Greekreporter.com notes in the following article that on April 10, 1825, three years after the failure of the attempted occupation of Missolonghi, the Ottoman armies returned to besiege the city which had become the seat of the Senate of western continental Greece.
The siege lasted a whole year and the town’s 10,500 inhabitants finally made the heroic “Exodus from Missolonghi” on April 10, 1826, adding another brilliant page to the history of the Greek War of Independence.
The army of Resid Mehmed Pasha, or Kioutachis as the Greeks called it, numbered 20,000 men. began the second siege of the city, later joined by another 10,000 of Ibrahim Pasha’s men who arrived from the Peloponnesian campaign. It was April 15, 1825.
The siege of the city can be divided into two periods: a) from April 15 to December 12, 1825; and b) from December 25, 1825 to April 10, 1826. Without much help from the rest of the Greeks due to the civil war and facing superior enemy forces, the people of Missolonghi bravely resisted for a year.
A committee of three men organized the defense of the city: Ioannis Papadiamantopoulos; Dimitrios Théélis; and Georgios Kanavos.
The city’s fortress after the first siege had been restored and fortified, thanks to the efforts of Alexandros Mavrokordatos, the philhellene Lord Byron and the engineer Michail Kokkinis.
Its trench was deeper and the courtyard was reinforced by towers on which several cannons had been placed. The islet of Vassiladi, between the lagoon and the sea, has become a sort of advanced fortress. There were six guns and 2,000 women and children were gathered so as not to annoy the city guard.
In Messolonghi there were 10,000 people, including 4,000 men, prominent warriors from Epirus and Aitoloakarnania and another 1,000 men capable of using weapons.
The first phase of the siege of Missolonghi
In the first phase of the siege (April 15 – December 12, 1825), Missolonghi was besieged solely by Kioutachis’ forces and their attacks were easily repulsed. The sea siege was not strong enough and was repeatedly disrupted by Andreas Miaoulis’ fleet, which supplied the besieged citizens with ammunition and food.
On July 24, 1,000 Russian troops under Greek general Georgios Karaiskakis forced the Ottomans to withdraw their forces to the foot of Mount Zygos, thereby easing the siege of Missolonghi. The Turkish fleet, harassed by the Greeks, was forced to seek refuge in Kefalonia, under English domination.
On August 5, Kitsos Tzavellas, leader of a group of Souli fighters, entered the city, boosting the morale of the besieged. But in early November, a fleet composed of Ottomans and Egyptians brought 8,000 Egyptian troops to the siege, and a month later Ibrahim Pasha’s army arrived in the region. At the time, Ibrahim’s army had 25,000 soldiers composed of Ottomans, Egyptians and Albanians commanded by French officers and equipped with modern artillery.
The second phase of the siege of Missolonghi
It was on December 25, 1825 that the second phase of the siege began. The two disagreeing generals of the Ottoman forces and Ibrahim attacked the city first. On January 16, 1826, Ibrahim recognized his failure in conquering the city and was forced to cooperate with Kioutachis.
Both armies had stunned the besieged Greeks with merciless bombardments. They managed to capture the strategically important islets of Vassiladi (February 25) and Kleisovas (March 25). After the fall of the two islets, the situation of the besieged became desperate, Miaoulis and his ships could no longer supply the city.
Missolonghi was now without food. Soon its defenders were forced to eat algae, mice and cats. Under these conditions, it was impossible for the city to defend itself. On April 6, the council of chiefs decided to make the exodus from midnight on Lazarus Saturday until dawn on Palm Sunday (April 9-10).
At midnight, according to the plan, they were divided into three groups, led by Dimitrios Makris, Notis Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavelas, in the hope of breaking the enemy lines, taking the enemy by surprise. Previously, they had killed all the Ottoman prisoners while only the wounded and the very old remained in the city.
The heroic exodus from Missolonghi
However, the plan was not executed properly or there was a traitor who delivered the project to the Ottomans. Ibrahim’s forces massacred Greek freedom fighters who fought against all odds. Meanwhile, enemy forces had invaded the city and killed everyone left behind.
An estimated 3,000 Greek men were killed in the exodus from Missolonghi. The city’s 6,000 women and children were taken as slaves, sold in the slave markets of Constantinople and Alexandria. Ottoman-Egyptian losses amounted to 5,000 men.
The Ottoman victory proved to be Pyrrhic as the barbarity of Ibrahim’s troops and the heroism of the Greeks generated a new wave of philhellenism across Europe.
Missolonghi was liberated on May 11, 1829. In 1937, it was recognized as a “Holy City” due to the mass massacre of its citizens and Palm Sunday was designated as the anniversary of the Exodus.
Source: Philip Chrysopoulos/Greek reporter
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Photo source: Wikimedia Commons. Copyright : Tilemahos Efthimiadis License: CC-BY-SA
