Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)

DESCRIPTION: The British and French join Omar Pasha "to seize upon Sebastopol and set poor Turkey free." They defeat the Russians at Alma when Lord Raglan leads the battle with "legions of France by the side of old Britain" and Colin Campbell leads the Highlanders.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: war battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 207-210, "The Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V715
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(224), "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose" ("As the Western powers of Europe, united all together"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I) [Laws J10]" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Kilties in the Crimea" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (structure)
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson" (structure)
cf. "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (I)" (subject)
NOTES [336 words]: Except for the line and rhyme structure and the use of the title in the last line of each verse this ballad seems unrelated to the earlier "Grand Conversation" broadsides. - BS
Roud lumps the two "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose" types, but the forms imply that they are different.
The Crimean War was hardly fought to "set Turkey free." The Ottoman Empire was a despotism, and remained one -- but it was considered a useful one by the Western powers, since it kept Russia from controlling Constantinople and the straights. Hence the Crimean War.
Omar Pasha (or Omer Pasha; that being the spelling used in Kinross, p. 493) is described by Kinross as an "impatient general"; he was certainly quite a character. Born in 1806 in Croatia, with the name Michael Lattas, he had been an Austrian army cadet, but then deserted to the Ottomans (Palmer, p. 55). In October 1853, he had opened the fighting against Russia (Royle, p. 81). In early 1854, though, he hesitated, leaving Silistria (the first major object of the Russian invasion) to its fate. It was the Russians who finally gave up their siege. According to Kinross, p. 498, he had only limited involvement in the siege of Sebastopol, fighting instead in the defence of Eupatoria. This may be in part because the British and French had so little use for the Turks.
He ended up being disgraced for his conduct at Kars in 1855, was rehabilitated in 1861, and died in 1870.
Lord Raglan, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, was the original Allied commander in the Crimea; for his story, see the notes to "The Heights of Alma" [Laws J10].
Sir Colin Campbell (1792-1863) was a far better general, but socially inferior; he too fought in the Napoleonic Wars, as a junior officer of brilliant talent, but it took him more than twenty years to gain command of a regiment. The commander of the Highland Brigade, he and it gained fame together in the Crimea. He ended his career by suppressing the Indian Mutiny. For more about him, see "The Kilties in the Crimea." - RBW
Bibliography

Kinross: Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkist Empire, 1977 (I use the 1979 Perennial paperback edition)
Palmer: Alan Palmer, The Crimean War (originally published as The Banner of Battle), Dorset, 1987
Royle: Trevor Royle, Crimea: The Great Crimean War 1854-1856 (Abacus, 1999)

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File: BrdGCSA2

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