Alma

Alma, a river in the Crimea, rising at the foot of the Tchadir Dagh, and flowing westward into the Bay of Kalamita, about half-way between Enpatoria and Sebastopol. On the steep banks of this stream, through the channel of which the British troops waded amidst a shower of bullets, a brilliant victory was won on the 20th of September 1854, by the allied armies of Britain and France, under Lord Raglan and Marshal St Arnaud, over the Russian army commanded by Prince Menschikoff. It was the first battle of the Crimean war.