Battle of the Alma 1854
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 20 September 1854 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1854 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Ukraine | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Crimean War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Ottoman Empire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 44.8310, 33.6689 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) took place during the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20 September 1854. The allies had made a surprise landing in Crimea on 14 September. The allied commanders, Maréchal Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud and Lord Raglan, then marched toward the strategically important port city of Sevastopol, 45 km (28 miles) away. Russian commander Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov rushed his available forces to the last natural defensive position before the city, the Alma Heights, south of the Alma River.
The allies made a series of disjointed attacks. The French turned the Russian left flank with an attack up cliffs that the Russians had considered unscalable. The British initially waited to see the outcome of the French attack, then twice unsuccessfully assaulted the Russians' main position on their right. Eventually, superior British rifle fire forced the Russians to retreat. With both flanks turned, the Russian position collapsed and they fled. The lack of cavalry meant that little pursuit occurred.
The battle cost the French roughly 1,600 casualties, the British 2,000, the Ottomans 503, and the Russians some 5,000.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Alma (revision 1375360043), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Crimean War
- Battle of Cetate 1853
- Battle of Oltenița 1853
- Battle of Sinop 1853
- Battle of Balaclava 1854
- Battle of Bomarsund 1854
- Battle of Inkerman 1854
- Siege of Petropavlovsk 1854
- Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) 1854
- Siege of Silistria (1854) 1854
- Battle of Eupatoria 1855
All 18 battles of the Crimean War →
Browse more: battles in Ukraine · Europe · 19th century battles