Siege of Silistria (1854) 1854
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1854 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Romania | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Crimean War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Ottoman Empire | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 44.1186, 27.2603 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The siege of Silistria, or siege of Silistra, was a key engagement in the Crimean War, fought from 11 May to 23 June 1854 between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire in present-day Bulgaria. The Russian army, numbering up to 90,000 men with 266 guns, attempted to capture the Danubian fortress of Silistria as part of a broader strategy to outflank Ottoman defences and pre-empt an expected Allied landing at Varna. The garrison, 12,000 to 18,000 Ottoman troops and Egyptian auxiliaries, was bolstered by British military advisers and successfully withstood a six-week siege.
The operation was shaped by diplomatic and regional tensions. Russia hoped for a general Balkan uprising and misjudged the likelihood of Austrian or Serbian neutrality. Austria, concerned that a Russian advance might provoke unrest among its own Serb population, mobilised 280,000 troops along the Danube and warned Russia against crossing the river. At the same time, Anglo-French troops began arriving in Varna, and a joint Austrian–Ottoman convention granted Austria the right to occupy the Danubian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia.
Despite capturing key outworks and preparing a final assault, the Russians abruptly lifted the siege just hours before the planned storming of the citadel.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Silistria (1854) (revision 1370745274), 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
- Battle of the Alma 1854
- Siege of Petropavlovsk 1854
- Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) 1854
- Battle of Eupatoria 1855
All 18 battles of the Crimean War →
Browse more: battles in Romania · Europe · 19th century battles