2-913-814 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sebastopol - from an original drawing, 1854. Crimean War. Warships on the Black Sea near the port of Sebastopol. The Siege of Sevastopol was the subject of Crimean soldier Leo Tolstoy's "Sebastopol Sketches" and the subject of the first Russian feature film, "Defence of Sevastopol". 'None of the sea batteries or forts are of the slightest service for defence on the land side...the great fort, St. Nicholas, has not a gun pointed in that direction, and such an armament would be perfectly useless...as that part of the hill on which the town stands rises behind it to a height of 200 feet...all the fortresses and batteries both to the north and south of the great bay, are commanded by higher ground in the rear. The port...consists of a bay running in a south-easterly direction, about four miles long, and a mile wide at the entrance diminishing to 400 yards at the end, where the "Tchernaia Retchka" or Black River, empties itself'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.