ABSTRACT
The historiography of the Crimean campaign has tended to concentrate on the disasters of the first winter and the perceived incompetence of the heads of department, while the contributions made by Florence Nightingale and the Sanitary Commissioners have been over-emphasized. Inevitably this has established an unbalanced view of what actually took place. That view has been distorted further by commentators who too have failed to consider events in the strict order of their occurrence, and who have confused matters further by applying the direful knowledge of hindsight. As a consequence, this aspect of the war has been inaccurately portrayed in both academic works and popular culture. The principal problems were at the front, and not in Turkey. The mortality in the Scutari hospitals merely reflected the situation in the Crimea, and it is where the final “Victory over Disease” took place. In the final analysis this achievement was not due to any one person, or group of individuals. Rather it represented the involvement of many people in many walks of life who worked, possibly unwittingly, for a common purpose, and with such gratifying results.
