Crimean War - Battle of Eupatoria, 17 February 1855

Ottoman forces were being transferred from the Danube front to the Crimean port of Eupatoria and the town was being fortified. The Tsar Nicolas I who feared a wide-scale Ottoman offensive on the Russian flank ordered Russian expeditionary force under command of General Stepan Khrulev to storm the base. Khrulev failed to won this battle, as both the Ottoman garrison and the Allied fleet anticipated the attack. Heavy Allied artillery fire and mounting casualties forced Russians to retreat. This reverse led to the dismissal of the Russian Commander-in-Chief Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov and probably hastened the death of Nicholas I, who died several weeks after the battle.