Russia lifted its siege, but Britain and France fabricated a pretext to invade Crimea
After the siege of Silistria was lifted, Britain and France had already achieved their Balkan war objectives; invading Crimea and besieging Sevastopol were merely to account to the already-deployed fleet and an unsatisfied public.
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Aristocratic rank mattered more than any battlefield record in command
Colin Campbell was recognized across the military as one of the finest commanders, with distinguished service in India and the Punjab Wars, now 61 and battle-tested. But he was the son of a Glasgow carpenter—no family connections, no wealth, no patrons. Harding apparently saw no reason to consider officers like Campbell for command at all, however well-suited. Campbell ended up commanding the Highland Brigade instead of the cavalry or the entire army.
— TomDiplomatic connections, not military experience, secured Raglan's appointment as commander
Raglan had spent his entire career as Wellington's deputy, never commanding troops independently, and the Duke of Newcastle himself once questioned whether he was fit for the job. What the Anglo-French alliance actually needed was someone who could negotiate with the French and the Turks. Raglan's French was fluent and he had spent years based in Paris; the French commander, Saint-Arnaud, spoke English. The Foreign Secretary even privately warned Raglan about Turkish allies being "weakened by various vices." It was this coordination skill, not command experience, that earned him the appointment.
— TomThe commander chose his two bitterest enemies to run the cavalry
Cardigan and Lucan were related by marriage but bitter enemies—Lucan had married Cardigan's sister, and they had already turned against each other. Military opinion was nearly unanimous that this was a catastrophic pairing; even Raglan himself wrote to warn Harding to reconsider. But Harding overruled the objections, insisting that Cardigan was a strict disciplinarian who had trained the 11th Light Cavalry into the most elite regiment in the army—soldiers feared him but also trusted him. Lucan was appointed cavalry commander with Cardigan as his light cavalry brigade commander underneath, turning the two men's longstanding feud into a liability for the entire force.
— DominicOutnumbered Turkish defenders fought with religious fervor the Russians underestimated
A Russian army of 100,000 besieged the Danube fortress of Silistria, which was defended by at most 18,000 Turkish and Egyptian soldiers. The Russians expected an easy victory. But the defending commander, Musa Pasha, rallied his soldiers to die "as descendants of the Prophet," and the fighting proved far more brutal than anticipated. Russian soldiers' heads piled up outside the gates; one soldier boasted to British observers that he had cut the throat of a surrendering Russian officer begging for mercy. The siege proved far bloodier than the Russians had planned for—a fact that would bear on their sudden decision to withdraw.
— TomDisease at Varna killed more soldiers than Russian weapons ever could
British and French armies concentrated at the small port of Varna and quickly overwhelmed its single sewage system. Cholera broke out first in the French encampment, then spread to the British lines; the air itself seemed thick with white dust and dead flies. Thousands of soldiers died, their bodies wrapped in blankets and dumped in mass graves—locals later dug up the graves to reclaim the blankets. Meanwhile, Cardigan was convalescing comfortably in a farmhouse at Devna, nursing his ailments while he waited to measure himself against the Russians.
— DominicA bungled reconnaissance mission was reported as a triumph and rewarded
When the Russians withdrew from the Balkans, Raglan sent Cardigan north to scout their movements. Cardigan departed far beyond his orders, wandering unfamiliar terrain with no map, leading his men into waterless, foodless country. The mission destroyed approximately 100 horses and became notorious among his enemies as the "sawback reconnaissance." Yet when Cardigan returned, he exaggerated his shared hardship with the troops, and on July 20 Raglan rewarded him by promoting him to major general.
— DominicWar objectives were achieved but were rewritten to justify the campaign
With the Russians gone from the Balkans, Britain and France had already achieved their original war objective—the defense of Constantinople. In principle, both armies could go home. But the British public hungered for victory, and even Marx was ridiculing the allied inaction. Neither the government nor the military wanted a graceful withdrawal. The First Lord of the Admiralty proposed that they must "draw the teeth from the bear," pivoting the campaign toward Sevastopol, the Black Sea fleet's primary base. This apparently carefully conceived strategy was in reality improvised on the spot to address the chaos and disease that had made Varna a graveyard.
— TomIn their own words · checked verbatim
his beautiful face looked like the face of an ecclesiastic a cardinal of the renaissance perhaps a bane subtle diplomatic ruthlessness determination were wanting
Cecil Woodham Smith10:23
the turk has been and i quote enfeebled by abominations
two bigger fools could not be pulled out of the british army
Captain Henry Portal25:05
a man dressed in a uniform decorated with gold braid and precious stones. He kept a private harem and employed an orchestra of Germans to accompany his troops.
Orlando Figes43:51
it was as if one of the cavalry commanders of the Thirty Years' War had risen from his grave to take command after the fashion of the day.
men on foot driving and goading on their wretched wretched horses three or four of which could hardly stir
the eye tooth of the bear must be drawn. Until his fleet and naval arsenal in the Black Sea are destroyed, there is no safety for Constantinople, no security for the peace of Europe.
Figures
| Dundas fleet size | 16 warships, 645 cannons | 4:05 |
| Cardigan's reconnaissance force | 121 cavalry | 50:08 |
| Allied fleet from Varna | about 400 ships | 58:26 |
Glossary
- Minié rifle
- A rifle invented by French Captain Minié in 1849 with far superior range and accuracy to contemporary smoothbore muskets.
- sawback reconnaissance
- A mocking epithet for Cardigan's failed reconnaissance that destroyed numerous horses.
How to listen
History enthusiasts interested in Victorian-era military history, British aristocratic politics, or the decision-making chain of the Crimean War
The opening advertisements and Tennyson poetry recitations can be skipped, as can details of the cavalry's voyage by sea to the theater.