OPERATIONS IN THE SEA OF AZOFF.
During the autumn and winter the allies conducted extensive and effective operations in the Sea of Azoff. All around its coasts strong places were bombarded and stormed. The granaries from which the Russian armies were fed were consumed. The fishing establishments which were on a great scale, and by which also the Russian armies received support, were wasted; and the craft which traversed that sea, as well as the armed vessels by which they had been protected, were all captured or swept away.
OPERATIONS IN ASIA MINOR.
On a previous page the arrival of Colonel Williams as her majesty’s commissioner, and his efforts to restore order in the Turkish armies, and to correct the rapacity and disorder of its chiefs, were noticed. That skilful and gallant officer, now so well known as Major-general Sir Fenwick Williams, Bart, of Kars, late M.P. for Calne, and Governor of Woolwich, and while these pages are going to press, commander-in-chief of the forces in Canada, put forth almost superhuman efforts to save Asia Minor from the Russians during the summer and autumn of 1855. In consequence of the wretched conduct of the Turkish pashas, and the quarrels of the European officers in the Turkish service, especially the Poles, Germans, and Hungarians, Colonel, or as we shall now call him General, Williams shut himself up in Kars. The Turkish pashas immediately conspired together to neglect him, to refuse succours military or material, and by leaving Kars to fall into the hands of the Russians, bring discredit upon the foreign general, and deter the sultan from committing commands or positions of authority over the faithful to infidel generals. The limits of this history do not allow of the detail of the defence of Kars. It is one of the most remarkable and romantic in history. So extraordinary was the capacity of General Williams that he inspired confidence in the minds of the abject Turks, and ensured order among the wild and predatory auxiliaries who came to the assistance of his garrison. His exceeding sweetness of temper, urbanity of manner, and ease and persuasiveness of address, enabled General Williams to secure the support of the people of Kars, the wild Lazi, and his own little band of noble British officers. He defended Kars without any European troops whatever against the best general in the Russian service, and one of the most noble and generous as well as her officers, Mouravieff. The Russians were repulsed again and again by the townspeople and their rude and undisciplined assistants from the country. The army of Mouravieff was punished with appalling slaughter, and had food been sent to the garrison, which the Turkish pashas could have effected, General Williams would not only have saved Kars, but have driven the Russians back upon the line of the Caucasus. Famine, however, conquered the heroic chief and his devoted followers. The surrender of Kars became necessary, and the famished garrison and its adored chief went forth prisoners to the Russian camp. Severely as the besiegers had suffered, they used language of unbounded admiration for the skill and gallantly of General Williams and his officers, and for the devotion, endurance, and courage of their followers.
While yet the struggle was going on in Kars, Omar Pasha, at the head of a Turkish army, was dispatched to the northern shores of the Asiatic coast of the Black Sea to create a diversion, and cause the siege of Kars to be raised. In this undertaking Omar was not sincere. He, like the other pashas, was jealous of Williams, and wished Kars to fall. Omar landed, lost time wherever he could on any pretence make a stay, beat his enemy to prove his own generalship, and took care to reap none of the fruits of victory lest Kars should be saved. The skilful renegade shared with the old Turkish muchirs, feriks, and pashas, all the corruption of those classes, and all their hatred to foreigners, even although indispensable allies. Omar had been offended by the insulting contempt of Lord Raglan, and the stupid apathy of General Simpson; the French commanders had, from motives of separate policy, alienated him, so that he led an army into Asia rather to accomplish purposes of his own than to relieve Kars. The conquests of Omar in the direction of the Ingour were rapid, signal, and brilliant. He, however, was obliged to retreat, from the severity of the season exposing his army to the bitterest sufferings and great loss of life.
The foregoing pages give as complete a view of the actions of the allies in the waters and on the shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff, as the space allotted to the account in this History can possibly allow.