'Rout of the English from the town of Taganrog, 22nd May 1855'

Woodcut by A Vasuleva, published in Russia, 1855.

The capture at the end of May 1855 of the strategically vital port of Kerch (situated at the eastern tip of the Crimea) by a joint Anglo-French expedition commanded by Sir George Brown opened the Sea of Azov to the depredations of British gunboats. On 3 June 1855 (Modern Calendar; 22 May 1855 Old Style), the Royal Navy bombarded the Russian port of Taganrog in order to check the supply of provisions to Sevastopol across the Sea of Azov.

According to the historian Kinglake, the town was garrisoned by 'from three to four thousand soldiers which had feebly resisted the landing, andhad hardly, if at all, interfered with the steady work of destructioneffected under their eyes'. Contrary to the bombastic and self-deludingtitle of this print, the Allies achieved their aims at Taganrog. By mid-afternoon, all the Russian stores of grain, wood and tar and a number of government buildings and ships had been set ablaze, without the loss of a single Allied life.