Battle of Macta
Battle of Macta | |
---|---|
Part of the Macta River, French Algeria | |
Result | Algerian victory[1] |
Emirate of Mascara
Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri
2,500 men[2] (French claim)
- A Battalion of the 66th Infantry Regiment
- A Light Infantry battalion
- The 5th battalion
- 3 companies of the 4th Battalion of the Foreign Legion
- 4 squadrons of Chasseurs d'Afrique
[3]
The Battle of Macta was fought on 28 June 1835 between French forces under General
Abd al-Qadir
, who, at the age of 26, waged one of his most famous battles against a superior force.
The French column, which had fought an inconclusive but somewhat bloody battle with Abdul-Qadir a few days earlier, was retreating toward
Macta River in what is now western Algeria
.
The French panicked and fled to Arzew in a disorganized rout. The Algerians piled the heads of their defeated French enemies in a pyramid, allegedly hundreds in total.[8]
The disaster led to the recall to France of Trézel and the comte d'Erlon, the first military governor-general of the French possessions in Africa, and helped Abdul-Qadir gain influence over tribes throughout Algeria.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ Emerit 2010, pp. 18–19.
- ISBN 9782262008291.
- ^ général Grisot - Lieutenant Coulombon, La Légion étrangère de 1831 à 1887, 1888, p.20
- ISBN 9782262008291.
- ISBN 9782262008291.
- ISBN 9780759101906.
- ISBN 9780759101906.
- ^ Churchill, Charles Henry (1867). The life of Abdel Kader, ex-sultan of the Arabs of Algeria; written from his own dictation, and comp. from other authentic sources. By Colonel Churchill. London Chapman and Hall. p. 77.
References
- Emerit, Marcel (2010), "Abdelkader", Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. I: A-Ak - Bayes (15th ed.), Chicago, IL: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., pp. 18-19, ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8
- Sanderson, Edgar (1898), Africa in the Nineteenth Century, Seeley and Company, p. 107
- Wagner, Moritz; Pulszky, Ferencz Aurelius (1854), The Tricolor on the Atlas: Or, Algeria and the French Conquest, T. Nelson and sons, p. 274
Further reading
- Gibson, Walcot (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 642–653. . In
35°47′21″N 0°09′12″W / 35.7892°N 0.1533°W