the Ottomans. Russians had 8 battalions of infantry and 9 squadrons of cavalry (about 6000 people in total). At first, for two hours, Russian artillery (16 guns) fired, gradually shifting positions closer and closer to the Ottoman line of defense. Then, deciding that the return fire was already sufficiently weakened, the Russians moved all their infantry into the attack. The infantry moved in dense battalion columns, under the fierce fire of Turkish riflemen and guns, and suffered heavy losses. The attackers advanced to the moat, but there they were ordered to retreat, having lost about 970 men in total. Their failure was seen as the result of a smaller number of troops, poor reconnaissance and insufficient artillery support, which failed to neutralise the strongest enemy defense, and an order to withdraw that was issued at the time when the Russian troops were already successfully storming the enemy positions. Emperor Nicholas I, after having studied the battle in detail, commented that the troops of Dannenberg did not have enough artillery to drive the Ottomans from their defensive positions and suppress the fortified Ottoman cannons, which were supported by other artillery positions built on the right shore of the Danube, and should have fought in a looser formation, using marksmen against the embrasures of the enemy fortifications. Dannenberg himself justified his order to retreat for the following reason: by entering the Turkish positions, his troops would be vulnerable to Turkish artillery fire from the other side of the Danube. But this explanation was unsatisfactory, because it is not clear why the infantry attack was made at all in this case. Omar Pasha officially declared that he lost about 180; the Russians, although they did not know the actual losses of the enemy, assumed that they should be heavy, largely due to the massive use of shrapnel at close range. Aftermath The battle of Oltenitza was the first military engagement of the Crimean War. It resulted in a tactical victory for the Ottoman forces, in that the Russians withdrew, and the Ottoman forces were left in possession of the bridgehead on the left bank of the Danube. However, the Ottomans did not pursue the Russians. Later, the Russian command pulled up additional forces to Oltenitza and the Ottomans left for the right bank to their start position. The battle was exaggerated in the European press as a great Ottoman triumph, but strategically it