The Crimean War

Front 1

Causes of the Crimean war

Back 1

Like most wars the Crimean war was about power, control and fear

The Russian Empire had doubled in size in Europe and the Russian army was advancing through central Asia.

The British politicians believed that the Russian army was creating a threat towards British interests in India.
They thought that the route to India was threatened.

Britain wanted and needed the Black sea in control of neutral hands to maintain the route to India.

Sultan believed that Britain and France would help the Turkish Empire rater than seeing it collapse; so he formally declaed war on Russia.

Front 2

Conditions men fought under

Back 2

They British troops arrived in Constantinople and then moved to Scutari.

The streets were filthy and badly paved that they were dangerous to walk on.
Cheap wine and cheap prostitutes could be found on the back streets.

Scutari: the British troops were encamped either behind Lord Raglan's house or in and around the Turkish barracks.

The Russian winter lead the British army to no longer be a functioning military force.

Front 3

Hospitals

Back 3

The hospitals were disgusting.
The men were kept in rooms like sardines without decent food.
The men were unwashed and were still wearing their army uniforms that were stiff with dirt and gore.

The hospitals were full of diseases and infections, as nothing was ever sterilised.

There was an overpowering smell and no screens

Front 4

Light Brigade

Back 4

Lord Raglan ordered Lord Lucan and his cavalry to stop the Russians from removing captured cannons from a valley. However Lord Lucan went up the wrong valley from the spoken order from Captain Nolan.

It was a disaster because they did not capture any guns and many of the men died. It would have been worse if the guns were smokeless.
However the Russians could not see the British when the guns had been fired because of the smoke.

Front 5

Roger Fenton

Back 5

A firm sent him to take photos so the company could make some profit.
1) Took over 400 usable photos
2) He recorded the everyday life of soldiers.
Fenton had 2 main problems: a Victorian world meant that no dead bodies could be shown.
Also photographic technology had not been advance to take photos of moving objectives.

Front 6

William Howard Russel

Back 6

1) He covered the Charge of the Light Brigade,
2) Came to hate the business of war,
3) Aimed for factual accuracy and honesty,
4) Had middle class values,
5) Employed by the times
6) Highlighted the failures of the Commissariat,
7) Highlighted the restrictions imposed by red tape,
8) He was anti ottoman and anti French
9) Russel was also away from the Crimean war at the most crucial time (during the winter of 1854-55)
10) Told people what they wanted to hear
11) Didn't criticise Raglan
12) Wrote damning newspaper reports about living conditions and bad organisations, which helped to criticise Raglan and other army officials.

Front 7

1854

Back 7

Dreadful rain
Appalling winter
Thought that Sebastopol would be resolved very quickly but the road was inadequate
couldn't transport men, horses and supplies.
Horses did because there wasn't enough food
14th November: Hurricane hit- blew tents away and trenches were flooded.
There was a dramatic drop in temperature
The road from Balaclava to Sebastopol was left too late to mend.
Soldiers were forced to carry supplies 12 miles from the harbour to the camp
Ships were waiting outside of the harbour- as they were not allowed in because of the bad weather.
Some supplies were prevented from entering the harbour
Many ships lost men and supplies
The prince- Lost everything. (winter supplies- that were needed)
Harbour too crowded and to small and inefficient.

Front 8

Medical conditions

Back 8

1. More men died of disease than combat wounds. 1/5 of casualties on battlefield.
2. 4/5 hospital- cholera, scurvy, typhus and typhoid. 

3. No clean water
Medical treatment still very primitive- many doctors suspicious of anesthesia.
4. Lister and antiseptics still not known. 

5. Raglan ordered only a small number of medical assistants should go because he believed that the limited space should be occupied by soldiers.

6. Only 2 designated hospital ships in 1854 but they were taken over by troops

7. AFTER ALMA AND OTHER BATTLES THERE WERE VERY FEW MEN TO RECOVER THE WOUNDED
8. and no hospital ships to take them to base hospitals in constantinople.
9. Not until 1855 that 4 hospital ships were in operation. 

10. Medical department inadequate.
11. Run by volunteers with no medical training.
12. Discredited by Raglan. Trying to make it a scapegoat for all other mismanagements

Front 9

Raglan

Back 9

1. Chosen to command British troops.

2. - 65 years old- Chosen because he was youngest!

3. -Never led troops in the field.
4. 
-Reputation shot after the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Front 10

Florence Nightingale

Back 10

1) She was invited to become the head of the nursing staff at Scutari.
2) "Lady with the Lamp"
3) Scutari was unscrubbed,
4) Rotting floors
5) Patients dying from disease rather than battle wounds.
6) Believed Nightingale was running a death camp rather than a hospital.
7) Nightingale found the conditions to be appalling
8) The men were still wearing their uniforms and were unwashed
9) The programme of basic sanitary improvements helped to decreased the death rate.
10) War wounds only accounted for 1 in 6 deaths
11) Military officers and doctors objected to Nightingales views on reforming military hospitals.
12) She used her contacts at the Times to report how the British army treated their soldiers.
12) She was later given the task to organise the Barrack hospitals by improving the sanitation (Reducing deaths)

Front 11

Battles

Back 11

Alma
Inkerman
Balaclava

Front 12

Mary Seacole

Back 12

1) Seacole applied to the War office medical department. She already knew some of the officers and soldiers (As she nursed them when they were stationed in Jamaica)
2) Everyone turned her away
3) She knew how to treat them and how to behave around them (As she was used to soldiers because her father was a soldier)
4) Learnt all her skills from her mother
5) She made her own way to the Crimean, and then set up a Hotel with a relative 'Seacole and Day'
6) She used her herbal medicines
7) Provided the soldiers with hot tea and gave them proper nourishment.
8) She visited the battlefields and helped the wounded soldiers on both sides
9) Her reputation rivalled Nightingales
10) Many men went to her instead of to their own doctors
11) She became Bankrupt
12) A fund was set up for her to raise money for her
13) She published her memoirs 'The wonderful adventured of Mrs. Seacole in many lands'

Front 13

Nightingale

Back 13

1960- A fund for a training school for nurses was established at St Thomas's hospital.
She also published notes for nursing, and is still in print today.

Front 14

Development of nursing as a profession

Back 14

Sidney Herbet launched a national appeal for subscriptions to the 'Nightingale fund' his aim was to raise enough money to support Nightingale and to improve the standard of female nursing.

"Florence Nightingales greatest achievement was to raise nursing to the level of a respectable profession for women."

Nursing because a profession for many middle and working class women. These were the women who couldn't live off just one income.

Front 15

Cardwell reforms

Back 15

1) Various military departments were combined under one roof.
2) One regiment would be overseas while the other one would be at home training.
3) Length overseas was cut from 12 to 6 years.
4) The sons from wealthy families were no longer allowed to buy their positions.
5) Replaced by a system of merit
6) The Commander in chief was to be answerable to the secretary for war and through him to parliament
7) Flogging of soldiers in peacetime was forbidden.
8) Soldiers could choose to spend time in the reserves rather than regular service.
9)

Front 16

Civil service

Back 16

In 1870 competitive examination was laid down as the normal method of entry to the civil service. - It applied to all departments. Expect the Home and Foreign offices.
-The change improved the efficiency and brain power of the upper ranks of the civil service but there was still a clear hierarchy.

Middle and working class found it possible to progress up to the senior posts.