William Howard Russell 1850. Initially sent by editor John Delane to Malta to cover British support for the Ottoman Empire against Russia in 1854, Russell despised the term "war correspondent" but his coverage of the conflict brought him international renown, and Florence Nightingale later credited her entry into wartime nursing to his reports. The Crimean medical care, shelter and protection of all ranks by Mary Seacole was also publicised by Russell and by other contemporary journalists, rescuing her from bankruptcy. Russell was described by one of the soldiers on the frontlines thus: "a vulgar low Irishman, [who] sings a good song, drinks anyone's
Crimean War 1854, following up on the Russian retreat, the French staged an expedition against the Russian forces still in Dobruja, but this was a failure. By then, the Russian withdrawal was complete, except for the fortress towns of northern Dobruja, while their place in the Principalities was taken by the Austrians, as a neutral peacekeeping force. There was little further action on this front after late 1854, and in September the allied force boarded ships at Varna to invade the Crimean Peninsula. The naval operations of the Crimean War commenced with the dispatch, in mid-1853, of the French and British fleets