The battlefield of the Alma, night after the battle, 1854 (1857). The Battle of the Alma (September 20, 1854), which is usually considered the first battle of the Crimean War, took place in the vicinity of the River Alma in the Crimea. An Anglo-French force under General St. Arnaud and Lord Raglan defeated General Menshikov's Russian army, which lost around 6000 troops. From England's Battles by Sea and Land, volume IV: Russia and Turkey, by Lieutenant Colonel Williams, Published by The London Printing and Publishing Company (1857).