By the time of the revolution, "Beizadea" Grigore had focused on his military career, and held a general's rank in the Moldavian militia. Building on his personal friendship with Reşid Pasha at the peak of "Tanzimat" reforms, he transferred to a Colonel's posting in the Ottoman army in 1852. As "Muklis Pasha" (also "Muhlis Basha" and other variants), Sturdza was assigned to the Turkish Cossack cavalry in December 1853, some two months into the Crimean War. This unit was also set up to include Wallachian revolutionary deportees, to whom the Porte had granted partial amnesty. Sturdza fought with distinction in Wallachia, beginning with the Battle of Oltenița; he was then involved in the engagements at Cetate, displaying "rather insane courage" as a mounted sniper, who took aim at enemy officers while fired upon by the Russian artillery. He also ignored his superiors' orders and, in August 1854, made a trip to Russian-abandoned Bucharest, where he found his wife's home "almost spared of bullets and robbers."