Southern Military Interests in the Crimean War

Abstract

When the Crimean War, which pitted Russia against Turkey, Britain, and France, erupted in the mid-nineteenth century, the Southern section (the states of the future Confederacy) of the United States followed the battles and military maneuvers of the conflict intently. Generals, heroes, and tactics of all the belligerents were subjects of speculation. Poems, parodies, and articles were rife in Southern newspapers about the war. The South bemoaned what it considered a lack of action, and enjoyed comparing it with America's previous war, naturally to the advantage of the U.S. As the war ran its course, the bulk of Southern sympathy lay with the Russians, possibly because of a similar labor system—serfdom in Russia and slavery in the South. The heroic stand of Sebastopol, the last great Russian bastion, was lauded by the South and, when it finally fell, its loss was bemoaned. Not only the South, but all America was interested in the war and future Civil War Northern generals McClellan and Hallack, along with other military personnel, were sent to the Crimea as observers.