Height: 8cm (3in)
Iron and marble. Canister shot mounted onto to marble base inscribed ‘FROM THE STEPS OF THE COMMANDANT’S HOUSE / ARMY OF THE CRIMEA / OCTOBER 1855’.
After a tortuous winter in the Crimea, the Allies finally addressed the difficulties of supplying the frontline troops besieging Sebastopol with the completion of a railway from the Allied base port of Balaclava in mid 1855. Thereafter the war was pushed on vigorously, and in September 1855, after a month’s incessant bombardment, the Malakoff and the Redan fortresses were taken by assault and Sebastopol fell. The Russians then destroyed the defences, evacuated the town leaving their sick and wounded behind them.