A history of the grueling Crimean War battle as told through personal accounts of those who fought there. The Crimean War, the most destructive and deadly war of the nineteenth century, has been the subject of countless books, yet historian Anthony Dawson has amassed an astonishing collection of previously unknown and unpublished material, including numerous letters and private journals. Many untapped French sources reveal aspects of the fighting in the Crimea that have never been portrayed before. The accounts demonstrate the suffering of the troops during the savage winter and the ravages of cholera and dysentery that resulted in the deaths of more than 16,000 British troops and 75,000 French. Whilst there is graphic first-hand testimony from those that fought up the slopes of the Alma, in the valley of death at Balaklava, and the fog of Inkerman, the book focusses upon the siege; the great artillery bombardments, the storming of the Redan and the Mamelon, and the largest man-made hole in history up to that time when the Russians blew up the defences they could not hold, with their own men inside. The Siege of Sevastopol also highlights, for the first time, the fourth major engagement in the Crimea, the Battle of the Tchernaya in August 1855, the Russians’ last great attempt to break the siege. This predominantly French-fought battle has never before examined in such in English language books. Praise for The Siege of Sevastopol, 1854–1855 “In this fascinating book, the voices of men involved in the war in the Crimea are heard for the first time. Compelling and intriguing stuff.” —Books Monthly “The author has collected a large amount of previously unpublished material for this new work. Entries from private letters and journal are mixed with French sources previously unused in the English-speaking world. The result is a work that effectively conveys the thoughts and experiences of the participants to the reader.” —Warfare History Network

[Illustrated with over two hundred and sixty maps, photos and portraits, of the battles, individuals and places involved in the Crimean War] “Eyewitness account of the fighting during the Crimean War. “While I was delivering the order, a round shot passed through my horse, close to the saddle, and rolled us over; while on the ground another canon shot passed through him. A sergeant of artillery ran to extricate me; he had just lifted from under the horse, and I was in the act of steadying myself on his shoulder, when a shot carried off his thigh and he fell back on me....This is a scene describes a narrow escape for Hamley during the bloody battle of Inkerman. The author of this remarkable book, a Gunner officer, served on the Artillery Staff, first as Adjutant to the First Division field artillery and then as ADC to the Commander Royal Artillery throughout the siege of Sevastopol, and as such he was well placed to make this record of the campaign. As he says in the introduction it was not his intention to indulge in fanciful rhetoric but to give a ‘round, unvarnished tale.' All was written in camp when he was off duty, in a tent or in a hut, and his descriptions of the fighting and the aftermath paint a grim and often gruesome picture. Disease and sickness ravaged the army; in Dec. 1854 and Jan. 1855 the sick returns amounted to 14,000. The pictures he paints, in his matter-of-fact narrative, reflect some appalling sights of the dead and dying on the battlefields. He takes us through the Alma, Inkerman, Balaklava to the fall of Sevastopol in Sep. 1855 which was the prelude to the peace talks a few months later. The siege of Sevastopol lasted a year and cost the British some 11,000 casualties, the French 12,000 and the Russians 50,000. There are some very good illustrations by the author himself. For the students of this dreadfully mishandled war (administration, logistics and medical) this book will be compulsive reading.”-Print Ed.

An unusual perspective on the Crimean War The author of this book-a Polish officer reluctantly serving with the Russian Army-has left us a revealing account of the war in the Crimea from the perspective of life within the 'enemy' camp. The nature of service in the Imperial Army is described in graphic detail. It was harsh for the men and the author had to struggle against distrust and prejudice against his nationality. Nevertheless, this book provides vital insights into the battles of The Alma, Inkerman, Balaclava and the siege of the city of Sebastopol itself. This is the first Leonaur book to cover this important war of the mid-nineteenth century and will be sure to interest it's many students.

"Sevastopol Sketches (Sebastopol Sketches)" is a collection of three works of historical fiction in which Tolstoy draws upon his real life experiences during the Siege of Sevastopol. The titular location draws its name from that of a city in Crimea and takes place during the Crimean war. The three tales in this collection are respectively titled "Sevastopol in December", "Sevastopol in May", and "Sevastopol in August". In the December tale Tolstoy introduces us to Sevastopol by giving the reader a tour and introducing us to the settings, mannerisms, and background that would relevant in the following tales. In the May tale Tolstoy examines the senselessness of war, musings that would lay the foundation for his much larger work and magnum opus "War and Peace." In the third and final tale the fall of the town is detailed. Published in 1855 "Sevastopol" was written near the beginning of the author's literary career. It is a book in which we begin to see the writer exhibit a quality of prose that would one day establish him as the greatest of all writers in the Russian and any other language.