The Crimean War was the only European conflict fought by the British during the reign of Queen Victoria – during the years 1854 to 1856. However, the war actually began in early 1853 with the Russian invasion of Wallachia and Moldavia, (part of the the Ottoman Empire at the time, and now Romania), and took place over several diverse regions.
There were four principle theatres of action from 1853; The Danube region, The Caucasus and Black Sea, The Baltic Sea and the Crimean Peninsula itself. Other, peripheral engagements also took place, such as the earlier campaign in the far east around Alaska and the Sea of Japan.
Listed below are all the campaign theatres and the principle engagements that took place there.
- The Danube Campaign
- The Caucasus and Black Sea theatre
- The Baltic theatre, (A.K.A. the Åland War)
- The Pacific theatre
- The White Sea Campaign
- The Crimean Peninsula Campaign
- The Sea of Azov Campaign
The Danube Campaign
(modern Romania): Ottomans v Russia.
The Russian Occupation: May 1853; Russians cross into the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, part of the Ottoman Empire.
Battle of Calafat; October 1853; Ottoman general Omar Pasha crossed the Danube at Vidin and captured Calafat.
Battle of Oltenița (or Oltenitza); 4 November 1853; Ottomans attacked the Russians and was the first official engagement of the Crimean War.
Battle of Bayindir; 13 November 1853; Ottoman Anatolian army under Abdi Pasha easily drove 2,000 Russian irregular cavalry out of the Russian garrison.
Battle of Akhaltsikhe; 26 November; Russian forces defeat Turks in Georgian territory.
Battle of Chetatea (or Cetate); 6 January 1854; a small village north of Calafat, Russians engaged Ottoman forces, but were beaten back.
Siege to Calafat; 28 January 1854; Russian forces laid siege, lifted in May 54.
Battle of Caracal; Ottomans would also later beat the Russians in Romania.
Siege of Silistra, (Romania) – 14 April and 23 June 1854, repeatedly besieged by the Russians, who were stopped here by the Turks.
Battle of Giurgiu; 7 July 1854: Ottomans under Omar Pasha crossed the Danube into Wallachia and engaged the Russians in the city of Giurgiu and conquered it.
Battle of Dobruja; late July 1854, following up on the Russian retreat, the French staged an expedition against the Russian forces still in Dobruja, but this was a failure.
Constanța – skirmish with HMS Agamemnon shelling the [Russian occupied] port.
The Caucasus and Black Sea theater
Siege of Kars.
Battle of Sinop: 30 November 1853; Russian fleet destroys Turkish fleet.
Battle of Başgedikler: 1 December 1853; Russian army attacked and defeated a large Turkish force in South Caucasus.
Odessa; March 1854: Anglo-French fleet bombarded the port.
Battle of Kerch; May 1855: allies successfully invaded Kerch and attacked Taganrog in the Sea of Azov.
Battle of Kinburn: September 1854; French Navy and the British Royal Navy against Russian installations in the Dnieper estuary, attacking Kinburn in the first use of ironclad ships in naval warfare.
The Baltic theater
(known in Finland as the Åland War)
Battle of Kronstadt; April 1854 & August 1854; Anglo-French fleet enters the Baltic to attack the Russian naval base of Kronstadt.
Gulf of Finland blockade; 1854; blockading Russian trade.
Sveaborg Fortress; 1854 and 1855; two attempts at shelling the Russian batteries.
Rauma; 2 Jul 1855 British & French ships enter port, bombard and landed – fired warehouse and ships/skirmish with Cossacks/withdrew (6-9 Brit casualties)
Hogland; Naval attacks on other ports such as the ones in the island of Hogland.
Bomarsund Fortress; August 1854; Franco-British naval force captured and destroy the Russian fortress on Åland Islands.
Sveaborg; August 1855; Western Allied Baltic Fleet failed to destroy heavily defended Russian dockyards at Sveaborg outside Helsinki.
White Sea Campaign
Three British ships shelled Kola (which was destroyed), the Solovki, and the Solovetsky Monastery. Late 1854
The Crimean Peninsula Campaign
| Skirmish at the Genitchi Strait | 3 Jul 1855 |
Battle of Balaclava
Little Inkerman:
Battle of the Alma:
Battle of Inkerman:
Battle of Eupetoria: 17 Feb 1855; the Russian Empire unsuccessfully attempted to capture the Crimean port city of Eupatoria held by the forces of the Ottoman Empire.
The Quarries & The Mamelon Fort, (or Kamtschatka Redoubt) – the 1st Assault on the Great Redan -: 6-9 Jun 1855; successful offensive to approach the Sevastopol defense lines at the Great Redan by the British and the French.
2nd Assault on the Great Redan: 18 June 1855; the disastrous French and British offensive from their advanced dug-outs against the Great Redan. The Russians preempted and counterattacked with great success.
Battle of the Chernaya: 16 Aug 1855; French victory against a strong Russian attack from Sevastopol to break the siege.
Battle of the Great Redan: 8 Sep 1855; The unsuccessful British attacks on the Russian redoubt, the Redan, during the Siege of Sevastopol.
Battle of the Malakoff: 8 Sep 1855; The successful French attack against the Russian Malakoff fort during the Siege of Sevastopol, simultaneous with the second, failed British attack on the Redan.