sevastopol as trophies at the end of the siege of Sevastopol. The British sent cannons seized at Sevastopol to many towns in Britain, and several important cities across the Empire. Additionally, several were sent to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. These cannon are now all kept at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (renamed after the closing of RMA Woolwich shortly after the Second World War) and are displayed in front of Old College, next to cannon from Waterloo and other battles. Many of the cannon sent to towns in Britain were melted down during the Second World War to help the war effort, though several of these have subsequently been replaced by replicas. The cascabel (the large ball at the rear of old muzzle-loaded guns) of several cannon captured during the siege was said to have been used to make the British Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the British Armed Forces. However, Hancocks, the manufacturer, confirms that the metal is Chinese, not Russian, bronze. The cannons used are in the Firepower Museum in Woolwich and are clearly Chinese. There would be no reason why Chinese cannon would be in Sevastopol in the 1850s and it is likely that the VC guns were, in fact, British trophies from the China war in the 1840s held in the Woolwich repository. Though it had been suggested that the VCs should be made from Sevastopol cannons, it seems that in practice, they were not. Testing of medals which proved not to be of Russian bronze has given rise to stories that some Victoria Crosses were made of low grade material at certain times but this is not so – all Victoria Crosses have been made from the same metal from the start. Components of the 1861 Guards Crimean War Memorial by John Bell, in Waterloo Place, St James's, London, were made from melted down Sevastopol cannons. == Sevastopol Bells==

Following the end of the siege, two large bells were taken by British forces as war trophies from the Church of the Twelve Apostles. Along with two smaller bells, they were appropriated and transported by Lieutenant Colonel John St George, who commanded the Royal Artillery siege train. They were displayed at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, before the larger one was taken to Aldershot Garrison, where it was mounted on a wooden frame on Gun Hill. In 1879, it was moved to the bell tower of the Cambridge Military Hospital, the garrison's medical facility. It was moved in 1978 to the officer's mess in Hospital Road and more recently to St Omer Barracks; it is a Grade II listed structure. The second bell was taken to Windsor Castle and installed in the Round Tower; by tradition it is only rung on the death of a king or queen. ==Gallery==

File:BombardementOfSebastopolHMSRodney.jpg|Bombardment of Sevastopol by HMS Rodney, Crimean War (October 1854) File:William_Simpson_-_Crimean_War_-_Huts_and_Warm_Clothing_for_the_Army.jpg|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, partially buried in snow, lies by the roadside. Image:Roger_Fenton_-_Shadow_of_the_Valley_of_Death.jpg|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 cannonballs that landed there, falling short of their target, during the siege. File:Captain Julius Robert's Mortar Boats (13589924443).jpg|Captain Julius Robert's Mortar Boats engaging the quarantine battery – Sebastopol 15 August 1855 – Lithograph T.G.Dutton File:William Simpson - Attack on the Malakoff.jpg|Attack on the Malakoff by William Simpson Image:Siege of Sevastopol 1855.jpg|Siege of Sevastopol 1855 by Grigoryi Shukaev File:Siege of Sevastopol -Our fighting services - Evelyn Wood pg473.jpg|Map of Sevastopol File:Map of Sebastopol lines 1855.png|Map of the French (blue) and British (red) lines during the siege. The defenders' positions are in green. File:Map of port of Balaklava and route to Sevastopol 1855.png|Supply lines from the port of Balaklava, 1855. The Grand Crimean Central Railway is shown as "Chemin de Fer Anglais" File:Monument to Flooded ships 2009 G1.jpg|Monument to the Scuttled Ships, Crimea, Sevastopol. The sculptor Amandus Adamson 1905 File:Arundel Russian Bell 1.JPG|Three 17th century Russian Orthodox church bells in Arundel Castle, West Sussex United Kingdom. These bells were taken as trophies from Sevastopol at the conclusion of the siege of Sevastopol. File:Arundel Russian Bell 3.JPG|Three 17th century Russian Orthodox church bells in Arundel Castle File:Arundel Russian Bell 5.JPG|Three 17th century Russian Orthodox church bells in Arundel Castle File:Welsford-Parker Monument at the entrance to the Old Burying Ground in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.jpg|The Sevastopol Monument in Halifax, Nova Scotia is the only Crimean War monument in North America. file:FranzLastlook.jpg|The last look by Franz Roubaud File:Stamp of USSR 1791.jpg|1954 USSR stamp commemorating the siege ==See also==