An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present

by David Eggenberger

Overview

"A badly needed addition to public and military libraries and to the shelves of every military writer … a definitive job." — Army Times
Megiddo, Thermopylae, Waterloo, Stalingrad, Vietnam … nothing has dominated man's attention, challenged his energy, produced more heroes — and destruction — than war. This monumental one-volume work traces the long history of that uniquely human activity in vivid, accurate accounts of over 1,500 crucial military conflicts, Spanning more than 3,400 years, it encompasses a panorama of warfare so complete that no single volume like it exists.
All the essential details of every major battle in recorded history on land and at sea — from the first battle of Megiddo in 1479 B. C. to Grenada in 1984 — are covered. For added convenience, this work lists the engagements in alphabetical order, from "Aachen," the first entry, to "Zutphen," the last.
You'll find painstakingly researched, objectively written descriptions of the Persia-Greek conflicts of the fifth century B. C., Roman Empire wars, Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, and many more. Also included are penetrating analyses of the roles played by commanders of genius — Alexander, Julius Caesar, Hannibal, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Khalid ibn al-Walid, and other momentous figures. Updating this already comprehensive resource, a new Appendix deals with more recent conflicts: the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq War, the Falkland Islands clash, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and the U. S. invasion of Grenada.
Each entry includes states, strategic situations, military leaders, troop numbers, tactics, casualties and military/political consequences of the battles. In addition, you'll find cross references at the end of each entry, 99 battle maps and a comprehensive index containing titles and alliances and treaties, famous quotations, slogans, catch phrases … even battle cries.
An Encyclopedia of Battles is an entire library of military history in one convenient space-saving volume. Students, historians, writers, military buffs … anyone interested in the subject will find this inexpensive paperbound edition an indispensable reference and a fascinating study of the world's military past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486142012
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	03/08/2012
Series:	Dover Military History, Weapons, Armor
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	749,707
File size:	10 MB

Read an Excerpt

An Encyclopedia of Battles

Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present

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By David Eggenberger

Dover Publications, Inc.

Copyright © 1985 David Eggenberger
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-14201-2

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CHAPTER 1

A

Aachen (World War II). This first German city to fall to the Allies was captured in bitter fighting between October 13 and 20, 1944. See Siegfried Line.

Abensberg (Napoleonic Empire Wars), 1809. When the armies of Napoleon I bogged down in Spain, Austria declared war on France for the fourth time since 1792. With 200,000 reorganized troops, Archduke Charles Louis, brother of Emperor Francis I, began crossing the Inn River on April 10, 1809. Marching into Bavaria south of the Danube River, Charles hoped to trap the III French Corps of Marshal Louis Davout at Regensberg (Ratisbon). Realizing his danger, Davout fought his way 18 miles southwest on April 19 to link up with Marshal François Lefebvre's VII Corps at Abensberg. Meanwhile, Napoleon hurried forward from Paris to take direct command. On April 20 he sent a provisional corps (25,000 men), commanded by Marshal Jean Lannes, south of Abensberg against the thinly stretched Austrian center. A hard-hitting French attack thrust between the wings of Charles's army. The archduke's right wing pulled back to Eggmühl (Eckmühl), south of Regensberg, while Gen. Baron Johann Hiller's left wing retreated south toward Landshut, on the Isar River. French casualties were few; the Austrians lost 2,700 killed and wounded and 4,000 prisoners. See Oporto; Sacile; Landshut; Napoleonic Empire Wars.

Abukir (Wars of the French Revolution), 1799. While Napoleon Bonaparte was withdrawing to Egypt from his repulse at Acre in May 1799, a Turkish expeditionary force of 18,000 men under Mustafa IV landed at Abukir, east of Alexandria, on July 15. Napoleon hurriedly regrouped his Egyptian forces and moved against the Turkish positions on the Abukir peninsula with 7,700 men. On July 25 a fierce French assault cracked the first Turkish defense line in an hour, shattering the force of 8,000 enemy troops. Continuing their artillery-supported attack against the second line, the French rolled up this position as well, killing or scattering another 6,000 of Mustafa's men. Pressing on up the peninsula, Napoleon destroyed the entire army, except for a few thousand that held out in Fort Abukir until August 2. In all, Turkish losses were 2,000 killed, 10-11,000 drowned trying to escape, and 3,000 captured. French casualties numbered 150 killed and 750 wounded.

Learning that the armies of the French Directory had been suffering serious defeats in Italy and Germany, Napoleon embarked for France on August 22. He left Gen. Jean Kléber to command the army in Egypt. See Acre III; Trebbia River II; Stokach I; Montebello; Alexandria III; French Revolution Wars.

Abu Klea (War for the Sudan), 1885. Seven months after Gen. George "Chinese" Gordon was trapped in Khartoum by the Sudanese Mahdists, a relief expedition left Cairo. Commanded by Gen. Sir Garnet Wolseley, the column pressed up the Nile toward Khartoum, 800 miles away. In northern Sudan Wolseley sent an 1,800-man camel corps under Gen. Sir Herbert Stewart directly across country, where the Nile makes a great bend to the east. At Abu Klea, a caravan stop 63 miles southwest of Ed Damer, Stewart's troops encountered almost 10,000 Mahdist followers of Mohammed Ahmed. In a desperate hand-to-hand battle on January 17, the Sudanese were repulsed with more than a thousand killed. Anglo-Egyptian casualties were 168.

Stewart's corps fought its way to the Nile two days later, but their commander was mortally wounded. On January 24 the force, now under Lord Charles Beresford, began moving upriver to Khartoum, where they arrived four days later—and 48 hours too late to save Gordon. See Khartoum; Atbara; Sudan, War for the.

Aclea (Danish Invasions of Britain), 851. The increasingly deep thrusts of the Danish Vikings into Britain brought on the major battle of Aclea (Oakley), south of the Thames. King Ethelwulf, son of Egbert and father of Alfred, deployed his Wessex army to meet the invaders. In a fierce struggle his men repelled the Danes. The successful defense helped establish Wessex as the premier state among the heptarchial kingdoms of Britain. But it was the only major victory of the West Saxons over the Danes during Ethelwulf's lifetime. See Hingston Down; York; Danish Invasions of Britain.

Acragas (Carthaginian Invasion of Sicily), 406 B.C. The Carthaginian scourge of Sicily, which began in 409, made Acragas (Agrigentum), on the southwest coast, the target three years later. Employing the same tactics he had used successfully at Selinus and Himera, Hannibal (not to be confused with the famed general of the Punic Wars) laid siege to the city, which was commanded by Dexippus, a Spartan. Although an epidemic swept through the Carthaginian camp, killing Hannibal and many others, Himilco, a cousin, succeeded to the command and continued the siege.

As in the earlier battles, a force of Syracusans, this time 35,000 men commanded by Daphnaeus, marched to the relief of the city. Under the walls of Acragas a pitched battle took place, in which the Carthaginians were partially defeated. However, dissension broke out among the Sicilians, and many mercenaries deserted. Finally, after eight months, the entire garrison abandoned the city, which was then occupied by the victorious Himilco. See Selinus-Himera; Syracuse II.

Acre I (Third Crusade), 1189-1191. The crushing Christian defeat at Tiberias and subsequent loss of Jerusalem in 1187 left the Turkish general Saladin master of the Near East except for the Frankish hold on Tyre. By luck, Conrad of Montferrat (in Italy) arrived at Tyre with a shipload of French knights in the summer of 1187, just in time to help repulse Saladin's attack on the city. For the next year Conrad built up his strength by recruiting armed pilgrims to his standard. Then, in July 1188, Saladin paroled Guy of Lusignan, the defeated king of Jerusalem. The two Christian leaders immediately quarreled over supreme command. Finally, in August 1189, King Guy marched out to attack the Moslem garrison at Acre, 20 miles to the south. Conrad followed in September.

Acre, a powerful fortress built on a peninsula, defied capture. The two rival Christian leaders, with about 30,000 men in all, prepared siege lines a mile to the east on the Hill of Turon. A mile still farther east Saladin built countersiege lines. A deadlock developed, in which both sides suffered more from disease and hunger than from combat, throughout 1190.

Meanwhile the three greatest kings of Europe were moving eastward in the Third Crusade. First to start was the red-bearded Frederick I, Barbarossa, Holy Roman emperor. Frederick led a strong contingent of Germans through the Balkans and Asia Minor but drowned in the Calycadnus (Göksu) River in Cicilia on June 10, 1190. His large army soon melted away and his son Frederick V of Swabia arrived in front of Acre in October with only 1,000 men-at-arms. The other two kings —colorless Philip II, Augustus, of France and flamboyant Richard I, Coeur de Lion, of England —set off in the summer of 1190, somewhat reluctant allies. They wintered in Sicily. Philip then sailed directly to Acre, arriving there on April 20, 1191. Richard stopped over at Cyprus to wrest that island from the Byzantine Empire and did not land on the beach at Acre until June 8.

The Christian host that had assembled at Acre quarreled too much among themselves to launch a unified assault on the fortress. But their piecemeal attacks, coupled with the tight blockade instituted by their ships in the harbor, forced the Moslem garrison to capitulate on July 12, ending the two-year siege. The victory brought new quarreling among the crusade commanders. Leopold, duke of Austria (who led the German contingent after the death of Frederick of Swabia in the last year of the siege), and King Philip sailed for Europe; Conrad sulked in Tyre; Richard, allied with King Guy, became sole leader of the crusade. When Saladin refused to honor the surrender terms of the Acre garrison, Richard executed all 2,700 Moslem captives. He then took the coast road south toward Jerusalem. See Jerusalem VIII; Arsouf; Crusades.

Acre II (Crusader-Turkish Wars), 1291. By 1290 the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem had been reduced to a few fortresses on the coast, ruled by the absent King Henry II (III of Cyprus). That year street rioting between Christians and Moslems in Acre, the strongest of the remaining Frankish forts, prompted the Egyptian sultan Al-Ashraf to organize an offensive against Acre. On April 6, 1291, the Mamelukes, with 60,000 horsemen and 100,000 foot soldiers, laid siege to the city. Amalric, brother of King Henry, commanded the Christian garrison, which consisted of 1,000 mounted men and 15,000 infantry.

Despite heavy bombardment from Egyptian siege engines, Acre resisted stoutly. On May 4 King Henry arrived from Cyprus with reinforcements—100 knights and 2,000 infantry—but they were not enough to counterbalance the steady attrition brought on by Moslem attacks. The outer wall fell on May 15, and in a general assault three days later the Mamelukes stormed the inner gates and burst into the city. The king and his brother escaped with a few nobles to Cyprus, while other Christians fought hopelessly in the streets. By the end of the day the Mameluke victory was complete. Most of the defenders died fighting; the others fell into captivity and were sold off as slaves. Acre was thoroughly sacked and its fortifications demolished.

On the following day, May 19, the garrison at Tyre abandoned that city in the face of a threatened attack. Sidon and Beirut fell in July, the Mount Carmel monasteries in August. By the end of the summer the last of the Frankish warriors had been erased from the Asian mainland. Syria and Palestine lay under Moslem dominion as complete as that in 1097 when the First Crusade began. See Tripoli, in Lebanon; Crusades.

Acre III (Wars of the French Revolution), 1799. During the summer of 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte had conquered Egypt only to be cut off from Europe by the defeat of his fleet at the Nile by the British navy. He then turned eastward, on February 6, 1799, to carry the war against Turkey into Syria. With 13,000 men and 52 cannon Napoleon brushed past weak Turkish resistance to reach Jaffa on March 7. Here more than 1,000 Turkish soldiers who had broken parole to defend the city were recaptured and shot. On March 18 the French arrived at Acre, which was defended by a Turkish force under Ahmed Pasha, called Djezzar (the Butcher). Aiding Turkish resistance was a British task force of two vessels under Sidney Smith, which protected all the city except the landward side from attack. Napoleon settled down to besiege Acre.

A month later a Turkish column approached the city from the southeast. Napoleon detached Gen. Jean Kléber's division to hold off this advance. On April 16 Kléber, with the aid of a second French force, routed the Turks at Mount Tabor. Acre, however, continued to hold out against all French efforts to break into the city. Finally, when plague struck Napoleon's troops, he raised the siege on the night of May 20 and withdrew toward Egypt. In all, he had lost 2,200 dead, including 1,000 from disease. See Pyramids; Abukir; French Revolution Wars.

Acre IV (Egyptian Revolt against Turkey), 1840. The growing power of Mehemet (Mohammed) Ali of Egypt in the Near East alarmed the major nations of Europe. In the summer of 1839 Egyptian forces had destroyed a strong Turkish army at Nizib and captured the sultan's fleet at Alexandria. Mahmud II had died and had been succeeded by his 16-year-old son, Abdul-Medjid I, who was powerless to oust the Egyptians from Syria. Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia (with France opposing) then intervened. The English admiral Robert Stopford took an allied fleet into the eastern Mediterranean. On November 3 Stopford's ships bombarded Acre, in modern Israel, reduced the defenses, and stormed the town. The Egyptian forces of Gen. Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali, evacuated Acre and soon all of Syria. The following year Mehemet Ali agreed to return the Turkish fleet and abandon claims to Syria in exchange for the hereditary rule of Egypt. See Nizib; Oltenita; Egyptian Revolt against Turkey.

Acroïnum (Moslem-Byzantine Wars), 739. Twenty years after they had been driven away from Constantinople, the Arabs surged back into Asia Minor. The Byzantine emperor Leo III, the Isaurian, met the new invasion at Acroïnum (Akroinon), in ancient Phrygia, in 739. In a great battle the Moslems of the Hisham caliphate were defeated and turned back toward Damascus. This check in Asia Minor followed the blunting of Moslem thrusts on the two extremes of their empire—France and China—and was the last aggression of the Ommiad dynasty. See Constantinople IV; Tours; Kashgar; Moslem Conquests.

Actium (Wars of the Second Triumvirate), 31 B.C. Mark Antony's commitment of Roman resources to Egypt and Cleopatra VII ensured a showdown with his rival triumvir Octavian. While Antony's fortunes in Rome were in decline, the 32-year-old Octavian had been steadily winning popular favor by substituting moderation and mercy for earlier cruelties. In May 32 B.C. Antony formally divorced Octavian's sister Octavia. Octavian then publicized Antony's will, which deeded various Roman possessions to the children of his affair with Cleopatra. Roman sentiment became so outraged that Octavian was directed to make war on Egypt.

Early in 31 B.C. Octavian landed an army of 40,000 men in Epirus, on the west coast of Greece. Just to the south, in the Ambracian Gulf, stood Antony's Roman-Egyptian fleet. On the promontory of Actium, on the south side of the gulf, stood Antony's army, numbering also about 40,000 men. For months the two antagonists eyed each other without giving battle. During this time, however, Octavian's ships cut Antony's supply line from the Peloponnesus back to Egypt. Finally, at dawn on September 2, 31 B.C., Antony risked everything on a naval battle. With a superiority in numbers (480 against slightly more than 400) and in the size of its warships, the Roman-Egyptian navy sailed into the Ionian Sea, seeking an early advantage over the lighter Liburnian (two banks of oars) vessels of Octavian. Antony himself commanded the right squadron, Marcus Octavius the center, C. Sosius the left. Cleopatra's squadron stood in the rear, to the right of center. Opposing this formation were the three enemy squadrons commanded by, from left to right, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Arruntius, and Octavian.

Each side tried to turn the opponent's northern flank. In the afternoon Antony's center and left began giving way. Cleopatra then sailed her 60 Egyptian ships between the two struggling armadas and left the scene of battle. Antony transferred to a quinquereme (five banks of oars) and followed, boarding the Egyptian flagship Antonia farther out in the Ionian Sea. The leaderless Antonian navy was now hopelessly beaten. Octavian's swifter Li-burnians, dodging the rams and missiles of the heavier vessels, methodically set fire to the opposing warships. At the end of ten hours of fighting, the few survivors of Antony's burning fleet surrendered. Five thousand of his men were dead.

On land the flight of Antony caused equal consternation among the troops. They became even more frustrated when their leader, P. Crassus Canidius, fled to Egypt also. Octavian refused to attack them. Each day desertions increased. By September 9 the entire army had melted away.

In Rome popular clamor forced Octavian to launch an invasion of Egypt the following year. He arrived at Alexandria on August 1, 30 B.C. The still powerful army (11 legions) Antony had stationed to defend Egypt promptly deserted to the enemy. Antony and, then, Cleopatra committed suicide. Octavian looted the Ptolemaic treasures, exacted a tribute, and returned to Rome as sole master of the Western world. Three years later the senate conferred upon him the title "Augustus" (exalted). As such he became the first ruler of the Roman Empire that was to endure for the next 500 years. The battle of Actium had determined that Europe's cultural axis would not be turned toward the East. See Phraaspa; Naulochus; Lippe River; Second Triumvirate, Wars of the.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from An Encyclopedia of Battles by David Eggenberger. Copyright © 1985 David Eggenberger. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents

An Encyclopedia of Battles
Appendix (1967-1984)
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index