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It's the afternoon of September 8, 1855, on the Crimean Peninsula,

where a war is raging between Russia and a French-led European Alliance.

For almost a year, the Allied forces have unsuccessfully tried to capture the peninsula's

largest city, Sevastopol. Now they are in the middle of their biggest assault yet.

French soldier Eugene Libel makes his way along the hilltop, a French flag in his hand.

Eugene has his eye on a mound ahead. He wants to plant the French flag on the highest point he

can find, hoping that the site of the French treacleor will be enough to rally his troops for what

he hopes will be the final push to take over Sevastopol. What a burst of gunfire stops Eugene

short of the mound. He dies behind a nearby wall to avoid being shot. And when he peers around

the side, he spots the enemy ahead, well positioned and heavily armed. It seems too risky to carry on.

But just as Eugene resigns himself to creeping back to the French line,

a shell lands nearby, showering him with mud. Eugene brushes himself off and then takes another

look around the wall. The enemy fortification has been obliterated, now just a mess of wood,

debris and body parts. With his path now cleared, Eugene resumes his course toward the hilltop.

He scales to the highest point of the hill and shares a rub from below as he lifts the French flag.

The French assault will end in victory, becoming the final battle in the siege of Sevastopol

and a turning point in the Crimean War. By morning, the Russians will have withdrawn from the city,

and six months later, the Allies will win the war. This is a problem for Russia's beleaguered

leaders, Tsar Alexander II, who only recently inherited the throne from his father. The Crimean

...