On April 22, 1854, a single four-gun battery prevented the Anglo-French squadron from landing in the port of Odessa
Most of the inhabitants of Russia know the Crimean War of 1853–1856, first of all, for the heroic defense of Sevastopol. A much smaller number of our compatriots will remember that this war was called Eastern in the world and that during its course hostilities were unfolding not only in the Black Sea, but also in the Pacific Ocean, where the Anglo-French landing was never able to take Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in August 1854, and in the White Sea, where the British bombarded the Solovetsky monastery and the city of Kola - a satellite of present-day Murmansk. And there are almost no people who know about the first major feat of the Russian army during the Crimean War, accomplished more than two months before the attack on Sevastopol. On April 22 (10 old style), 1854, a four-gun battery under the command of ensign Alexander Shchegolev fought for six hours with an enemy squadron many times superior in number of barrels - and still did not allow it to land troops in the vicinity of Odessa.
Odessa met the beginning of the Crimean War in a state of almost complete unpreparedness for defense. A purely commercial port was absolutely not adapted to resist the onslaught of the enemy for a long time if he wanted to attack him. And although after the Anglo-French fleet entered the Black Sea in January 1854, they tried to strengthen the military grouping in Odessa, it was difficult to call it a serious rival. Russian troops had in the city only six batteries hastily deployed in the vicinity of the port, a total of 48 guns and the forces of the Odessa garrison, which consisted of up to 6 thousand bayonets and 3 thousand sabers with 76 field guns. But, as it turned out, among these small troops there were many heroes who managed to turn weakness into strength. And the first among them was Ensign Alexander Shchegolev, the commander of the left-flank 6th battery, located almost at the outskirts of the port - on the Military Cape in the Practical Harbor.
The battery to Warrant Officer Schegolev, who served in the 14th Reserve Artillery Brigade in Nikolaev and transferred to Odessa at the end of winter, got far from the best. As his colleague recalled, during the transfer of the battery, having examined all the property that was transferred to him, its new commander risked stopping the colonel in charge of the process with the question: "Where are the guns, Mr. Colonel?" To which he replied: “Oh, yes! Weren't you given shovels and axes to dig cannons out of the ground? Here are your weapons! " - and pointed to the breeches of the cannons, which played the role of mooring bollards.
As a result, battery no. 6 was armed with four 24-pounder guns dug out of the ground, firing hot cannonballs. But the command of the defense of Odessa was not worried about this. As Alexander Shchegolev himself recalled, “my superiors did not even think that the main target would be battery No. 6, both because it was removed from the right flank and went deep into the harbor, and because not only old-timers, but even the captain over the port, Mr. Frolov, assured that the sea in front of the battery at the outskirts of Peresyp was so shallow that even military steamers would not be able to approach them for a cannon shot, losing sight of the fact that the enemy iron ships did not require a particularly great depth to cover the Practical (Military) a pier - which was confirmed in practice. Therefore, on the eve of the bombing, Colonel Yanovsky, the commander of the 5th artillery division and head of the coastal batteries, personally ordered me to transfer most of the charges to battery No. 5; I, from the skippers' inquiries, knew the approximate depth of the sea near my battery and near Peresyp, and therefore asked how I would shoot back, if we also assume that the bombardment would not be limited to one day, and therefore did not transfer a single charge, and I did well, otherwise the next day after many 5-6 bursts of shots the battery would have been forced to shut up."
Alexander Petrovich Shchegolev. Pencil drawing, 1860
The foresight of Warrant Officer Schegolev was justified the next day, when his battery was closest to the attacking squadron of four French and five British ships, early on Saturday morning 10 (22) April 1854, which began shelling Odessa and landing. The attackers probably knew how small the enemy's forces were: four long-outdated cannons and 30 personnel, of whom only a dozen were professional artillerymen, and the rest were infantry assigned to help. Plus battery No. 3 under the command of Lieutenant Voloshinov, armed with a dozen of the same 24-pounder cannons and with the same composition of gun servants (and it could not seriously help Shchegolev, since it was located farther from the attacking ships). And they have over 350 guns, mostly 68- and 98-pound guns, quite modern, with a much longer firing range. What is there to be afraid of!
And the fear was not of the power of the Russian cannons, but of the power of the Russian spirit. To the scattered inaccurate volleys of British and French steam-frigates, trying to cover as large an area as possible, the battery of Ensign Shchegolev reluctantly responded with stingy, and therefore much more accurate counter-salvos. To understand how effective the fire of the outdated guns of the 6th battery was, suffice it to say that the attackers managed to silence the Russian guns only six hours later (!)! At the same time, all the losses of the dandies amounted to eight dead and four guns, and the British and French had four ships set on fire or damaged, which had to be towed away from the battlefield …
This is how eyewitnesses described the end of the heroic battle: “The fire began to quickly approach the charging boxes, which had nowhere to move, since everything was already on fire … supposedly Shchegolev decided to leave No. 6, but still fired at the enemy for the last time. At this time, the flame grew so much and spread along the entire tip of the Voyenny Mole that most of the battery soldiers had to jump out through the embrasures and, under the very shots of the enemy, bypass the battery from the outside. There was no other way out: everything was on fire behind the battery. Shchegolev and his team, half-burnt, exhausted to exhaustion, barely managed to move no more than fifteen paces from the battery when the powder boxes blew up; - but, fortunately, no one was hurt. As a result of this explosion, even in the city, far from the battery, a terrible shaking was felt (as we talked about above), especially in the cathedral, due to the square open on all sides. "Hourra, vive l'Empereur!" - came from enemy ships during an explosion on a battery. Shchegolev, having built a command to the front, with a drumbeat went to the battery number 5, - according to the order given in advance: people from the downed battery go to the neighboring one. Saken (the commander of the defense, cavalry general Dmitry Osten-Saken. - RP), however, sent to invite Shchegolev and his team to his place on the boulevard. Here the baron kissed the young hero and congratulated the lower ranks, who distinguished themselves at the battery, with the emblem of the military order (St. George's Cross. - RP). To the questions of Saken Shchegolev, smoky, soiled, drenched in sweat, he almost could not answer: he was completely deaf from the thunder of guns and completely exhausted, having not a crumb of bread in his mouth, not a drop of water from five in the morning, being all this time in a terrible physical and mental stress. Only after resting a little, he could gradually come to the state of giving short answers."
Three days later, on April 13, in an appendix to the emergency issue of the Odesskiy Vestnik, General Osten-Saken's order was made public that Battery No. 6 would be restored and given the name of Shchegolevskaya. And so it happened: already in October, at the place, which eyewitnesses in April described as "everything burned and dug inside and out, inside - ash, burnt logs, traces of bomb strikes, battered wheels and gun carriages", a battery was revived, which covered itself with unfading glory. As monuments to the courage of its defenders, there, as witnesses wrote, "lay five huge cannons and an anchor from the frigate Tiger with the monograms of Queen Victoria." This frigate was among those who attacked Odessa on April 10 (22), and 20 days later ran aground during another attack on the city; the team surrendered to Russian sailors, and the ship itself was shot by coastal artillery.
The feat of warrant officer Alexander Schegolev, a graduate of the Noble Regiment, who met his finest hour at the age of less than 21, was appreciated in Russia. Emperor Nicholas I ordered "in consideration of brilliant courage and selflessness" to make ensign Shchegolev a staff captain, that is, through two ranks at once. In addition, he was awarded the Order of St. George, IV degree, and the sign was given to him by Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich (future Emperor Alexander II). The heir accompanied his truly royal gift with a letter in which he wrote (the spelling of the original is preserved): “Dear Schegolev! I am sending you the highest order for your promotion to second lieutenant, lieutenant and staff captain; The Order of St. George and the Order itself bestowed upon you with a charter with a statute. I attach with this the St. George's Cross from my chest; accept it as a gift from a grateful father to an honorable son. " And also the Grand Dukes Nikolai, Alexander and Vladimir Alexandrovich ordered and sent Shchegolev the captain's epaulettes with the number "14" on the field, indicating the 14th reserve artillery brigade in which he served.
The post-war fate of Staff Captain Alexander Shchegolev was happy. He served until January 1889, managed to take part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, then commanded the 1st Grenadier Artillery Brigade and retired with the rank of Major General, holder of several orders. And General Shchegolev died in Moscow in the year of the outbreak of the First World War, which revealed to Russia the names of new heroes, quite worthy of the glorious deed of the legendary defender of Odessa …
