Sevastopol, Siege of

(1854–1855)

   The culminating action of the Crimean War. The principal objective of the Allied army during the war was the capture of Russia’s principal Black Sea port at Sevastopol, situated on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula. After landing nearby in September 1854, the siege began on October 8 when the Russians’ southern defenses were still incomplete. Indeed, the northern section was never invested, and supplies and reinforcements continued to pass in and out of the city for the entire period of operations. Bombardment of the city began on October 17, by which time the Russian engineers had rendered the place virtually impregnable to assault. The besiegers fought successfully at Balaklava on October 25 and Inkerman on November 5 to stop a Russian field army from disrupting their operations against Sevastopol, and suffered terribly from freezing conditions over the winter months. Normal operations resumed in April 1855, followed by two extremely costly Allied assaults on June 8 and September 8, the second of which, although only partly successful, convinced the defenders to evacuate the devastated city that evening.

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   FURTHER READING:

    Fletcher, Ian, and Ischchenko, Natalia. The Crimean War: A Clash of Empires. Staplehurst: Spellmount Publishers, 2004;

    Ponting, Clive. The Crimean War. London: Chatto & Windus, 2004;

    Royle, Trevor. Crimea: The Great Crimean War, 1854–1856. London: Little, Brown, 1999.

   GREGORY FREMONT-BARNES