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Battle of Alma
The Battle of the Alma (20 September 1854), which is usually considered the first battle of the Crimean War (1853–1856), took place just south of the River Alma in the Crimea. An Anglo-French force under Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud and FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan defeated General Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov's Russian army, which lost around 6,000 troops.
==Prelude==
The Anglo-French forces landed on the western coast of the Crimean peninsula some north of Sevastopol, on 13 September 1854, at Calamita Bay ("Calamity Bay").〔Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History'' (Picador Press, New York, 2010) p. 201.〕 Although disorganised and weakened by disease (mostly cholera and dysentery), the lack of opposition these landings met allowed a beachhead of four miles (6 km) inland to be made.〔Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History'', pp. 191 and 203-204.〕 Six days later, 19 September 1854, the two armies headed south.〔Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History'', p. 204.〕 The march involved crossing five rivers—the River Bulganak, the River Alma, the River Kacha, the River Belbek and the River Chernaya.〔See map on top of page XXVII in Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History''.〕 At the River Alma, Prince Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov, Commander-in Chief of the Russians forces in the Crimea, decided to make his stand on the heights above the south banks of the River Alma.〔Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War'', p. 205.〕 Although the Russian Army was numerically inferior to the combined Anglo-French army (35,000 Russian troops as opposed to 60,000 British and French troops〔Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History'', p. 206〕), the heights they occupied were a natural defensive position—indeed the last natural barrier to the allied armies on their approach to Sevastopol.〔Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History'', pp. 205-206.〕 Furthermore, the Russians had more than 100 artillery field guns on the heights which they could employ with devastating effect from the elevated position.〔Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History'', 206.〕
The British and French bivouacked on the northern bank, where the ground sloped gently down to the river.〔See map on the bottom of page XXVII of Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History''.〕 The precipitous cliffs running along the southern bank of the river were high and continued inland from the river's mouth for almost two miles (3 km) where they met a less steep, but equally high hill known as Telegraph Hill across the river from the village of Bourliouk.〔See the map on the bottom of page XXVII of Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History''.〕 To its east lay Kourgane Hill, a natural strongpoint with fields of fire covering most approaches, and the key to the whole position. Two redoubts had been constructed to protect Kourgane Hill from infantry assault; the Lesser Redoubt on the eastern slope and the Greater Redoubt on the west.〔See the map on the bottom of page XXVII of Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History''〕 The road to Sevastopol ran between Telegraph and Kourgane Hill, covered by Russian batteries sited on the hills and in the narrow valley between them
The Russians had only to hold their ground and keep the pass closed to achieve victory. The French, however, had a plan. Positioned on the allies' right (the western section of allied line, nearest the sea), they would assault the cliffs across the river.〔Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History'', p. 208.〕 In theory, such an obvious attempt to turn the Russian flank would so concern the Russians that they would fail to notice a British attack on their centre and left.
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