Siege of Kars

For other Battle of Kars, see Battle of Kars (disambiguation).
Siege of Kars
Part of the Crimean War
Date June - November 1855
Location Kars, Ottoman Empire
Result Russian victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire
British Empire		 Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
William Fenwick Williams
Vasıf Pasha
Omar Pasha		 Nikolay Muravyov-Karsky
Strength
17,000 soldiers[1] 40,000 infantry

10,000 cavalry[2]
Casualties and losses
6500 killed and wounded, 11127 captured 2,300 killed
5,000 wounded

The Siege of Kars was the last major operation of the Crimean War. On June 1855, in an attempt to alleviate pressure on the troops at Sevastopol, Emperor Alexander II ordered General Nikolay Muravyov to lead his troops against areas of Ottoman interest in Asia Minor. Uniting disparate contingents under his command into a strong corps of 25,000 soldiers and 88 light guns, Muravyov decided to attack Kars, the most important fortress of Eastern Anatolia.

The first attack was repulsed by Ottoman garrison under British general William Fenwick Williams. Russians began setting up siege lines and started a siege that would last until November. Upon hearing news of the attack, the Ottoman Commander Omar Pasha asked for Ottoman troops to be moved from the line at the Siege of Sevastopol and redeployed to Asia Minor mainly with the idea of relieving Kars. On September 6, Omar Pasha left the Crimea for Sukhumi with 45,000 soldiers.

Omar Pasha's arrival to Sukhumi induced Muravyov to begin a third assault, which was repulsed by the now nearly starved Ottoman forces at Kars. On the 29th of September the Russians attempted a general attack on Kars. The battle lasted seven hours with extreme desperation. The Russians were repulsed and the retreat became a complete rout. The Ottoman forces lost 700-800 men, The Russian casualties were more than 3,000 killed and in total more than 6,000 killed, wounded and prisoner.[3] However, Omar Pasha, instead of relieving the garrison, plunged into prolonged warfare in Mingrelia and took Sukhumi in the aftermath. In the meantime, the Ottoman reserves in Kars were running out and the supply lines had been thinned.

The heavy snowfall in late October made the arrival of Ottoman reinforcements to Kars quite impracticable. Selim Pasha, Omar's son, landed another army at the ancient city of Trebizond and began marching south to Erzerum in order to prevent Russian retreat further into Anatolia. The Russians sent a small force from the Kars lines to attack Pasha and stop his advance. Ottoman forces were defeated at the River Ingur on November 6.

The garrison of Kars declined to face further hardships of the winter siege and on November 26, 1855 surrendered to General Muravyov, who on the occasion was authorized by the tsar to change his name to "Muravyov-Karssky", in order to commemorate his part in the taking of the Ottoman fortress.

References

  1. ^ Harold E. Raugh, The Victorians at War, 1815-1914, ABC-CLIO, 2004. p. 199 [1]
  2. ^ Haydn's dictionary of dates relating to all ages and nations, Joseph Haydn, page 416
  3. ^ The Household narrative of current events, page 236

The Siege of Kars 1855: Defence and Capitulation Reported by General Williams London: The Stationery Office, 200.

See also