evacuation Siege of Sevastopol Crimean War 1855 Allied troop gun batteries trenches
Siege of Sevastopol (sometimes rendered "Sebastopol") was a major siege during the Crimean War, lasting from September 1854 until September 1855. Leo Tolstoy's early book The Sebastopol Sketches (1855–56) detailed the siege in a mixture of reportage and short fiction. In September 1854, Allied troops (British, French and Turkish) 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. 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. 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 seamen and 5,000 workmen, totalling just over 35,000 men. 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.
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