On 17 October 1854 British and French siege guns opened the first bombardment of Sevastopol, the base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and in the afternoon the Allied fleets engaged the harbor forts. A Russian shell blew up a French magazine, a round shot struck down Vice-Admiral Kornilov on the Malakhov hill, and Rear-Admiral Lyons's hope of meeting Raglan in Sebastopol that day came to nothing. On the same date in 1855 three French armored floating batteries bombarded the Russian forts at Kinburn until the garrison surrendered, an action with which the naval historian H. W. Wilson opened his history of ironclad warfare. Also on this day: Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781.
Siege of Sevastopol, 1854: the first bombardment and an eleven-month siege
17 October 1854 · 172 years ago
British, French, Ottoman and Sardinian forces laid siege to Sevastopol, home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, during the Crimean War. After nearly a year of bombardment and assaults, the Russians abandoned the southern side of the city, and its fall largely decided the war.
Read the full story of Siege of Sevastopol, 1854: the first bombardment and an eleven-month siege ›Battle of Kinburn, 1855: the day armored warships went into action
17 October 1855 · 171 years ago
At the tip of the Kinburn Peninsula, an Anglo-French fleet and landing force attacked Russian coastal forts late in the Crimean War. French ironclad batteries destroyed the forts within hours at little cost, early proof that armored warships were the future.
Read the full story of Battle of Kinburn, 1855: the day armored warships went into action ›Also on this day
1777: at Saratoga, General John Burgoyne surrendered his army to General Horatio Gates. The National Park Service puts the surrender at about 6,300 British and German officers and soldiers; see our article on the Battle of Saratoga.1
1781: at Yorktown, Johnston writes, a drummer beat a parley on the British parapet at ten in the morning, on a date the American soldiers remembered as the anniversary of Burgoyne's surrender. In a letter dated that day Cornwallis proposed a cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours to settle terms for the surrender of York and Gloucester, and Washington granted two hours for written proposals. Cornwallis's letter to Clinton dates the surrender to the 19th. His failed attempt to ferry his troops across the river is on our 16 October page, and the siege in our article on the Battle of Yorktown.2
