Siege of Calafat 1854
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate. Wikidata lists more than one location for this battle; the first is shown.
Key facts
| Year | 1854 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Romania | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| Coordinates | 43.9956, 22.9312 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The siege of Calafat took place in 1854 during the Crimean War. The Russians unsuccessfully besieged the Ottoman army at this place for four months before finally withdrawing.
In July 1853, the Russian army invaded the Principality of Wallachia, which was an Ottoman vassal. Their army had some 91,000 men under the command of Prince Gorchakoff, with some 240 field artillery and 90 siege guns. In response, war was declared by the Ottomans and they assembled an army of some 60–70,000 under the command of Omar Pasha. The Ottomans had several fortified fortresses on the southern side of the Danube river, of which Vidin was one. The Turks made several plans to advance into Wallachia. On 28 October their army in Vidin crossed the Danube and established itself at the village of Calafat, and started building fortifications. Another army crossed the Danube at Ruse on 1-2 November in a feint attack to lure the Russians away from Calafat. This operation was unsuccessful and they retreated on 12 November, but in the meantime Calafat's defenses and the communication with Vidin had been improved.
In response to these events, the Russians marched towards Calafat and unsuccessfully engaged the Turks at the end of December.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Calafat (revision 1370739963), 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.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Vidin (1913) 1913 · 5 km
- Battle of Cetate 1853 · 26 km
- Battle of Kula 1885 · 35 km
- Battle for Knjaževac 1913 · 73 km
- Battle of Čegar 1809 · 106 km
- Battle of Kunovica 1444 · 109 km
Browse more: battles in Romania · Europe · 19th century battles