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The Siege of Sebastopol and the Battle of Sebastopol, the
final battle of the Crimean War and the main objective of the British and French
forces, shown in historical military art prints, published by Cranston Fine
Arts, the military print company.
SIEGE OF SEBASTOBOL (SEVASTOPOL) 1854 -
1855 After the British Victory at The Battle
of Alma, the British and French force advanced onto Sebastopol. The
Russian Fortress naval base was laid under siege. The Bombardment began on
October 17th. The Allied Commanders Genral Lord Raglan and General
Francois Canrobert. Decided to Bombard the Fortress as they did not posses
enough forces to take it by storm. A British naval Squadron under
the Command of Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons bombarded Sebastopol from the sea.
An attempt was made to relieve Sebastpol by the Russians by Attacking the
British Supply port of Balaclava on the 25th October but this attempt
failed. Prince Menshikov again tried an attack elevan days later on the Heights
of Inkerman but this again was beaton off. A third attempt to
Dislodge the British force, was made on the 16ht of August 1855 at the
Chernaya river but failed. Several allied attempts in the spring of
1855 to take Sebastopol by storm failed. Finally on the 8th of September
the French commanded by General Aimable Pelissier took Malakhov a
fortification at the southern end of Sebastopol. The British under their
new commander General Simpson (Lord Raglan Had Died) attacked ands took
the Redan, only to loss it again. On the 11th of September the
Russian abandoned Sebastopol blowing up the defences and all shipping in
the harbour. This event ended the war. Although the Russian
force was still in tacked and not defeated. Czar Alexnader II after the
death of his father on March 2nd 1856 singed the final peace terms at the
Congress of Paris on march 30th 1856.
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Allied Generals Before Sebastopol by Thomas Jones Barker.
Open edition print. Image size 24 inches x 13 inches (61cm x 33cm). Price £38.00
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas prints. Image size 36 inches x 22 inches (91cm x 56cm). Price £500.00
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas prints. Image size 30 inches x 16 inches (76cm x 41cm). Price £390.00
ITEM CODE DHM0406
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Sebastopol by Richard Caton Woodville.
Open edition print. Special Promotion : This print is HALF PRICE for a limited time only! Image size 9 inches x 13 inches (23cm x 33cm). Price £7.80
Limited edition of 200 giclee high quality art paper prints. Image size 25 inches x 15 inches (64cm x 38cm). Price £135.00
ITEM CODE VAR0129
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Siege of Sebastopol, by Alphonse de Neuville.
Open edition print. Image size 17 inches x 12 inches (43cm x 31cm). Price £28.00
ITEM CODE DHM0806
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| The Siege of Sebastopol, 1854-55
The allied forces of France and England lay before the
frowning walls of the great fortress in which the Russian Army had
taken refuge. It was their intention to make a combined
attack from sea and land, but Prince Menschikoff had rendered this
impossible by the desperate expedient of closing the entrance to
the harbour by sinking six of his own warships. On October
17th the bombardment began from the plateau on which the allies
had entrenched themselves. But the guns made little
impression, and it was evident that the city could be reduced only
by a long and tedious investment. The conditions were
unfavourable. Difficulties of transport and inefficient
administration at home subjected the men to terrible
privations. Huddled together in trenches that were either
frozen or knee deep in mud, they were badly clothed and often
hungry. In September 1855, this long endurance ended.
Five bombardments had left the city as stately as ever.
White domes and red sandstone buildings rose behind the bastions,
terrace above terrace, on the dark hill side. But fate was
closing round the doomed fortress. With a suddenness that
paralysed the enemy every gun opened from sea and land.
Fiercer and fiercer grew the cannonad, until wide breaches gaped
in the enormous earthworks and walls of granite crumbled like sand
heaps. The British batteries alone fired over one hundred
thousand rounds at the solid face of the Redan and the high front
of the Malakhoff. Night gave a brief respite, but at dawn
the bombardment was renewed with unabated vigour. For three
days it continued, and on the 8th of October the allies formed for
the grand assault. Thirty thousand Frenchmen, supported by
five thousand Sardinians, threw themselves into the Malakhoff and
held it gallantly through a fiercely contested day. The task
before the British was even more desperate. They were to
attack the Redan - a work of great strength which the Russians
defended bravely. To scale the parapet with ladders was to
face a murderous fire, and to gain a foothold on the walls was to
meet a rush of bayonets. The "red devils" as the
Russians named our soldiers, fought desperately to win their way
into the fortress and succeeded. But the enemy, reinforced
from the Malakhoff, drove this handful of daring invaders into a
corner of the parapet and hurled them headlong on the advancing
lines until the ditch was filled with a struggling mass swept by
musketry fire. The attack was to have been renewed by the
Guards and Highlanders, but the Russians had had enough.
They withdrew in the night after firing the city and scuttling the
ships in the harbour. Without beat of drum they streamed
away over a bridge of boats and left Sebastopol in possession of
the allies. (extract from British Battles 1898) |
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