44 Fun Facts About Crimean War

Which prime minister, who took office in 1855, led Britain through the rest of the Crimean War?

Lord Palmerston's government reformed how the British army was run, merging separate war offices into one.

Which tsar's demand to protect the Ottoman Empire's Orthodox subjects was the Crimean War's proximate cause?

Nicholas I's troops then overran Moldavia and Wallachia in July 1853, and the Ottomans declared war on Russia that October.

Outrage over the destruction of an Ottoman squadron at which port drew Britain and France into war?

Sinop's destruction stirred a storm of indignation in Britain and France, though Russia and the Ottomans were already at war.

Allied forces landed in Crimea in September 1854 to capture which Russian naval base?

Sevastopol held out until September 1855, when a renewed French assault broke its defences and the Russians abandoned its southern side.

The allies' first victory in Crimea, on 20 September 1854, was fought on the banks of which river?

Alma was won, but with few ambulances the British needed two days to clear their wounded from the battlefield.

Which Italian state joined the allies in 1855 with 15,000 troops under General La Marmora?

Kingdom of Sardinia troops fought at the Chernaya in August 1855, when Russian corps furiously attacked the French and Sardinian positions.

The French assault that finally broke the besieged city in September 1855 took which redoubt?

Malakoff fell to the French assault, while a simultaneous British attack on the Great Redan was repulsed.

Which agreement, signed on 30 March 1856, ended the Crimean War?

The Treaty of Paris closed the Black Sea to warships, but that ban lasted only until 1871, after Prussia had defeated France.

Which reform, five years after the Crimean War, is counted among the war's consequences for Russia?

Abolition of serfdom came in 1861, after the war exposed how poorly a serf army and serf economy could fight industrial powers.

Which nurse gained worldwide attention for her work in the Crimean War?

Florence Nightingale's night rounds among the wounded earned her the name 'the Lady with the Lamp'.

Whose bid for Catholic support over the Holy Places set off the chain of events leading to the Crimean War?

Napoleon III sent the warship Charlemagne into the Black Sea, and the Sultan then confirmed France's authority over the Christian holy places.

Which abrasive Russian envoy was sent to the Sublime Porte in February 1853 with sweeping demands?

He demanded a protectorate over all 12 million Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire; the Sultan refused the most sweeping terms.

Which British ambassador, nicknamed 'the Great Elchi', had a direct hand in Ottoman policy?

Stratford Canning, as a young envoy in 1812, helped broker the peace of Bucharest between the Ottomans and Russia.

Which British prime minister's government fell on 30 January 1855 over its handling of the Crimean War?

Lord Aberdeen's government fell amid public fury at newspaper reports of the army's failings in Crimea.

What did the Russian fleet fire to shatter an anchored Ottoman squadron in November 1853?

Explosive shells left every Ottoman frigate and corvette sunk or driven ashore, proving far deadlier than solid cannonballs.

Which Russian admiral, victor of the 1853 naval battle, was killed in the Crimean War in 1855?

Pavel Nakhimov was shot in the head by an allied sniper and died days later, and Russia went on to name ships and medals after him.

Russian troops crossed which river in 1853 to occupy Moldavia and Wallachia?

Prut: once Russian troops crossed it into Moldavia and Wallachia, the Ottomans declared war on Russia that October.

The Russian siege of which Danube fortress was lifted on 23 June 1854?

Silistra's garrison held out, and once the siege was lifted the Russians began pulling out of the principalities.

Which Ottoman general crossed the Danube at Vidin and captured Calafat in October 1853?

Omar Pasha later led Ottoman troops in Crimea, where they beat off a Russian attack on Eupatoria in February 1855.

Which neutral power occupied the Danubian Principalities after the Russians withdrew in 1854?

Austria's ultimatum, backed by an army massing in Transylvania, made the tsar pull his troops out before Austrian soldiers moved in.

At which Black Sea city did the allied expeditionary force land in June 1854, before Crimea?

Varna's camps saw little fighting, but cholera broke out there, hitting the French especially hard before the armies sailed for Crimea.

Which nurse, turned down by the War Office, paid her own way to the Crimean War and opened the 'British Hotel'?

Mary Seacole's British Hotel fed and housed sick officers, and she also went out onto the battlefields to tend the fallen.

On the beaches of which Crimean bay did the allied armies land in September 1854?

Kalamita Bay was chosen for its long beach, shielded by the fleet's guns at sea and by lagoons inland.

Which engineer adviser in the Crimean War recommended attacking the besieged city from the south, not the north?

Sir John Burgoyne's plan meant marching around the city, and the delay gave the Russians time to strengthen its defences.

The British established their port facilities for the siege in the Crimean War at which harbour?

Balaclava's harbour was the British supply port, so when about 25,000 Russians attacked towards it in October 1854, a famous battle followed.

Sir Colin Campbell's 93rd Highlanders met Russian cavalry in what formation?

A single line two men deep, not the usual square, fired two disciplined volleys and turned the Russian horsemen back.

Which Times correspondent's dispatches from Crimea shocked Britain into rethinking how its troops were treated?

William Howard Russell's accounts of the army's shortcomings caused an outcry credited with bringing down the British government.

Which aide-de-camp delivered the confused order that launched the Charge of the Light Brigade?

Captain Louis Nolan, who carried the order, was the charge's first casualty, killed riding across the brigade's front.

Who led the Light Brigade's charge down the valley?

The charge caused 278 casualties in the 700-man unit, but it also unnerved the Russian cavalry into flight.

Which poet memorialised the Light Brigade in a famous 1854 poem?

The poem helped make the charge an iconic symbol of logistical, tactical and command failure.

The Russian attempt to raise the siege on 5 November 1854 became which bloody battle?

Inkerman was fought largely in fog, with small units acting on their own initiative, earning it the name 'the Soldier's Battle'.

Which illness killed the Russian tsar in March 1855, midway through the Crimean War?

Pneumonia took him after he caught a chill and refused treatment, though rumours said he was letting himself die.

The allies' first general assault in Crimea, on 18 June 1855, fell on the anniversary of which battle?

Waterloo's anniversary saw Britain and France, enemies in 1815, attack side by side, and the assault was beaten back with heavy losses.

Which British gallantry award was created during the Crimean War to honour acts of valour?

The Victoria Cross was open to all ranks, unlike earlier British awards, which had largely gone to officers.

The 1855 attack on Kinburn in the Dnieper estuary saw the first naval use of what?

Ironclad ships: armoured floating batteries proved highly effective there, and Kinburn's fortress fell to the allies.

Which Sea of Azov port refused an allied ultimatum in May 1855?

Taganrog paid for its refusal: an Anglo-French fleet bombarded the town and destroyed part of it.

Which Ottoman fortress in the Caucasus surrendered to the Russians in November 1855?

Kars made a magnificent defence under the British officer Fenwick Williams, and one Russian assault alone cost 7,000 killed and wounded.

Naval battles on the Finnish coast during the war are known locally by what name?

A Franco-British force captured and destroyed the Bomarsund fortress on the Åland Islands in August 1854.

Which Swedish inventor developed naval mines for the tsar during the Crimean War?

Immanuel Nobel's firm went bankrupt when the war ended and Russia cancelled its orders, and his son Alfred later founded the Nobel Prizes.

On which peninsula did a Russian garrison beat back an Anglo-French landing in September 1854?

The Petropavlovsk defence was, for Russia, 'a ray of light among the dark clouds'; the garrison slipped away in the snow in 1855.

Which Russian writer's sketches of the Crimean War siege described brief truces to clear the dead?

Leo Tolstoy fought in the siege himself, and the slaughter he witnessed left him appalled.

Whose photographs, alongside Russell's reports, documented the war for the public?

Once Britain laid an underwater cable to Crimea in April 1855, news reached London in a few hours.

Timothy, the last living veteran of the war when she died in 2004, was what kind of animal?

Found on a Portuguese ship in 1854, she served as a mascot on HMS Queen throughout the war.

What killed most of the Russian soldiers who died in the Crimean War?

Disease was no Russian weakness alone: among British troops in Crimea, too, it killed more men than wounds did.