Crimean War (Engels)

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Engels’ summary “Crimean War”, written in German, listed in chronological order the major military events in the Crimea beginning with the landing of the Allied troops in Eupatoria on September 14, 1854 and ending with their capture of the Southern side of Sevastopol by storm on September 8, 1855. We do not know for what particular purpose it was compiled. One may assume, however, that Engels, who continued to cover the war after the capture of Sevastopol, was intending to write a retrospective review of the hostilities in the Crimea and drew up this outline of the fighting for that purpose. The review evidently never materialised.

Engels described the main episodes of the war—the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman and the Chernaya, the construction of the Selenghinsk redoubt and the Kamchatka lunette, the abortive assault of June 18, 1855, the assault of September 8, 1855, and others—in a series of articles which will be found in Volume 13 (pp. 492-97, 518-27 and 528-35) and in the present volume (pp. 113-17, 132-35, 151-55, 328-32 and 504-12, 546-52).See also Notes 2, 10, 35, 215 and 320.

1854

September	14	Landing at Old Fort [near Eupatoria].
"	20	Battle of the Alma
"	25	Allies march on Sevastopol (south side).
"	26	Balaklava taken.
"	28	South side blockaded. (Apart from bluejackets only 8 battalions on the south side at that time.)
October	1	Reconnaissance; decision taken to bombard prior to the assault.
"	9-10	First parallel 4-600 sagenes in front of the fortifications.
"	17	Bombardment of Sevastopol (the shelling of the Russians on land is superior, 200 heavy guns against the attackers' 126), simultaneously bombarded by the fleet. French guns silenced.—Now too late for assault.
	25	Battle of Balaklava.
	26	Russian sortie against British with 9 battalions.
November	4	Russians superior in strength to Allies. Attack.
"	5	Battle of Inkerman. Construction of British siege-works now virtually at a standstill. The circumvallation against a relieving force alone going ahead.
December	11	Osten-Sacken in command. Successful and more frequent sorties.
January	Beginning	British construct 2nd parallel 400 sagenes in front of the works. Sorties continue.
"	27	Niel arrives. Main French attack switched to the Malakhov; British abandon half their approach trenches—one mile in all!
February	22-23	Selenghinsk constructed; assault on it on the 23rd beaten off. 1,100 yards from main rampart.
28 [Feb.] -	1 March	Volhynsk constructed, 1,450 yards from main rampart.
March	11-12	Kamchatka lunette 770 yards, i.e. 470 sagenes in front of the fortress the enemy had to use the zigzag sap. Further entrenchments for riflemen in front of this work.
"	22-23	Attacks on the entrenchments repulsed; these linked by trenches to form a whole; similarly before Bastion 3—Quarry 430 yards from the main rampart.
April		Assault on the entrenchments established by the Russians up to 200 paces before Bastions 4-6, and
"	19-20	[attack] by the British on the Quarry
"	20-21	[both] repulsed.
May		Reinforcement for the Allies (French and Sardinians) and Pélissier.
"		New offensive in strength
"	23	New offensive in strength. Battle for the counterapproaches in front of Bastion 5; fortune favoured Russians.
June	7	Assault before Kamchatka and the Quarry, Selenghinsk and Volhynsk.
"	18	First assault, repulsed.
August	16	Chernaya
September	8	Assault.