Battle of Macta
| Battle of Macta | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the French conquest of Algeria | |||||||
 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of France |
 Emirate of Mascara | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Camille Alphonse Trézel |
Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
2,500 men[2] (French claim)
| 15,000 cavalrymen[4] (French claim) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 300[5]–2,000[6] | 500[7] | ||||||
The Battle of Macta was fought on 28 June 1835 between French forces under General Camille Alphonse Trézel and a coalition of Algerian tribes of western Algeria under Emir 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 Arzew to resupply when Abdul-Qadir attacked in the marshes on the banks of the 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
[edit]- ^ Emerit 2010, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Garnier, Jacques (2004). Dictionnaire Perrin des guerres et des batailles de l'histoire de France. Perrin. p. 35. ISBN 9782262008291.
- ^ général Grisot - Lieutenant Coulombon, La Légion étrangère de 1831 à 1887, 1888, p.20
- ^ Garnier, Jacques (2004). Dictionnaire Perrin des guerres et des batailles de l'histoire de France. Perrin. p. 35. ISBN 9782262008291.
- ^ Garnier, Jacques (2004). Dictionnaire Perrin des guerres et des batailles de l'histoire de France. Perrin. p. 35. ISBN 9782262008291.
- ^ The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman Altamira. 2003. ISBN 9780759101906.
- ^ The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman Altamira. 2003. 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
[edit]- 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
[edit]- Gibson, Walcot (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 642–653.
35°47′21″N 0°09′12″W / 35.7892°N 0.1533°W
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