2-914-060 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Spahi (Algerian Troops), French Battery on the Heights of Balaclava - from a sketch by Lieutenant Montagu O'Reilly, 1854. Crimean War. 'The Spahis of whom we read in Turkish history were a body of cavalry organised by Amurath I., who was also the founder of the Janissaries. At one time they were the most formidable body of soldiers in the service of the Sultan; but their want of discipline (which seems to have been quite as bad as that of the Bashi-bozouks) gave rise to many complaints against them, and they were ultimately disbanded by the last Sultan Mahmoud. The Spahis [shown here] are Algerian troops in the French service, by whom they have been found most valuable auxiliaries. They wear their native costume; and their vigilance, and power of enduring fatigue, as well as their training to warfare in a hill country, render them peculiarly well fitted for the Crimean campaign'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.