The Crimean War would have been ridiculous had it not been so tragic  : the causes are very obscure , and seem to have as much to do with France and Britain wanting to throw their weight about as anything else. ( reminds me of much more recent events…. )

The target on this occasion was the Russians , who had been bullying the Turks , for want of anything better to do , and seemed to be available at the time .

The result was really a bloody and pointless stalemate , the victims being thousands of soldiers on all sides , to say nothing of the civilians in Sevastopol .

The British Army that landed at Calamita Bay and marched upon Sevastopol with their French allies was mostly  inexperienced : it was thirty years since their last big campaign , and everything so painfully learnt in Spain had been forgotten, particularly regarding the commissariat. Otherwise not much had changed , including some of the officers , who were getting a little old for this sort of thing.The younger ones had mostly never been under fire.

 If the officers were wanting , the men were magnificent : very largely long service regulars , well drilled and amazingly motivated . And they started the War in full-dress : nothing less would do to confront a major European Power.

 The first battle , at the crossing of the Alma and the storming of the Russian fortified position on the hills beyond , was an ill-commanded mess , won by the persistence of the men rather than any great inspiration or tactical skill by their commanders ; though as usual some of the junior officers behaved magnificently.

Coldstream Guardsman at the Alma :~

All three Regiments of Foot Guards were present in the 1st Division , and with the Highland Brigade on their left were largely responsible for deciding the battle…. though credit must also be given to the Light and 2nd Divisions who started it and broke the Russians morale, then got themselves in something of a pickle  , and the French who turned the Russian flank with great elan .

 The Guards , forming the 1st Division, were rather slow in crossing the river and getting on to the battlefield , because their commander , the Duke of Cambridge , was in a funk  .

The Light & 2nd Division had already taken the Russian batteries , but had been forced to retire from them by the Russian Infantry counter-attack , and were broken into jumbles of men , all blazing away but without the leadership to reform and advance… many of the key officers were dead.

The Guards, with the Highland Brigade on their left , advanced , deploying into Line. The Scots Guards were in the lead, and got into difficulties because of the broken terrain , but the Grenadiers and the Coldstream came up behind them " like a moving wall ", file firing as they came, and settled the issue.