Chyornaya River

This is where the battle of Tchernaya took place on August 16th, 1855. Mrs. Seacole narrates her experiences trying to help men wounded on the field in Chapter 16, and it is horrific. Literally called the Black River, it's a common name for rivers and was a battle site during the Crimean War. Despite having vastly more men than the allies, the Russians lost spectacularly. 

Battlefield

Parent Map

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Mary Seacole ~ Related Locations Map

Coordinates

Latitude: 44.600123900000
Longitude: 33.605632800000

Timeline of Events Associated with Chyornaya River

Date Event Manage
16 Aug 1855

The Battle of Tchernaya

This battle was fought between the Russians and French, Sardinians, and Ottomans as a part of the Crimean War (1853-1856) and is recounted in "Chapter XVI" of Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands. Within this chapter of Mary Seacole's travel log, Mrs Seacole is at the front treating the wounded on both sides of the war, witnessing tragic deaths: "...death is fearful indeed. It had to come peacefully enough to some. They lay with half-open eyes, and a quiet smile about the lips that showed their end to have been painless; others it had arrested in the heat of passion, and frozen on theit pallid faces a glare of hatred and defiance that made your warm blood run cold. But little time had we to think of the dead, whose business it was to see after the dying, who might yet to be saved" (142). This is a detailed event of the most impactful brush Mrs Seacole had with death and with the battles. She has seen death before, but not in this manner. Before, the readers witness slow deaths of people taken by disease in their own homes. In the Crimea, Mrs Seacole recounts the deaths of soldiers.

 

Seacole, Mary. “Chapter XVI.” Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, Penguin Books, 2005, pp. 134–144.