Josh Clark

And the Russian commander was a guy named Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov.

Right.

There was, I think, an initial skirmish after they landed at Kalamita Bay.

But it didn't really count as the first battle.

The first battle was the Battle of the Alma River.

And that's where Menshikov decided, like, OK, this is where we're going to start to take on this alliance force.

And it was a pretty serious battle.

I think both sides lost many thousands of men.

But the Brits and the French were not turned back.

The Russians retreated instead.

Yeah.

And they couldn't have known that the city wasn't very well defended, but everybody had fled.

And apparently they sunk a bunch of ships in the harbor to keep the British Navy from being able to land there.

Yes.

And ironically, you would use the light brigade for that kind of stuff to scout and spy and report back.

Yes.

Okay.

You're right.

So for the siege of Sevastopol, not just the Russians set up and re-fortified the city, the British basically regrouped and they settled at a port town.

called Balaclava.