Robert Cannon (12 January 1811 – 5 April 1882), also known as Behram Pasha (Turkish: Behram Paşa),[1] was an accomplished British lieutenant general of Scottish descent. His military service started in company-ruled India, taking him to Spain, and then to the Ottoman Empire. He is known for his role in the Crimean War, where he served as a general in the Ottoman army. Cannon was said to have "inflicted upon the Russians the most profound humiliation which they had experienced during the whole war" in the Danubian front.[2]
Robert Cannon | |
|---|---|
 Photograph of Cannon by Antoine Claudet in 1856 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 January 1811 Murroes, Angus, United Kingdom |
| Died | 5 April 1882 (aged 71) Folkestone, United Kingdom |
| Spouse(s) |
Isabella Langford
(m. 1846; died 1854)Emma Beevor Ronald
(m. 1858–1882) |
| Children | 6 |
| Parent |
|
| Awards |    |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch/service | |
| Rank | Lieutenant general |
| Battles/wars | |
Early life and career
editBirth and service in India
editRobert Cannon was born on 12 January 1811 to a Scottish family in Murroes, Angus, Scotland. He moved to company-ruled India at an early age to enlist in the Madras Army. His first military engagement was during the Coorg War, where he fought as part of the distinguished 40th Madras Native Infantry, which played an important role in crushing the rebellion started by the Rajah of Kodagu, Chikka Virarajendra.[2]
First Carlist War
editCannon returned to the United Kingdom shortly after the Coorg War. Knowing that Spain was currently going through a civil war, he recruited 500 men in Devon and left for Spain in the summer of 1835. As a major, he joined the British Auxiliary Legion (formed to aid Isabella II in her cause) headed by George de Lacy Evans with his small force. Cannon participated in numerous battles during his time in the country. His first crucial engagement was in May 1836 during the Battle of Lugariz, where he commanded a regiment and successfully stormed the town, taking over Carlist lines. However, Cannon was severely wounded during the battle. Although he commanded regiments in the following weeks, he was honorably discharged to heal in the United Kingdom.[2]
No major conflict occurred during Cannon's temporary absence, and he returned to Spain on 23 September 1836 to command the 9th regiment. Cannon's next major encounter was on 15 March 1837, when the British Auxiliary Legion captured a fortification known as Oriamendi on a strategic hill near San Sebastián. General Evans tried many times to take over the fortress but failed. This prompted the general to plead for help from Cannon, who said he would take the city without firing a shot. He kept his word and in only 10 minutes, Cannon managed to successfully take over the fortress by only using bayonets. However, this position was lost the next day in the Battle of Oriamendi.[3]
After these events, Cannon commanded the Irish regiment within the Auxiliary Legion in two important conflicts; the surrender of Hondarribia on 18 May, and the successful capturing of Andorra on 29 May. For his services during the war, he was awarded a 1st and 2nd class Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand, alongside a gold and silver medal. He was also made a knight of the Order of Charles III. Cannon returned to the United Kingdom but did not stay long. He moved back to India where he was made a commissioner for the government of the territories of Mysore by the Governor-general of India. Cannon held this title for a few years until his marriage, after which he resigned from his post and repatriated to the United Kingdom. After a short period of time, he became the lieutenant colonel of the Royal West Middlesex Militia on 6 May 1853. In the same year, the Crimean War broke out. The Ottoman government requested through their ambassador to the United Kingdom, Konstantinos Mousouros, an able commander from the British government. The government suggested that Cannon became a commander in the Ottoman army. Accepting this offer, he made his way to the Ottoman Empire. However, before he embarked on his journey, Cannon's wife died. While on his journey, his daughter died. Nevertheless, these demoralising events did not deter him from entering into Ottoman service.[4]
Military service in the Ottoman Empire
editArrival and Crimean War
editArriving in early 1854 with two other Brits who were previously in East Indian Company service, he was made a major-general in the Ottoman army in Asia. However, before making it to his appointed front, he met with Omar Pasha in Şumnu.[a] Omar Pasha wanted Cannon to remain in the European theater of war. After approval from the Sultan, Cannon was given the title of Pasha, the name Behram, and was made brigadier general in the Ottoman army of the Danube.[6] During the war, Cannon invited many military figures (especially fellow Scotsmen and Indian army officers) to serve in the Ottoman army, most notably General William Ferguson Beatson (1804–1872), founder of Beatson's Horse.[7]
Siege of Silistria
editA few months into his service, Cannon was sent to greet the generals sent by the Allied forces to advise the Ottoman army. He was also tasked with organising a meeting in Varna between these generals and Ottoman generals to plan courses of action during the war. In mid-1854, 5,000 soldiers were attached to Cannon's command and were sent to relieve the garrison of Silistria during its siege after Sadık Pasha's failed attempt to do so.[8] However, his forces were no match for the Russian forces who surrounded the walls of the city. Acknowledging this, Cannon made a risky move. He wrote a letter in English to the governor of Silistria Eyalet, falsely stating that he had 25,000 men and that he would meet his 10,000 soldiers soon. He then gave the letters to two bashi-bazouks, who deliberately got themselves captured by the Russian army. On reading that a 35,000-strong relief force would soon come, the Russians concentrated their forces at the point that it was mentioned soldiers would arrive.[6]
Illustration by unknown artist
Taking advantage of the blunder of the Russians, Cannon left a few hundred soldiers in his camp and took a long but unproblematic detour into the western parts of the fortress at Silistria. There he found the garrison on the verge of surrendering. He had also met six other British officers in the defense of the siege, most notably Captain James Butler and Lieutenant Charles Nasmyth.[b] Cannon's arrival had bolstered the garrison's morale. Cannon's force was composed of 4 battalions of infantry, 1 battalion of chasseurs, 400 Arab cavalry, and 6 mountain guns transported with mules.[10] With his arrival protracting the defense of the city, Prince Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov eventually gave up and raised the siege. Cannon was commemorated after the event by Omar Pasha as the deliverer and saver of Silistria.[6]
Battles of Ruse, Giurgevo, and Slobozia
editCannon was tasked on 6 July 1854 by Hussein Pasha to reconnaissance the area between Rusçuk and Yergöğü for Russian activities. In short succession, seven young Brits joined the frontlines at this region; Lieutenant Burke and Captain Bent (officers of the Royal Engineers), Hinde, Arnold, Ballard (who served in India), Lieutenant Meynell (previously lieutenant of the 75th Regiment) and Colonel Ogilvy, who served as aide-de-camp to Cannon.[11] Cannon crossed the Danube with a battalion of Turkish infantry composed of 300 men, and set camp without resistance. However, they were suddenly attacked by Russian forces on 7 July. Cannon was able to repel these forces until reinforcement by Ali Pasha arrived.[12]
Aside from Ali Pasha's aid, the other British lieutenants had mustered a force made up of two Turkish infantry battalions to cross the Danube and relieve Cannon's forces. Lieutenants Arnold, Meynell, and Burke were killed at the Battle of Giurgevo where there were 40,000 troops under the command of Omar Pasha and Cannon. In the meantime, the Russians launched four separate attacks from Rusçuk (Ruse) and Yergöğü (Giurgevo), all of which were suppressed by the numerically inferior Turks, both on boats in the Danube and on land.
After these attacks where the Russians incurred heavy casualties, they were left with 16,000 men and 16 guns. Hearing of this, Prince Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov marched towards the Turks with 60,000 men, while they had 5,000 men. In a coincidental timing, two gunboats commandeered by James Whitley Deans Dundas arrived on the Danube between the Russian and Turkish forces after a 200-mile journey to halt Gorchakov's offensive. With only 30 seamen and 30 sappers on board, they started to fire towards the Russian lines. By this time, a reinforcement of up to 100,000 Turkish soldiers were said to be marching towards Gorchakov's army. This prompted him to hastily withdraw to Bucharest.[13]
Now a lieutenant general, Cannon marched to Slobozia with 40,000 men and destroyed the Russian garrison in the city. Soon afterward, he and Omar Pasha freed Bucharest from Russian occupation. These successive defeats were so humiliating that the Russians retreated completely from the Danube and Romanian principalities (then under Ottoman suzerainty).[14] British historian Peter Gibbs writes "Turkey had beaten off the menace of Russian invasion without any help from the allies—other than an unofficial contribution by ten British officers and a couple of gunboats—and the threat of Russian domination of the Bosporus, which had brought the United Kingdom and France into the war, had been effectively removed".[15] Thus, the focus of the Ottomans shifted back to Crimea and the Caucasus.
Battle of Eupatoria and Siege of Sevastopol
editIn late 1854, Cannon was chosen by Omar Pasha to be sent to aid in the protracted Siege of Sevastopol. He landed in Gözleve in January 1855, a few weeks before a battle occurred in the city. Cannon was the first general to reach the city with a Turkish division of soldiers. Present at the fortress were French military engineers under the command of Colonel d'Osmont. Cannon believed the defenses built by the French engineers were too close to the city and that if the Russians broke through the fortifications, they could fire on the city easily. He convinced the engineers to build redoubts mounted with as many guns as possible, and to surround the walls of the city with a continuous earthen wall bordered by a ditch. This proved extremely useful during the battle where Cannon's suggested fortifications were put to test. The Russian commanders could not take control of the redoubt, causing heavy damage to their army. They were consequently forced to withdraw on the same day as the attack (16 February 1855). Cannon made it to Sevastopol in April 1855 and participated in the bombardment of the city.[16]
Caucasian Front
editGeneral Cannon was sent in the autumn of 1855 to the Caucasus where Omar Pasha was stationed to relieve the garrison of Kars during the city's siege. When he reached Suhumkale, Omar Pasha informed him of his plan to launch an expedition from Mingrelia to Tiflis. The aim was to encourage the Russians to withdraw from Kars and march north to Georgia. Cannon believed this plan would be a failure and suggested that they stick to the original plan, which was to march directly to Kars via Trabzon and Erzurum. Omar Pasha disagreed, going ahead with his plan. Although Omar Pasha was successful in his expedition, he was forced to end it due to the capitulation of Kars. British historian Edward Henry Nolan argues that if they had stuck to Cannon's proposition, Kars would have been saved as it was highly likely for Nikolay Muravyov-Karsky to have retreated from Kars if Omar Pasha's 40,000 men came to the aid of the city.[16]
Later life
editAfter the Crimean War
editIt is not exactly known what Cannon did after the Crimean War was won, but it is assumed that he remained in the service of the Ottoman Empire for a few more years (becoming a recipient of the 2nd class Order of the Medjidie in October 1858 and earning four other medals for his services) before returning to the United Kingdom.[16]
Death
editCannon died from bronchial pneumonia on 5 April 1882 in Folkestone, aged 71. He is said to have been "deeply beloved" by the British public.[17]
Notes
edit- ^ Omar Pasha was a former Austrian soldier of Serbian Orthodox descent. He was previously known as Mihajlo Latas (Serbian: Михајло Латас).[5]
- ^ Nasmyth arrived in Silistria on 28 March 1854, before it was besieged by the Russians. He and Butler of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment, offered their services to the garrison (both men had served with the East India Company Army). Nasmyth was also a news correspondent for the London Times. His letters in the Times, from April to June 1854, described the siege in detail until his wounding and death.[9]
Citations
edit- ^ Grant, James (1889). The Scottish Soldiers of Fortune: Mercenaries in Foreign Service from the 14th to 19th Centuries (PDF). London: Routledge. p. 115. ISBN 9781103178728.
- ^ a b c Nolan 1855, p. 588.
- ^ Nolan 1857, p. 589.
- ^ Nolan 1857, p. 590.
- ^ Čuvalo, Ante (2010). The A to Z of Bosnia and Herzegovina. G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Scarecrow Press. p. 138. ISBN 9780810876477.
- ^ a b c Nolan 1857, p. 591.
- ^ Stuart, Vivian (1972). Victors and Lords. New York City: Pinnacle Books. p. 35.
- ^ Badem, Candan (2010). The Ottoman Crimean War (1853-1856). Leiden: Brill. p. 185. ISBN 9789004190962. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctt1w8h1kf.
- ^ Reid, James J. (2000). Crisis of the Ottoman Empire: Prelude to Collapse 1839-1878. Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte des östlichen Europa. Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 254–256. ISBN 9783515076876.
- ^ Köremezli, İbrahim (December 2013). Ottoman War on the Danube: State, Subject, and Soldier (1853-1856) (PhD thesis). Ankara: Bilkent University. p. 230.
- ^ Kinglake, Alexander W. (1863). The Invasion of the Crimea: Its Origin, and an Account of Its Progress Down to the Death of Lord Raglan. Vol. 3. Leipzig: Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz. pp. 59–63. ISBN 9783385539259.
- ^ Kinross, Lord (1977). The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York City: William Morrow and Company. p. 496. ISBN 9780688030933.
- ^ Gibbs 1960, pp. 82–84.
- ^ Nolan 1857, p. 592.
- ^ Gibbs 1960, p. 84.
- ^ a b c Nolan 1857, p. 593.
- ^ "DEATHS". The Illustrated London News. Vol. 80, no. 2241. London. 15 April 1882. p. 350.
References
edit- Gibbs, Peter (1960). Crimean Blunder: The Story of the War with Russia a Hundred Years Ago. New York City: Rinehart & Company. ISBN 9781787202702.
- Nolan, Edward H. (1855). The History of the War Against Russia. London: George Virtue.
- Nolan, Edward H. (1857). The Illustrated History of the War Against Russia. London: George Virtue.