On the 5th November 1854 a smaller British and (yes) French army beat off an assault by the Russians at Inkerman in the Crimea. It was known as “The Soldier’s Battle” as men fought small engagements due to poor visibility in dense fog.
The Russians had massed 32000 men on the Allied flank and headed for the 2700 man 2nd Division, commanded today by the aggressive Pennefather. Instead of falling back in the face of superior numbers, he advanced. The British had their rifles to thank this day as they took a terrible toll on the musket armed Russian Infantry, who were hemmed in by the valley’s bottle neck shape. The British 2nd Division pushed the Russians back onto their reinforcements and should have been routed by the Russians’ numbers, but the fog and the British Light Division saved them. Three successive Russian commanders were killed in this engagement.
The Russians other 15000 men approached and assailed the Sandbag Battery, but they were routed by 300 British defenders vaulting the wall, blunting the lead Battalions, who were then attacked in the flank. More Russian attacks ensured the Battery exchanged hands several times.
The British 4th Division was not as lucky. Arriving on the field, its flanking move was itself flanked and its commander, Cathcart, killed. This enabled the Russians to advance, but not for long. They were soon driven off by French units arriving from their camps and made no more headway.
The battle was lost and they had to withdraw.
This was the last time the Russians tried to defeat the Allied troops in the field. Despite this reverse, however, the Russian attack had seriously stalled the Allies from capturing Sevastopol. They had to instead, spend one harsh winter on the heights overlooking the city, before it fell in September of 1855.
The British suffered 2573 casualties, the French 1800 and the Russians 11959.
Lee surrenders his army today in his beloved and war torn Virginia
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Today, the 9th April, in 1865 General R.E. Lee signed the surrender of the army which he had forged into his own and with which he had come closest to winning his faction’s aims, the great Army of Northern Virginia. This once proud army had never flinched before its counterpart, The Union Army of the Potomac.
Today, after having left Petersburg, Va, in an attempt to reach Lynchburg and the only other large Confederate army, that of Tennessee(now in North Carolina), Lee and his surviving 28000 men had no where left to run.
The man who had brought about the army’s downfall was a Westerner, named Hiram Ulysses Grant. Both men had known each other in the US’s last great conflict, The Mexican War of 1846-8. He had taken over control of this vital clash once given command of all Union armies, back in March of 1864 and he had made it his goal to end the war soon as he could. It took the great Grant a year and tens of thousands of Northern casualties, but it was now over. Between the two armies thee was great respect. Grant was gracious in his surrender terms and Lee never forgot this.
Although many Southern armies still existed, Lee’s surrender was the catalyst for them to follow suit. The awful Civil War would not last much longer. -
Maybe if Lee and the Confederates had AK-47s…
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Maybe if Lee and the Confederates had AK-47s…
That one was good. I hear the rest got really off the rails.
:|
We’ve had that discussion here haven’t we?
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Maybe if Lee and the Confederates had AK-47s…
That one was good. I hear the rest got really off the rails.
:|
We’ve had that discussion here haven’t we?
We have. I couldn’t search it at first, but tried again and found this thread:
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=14501.0
I never read past the first one, but I did take a stab at the Aliens in WW2 one.
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