Detail from “The Exodus from Missolonghi” (1853) – Theodoros VryzakisOn April 10, 1826, the 10,500 Missolonghi inhabitants, after one year of siege, made the heroic “Exodus of Missolonghi”, adding another brilliant page to the Greek War of Independence history.
It was April 15, 1825, three years after the failed attempt to occupy Missolonghi, that the Ottoman armies returned to besiege the city that had become the seat of the Senate of Western Continental Greece.
The army of Resid Mehmed Pasha, or Kioutachis, as Greeks called him, numbering 20,000 men, began the second siege of the city, later to be joined by another 10,000 men under Ibrahim Pasha, who arrived from the Peloponnese campaign.
The siege of the city can be divided into two periods: a) April 15 to Dec. 12, 1825; and b) Dec. 25, 1825 to April 10, 1826. Without significant help from the rest of the Greeks due to the civil war, having to cope with superior enemy forces, the Missolonghi residents resisted bravely for one year.
A three-man committee composed of Ioannis Papadiamantopoulos, Dimitrios Themelis and Georgios Kanavos organized the city’s defense.
