In the fall of 1852 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince President of the
French Republic, about to become the French Empire, was invited to a
banquet by the Chamber of Commerce in Bordeaux. He was on his
triumphal tour through the South of France. At the banquet he spoke,
saying: "I accept with eagerness the opportunity afforded me by the
Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce for thanking your great city for its
cordial reception.... At present the nation surrounds me with its
sympathies.... To promote the welfare of the country, it is not
necessary to apply new systems, but the chief point above all is to
produce confidence in the present and security for the future. For
these reasons it seems France desires a return to the Empire. There is
one objection to which I must reply. Certain minds seem to entertain a
dread of war; certain persons say the Empire is only war. But I say
_the Empire is peace_."
The last four words of this extract became the motto of the Second
Empire. Everywhere the Prince President's saying was blown to the
world. "The Empire is peace" was published in the newspapers, echoed
on the stage, and preached from the pulpits.
But the Empire was _not_ peace. Just at this time Tennyson wrote his
poem against France, as follows:
"There is a sound of thunder afar,
Storm in the South that darkens the day--
Storm of battle and thunder of war;
Well if it do not roll our way!
Form, form; riflemen, form!
Ready, be ready to meet the storm!"
In less than a year the storm broke. It broke in Eastern Europe. Of
the personal forces that brought the breaking, the two principal were
the Czar Nicholas and the Emperor Louis Napoleon. In 1853 the Czar
demanded of the Sultan certain guarantees of the rights of the Greek
Christians in the Turkish provinces. This was refused, and the
Crimean War broke out on the Danube. The first power in Western Europe
to support the Sultan was France, while England and Sardinia came hard
after. There was an alliance of England and France in support of the
Turkish cause. In the bottom of the difficulty lay this question:
Whether Russia might now move forward, gain control of the Black Sea,
overawe the Porte, force her way through the Sea of Marmora into the
Mediterranean, and thus rectify the mistake of Peter the Great in
building his capital on the Gulf of Finland. All this and much more
was called _The Eastern Question_.
The coast of the Black Sea became the seat of the war that ensued. The
Russians posted themselves strongly in the Crimea. That peninsula was
commanded by the famous fortress of Sebastopol, situated at the
southwestern extremity. On the twenty-fifth of September, 1854, the
heights of Balaklava, lying south of the fortress, were seized by a
British division under command of Lord Raglan. In this way the
Russians were besieged; for the allied fleets had made their way into
the Black Sea, and the land side of Sebastopol was commanded by
Balaklava.
The siege that ensued lasted for nearly eleven months, and was one of
the most memorable of modern times. On two occasions the Russians
sallied forth and gave battle. The first conflict of this kind was on
the night of the twenty-fifth of October, 1854, at Balaklava. The
Russian attack on the English and Turks was at first successful, and
four redoubts were carried by the assailants. At the crisis of the
battle, however, the British Highlanders came into action, and the
Russians were repulsed. The latter did not attempt to renew the
attack, but fell back into their intrenchments. It was at this
juncture that the famous incident occurred of the Charge of the Light
Brigade, which was immortalized by Tennyson in his poem.
A few days after the battle of Balaklava occurred another hard
conflict at the village of Inkerman, at the head of the harbor of
Sebastopol. On the fifth of November, 1854, a strong force of Russians
descended from the heights, and were met by the allies on the slope
opposite the ruins of an ancient town, which occupied the site in the
times of Strabo. A severe battle ensued, in which the English and
French were victorious. Many other sorties were made from the
fortress, but were designed rather to delay the siege than with any
serious hope of breaking the investment. Sometimes the conflicts,
though desultory, were severe, taking the proportions of regular
battles. But nothing decisive was effected, until winter closed on
the scene, and brought upon both the besiegers and the besieged the
greatest hardships.
The sufferings of the allies, so far away from the source of supplies,
were at times beyond description. It is doubtful whether any other
siege of modern times has entailed such cruel privations upon a
civilized soldiery. At times the combined havoc of hunger, disease and
cold was seen in its worst work in the allied camps. The genius of
Elizabeth Butler has seized upon the morning "Roll Call," in the
Crimean snows of 1855, as the subject of a great painting in which to
depict the excess of human suffering and devotion--the acme of English
heroism in a foreign land.
Meanwhile, the allied lines around Sebastopol were considerably
contracted, and several serious assaults were made on the Russian
works. On the twenty-third of February the French in front of the
bastion, called the Malakhoff, assaulted that stronghold with great
valor, but were unsuccessful. On the eighteenth of the following June
an attempt was made to carry the Redan, a strong redoubt at the other
extreme of the Russian defences, but the assailants were again
repulsed. Then, on the sixteenth of August, followed the bloody battle
of Tehernaya, in which the Russians made a final effort to raise the
siege. With a force of 50,000 infantry and 6000 cavalry they threw
themselves on the allied position, but were beaten back with great
slaughter.
In the meantime, the trenches of the allies had been drawn so near the
Russian works that there was a fair prospect of carrying the bastions
by another assault. A terrible bombardment was begun on the fifth, and
continued to the eighth of September, when both the Redan and the
Malakhoff were taken by storm. But the struggle was desperate, and the
losses on both sides immense. The Russians blew up their
fortifications on the south side of the harbor, and retreated across
the bay. Nor did they afterward make any serious attempt to regain the
stronghold which the allies had wrested from them. The victors for
their part proceeded to destroy the docks, arsenals and shipyards of
Sebastopol, and, as far as possible, to prevent the future occupancy
of the place by the Russians as a seat of commerce and war.
The siege and capture of Sebastopol virtually ended the contest,
though the war lagged during the greater part of the ensuing year. On
the second of March, 1855, the Czar Nicholas died, and Alexander II.
came to the throne, predisposed to peace. It was not, however, until
the thirtieth of March, 1856, that the Treaty of Paris was concluded,
in which Russia was obliged to yield to the allied powers, among which
France held the first place.
The story of the Crimean War, and of the siege of Sebastopol in
particular, has passed into history as one of the great events, of the
century. The struggles at Balaklava, on the river Alma, at Inkerman,
and the storming of the Redan and the Malakhoff became the subjects of
great historical paintings, of poems and of songs, the echoes of which
are heard to the present day.