Sardinia and the War - Part 3
© Herman Van Meir
To Albert Voet, Grand Master, Who never believed in this project, (nor in me).
The first soldiers arrived in the Crimea on May 9th but, due to the crowded harbor, the rough sea, and the rainy weather, disembarkation only started four days later. On May 9th, La Marmora went ashore and was accompanied by General Airey, Lord Raglan's Quartermaster-General, on visits to possible encampment sites for the Sardinians and locations for his headquarters, supplies depot, and hospital. For the camp sites, Airey showed La Marmora two locations and left the choice to him. The first was situated on the Woronzoff road, the second on the heights of Karani.
Although La Marmora preferred the first as providing more direct access to the action, he chose the second for practical reasons. Karani was much closer to Balaklava harbour and well within the Balaklava defenses. (See Map 'A'). Since everything had to be transported to the camp, this was a reasonable choice. For his headquarters, supplies, and hospitals the location was less than ideal; Balaklava was overcrowded, and Karani was too far from the harbor. Negotiations with the British left him with 30 small barrack huts in Balaklava, evacuated by an English battalion, followed somewhat later by a similar group of barracks. Here La Marmora settled his first headquarters, baggage train, supply depot for provisions and fodder, and a hospital of 300 beds. Somewhat later the British evacuated barracks in Kadikoi and La Marmora moved in with his headquarters, to stay there for the rest of the campaign.
At his headquarters, he was well served in impressive 'names'. He had with him 'his' Majors Govone, Della Rovere and Lieut Col Petitti di Roreto; the French detached to him Edmond Talleyrand-Périgord, Duke of Dino; the British, George Cadogan, the second son of the Earl of Cadogan. His own representatives with respectively the French and the English were the Marquis Ansari di San Marzano è Caraglio and Genova Thaon di Revel. These two were almost predestined for these appointments by family tradition, as their respective grandfather (San Marzano) and father (Revel), held similar positions in 1796 and 1793.
Was Karani a good choice? To build up the Sardinian forces in the Crimea, the location per se was good; however, the circumstances made it a lot worse. The terrain was a rocky, undulating plain with no vegetation. In the previous autumn, the French used the Karani upland as a burial ground for the victims of the battles and of the diseases. Knowing the way they had to bury the victims that autumn, it is clear that a constant stench came out of the soil. Sometimes, for a surprise, parts of a buried body would pop up from the drenched ground.
