Whom Shall We Hang ?: the Sebastopol Inquiry

Whom Shall We Hang ?: The Sebastopol Inquiry by Perriton Maxwell is a critical polemic that re-examines the parliamentary inquiry into the Crimean War. Maxwell collects and analyzes the testimony and the extensive blue-book records surrounding the Roebuck motion and the Roebuck Committee, arguing that popular anger over the Crimea’s hardships was inflamed by exaggeration and misreporting. The book surveys the sequence of events from the spring 1854 expedition to Sebastopol, the campaign’s planning, the army’s recruitment, the Turkish campaign, and the siege’s logistics. It defends the government’s conduct by examining the Home Office and War Department, the medical and commissariat arrangements, transport, and supply chains, and criticizes the committee’s methods—calling attention to witnesses, questionable evidence, and partisan zeal. Maxwell concludes that while deficiencies existed, much of the public outrage rested on sensationalism rather than verifiable facts, and urges a measured, justice-guided reassessment of the era, warning against paralyzing blame in democracy’s wartime crisis.