A note to the author's section on The Crimean War in his multi-part essay, "Mark Twain on the Crimean War." In-text citations refer to items in the bibliography. [Click on the preceding link to return to the main text.]
Twain himself had visited the Crimea in the summer of 1867 when he went on his first European excursion (The Innocents Abroad, Ch. 35). He had a good idea of the various battlefields, even going so far as to make a sketch of them (see Notebooks and Journals, I, 404). For the most part, Twain emphasized he desolation, still visible many years after the war had ended. But he also spoke respectfully of the Russian defenders of Sevastopol, whose "desperate valor could not avail, and they had to give up at last." No hint here of Russians turning tail at the sight of a British regiment. Earlier on this voyage he had seen "the white-moustached old Crimean soldier Canrobert, marshal of France," on parade in Paris (Ch. 13).
Last modified 16 August 2005