The Russians, intent on weakening Turkey, claimed the protection of the Holy Places in the Middle East and of the Christian subjects of the Sultan. Turkey declared war on 4th October 1853, when the Russians had occupied the Danubian provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. Great Britain and France came in on Turkey's side in 1854, and Sardinia in 1855. The main operations were the battles of the Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and the Tchernaya and the siege of Sebastopol, which fortress was abandoned by the Russians in 11th September. The Peace of Paris was signed on 30th March, 1856. Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Sterling, Brigade-Major of the Highland Brigade in the Crimea, wrote: "The fine part of this war is the British private: those who have gone through this business should have ample provision for life at the national cost -- a quart of turtle and a bottle of champagne per man. It will be a clear gain for the country. They will really get a shilling or thereabouts per diem, when incapacitated by age or wounds, and the Crimean medal. That we have a right to admire in war is a display of very admirable qualities called out by it in poor, uneducated, but brave men, who have nothing to Gain except, perhaps, the approbation of the company they belong to, and of their own convictional conscience, or that thing which we cannot shake off, which is variable in its quality that the same might belong to an angel or a demon at different moments. You know how I have praised these poor peasants all along; yet they have wonderful vices -- drunkeness, lying, thieving. Still they are enduring and daring all things for a principle, many of them I varily do believe." Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 102 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1970 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com