Siege of Missolonghi
Missolonghi was first besieged by the Ottomans in 1824. The first siege ended in failure for the Ottomans. The heroic defenders were inspired by
Lord Byron.
Shortly after Byron's death in 1825, the
Turks came to besiege the
Greeks again. The commander of the Turks,
Reshid Pasha was joined by
Ibrahim Pasha who crossed the
gulf of Corinth. During the early part of 1826, Ibrahim had more artillery and supply brought in. However his men were unable to storm the walls. The High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands Republic
Sir Fredrick Adam, tried to make both forces sign a treaty, but his effort were for no good. The Greek
Admiral Andreas Miaoulis kept braking through the Turkish naval blockade and bring supplies in. But when the Turks captured the forteress island of Anatolikon, Miaoulis was not able to bring in supplies.
The situation soon became desperate for the defenders. After around a year of holding out the leaders of the Greeks,
Notis Botsaris,
Kitsos Tzavellas and Makris made a plan to escape the city.
Georgios Karaiskakis would attack the Turks from the rear and create a diversion while the besieged Greeks would escape the city. Of the 9,000 inhabitants only 7,000 were strong enough to take part. The people that stayed behind knew they had a certain fate.
Unaware of betrayed charged out of the city gates to be fired upon by
Muslims from defensive postitions. Many of the Greeks panicked and fled inside the walls. Of the 7,000 people that tried to escape only 1,000 made it to safety. The next morning
Palm Sunday the Turks entered the city. Many of the Greeks killed blew themselves up with gunpowder rather than surrender. The rest of the Greeks were slaughtered or sold into slavery. The Turks displayed 3,000 severed heads off the walls.
After this incident many people from western
Europe felt sympathy for the Greek cause. Within four years Missolonghi fell into Greek hands again.
