The Soldier's Letters That Tell The Real Story Of The Crimean War | The Crimean War

foreign [Music] in May 1855 free armies British French and Turks were encamped on the plains of the Crimea the Southern Russia they had left home thinking it was going to be a short war but now eight months after landing they knew otherwise and they longed for home until I came to this country I used to ridicule any person that would designate my native land as happy old England but now I fully appreciate the value of my native land and have quite altered my mind as regards making it my resting place Corporal Harry blisson rifle Brigade Harry blishan had enlisted in the Army to see the world like thousands of his compatriots he was never to see happy old England again he spoke for the unsung heroes of a war that most people remember simply for its Legends Florence Nightingale and her nurses the battles of Alma inkerman and balaclava laughs the Light Brigade and its cavalry charge into the valley of death [Music] but the truth is more complicated than Legend this story of the Crimean War is told through the letters and Diaries photographs and paintings of those who were there they tell a different story [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] fifty four the Allied armies landed at the southern Outpost of the Russian Empire in the Crimea eight months later they were still there camped outside the Russian naval base of Sebastopol they had laid Siege to the city but had never cut off its main supply routes from the Russian Heartland they were weary and demoralized and no closer to taking what they had come for the base of the Russian and Black Sea Fleet there is not a man who goes into the trenches who would not give his vote for an assault for independently of the little value they place on their lives are men are dead tired of the trench Duty and the Everlasting doing nothing state of existence they live in Captain Henry Clifford felt the frustration of the men they were making no progress and their half-hearted bombardments were getting nowhere while sebastopol's supply routes remained open the Russians had access to men and ammunition and in fact for one young officer life Under Siege was the most agreeable time that I've ever had I go on duty at the Bastion for four days and then I'm free for 12 days I have very elegant accommodation with a piano looking out onto the boulevard where there are promenaders and music every afternoon I have a lot of good friends the weather is superb and have begun to bathe in the sea count Leo Tolstoy found Sebastopol life perfect for exercising his literary Talent as the author of Sebastopol sketches Leo Tolstoy brought stories of the war into the homes of the educated Russian classes the constant charm of danger and my observations of the soldiers I'm living with the sailors and the Very methods of War are so pleasant that I don't want to leave here especially as I would like to be present at the assault if there is one there could be no Quest To Live an assault until sebastopol's defenses had been weakened but the Russians continued to receive supplies and reinforcements from the north because they still control the Strategic route across the sea of azov the save as off was critical to the Russian position in the Crimea as the Crimea itself produces very little in the way of food fodder or ammunition the Russians depended on the riverdon Basin to get their supplies and the point of contact was across the sea of azov in large open boats consequently taking command of the Sea of azov would have cut off the Russians from their main source of Supply it basically cut their jugular in late May a Russian officer Schultz was passing by the Sea of azov on his way to Sebastopol he found himself a bystander at a turning point in the war as we approached the shore our eyes were made by a terrifying sight the entire enemy fleet was anchored on the opposite side in the Straits of courage and was pelt in the Coast with bombs at the same time troops were disembarking and forming into columns they headed off in the direction of the Pavel of battery as the enemy approached the entire battery suddenly flew into the air without a single shot being fired the Russian Garrison had blown up their own Arsenal in a panic as the Allied Forces made their way up from the shore while Schultz had witnessed was an Allied Naval Expedition landing at catch the beach was strewn with baggage of every description horses were splashing through the water to the shore men dressed in every kind of garment that was ever worn were walking about scrambling swearing shouting and laughing a vast deal of the latter Roger Fenton the celebrated Crimean War photographer had joined the expedition in the spirit of adjaunt from the other side of The Straits the Russian officer saw what happened next another explosion shook the air to such a degree that even here the glass in the windows rattled and shuttled this was the powder sellers in yenikali exploding the sign that our troops were retreating and the Sea of azove was in enemy hands the Allies had tightened their grip on the Russians as its main Supply Route was severed It could only be a matter of time before Sebastopol would have to surrender back at the camp news of the naval operation success was joyfully received Fanny Jubilee the young wife of an officer with the eighth hussars wrote in her journal we hear that the coach Heroes have brought home lots of plunder and we are rather curious for their disembarkation the success attendant on the Expedition seems to have put everybody in good spirits and we must have a try for Sebastopol now is the cry from the general to the newly arrived ensign the Allies Now set about planning their next move Sebastopol had two main strongholds the Malakoff Tower and the great Redan the Russians had thrown up two Works to protect these key positions and the Allies now divide their targets to capture them at long last Lieutenant William young of the 49th was to see action well yesterday about two o'clock we heard that 200 of our men were to take the pits in front of the Redan and so we ordered our dinner says we had to fall in at four o'clock the pits in front of the Redan were known as the quarries the British were to attack here the French were to take the mam along there The Works which protected the Malakoff the attack was set for the 7th of June it was to be the Prelude to the Grand assault on Sebastopol itself the Allied commanders at last felt confident enough to pose for posterity Roger Fenton safely back from Kirch had been rewarded for his patience as he wrote to his sponsor William Agnew Monday June the 4th 1855. I am now at headquarters taking a few portraits I'm yet in want of Lord Raglan gave me a sitting this morning and I've obtained a very good likeness of him a general policier with whom I breakfasted this morning is coming the day after tomorrow at five in the morning it is impossible to work after 9 or 10 from the intense Heat I should be away if it were not for these Great Guns each of whose portrait has to be fairly hunted down on the morning of the attack the Great Guns posed together Raglan for the British Omar Pasha for the Turks and policier for the French later that day Fenton was drinking Claret with Captain Corbett Corbett said when we were alone now Roger my boy we could not breakfast with you today but if we come out all right Edmund and I will brush you up tomorrow at six and you shall take our likenesses Corbett was shot through the head and killed outright in the assault Lieutenant young survived and finished his letter home two days later from his hospital bed it was the first time I had ever been under fire without a trench in front of me from one end of the quarries the very mamelon was one sheet of fire and a continual racket of musketry the French were beaten back at first but then up came their reserves drums and bugles playing a rubber dub dub you could hear a mile off and they actually walked through the mammalan it is a horrid sight when the fight is over you would not believe unless you sought all the shapes a human being may be made into I saw fingers and ears legs heads and arms all in one Grace piglet Piggly [Music] this watercolor was painted by Captain Clifford he sent it to The Illustrated London news the above sketch of the interior of the Russian battery as it appeared on the day after the desperate battle in which it was taken by the French is from the pencil of an officer who visited the spot during the brief Armistice which took place on that day the British officer had turned War artist Clifford sketch and letter were published in England within a month the public appetite for news of the war was voracious the 7th of June had been a good day for the Allies they had captured two important positions and the field was now open to take Sebastopol itself Ragland and policier saw an opportunity to seal their new alliance they would Mark the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo by storming Sebastopol if they could take the Malakoff and the Redan Sebastopol would fall and the 18th of June would become a day of celebration on both sides of the channel but the significance of the date had not been lost on the Russians they could not have been more prepared we saw large enemy columns advancing on the first and second bastions but our men did not miss a trick and opened fire with bullets and grape shots forcing their Retreat more than once we all burst into laughter when a column of French cheerfully advancing suddenly turned around like rabbits and made a run for the Ravine Lieutenant Captain Turtle Leslie the two armies Were Meant to attack Sebastopol simultaneously but the French went in early at the Malakoff with disastrous results when the proposed assault took place the result was that the French failed at the Malakoff and by some misunderstanding our stormers went onto the Redan under the most horrific fire of every description of missile it was utterly impossible for them to get on they were literally mowed down Captain Fred Dallas 46th foot but it was no misunderstanding Raglan knew that the British attack was doomed once the French had been beaten but it was a point of Honor not to break his agreement with policier and he sent more than a thousand men to certain death such a fire matters that the whole column seemed to melt away still we went on staggering beneath the terrible hail our Colonel fell dead our adjutant the same and almost every officer we had with us fell dead or wounded Sergeant Timothy gowing Central fusiliers [Music] a loss is not yet known but the proportion of officers was immense Sir John Campbell who led the stormers fell one of the first poor colonelier of the seventh was killed colonel shadforth was killed and his regiment the 57th suffered awfully and hosts of others whose names I don't know and many whom I did and liked poor fellows Captain Fred Dallas 46th foot Roger Fenton lost many friends that day such is our anniversary of the 18th of June we reckoned too proudly and now the 18th of June will be a glorious day to the Russians [Applause] [Applause] there was no Armistice for burying the dead until four o'clock the next day the Russians had waited a crawly long time to answer the Allies flag of Truth [Applause] Captain Henry Clifford of the rifle Brigade sketched The Killing fumes by four o'clock so bad had been the wolves and so great the Heat that the faces of the poor dead could hardly and many could not be recognized their faces were quite black and many of them had swollen up and burst I was obliged to go about amongst the corpses to get the men to carry them away and I was sick and vomited many times and the greater number of men who counted the stretchers did the same I saw as I thought a dead Rifleman on the ground partly hit by the grass I went to the spot it was the backbone of one with part of his bowels and the lump or two of Flesh with part of his jacket and head by it all the rest have been blown away by a shell out of 160 of my comrades seventy were killed and wounded and I'm sorry to State a number of the sailors were killed God bless them they are England's bravest men Corporal Harry blisson rifle Brigade the British army suffered losses of 1 400 men and nearly a hundred officers feelings ran high amongst those who were spared I consider and we all consider the whole of the storming party out of whom scarcely two or three hundred got back were all massacred by the authorities the Russians at the Armistice for burial of the Dead paid us the compliment of calling us Lions commanded by asses Lieutenant Colonel strange Jocelyn Scott's fusilier guards even before this fatal blunder Lord Raglan had said that he would be stoned to death in the Streets of London were he ever to return he was haunted by this final tragic era within 10 days as cholera swept through the camp again he was dead the heart had gone out of the campaign and apart from a few bombardments and sorties there was little decisive action morale was sinking I'm quite out of sorts today as I've had three days of diarrhea and I'm somewhat pulled down in consequence you can form no idea the state our camp is in from dust the wind has been blowing for three or four days and everything is smothered it is impossible to draw my paints and paper all get spoiled and then there are thousands and thousands of flies we've all made up our minds for second winter in the Crimea or at any rate all those who see far enough and are determined to see the end of it if not cut short by cholera or a rifle bullet well this must do for tonight for I have no news and my pen and eyes are full of Crimea dust God bless you all a dear Henry still stuck outside Sebastopol the Allied arm is sweltered In the Heat of the Crimea and dreamed of home the stalemate would be broken far away not in trenches nor in Cavalry Charges but on the Open Sea on a clear morning in June 1855 Tsar Alexander II was looking out of the window at his Summer Palace on the Baltic Sea his eyes fixed on an astonishing site the British fleet has approached us and anchored presumably to wait the arrival of the French vessels with the arrival of spring the Allied Baltic Fleet had once again set sail for Russia the previous year they had successfully bombarded the Russian naval base at bobison this year they had returned to take svayerborg and cronstadt the twin stronghold protecting the Russian Capital at Saint Petersburg in the heady days after the Russian Victory of June the 18th the Tsar wrote to his commander in the Crimea in kronstadt where I was a few days ago everything is ready for their reception both land and Marine troops are burning with the desire to show themselves worthy of their comrades of Sebastopol and they had the guns to do it seeing that kronstadt was impregnable the Allied Fleet turned its attention to sverborg the Russians were expecting them they had a new weapon they had placed almost 1 000 exploding mines in the water the Allies had to spend days and nights clearing their path in preparation for the bombardment [Music] the Revenant Mr Hughes fellow a modeling College Cambridge had taken his boat we pet from the Thames Royal Yacht Club and once again sailed up the Gulf of Finland with the Allied Fleet it was excellent spectator sport for war tourists about nine or ten we saw the gunboats going in and beginning that witch's dance which has been so much admired and soon after this as we watched the batteries a luried pillar of flame and smoke leaped up into the air and burst abroad like a foul Tawny Fountain casting an unsightly bouquet of huge black fragments far and wide soon after dark a squadron of Cutters and launches from the ships each fitted with a rocket tube went in and began letting off their fireworks it was a splendid sight to see the curved Flight of the Rockets five or six sometimes underway together chasing and Crossing each other as they flew was a massive boost to Allied morale it was a major victory at almost no cost furthermore it demonstrated to the Russians their sea fortresses were exposed to Allied attack the Allies didn't have the resources to press Anderson Petersburg In 1855 but they did move their Fleet up to kronstadt they sat at anchor under the tsar's windows and warned the Russians that they would be back next year Saint Petersburg the imperial capital was threatened on the Baltic with their victory at sverborg the Allies had struck at the very heart of the Russian Empire the tsar's commanders in the Crimea were growing despondent and their pessimism was infecting the men Schultz who had seen the Allies land at Kirch was now in charge of the second line of defense this entire wonderful Army of ours watches quite calmly as the enemy before its very eyes digs itself deeper and deeper into our land cultivating their own vegetable gardens cutting hay chopping down forests and grazing cattle while we paid twice the normal price for forage we blow up our own batteries and powder stores destroy our reserves and sink our own ships the Allied troops were making themselves at home in the Crimea by July Provisions were plentiful and the soldiers wanted for little much of this good cheer was due to the efforts of one woman Mary Seco the artist William Simpson knew her from his Crimean days Mrs Seacole an elderly molatto woman from Jamaica was a well-known character in The Crimea all the Soldiers and Sailors knew her at the age of 50 Mary secaul had traveled from Jamaica to London in the hope of becoming one of Florence nightingale's nurses she was not even given an interview so she paid her own way from London to the Crimea where she set up in business selling food and homemade remedies to the Troops had you been doing your best to battle Sebastopol about The Heirs of the Russians in the spring and summer of 1855 The Firm of sicol and day would have been happy to have served you and had you been fortunate enough to visit the British Hotel upon rice pudding day I warrant you would have ridden back to your hut with kind thoughts of mother sequels Endeavors to give you a taste of home Mary Seacole provided Comfort I think it's the only word one can use which the men really didn't get anywhere else she could Joel The Sailors and the soldiers to help her build this British hotel as she called it where she sailed food and sheep provide her own medicines and really gave them a taste of something civilized even if it wasn't luxurious where they felt they were humans again unlike Miss Nightingale and her nurses who were three days journey away at scotari Mrs Seacole was close at hand William har Russell the most famous journalist of the Crimean War championed her courage on the battlefield [Music] I Have Seen Her Go Down Under Fire with her little store of Creature Comforts for our wounded men and a more tender or skillful hand about a wound or a broken limb could not be found among our best surgeons I saw her at the assault at the Redan Laden not with plunder good old soul but with wine bandages and food for the wounded or the prisoners as the summer wore on the Allied batteries continued to Shell Sebastopol the success of their operation in the sea of azov was finally showing results they were grinding the Russians down Lieutenant Captain piotra Leslie wrote to his family on the 8th of August the saddest thing of all is that to each of our bullets they reply with thin our factories cannot produce the quantity of shells that we need in order to do at least some harm to the enemy from Saint Petersburg Azar looked his command and the Crimea to hit back gotchakov doesn't really want a mountain assault he's convinced that the war is lost in Crimea actually he has to attack because he feels that the Tsar insists on it and because Russia cannot admit defeat in the Crimea without one more major effort Prince scorchikov already sends defeat but still he went ahead with planning the battle of the Chennai the Chennai River marked the boundary between the Russian army and its enemy and that enemy had been swelled by a contingent of fifteen thousand Sardinian troops who had arrived in May the French and sardinians had taken up a position in the field occupying the height beyond the Chennai the Russian plan was to cross the river and recapture those Heights they would move at first light on August the 16th had only just arrived in Sebastopol he went out to join his regiment on the eve of battle I was amazed by the gloomy disposition of my commander and my new comrades it was evident that they were prepared to die and had doomed themselves to sacrifice with no hope of success as night fell the battalions set off down the road into the valley of the chernaya at nine o'clock there was an order to stop and rest each one lay down where he was over in the French Camp the soldiers were celebrating it was their Emperor's birthday as Dawn broke the sound of gunfire rang Andrea III's wives jumped to his feet it rattled not far from us and it could resoundingly on our extreme rights in the direction of the Sardinian camp that night had been very black not a start shown in the sky and it seemed as if they didn't want to break at all so thick was the Mist over the plane our commanders didn't quite know what to do with us since the enemy was invisible had been caught off guard a burst of shooting surprised us about an hour before Dawn it was the Russian Zoo having marching maneuvered for a good part of the night were starting battle with a furious attack the combat was short but very likely we fought with bayonets with the stocks of our guns finally even with stones this was enough to alert those in the camps behind us and they got into a defensive position in good time sub Lieutenant Ritchie Piedmont Advanced card The Early Morning Mist had cleared and those words had time to prepare we saw a whole Army on the plane its right flank was made up of two or three regiments of oolands and Cossacks waving their Forest of lances behind this curtain a whole Infantry Division was swarming a big black mass lit up by the glistening of 8 to 10 000 bionettes behind those bayonets was Prince theater Polk misky leading his Battalion of Russian Infantry withdrew close in closer suddenly the French halted the order was heard they turned and fanned out in a line which immediately opened fire French forced the Russians to but as soon as the reserves arrived gorchikov ordered them to advance back over the bridge we ball down on them at an athletic pace and by God from that moment on I couldn't quite say what happened just like at inkerman another we had to dig in advancing and retreating interns climbing over wounded and dead bodies closing our eyes sometimes so as not to see what we were striking [Music] how anyone got out of their safe and sound is impossible to explain we can only thank God we managed to push the Russian columns back down to the river where many unfortunates tangled up in their long cloaks drowned Henry Clifford now Brett major Went Down To The River SketchBook the loss of the Russians was even greater than I'd expected about one thousand dead bodies lay on and about the bridge and I do not think General Claire of the zwaves exaggerated when he said he estimated the enemy's loss of seven thousand killed and wounded went amongst the corpses with her basket of bandages on the battlefield death is fearful indeed it had come peacefully enough to some others it had arrested in the heat of passion and Frozen on their pallid faces a glare of hatred and Defiance that made your warm blood run cold in the cool light of day on the 17th of August Andre looked down on the battlefield oh I once praised the grace of this Valley now it is covered with corpses which the nurses are fighting the vultures for with the birds of prey more active in their voraciousness than the men in their past work it must be recognized that glory is the only one on the day after the battle of the Chennai the Allies resumed their bombardment of Sebastopol Lieutenant young delighted in their success I was looking at some of the buildings the other day through a telescope and in some of the large ones you might drive a coach and four with ease the other day we were firing some Rockets into the town and we set a house on fire so they all bloke inside set about removing his furniture and when he had his two carts night sleep packed some of our guns fired a shell slap into them and knocked Furniture carts and all to pot for its Defenders Sebastopol was now a trap with every hour that passes it gets harder and harder everything has become so loathsome that there's no strength left and I would be ready to go to Siberia at once to do hard labor even for a lifetime if only it meant I could get out of Sebastopol Lieutenant Captain Theodore Leslie had thought of a way out a pontoon Bridge had been constructed across the bay from the south to the north side of Sebastopol major Clifford was intrigued the Russians have finished the bridge and we are on the tiptoe of expectation to know what is the object of building it this morning was its first of completion and thousands have passed from side to side over it I've even observed through my glass today some of the fair sex honoring it with their little feet all women I believe have small ones but their presence does not stop the gun from being fired or the shell from bursting or no doubt the whole of the Russian army would put on petticoats the Allies had never blocked off the route North out of Sebastopol the bridge was to become the Russians lifeline they were now ready for the Final Act it began with a heavy Allied bombardment count Leo Tolstoy wrote in his diary on September the 6th I've just been looking at the sky a wonderful night oh God have mercy upon me I am a bad man the stars are in the sky a bombardment in Sebastopol music in the camp I've done no good on the country I want some money gambling others were not so cool Under Fire Company Commander yanuary kobilinski was on the front line of the Russian defense bombs short shells various kinds of grape shot and bullets poured as those through a sieve before noon and in the evening the firing stopped for 15 or 20 minutes everyone was clearing away the Rocks bits of wood and gun Carriage strewn all over the place by enemy shells when suddenly a terrible thunderous boom and the whole mass of iron was flying our way again for the first time in the 349 days of The Siege the Allied bombardment had left the Russians unable to repair the damage time had run out excited by newspaper reports of the impending fall of Sebastopol boatloads of tourists had arrived in the Crimea William hard Russell the times correspondent described the scene all the amateurs and traveling gentlemen who rather abound here just now were in a state of great excitement and dotted the plane in eccentric attire which revived Olden memories of cows and yachting and sea bathing on the morning of the 8th of September Fanny Jubilee rode up to join the throng of Spectators on the heights above Sebastopol we found the Cavalry at their usual and gracious work of special constables to prevent amateurs from getting within shot now in the first place amateurs have no business within range and in the next place they head to their own and if they like to get them shot off it is clearly nobody's business but theirs positions were being taken up Sergeant Timothy gowing was in the British lines as the hour of 12 Drew near all hands were on the alert we knew well it was death for many of us several who had gone through the whole campaign shook hands saying this is hot Goodbye old boy write to the old folks at home if I do not return was the request made by many the swabs would be first in at the Malakoff for Andre the wait seemed an eternity midday finally arrived and we heard on our right an immense Cry of vivno prayer the Bugles and drums struck up their own rackets oh where they went racing like hares the first ones all that could be seen of them where they are huge red pantaloons which grazed the ground like Balls of Fire one by one ten by ten they disappeared behind the overhang of the Bastion which flanked the tower within minutes the French trickler was flying from the Malakoff Tower the French were in and the signal for the British to attack followed Brigadier General Wyndham led the troops to assault [Music] I went straight at the ditch and did all that man could do to get them into the center of the battery but it was no girl I ran out into the middle of the battery with my sword over my head but it was useless they would stick to their gabiums and to firing and not come to the bayonet the men could not be induced to follow their offices many were very young and new to the Crimea Timothy gowing all of 21 was already an old hand he Advanced towards the Redan with one of the new recruits it was his first time Under Fire he was as pale as death and shaking from head to foot yet he bravely faced the foe the poor boy for he was not much more requested me not to leave him he fell dead by my side just outside the Redan [Music] the Moss of that field grew red with British blood [Music] the British beat a humiliating retreat but to save face General Simpson ordered a fresh assault for the following morning he did not know that inside Sebastopol the Russians had other plans Prince gorchikov had decided to evacuate the town at six o'clock that evening General samyakin received the order I had been instructed to begin the retreat at 6 30 and to finish at 10. when all the troops had left at a given signal to blow up the best ends batteries and all the power of the sellers there was no time to think one had to act there was Mayhem on the pontoon Bridge officer Nikolai Baird stood and watched from the other side a wave of horses Gods people flooded over it for six or seven hours at a stretch sometimes it seemed to those Crossing that the bridge had collapsed and was sinking to the bottom crowds shouting and screaming ran back Crossing was held up the sky flared with shots and boom after boom burst over those retreating then the town burst into flames count Leo Tolstoy was overcome I wept when I saw the town in flames and the French flags on our bastions it was a very sad day in the early hours of the 9th of September the Allied troops were startled by the terrible explosions major Clifford jumped onto his horse and rode on and on and into the Redan I looked towards the Malakoff and there was the French flag the tricola planted on its parapet yes the French had taken the malachov but the English had not taken the Redan no flag floated on the powder pit on which I stood and if it had I could have seized it and dashed it into the ditch which we could not pass or hid it in the bosom of the young officer dead at my feet inside the Redan could not stand it long one of those lost at the Redan was the young Rifleman Harry blisham his naked body was found inside Sebastopol covered in Burnet wounds his last letters home had been full of foreboding it is for you dear parents that I live and it is a consolation to you dear parents that your prayers for me have not been in vain the Lord's will be done I know not how soon I may be taken from you Fanny Jubilee rode up to the heights overlooking the town I could see distinctly the South Side in Flames I counted ten separate fires it was a magnificent sight and one which afforded me in common I Fancy with many more greater satisfaction than pain I could not think at such a moment of the destruction and desolation of War I could only remember that the long coveted prize was ours at last and I felt no more compunction for town or for Russian than the Hound whose lips are red with blood does for the fox which he has chased through a hard run it was a lawful prize purchased God knows dearly enough and I felt glad that we had got it these photographs were taken straight after Sebastopol had fallen in September 1855 Allied Engineers immediately set about destroying the Russian naval dockyards to make sure that the base could never again threaten their Supremacy on the sea Sebastopol had fallen but the Russians had not surrendered France had won her victory at the Malakoff and the French were happy to go home with their hard-earned Glory but the British were still smarting from defeat at the Redan they wanted nothing less than the elimination of the Russian Fleet but another winter was upon them their ships were trapped in the Frozen sea like the wall itself unable to move in any direction [Music] a defiant Tsar Alexander told his people not to lose heart Sebastopol is not Moscow he said the Crimea is not Russia but the Allied politicians were moving in for the kill the British talked up plans for another Baltic Expedition which would take kronstadt and threaten Saint Petersburg itself then Austria the one neutral Empire left threatened to enter the war on another front unless the Russians surrendered the game was up in March 1856 this terrible war came to an end the message that it was all over was sent by Telegraph to the regiments in the Crimea Sergeant Timothy going who'd been with them from first to last prepared for home are thought of the alma and my Christian comrader lay buried beside the river I thought of the wild charge of our handful of Cavalry at balaclava of our desperate fight at inkerman of our terrible work in the trenches [Music] and after all I had gone through death staring me in the face in a in a thousand shapes both in the field and camp for upwards of 12 long months truly I had much for meditation the returning troops were given a hero's welcome Queen Victoria decreed that all men had shown great Valor should be awarded a new medal her personal medal the Victoria Cross made from the melted guns which had once guarded Sebastopol it had been the bloodiest conflict since Waterloo but the British were the smallest Army had come off lightest only 22 000 have died to destroy Sebastopol [Music] Bernard won a stunning Victory the power of the Russian state was destroyed for at least a generation in the interval Britain had unrivaled access to the resources and lands of the rest of the world the British set up a global Empire they policed it with Pax Britannica it was an empire in which the Sun never sat at least until 1918 Britain remained unrivaled as a unique Global power France with a hundred thousand dead had invested much more in the war and in the short term they seemed to have gained most out of it the victory of the Crimea truly put France back in the first League of European nations the peace was signed in Paris in March 1856 by the Congress of Paris at the same time as the universal exhibition was being held in Paris almost all the sovereigns came and on this occasion Napoleon III really did appear to be the new Arbiter of Europe the gains were enormous at the time but they were squandered within a few years the Ottoman Empire in whose defense the whole War had started had also lost a hundred thousand men probably more but they had died to save nothing the Empire disintegrated giving birth to a number of combustible Balkan nation-states whose Petty rivalries were to ignite the first World War the other big loser was the Tsar Russia had lost half a million men and much of its power and influence but it had learned from defeat the main lesson that the Russian government gains from the war is that a backward pre-industrial State cannot compete even in military terms against more modern industrializing States like Britain and France therefore if Russia is going to survive it has to have Railways it has to have industry it has to have an enterprising and educated citizenry and all of these conceptions really underlie the program of great reforms which is introduced by the emperor Alexander II after the war and whose most famous element is the abolition of serfdom [Music] foreign [Music] years later Russian survivors of the Crimean War posed in front of one of the first newsreel cameras [Music] some of them lived to see the Russian Revolution sweep away the tsars the world they had fought for disappeared forever [Music] by 1910 when these French soldiers appeared before the camera they were the last defiant memory of France's only Victorious war in the 19th century [Music] some of these British Crimean veterans would live to see the far greater Slaughter of the first World War they too would see their empire go winners and losers they had all fought in a war which had changed the map of Europe forever [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Real History

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Keywords: Victorian era history, battles and sieges, emotional accounts, firsthand accounts, frontline emotions, historical documents, historical events, historical letters, military correspondence, military history podcast, narrative analysis, real history documentary, real history podcast, soldier experiences, soldier's point of view, soldiers' emotions, war documentary, war scholars, war testimonies, wartime psychology

Id: 6MCZwN33g10

Length: 50min 34sec (3034 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 26 2023