The Russo-Turkish War in Crimea and Nightingale's Role in It (1854-1855)

Abstract

In October 1853, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia, after a series of disputes over the holy places in Jerusalem and Russian claims to protect the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The British and French, allies of the Ottoman Empire, sought to check Russian expansion. The majority of the Crimean War took place in Crimea, Russia. However, the British troop base and hospitals for the care of sick and wounded soldiers were established primarily at Scutari (Uskudar), across the Bosphorus from Constantinople (Istanbul). As the war broke out, reports returned to Britain about the terrible conditions for the sick and wounded British soldiers. Popular on the mistreatment of wounded British soldiers, a friend of Florence Nightingale, the Secretary of War, Sidney Herbert, wrote to Florence and asked her to lead a group of nurses to attend the headquarters of the British forces. So Florence Nightingale volunteered to go to Turkey then known as Scutari, accompanied by thirty-eight women, including eighteen Catholic, Anglican and Roman sisters, to war.