Battle of Macta

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.

Battle of Macta
Part of the French conquest of Algeria
Date 28 June 1835 Location near the Macta River, French Algeria Result Algerian victory[1]
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) 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]	15,000 cavalrymen[4] (French claim)
Casualties and losses
300[5]–2,000[6]	500[7]

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

1. Emerit 2010, pp. 18–19.
2. Garnier, Jacques (2004). Dictionnaire Perrin des guerres et des batailles de l'histoire de France. Perrin. p. 35. ISBN 9782262008291.
3. général Grisot - Lieutenant Coulombon, La Légion étrangère de 1831 à 1887, 1888, p.20
4. Garnier, Jacques (2004). Dictionnaire Perrin des guerres et des batailles de l'histoire de France. Perrin. p. 35. ISBN 9782262008291.
5. Garnier, Jacques (2004). Dictionnaire Perrin des guerres et des batailles de l'histoire de France. Perrin. p. 35. ISBN 9782262008291.
6. The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman Altamira. 2003. ISBN 9780759101906.
7. The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman Altamira. 2003. ISBN 9780759101906.
8. 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). "Algeria" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 642–653.

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