The Military History Thread

[Ennath]

March 1, 1811
Massacre of the Mamluks

When the British left Alexandria in March 1803, the Mamluks, the rulers of Egypt before the French invasion, began trying to reassert themselves as the ruling class. In their attempts to return to power, the Mamluks took Minia and interrupted communication between Upper and Lower Egypt.

Six weeks later, Koca Husrev Pasha, the Ottoman governor, short of funds to pay all his troops, attempted to disband his Albanian contingent without pay so as to be able to pay his Turkish regulars. When the Albanians refused to disband, Husrev began a bombardment. The Albanian commander Tahir Pasha then repaired to the citadel, gaining admittance through an embrasure, and from there began a counter bombardment over the roofs of the intervening houses. Soon thereafter, Tahir laid siege to the governor’s palace. The following day, Koca Husrev fled with his women, servants, and regulars to Damietta along the Nile. Tahir assumed the government, but within 23 days encountered trouble due to continuing cash shortages. This time, it was Turkish troops who went without pay, and they in turn mutinied and assassinated Tahir. A desperate, prolonged, and confusing conflict ensued between the Albanians and Turks, with the divided Mamluks oscillating between the factions or attempting to regain power on their own behalf.

Tahir was replaced as commander of the Albanians by Muhammad Ali, one of the regimental commanders, who entered into an alliance with the Mamluk leaders Ibrahim Bey and Osman Bey al-Bardisi against the Ottomans. With Husrev Pasha fortifying himself at Damietta, the Turkish troops in the vicinity of Cairo acclaimed Muftizade Ahmed Pasha as their new governor. Muhammad Ali, however, refused to surrender Cairo to him. In reordering his forces to meet the new threat, he also removed the Mamluks from Giza, where they had been invited by Tahir. Muftizade Ahmed was eventually cornered and besieged by Muhammad Ali and his Albanians and compelled to surrender. Among the prisoners, those who had been involved in the assassination of Tahir Pasha were put to death. Muhammad Ali gave control over the Cairo citadel to his Mamluk allies. Soon after, they marched against Husrev Pasha, who had been reinforced at Damietta. Husrev was defeated, captured, and brought to Cairo by the Albanians.

Days later, Trablusu Ali Pasha landed at Alexandria as the new Ottoman governor, assuming command of the remaining Turkish forces. When he threatened the Mamluk beys, now virtual masters of much of the country, they captured Rosetta. They were unable to continue on to Alexandria because of lack of funds and Trablusu’s destruction of the dykes between the lakes of Aboukir and Mareotis, creating a moat around Alexandria. Unable to proceed, the Beys and Muhammad Ali returned to Cairo.

Meanwhile, Trablusu Ali Pasha sought to divide Muhammed Ali and his Mamluk allies. He circulated a decree from the Sultan that the beys could live peaceably with a pension and other privileges, provided government returned to the Turkish governor. Many of the beys assented, and in the process opened a rift with Muhammad Ali Pasha and the Albanians. The Mamluks had already been suspicious of their Albanian allies, having previously intercepted letters addressed to them from Trabluslu, endeavoring to win their alliance as well.

Trabluslu advanced towards Cairo with 3000 men to discuss his resumption of control. The beys still with Muhammad Ali and their Albanian allies advanced to meet him at Shalakan, forcing the Ottoman governor to fall back on a place called Zufeyta. At this point, the Albanians managed to seize Trabluslu Ali’s transport boats, capturing soldiers, servants, ammunition, and baggage. Finding his advance blocked, reluctant to retreat to Alexandria, and surrounded, Trabluslu Ali attempted to give battle, but his men refused to fight. He abandoned his troops and went over to the camp of the Mamluk beys. His army was eventually allowed to retire to Syria. Trabluslu Ali was sent under an escort towards the Syrian frontier; about a week later, news was received that during a skirmish with some of his own soldiers, he had fallen mortally wounded.

On February 12, 1804, The Mamluk leader Muhammad Bey al-Alfi returned from Britain, splitting the Mamluks into two parties, one gathered around al-Alfi and the other around al-Bardisi. Al-Alfi's partisans gathered opposite Cairo and held nearby Giza, when Husain Bey, one of al-Alfi’s relatives, was assassinated by emissaries of al-Bardisi. Muhammad Ali Pasha used this as a pretext to restore order, and took possession of Giza, which was given over to his troops to pillage. Unaware of these events, al-Alfi made his way to Cairo. Encountering a party of Albanians south of Manfif, he was ambushed and only escaped with difficulty; he fled to the desert. There he had several close escapes and at last secreted himself among a tribe of Bedouin at Ras al-Wgdi.

Meanwhile al-Bardisi was in decline. His taxes roused revolt in Cairo. The Albanians, alarmed for their safety, assured the populace that they would not allow public order to collapse, and Muhammad Ali issued a proclamation to that effect and offered other concessions. Although their demands for pay had been the cause for Al-Bardisi’s onerous levies, the concessions resulted in the Albanians gaining in popularity at the expense of the Mamluks. A few days later, the Albanians ousted the Mamluk beys from the city, though resistance continued in the countryside. Muhammed Ali now faced a war with both al-Bardisi and al-Alfi. Fortunately for him, his two foes did not get along. By the end of 1805, both had been defeated and the Ottomans were forced to acknowledge reality and formally name him governor.

The problem of the Mamluks didn’t go away, though. In 1807 a British army sailed into Alexandria and took the city peacefully. London was planning to seize Egypt as a way to pressure the Ottomans, who had in the years since 1801 actually formed an alliance with Napoleon. Many Mamluks, who had fled to Upper Egypt after Muhammad Ali’s accession, now decided to accept Muhammad Ali’s offer to unite against this new foreign invader. Britain’s war plans for Egypt died, along with a substantial part of their army, at Rosetta in April. The British evacuated in September. For a while after the British defeat relations between Muhammed Ali Pasha and the Mamluks reached a kind of detente, but eventually they began to deteriorate again and the Mamluk and Albanian forces began to clash once again.

Early in 1811, during a lull in tensions, all the Mamluk beys then in Cairo were invited to the ceremony in the Cairo citadel for investing Muhammed Ali’s favorite son, Tusun, with command of the army being prepared for a campaign in Arabia. On March 1, Shahin Bey and the other chiefs (with one exception) repaired with their retinues to the citadel, and were courteously received by the Pasha. Having taken coffee, they formed in procession, and, preceded and followed by Muhammad Ali’s troops, descended the narrow road leading to the great gate of the citadel.

As soon as the Mamluks arrived at the gate it was suddenly shut before them. The last of those to leave before the gate was shut were Albanians under Salih Kush. To these troops, their chief now made known the Pasha’s orders to massacre all the Mamluks within the citadel. They climbed the walls and roofs of nearby houses that hemmed in the road in which the Mamluks were confined. They then opened fire and immediately the troops at the tail end of the procession, and who had the advantage of higher ground, followed suit. Of the betrayed chiefs, many were killed in the opening volleys; some, dismounting and throwing off their outer robes, vainly sought, sword in hand, to return and escape by some other gate. However, the few who gained the summit of the citadel experienced the same fate as the rest, as no quarter was given. 470 Mamluks entered the citadel; very few, if any, escaped. The massacre at the citadel was the signal for an indiscriminate slaughter of the Mamluks throughout Egypt, orders to this effect having been transmitted to every governor. In Cairo itself the houses of the Mamluk beys were given over to the soldiery. The heads of the beys were sent to Istanbul.

A remnant of the Mamluks fled to Nubia, and a tranquility was restored to Egypt to which it had long been unaccustomed. The following year, these exiles were attacked by Ibrahim Pasha, eldest son of Muhammed Ali, in the fortified town of Ibrim. Here the want of provisions forced them to evacuate. A few who surrendered were beheaded, and the rest went farther south and built the town of New Dongola. As their numbers thinned, the surviving Mamluks endeavored to maintain their remaining power by training hundreds of blacks. However, soon it would all come to naught, on the approach of Ismail, another son of Muhammed Ali, who was sent with an army in 1820 to subdue Nubia and Sennar. At that point, some of the remaining Mamluks submitted, returned to Egypt, and settled in Cairo, while the rest, amounting to about 100 persons, fled in dispersed parties to the countries adjacent to Sennar.

[Ennath]

March 2, 1965
Operation Rolling Thunder

On August 7, 1964, the US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin authorizing President Johnson to use military power in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war. On February 13, Johnson approved Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained campaign of aerial bombardment against North Vietnam. In addition, Operation Steel Tiger, an air interdiction campaign against the Ho Chi Minh Trail, would be conducted. The main purpose of these campaigns were first to destroy North Vietnam’s infrastructure, including industrial bases and transportation systems so as to disrupt the supply lines from the North into South Vietnam; second to break North Vietnamese morale by heavy bombing and finally, to boost sagging morale in South Vietnam.

To many of Johnson’s senior civilian advisors, especially Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense, the purpose of Rolling Thunder was to send a message to North Vietnam. Hoping for a diplomatic solution, McNamara preferred gradually increasing pressure on North Vietnam in order to make it clear to North Vietnamese leaders that America was willing to have a negotiated settlement rather than aerial destruction. This solution also came from the concern that an increasing bombardment against North Vietnam might provoke China and the Soviet Union to intervene directly in Vietnam. Nonetheless, many military commanders strongly disagreed with this strategy. They believed that McNamara’s notions of gradual escalation were divorced from reality. In their points of view, the United States should not carry out a long and indecisive campaign which would give time for the Communists to build an effective air defense system. They argued that air power should be used as an overwhelming force to cut off reinforcement and replenishment into the South instantly. With support from the North halted, the war in South Vietnam would wither away.

Rolling Thunder got underway on March 2, 1965. For the first month, it consisted only of missions against targets below the 19th parallel; American political leaders wished to limit attacks so as to give Hanoi a chance to break off their war in the south. As the North Vietnamese refused to relent, the “bomb line” was gradually moved north.

A sophisticated air defense system was rapidly put in place. The number of AA guns was significantly increased from less than 700 in late 1964 to 8000 in 1968. On April 5, 1965, the first SAM site in North Vietnam was detected. In that year, new MiGs were supplied to the North Vietnam.

Washington’s response to the strengthening North Vietnamese defense was indecisive. In keeping with the doctrine of “gradualism”, it was better to hold important targets “hostage” by bombing trivial ones. From the beginning, Washington dictated which targets would be struck, the day and hour of the attack, the number and types of aircraft and the tonnages and types of ordnance utilized, and sometimes even the direction of the attack. Airstrikes were strictly forbidden within 30 miles of Hanoi and within 10 miles of the port of Haiphong. A 30-mile buffer zone also extended along the length of the Chinese frontier. Although the loss of aircraft kept increasing, Johnson still hoped for a diplomatic solution. During 1965-67, there were no less than 7 offers to Hanoi of inducements to negotiate.

Although some of these restrictions were later loosened or rescinded, Johnson (with McNamara’s support) kept a tight rein on the campaign, which infuriated the military commanders, right-wing members of Congress, and even some within the administration itself. One of the primary objectives of the operation, at least to the military, should have been the closure of Haiphong and other ports by aerial mining, thereby slowing the flow of seaborne supplies to the north. President Johnson refused to take such a provocative action, however, and such an operation was not implemented until 1972. There was also little consultation between Johnson and the military chiefs during the target selection process. Even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Earl Wheeler, was not present for most of the critical discussions of 1965 and participated only occasionally thereafter. From mid-1966 until the end of 1967, President Johnson continued to dole out sensitive targets one by one to the generals while simultaneously trying to placate the doves in Congress and within his own administration with periodic cutbacks and half-hearted peace initiatives. In the end, this erratic course satisfied no one and did little to alter the course of the war.

The failure of the American military to develop an air power doctrine consistent with the constraints that cannot be avoided in wars fought for limited objectives precipitated the crippling clash between doctrine and perceptions. As a result, air power was unwillingly tasked to perform a mission for which it was ill-equipped and doctrinally unprepared.

Rolling Thunder reached the last stage of its operational evolution during 1967-68. The chief purpose of the American air effort was slowly transformed into that of interdicting the flow of supplies and material and the destruction of those segments of the north’s infrastructure that supported its military effort. Although most US aircraft losses continued to be inflicted by AA guns, Air Force F-105s and Navy A-4 Skyhawks increasingly encountered SAMs and MiGs. North Vietnamese fighters also became a particular problem because of the lack of radar coverage in the Red River Delta region, which allowed the MiGs to surprise the strike forces. Airborne early warning aircraft had difficulty detecting the fighters at low altitudes and the aircraft themselves were difficult to see visually.

In 1967, after 2 years without any positive results, President Johnson overrode McNamara’s objections and permitted stepped-up attacks in the Hanoi-Haiphong area. For the first time, a number of important targets, including Thai Nguyen steel complex, key MiG bases, the Paul Doumer bridge and several targets inside the restricted areas were heavily struck. By shifting the strategy, the operation now progressed quite well and caused serious damage in North Vietnam. According to John Colvin, British chargé d’affaires in Hanoi, the northern transportation system and economy were close to collapse.

However, these raids only lasted for one year. To persuade the North Vietnamese to negotiate, Johnson restricted the bombing of North Vietnam to the southern part of the country on March 31, 1968, in effect, bringing Rolling Thunder to an end. Preliminary discussions began in Paris in May but bogged down over trivial issues. In November, Johnson made another concession, ending the bombing throughout the north.

US aircraft had flown more than 300,000 sorties and dropped about 643,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam. More than 900 aircraft were lost. According to a CIA estimate, damage inflicted on North Vietnam was about $370 million in physical destruction and 90,000 casualties, including 72,000 civilians.

Overall, Operation Rolling Thunder was generally an ineffective campaign as it could not achieve any of its objectives. First, the raids did not destroy the morale of the North. Hanoi even used the destructive strikes as propaganda to encourage its people to fight harder. Second, despite heavy bombardment, men and materials continued to flow to South Vietnam.

[maildude]

And right around when Rolling Thunder ended, Johnson made his now famous announcement that he would not seek a second full term.

[Ennath]

March 3, 1895
Siege of Chitral

In the last phase of the Great Game, the Anglo-Russian contest over Central Asia and India, attention turned to the unclaimed mountainous area north of India. Chitral was thought to be a possible route for a Russian invasion of India. From around 1876 Chitral was under the protection of the Maharaja of Kashmir to the southeast and therefore in the British sphere of influence but there was no British Resident. At this time Chitrali power extended east to the Yasin Valley about half way to Hunza. The British established the Gilgit Agency about 175 miles east in 1877.

Prepare to be confused. From 1857 to 1892 the ruler (Mehtar) was Aman ul-Mulk. When the old ruler died in 1892 one of his sons, Afzul ul-Mulk, seized the throne, consolidating his rule by killing as many of his half-brothers as he could. The old ruler’s brother, Sher Afzul Khan, who had been in exile at Kabul, about 150 miles southwest, secretly entered Chitral with a few supporters and murdered Afzul. Another of the old ruler’s sons, Nizam ul-Mulk, who had fled to the British at Gilgit, advanced west, accumulating troops as he went, including 1200 men Sher had sent against him. Seeing the situation was hopeless, Sher fled back to Afghanistan and Nizam took the throne with British blessing and a British resident, Lt. B.E.M. Gurdon. On January 1, 1895, Nizam was murdered on the orders of his brother, Amir ul-Mulk, while the two were out hunting. Umra Khan, a tribal leader from Bajour to the south marched north with 3000 Pathans either to assist Amir or replace him. Surgeon Major George Scott Robertson, the senior British officer at Gilgit, gathered 400 troops and marched west to Chitral and threatened Umra Khan with an invasion from Peshawar if he did not turn back. Amir began negotiating with Umra Khan so Robertson replaced him with his 12-year-old brother Shuja ul-Mulk. At this point Sher Afzul Khan reentered the contest. The plan seems to have been that Sher would take the throne and Umra Khan would get part of the Chitral territory.

In February, Robertson moved his small force into Chitral Fort, with the members of the Mehtar’s entourage and the stores of food that Gurdon had been stockpiling since the crisis broke. Gurdon’s foresight in this respect was to be the saving of the garrison. Messengers were sent out asking for help. On March 3, Sher Afzal occupied villages within 2 miles of Chitral Town. Captain Campbell, the senior British military officer, rashly advanced to meet Sher Afzal with 200 men of the 4th Kashmir Rifles and was defeated with the loss of 55 men. The siege began that evening.

The Chitral Fort was 80 yards square and built of mud, stone and timber. The walls were 25 feet high and 8 feet thick. There was a short covered way to the river, the only water source. Improvements would constantly be made in the course of the siege. The fort held 543 people of whom 343 were combatants including 5 British officers. The units were the 14th Sikhs and a larger detachment of Kashmiri Infantry. Artillery support was 2 RML 7-pounder mountain guns without sights and 80 rounds of ammunition. There were only 300 cartridges per man and enough food for a month. There were trees and buildings near the walls and nearby hills from which sniping was possible with modern rifles. Captain Charles Townshend, later of Mesopotamia fame (1915-16), commanded the fort, as Campbell died of his wounds.

The weapons available to the besiegers ranged from old muzzle loading jezails and Brown Bess muskets, to many Enfield rifles and a significant number of Martini-Henry rifles, but no artillery. The Chitralis built sangars or short walls of stones around the fort during the siege, some as close as 25 yards. The besiegers were particularly adept at this form of operation. On April 9, the besiegers began a bombardment of the fort, using stone-throwers. This was surprisingly galling and inflicted some severe injuries on members of the garrison. Falling stones made movement across the fort yards dangerous. The rattling of stones on the fort’s fabric kept the garrison awake and on edge and clearing up the stones took considerable effort each morning.

On April 6, as relief columns approached, the besiegers made a desperate attempt to set fire to the southeast tower. Despite casualties (including Robertson, shot in the shoulder), the fire was extinguished by the following morning. A second attempt was made the following day. The fire was spotted by 2 sentries, who extinguished it. Robertson was mystified how the besiegers could approach sufficiently close to the fort to set it on fire, only a day after the first major conflagration. The conclusion he came to was that the besiegers noted the time for changing sentries and made their move during the changeover. From then on sentries were changed at random times.

Four days later the Chitralis began digging a tunnel in order to blow open the fort. This started from a house where the Chitralis held noisy parties to hide the sounds of digging. By the time sounds of digging were heard it was too late to dig a counter mine. 100 men rushed out of the eastern gate, found the mouth of the tunnel, bayoneted the miners, blew up the tunnel with explosives and returned with a loss of 8 men. On the night of April 18, someone shouted over the wall that the besiegers had fled. The next morning a heavily armed party found that this was true. The relief force entered Chitral on April 20 and found the besieged “walking skeletons”. The siege had lasted a month and a half and cost the defenders 41 lives.

When the British command heard of Robertson’s situation they began assembling troops around Peshawar, but they were not in a hurry since they assumed that Umra Khan would back down. When reports became more serious they ordered Col. James Graves Kelly at Gilgit to act. He gathered what troops he could: 400 Sikh Pioneers - mostly road-builders, 40 Kashmiri sappers with 2 mountain guns, 900 Hunza irregulars, and a number of hired porters to carry the baggage. Although his force was small he had the advantage that the Chitralis did not think that anyone would be fool enough to cross 150 miles of mountains in late winter.

He left Gilgit on March 23, and by the 30th had crossed the snowline at 10,000 feet. Here the porters deserted with their laden ponies but were soon rounded up and kept under guard. The main problem was the 12,000 foot Shandur Pass at the head of the Gilgit River which was crossed in waist-deep snow, dragging the guns on sledges. Fighting began on April 6, as they exited the pass and the Chitralis became aware of them. By April 13, the column had driven the enemy from two main positions and by April 18, the enemy seemed to have disappeared.

Meanwhile, the British had assembled 15,000 men at Peshawar under Maj-Gen. Sir Robert Low, with Brig. Bindon Blood serving as Chief of Staff. They set off about a week after Kelly. On April 3, they stormed the Malakand Pass which was defended by 12,000 local warriors. There were significant engagements on the 5th and 13th. On April 17, Umra Khan's men prepared to defend his palace at Munda, but finding themselves greatly outnumbered, they slipped away. Inside the British found a letter from a Scottish firm offering Maxim guns at 3700 rupees and revolvers at 34 rupees each. The firm was ordered to leave India. Low was still crossing the Lowari Pass on the day Kelly entered Chitral. Although Kelly got to Chitral first, it was the massive size of Low’s force that forced the enemy to withdraw.

Umra Khan fled with 11 mule-loads of treasure and reached safety in Afghanistan. Sher Ali ran into one of his foes and was sent into exile in India. Robertson was made a knight commander of the Order of the Star of India. Kelly was made a Personal aide-de-camp to the Queen and made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. There was talk of building a road from Peshawar, but this was rejected because of the expense and the fear that the Russians could use the road too. Two battalions were stationed at Chitral and two at the Malakand Pass. In the spring of 1898 Captain Ralph Cobbold was on “hunting leave” in the Pamirs and learned that the Russians had planned to occupy Chitral if the British abandoned it.

Chitral remained at peace after 1895 and Shuja ul-Mulk, the 12 year old installed as Mehtar by Robertson, ruled Chitral for the next 41 years until his death in 1936.

[Ennath]

323 BC
Conquests of Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta’s ancestry, birth year and family as well as early life are unclear. He was orphaned and abandoned, raised as a son by a cowherding family, then, according to Buddhist texts, was picked up, taught and counseled by Chanakya (Kautilya) at Taxila (now in Pakistan) for 8 years.

Chandragupta began recruiting an army after he completed his studies at Taxila. Alexander the Great had invaded India, but abandoned further campaigns of expansion in 324 BC, leaving regions ruled by Greek governors and local rulers. A supply of warriors was already in place, and the future emperor and his teacher chose to build alliances with local rulers and a small mercenary army of their own. Chanakya also displayed a talent for administration. By 323 BC, this new army had defeated some of the Greek-ruled cities in the northwest subcontinent. Each victory led to an expanded army and territory. Chanakya provided the strategy, Chandragupta the execution, and together they began expanding eastward towards Magadha (Ganges plain), ruled by the Nanda Empire.

Historically reliable details of Chandragupta’s campaign are unavailable; the legends written centuries later are inconsistent. According to Buddhist texts, Magadha was ruled by the evil Nanda dynasty, which Chandragupta easily conquered to restore dharma. In contrast, Hindu and Jain records suggest that the campaign was bitterly fought, as the Nanda dynasty had a well trained, powerful army. Chandragupta and Chanakya built alliances and a formidable army of their own. This may have included Macedonians. Military operations were combined with the stirring up of internal rivalries in the Nanda Empire. The campaign saw a series of battles, culminating in the siege of the capital city Pataliputra and the conquest of the Nanda Empire around 322 BC. With the end of the Nanda dynasty, and possessing the resources of the Ganges plain, Chandragupta put to work the statecraft strategies of Chanakya.

After this, Chandragupta and Chanakya began their empire building in the northwestern subcontinent (modern Pakistan). Alexander had left satrapies in place in 324 BC. Chandragupta’s mercenaries may have assassinated two of his governors, Nicanor and Philip. The satraps he fought probably included Eudemos, who left the territory in 317 BC; and Peithon, governing cities near the Indus River until he too left for Babylon in 316 BC.

Seleucus I Nicator, a Macedonian general of Alexander, who, in 312 BCE, established the Seleucid Kingdom with its capital at Babylon, reconquered most of Alexander’s former empire in Asia and put under his own authority the eastern territories as far as Bactria and the Indus, and in 305 BC he came into conflict with Chandragupta. The war was ended in a treaty and a marriage alliance, with Chandragupta or his son marrying a Seleucid princess. The Maurya Empire added Arachosia (modern Kandahar), Gedrosia (modern Balochistan), and Gandhara. In return, Chandragupta sent 500 war elephants, which played a key role in Seleucus’ victory at Ipsos (301 BC, see posting). According to Greek sources, the two rulers maintained friendly relations and presents continued to be exchanged between them.

Chandragupta now ruled a vast empire extending across the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. He is said to have stepped down, crowned his son Bindusara as his successor about 298 BC, and died the next year.
Bindusara would invade south into the Deccan Plateau, bringing almost all of the subcontinent under Maurya rule.

[Ennath]

March 4, 1913
Battle of Bizani

As the main Greek war effort was initially turned towards Macedonia, the Greek army on the Epirus front was outnumbered by the Ottoman Yanya Corps at the outbreak of hostilities in October 1912. After stopping an initial attack by the Ottoman commander Esat Pasha at Gribovo, however, the Greeks succeeded in capturing Preveza (October 21) and pushing north in the direction of Yannina. On November 5, a small force from Corfu made a landing and captured the coastal area of Himara without significant resistance, and on December 20 Greek troops entered Korce, north of Yannina, thus cutting off its last supply route and threatening the city’s northeastern flank.

The terrain south of Yannina provided excellent defensive ground. The Ottomans had strong defenses south of Yannina, with concrete artillery emplacements, bunkers, trenches, barbed wire, searchlights and machine gun positions. The Yannina fortress area included 2 major forts, Bizani and Kastritsa, guarding the southern approaches, along with 5 smaller forts covering the western and northwestern approaches. By December 1912, both sides were reinforced: the Ottomans received part of the Vardar Army, retreating after the Battle of Monastir, bringing their forces up to some 26,000, while the Greeks also brought up the 2nd Division from Macedonia and a number of volunteer regiments, for a total of 25,000 men. The Greeks launched a first attack on the fortress area on December 14. The Ottomans succeeded in repelling it in a series of actions that lasted until December 22, and even gained some ground, albeit at heavy cost.

With operations in Macedonia completed, the Greek High Command turned its attention to Epirus. Three divisions were transferred to the theater, raising Greek strength to 40,000 men, along with 80 artillery pieces (amongst them 12 105mm and 155mm guns) and 6 aircraft. On the other aide, additional Ottoman soldiers, retreating from the Macedonian front, reinforced the defenders to 35,000. Throughout the period, the siege continued, with artillery duels, attacks by Albanian irregulars on Greek supply lines, and reconnaissance by the Greek airplanes. At the same time, the winter affected the morale of both sides. The Greek Epirus front commander, Gen. Konstantinos Sapountzakis, launched a new frontal attack on January 20, 1913. Although it gained ground, pushing the defenders back into the fort of Bizani, the high casualty rate and the worsening weather resulted in the operation being suspended a few days later. Sapountzakis was replaced by Crown Prince Constantine, who proceeded to carefully marshal his forces, bringing up more men and artillery. The Crown Prince formulated a new plan, whereby his army would feign an attack on Bizani from the southeast, while the main effort would be actually directed on the fortress area’s southwestern flank.

The Greek artillery began firing a preparatory bombardment on March 4, continuing through the day. Ottoman counter-fire was hampered by lack of ammunition. The infantry assault was launched the next day, with 3 Greek infantry divisions (4th, 6th and 8th) thrusting against the eastern and western sectors of the defensive perimeter. At the same time the Metsovon Joint Brigade launched a diversionary attack from the north. The Greek attacks, with heavy artillery support, breached the defensive line in the Tsouka sector that morning, and during the following hours the Ottoman defenses were broken in 5 locations. As a result, the defending Ottoman units from Tsouka to Manoliasa retreated to Yannina in order to avoid encirclement. As these breakthroughs from different axes threatened to collapse the entire perimeter, Esat Pasha was forced to keep his reserves back. By evening, the Greek 1st Evzone Regiment entered the village of Agios Ioannis on the southern outskirts of Yannina.

As a consequence of the Greek advance, the forts of Bizani and Kastritsa were cut off from the rest of the Ottoman army. As night fell, the forts ceased firing, and their garrisons abandoned them, trying to cut through the rather loose Greek encirclement to Yannina. In their attempt to withdraw, about 1000 were captured by the Greek units positioned on the city’s southern outskirts. Several Ottoman positions capitulated the next morning, although Bizani and Kastritsa continued to resist until after the surrender. Meanwhile, Esat Pasha realized that the battle was lost, and tried to evacuate as many troops and wounded as he could to the north. As the Greeks pressed their advance however, he contacted the city’s foreign consulates to seek help in negotiating a surrender. At 2300 on March 6, he agreed upon the unconditional surrender of Yannina and its garrison.

The Ottomans suffered some 2800 casualties, the Greeks only 284. 8600 Ottoman prisoners were taken, although some managed to escape to Albania. The Greeks also took 108 guns and large amounts of supplies. The surrender secured Greek control of southern Epirus and the Ionian coast. At the same time, it was denied to the newly formed Albanian state, for which it might have provided a southern anchor-point comparable to Shkoder in the north.

The success in the Epirus front enabled the Greek headquarters to transfer part of the army to Salonika, in preparation for a confrontation with the Bulgarians.

[Ennath]

March 5, 1991
Karbala Revolt

In the years leading up to the Kuwait War, the city of Karbala boasted over 150,000 inhabitants. Tourists from Africa to Pakistan flocked to the city as pilgrims to the Imam Husain Shrine. During the war, the city was carefully avoided by the Coalition bombing campaign due to the significance of the city’s mosques to Shiites. The city suffered little damage throughout the war in general.

On the evening of February 24, several days before the ceasefire, the Saudi Arabia-based Voice of Free Iraq, allegedly funded and operated by the CIA, broadcast a message to the Iraqi people telling them to rise up and overthrow Saddam. The speaker on the radio was Salah Omar al-Ali, an exiled former member of the Ba’athist Revolutionary Command Council. Al-Ali’s message urged the Iraqis to overthrow the “criminal tyrant of Iraq” and asserted that Saddam “will flee the battlefield when he becomes certain that the catastrophe has engulfed every street, every house and every family in Iraq.”

In the days leading up to the uprising, agents from Iran may have moved in amongst the population for the future channeling of Islamic revolution; an unsubstantiated claim which the Ba'athist regime was all too eager to propagate in their attempt to discredit the rising. Finally, on March 1, the Shiite uprising began in the southern city of Basra. With this, the tides of revolt spread throughout Iraq, from the southern marshes to the Kurdish mountains.

Some of the opposition groups had already distributed pamphlets throughout the local population, feeding anti-Saddam sentiment. It was also reported that a number of these opposition groups consisted of former regular Iraqi Army soldiers who had served in Kuwait. Earlier that day, soldiers returning from the front arrived in Karbala.

The revolt began at 2:30 PM, with youths began riding through the streets with weapons, attacking government buildings and loyalist soldiers. This provoked the population to come out of their homes with light arms and knives, known as “white weapons”, to join in. Such weapons were soon supplemented with heavier weapons captured from Ba’ath Party forces. The Holy Endowments administration building was the first to be sacked, followed by several others. The rebels also stormed the al-Husseini Hospital and took over their wards. Many of the Shia shrines immediately became the main headquarters for the insurgency, the main two being the Shrines of Husain ibn Ali and Al-Abbas ibn Ali.

Some of the local Ba’athist officials and top security agents, including the chief of police and the deputy governor, were brutally killed as they could not retreat in time. Many of the bodies were left lying in their streets and often burned. On the loudspeakers from the Shia shrines, insurgents called for prisoners to be brought to the Shrine of Abbas for execution. By morning, the city was under complete rebel control. There was great hope that Saddam’s regime would not be able to quell the rebellion without air power, which was blocked by coalition forces as a condition of the ceasefire. However, US forces could not prevent Saddam from using ground forces in Iraq. Karbala suffered severe shelling and rebel holdouts were attacked with helicopter gunships, despite the official declaration of no-fly zones.

Iraqi Republican Guards encountered resistance as soon as they entered the city. As a result of the mostly-Sunni Republican Guard’s resentment of the Shiites, it was said that the tanks bore placards saying, “No More Shia After Today”. The main targets included the main Shia shrines and the al-Husseini Hospital. The rebels put up stiff resistance in the hospital. Once it fell, the army rounded up doctors and nurses, and took them away for execution. Patients were thrown out of windows and reports surfaced of bulldozers burying bodies on the hospital grounds.

Throughout the counterattack, voices could be heard on loudspeakers at the shrines, issuing orders. In the closing days of the uprising, the shrines were heavily damaged by artillery and rocket fire from helicopters. Many rebels and civilian sympathizers barricaded themselves in the buildings. Video recordings show the people calling for aid from America and Iran, which never came. Once loyalist forces surrounded the shrine of Husain, the leader of the assault and a henchman of Saddam, Kamal Hussein Majid, stood on a tank and shouted: “Your name is Hussein and so is mine. Let us see who is stronger now”. He then gave the order to open fire on the shrine. After blowing down the doors, the Guard rushed in and killed a majority of those inside.

Resistance was almost completely over by March 19. Soldiers took vengeance on both rebels and civilians who had not fled. Moving from district to district, they rounded up young men suspected of being rebels, transported them to stadiums where some were executed. At first they shot whomever they saw. After a day or so, they arrested every male over the age of 15. Shia clerics found on the streets were rounded up and never seen again. Others were reportedly sent to a large detention facility outside Baghdad. Dead bodies were mined and were not allowed to be removed. Helicopter gunships on the outskirts reportedly strafed fleeing civilians as well.

Reports indicated that no neighborhood was left intact after the uprising. In the vicinity of the shrines, most of the buildings were completely reduced to rubble. The shrines themselves were scarred from bullet marks and tank fire. They were, however, quickly restored by the Shiite donations.

Iraq saw further unrest in its Shia dominated provinces in early 1999, following the killing of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr by the government. Like the 1991 uprising, the 1999 revolt was brutally suppressed.

[Ennath]

March 6, 1923
2nd Senusi War

The Senusi sect of North Africa placed emphasis on the Prophet himself rather than on a mystic union of Mohammed and God. In the early 20th century it became a resistance movement, opposing the Italian conquest of Libya. In 1922, the mantle of Senusi leader passed to Omar al-Mukhtar, “the Hound of the Lord”, an ideological visionary.

Until early 1923, relations between Italy and the Senusi were dictated by a 1917 compromise, which left the Italians in control of the ports and neighboring coastal plains, and the Senusi controlling the hinterlands. However, the Fascist takeover of Italy brought a change in colonial policy and on March 6, 1923, Gen. Luigi Bongiovanni, the new governor of Cyrenaica, launched a surprise attack. The ensuing war was referred to by the Fascists as the “reconquest” of Libya, though they had never ruled the interior. This second Italo-Senusi War was marked by an Italian will to win that had been lacking in the 1st war (1911-17).

Bongiovanni’s offensive had some initial success, including the occupation of Agedabia. In June, Italian troops managed to gain control of near portions of the Jebel Akdar, obtaining the first mass submission (some 20,000 people). However, they were soundly defeated in 2 actions near Sirte, losing 53 Italians and 279 askaris. By the end of the year, the Italians controlled the more stable tribes around the towns, with the Senusi in open revolt in the high ground (Jabal) and the south. However, such was the tribal unity against the invaders that Senusi control extended even to tribes that had officially submitted.

In spring 1924, the Italians resumed the offensive in a series of operations which claimed 600 rebels killed but only 97 rifles captured. Resistance was little affected, even when the Italians created a line a fixed garrisons. In May, Bongiovanni was replace by Ernesto Mombelli. In 1925, the offensive was directed against the southern slopes of the Jabal. Again few weapons were taken, indicating that the Italians were slaughtering innocent tribesmen rather than armed rebels.

1926 saw the Italian occupation extended to the oases of Jaghbub, the operations showing an increasing Italian mastery of desert warfare due to increased use of modern technology, such as radios, aircraft and trucks. In November, Mombelli was succeeded by Attilio Teruzzi, a senior member of the Fascist Party, whose fanaticism was exceeded only by his incompetence. On March 28, 1927, the 7th Libyan Battalion (750 men) was ambushed and routed at Er-Raheiba, losing 300 dead. At the same time, over 1600 rebel troops occupied the heart of the Jabal.

The substantial failure of the offensives in Cyrenaica was in marked contrast to the gains in Tripolitania, where advantage had been taken of the tribes inability to put aside their feuds. In 1927, Teruzzi and his military commander Ottorino Mezzetti were given the objective of securing control of the Jabal, for which they were allocated large mobile forces. Utilizing both aircraft and radio, Mezzetti was able to coordinate several columns (the Eritrean and Libyan battalions in the Jabal and units of Meharisti - camelry, trucks and armored car - in the south), each with water for 5 days. The overwhelming superiority of these columns and a greater decisiveness in their use, plus the active presence of the Italian Air Forcre, caused heavy rebel losses. Again, though, few rifles were taken.

The growing efficiency of the Italian forces marked the end of large Senusi concentrations, but did not impair their popular support of the vigor of their guerrilla operations. The only occasion when the rebels fiercely defended their ground was in the Kuf region, where they lost several hundred men and 70 rifles, but inflicted the greatest Italian losses in the campaign (36 men).

In December 28, Mussolini assumed responsibility for the Colonial Ministry, though left affairs largely in the hands of sub-secretary Emilio de Bono, one of the leading lights of the Fascist regime, who had been appointed Governor of Tripolitania in 1925. The post of joint Governor of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania went to Marshal Pietro Badoglio, with Domenico Siciliani as vice-governor. Command of the troops fell to Gen. Ronchetti. From January 1930, Siciliani was replaced by Gen. Rodolfo Graziani, who had completed the conquest of Tripolitania and had occupied the Fezzan (the southwest).

The crushing of the final Cyrenaican resistance is associated with the name of Graziani, Italy’s most “Fascist” general, who not only planned it, but personally directed it. He took great pains to prepare a coordinated operation, with 10 columns to encircle and destroy Mukhtar’s forces in the Fayed zone. So confident was he of success that he asked Badoglio to be present to celebrate the victory. The offensive began on June 16, 1930, but, once again, the guerrilla bands had good intelligence and slipped away, losing only 50 men. Graziani boasted of the occupation of more territory, but Badoglio was not slow to underline the setback.

Italian strategy now underwent a change. A policy of attrition was adopted, the first element being the relocation of the population to concentration camps to deprive the Senusi of bases and sources of supply. Mobile groups, each with an Eritrean battalion and a Savari (Libyan cavalry) squadron, were sent to comb the terrain and flush out the rebels. In the winter, attention shifted from the Jabal to Kufra oasis, the only place in Libya not yet reached by Italian forces. It lay across 500 miles of desert; hundreds of rebels had sought refuge there and the black Senusi flag still flew. In 1929, Captain Aldro Fornari had tried to negotiate with the Amir of Kufra, who was inclined toward the Italians, but the Amir was deposed by more militant factions and Fornari imprisoned (he eventually escaped to Egypt).

At the end of 1930, Graziani, after meticulous preparations, advanced on Kufra with a powerful column, comprising Meharisti, tanks and other vehicles, spotter planes and thousands of camels and occupied the oasis. An attack on one Italian detachment was beaten off with heavy loss; the action was the last in which troops formed square. Upon occupation of Kufra, the watchword was “liquidation”, the first recorded use of the term. Less than half the population of Kufra survived. Still, Mukhtar continued to resist and obtain supplies. At the end of January 1931, Graziani suggested a sensational new measure - construction of a wire fence stretching 170 miles along the Egyptian border. Within 6 months the work was completed. A wire barrier several yards wide stretched from Bardia to the oasis of Jaghbub, patrolled by the air force and armored detachments. There were no major battles, but many skirmishes, with rebels spotted by air or scouts, the dispersal of the rebel groups and their pursuit by cavalry or aircraft.

In early September, the Italian command in the Jabal received word the Mukhtar and about 100 rebels were south of el-Beda, intending a raid into Cyrenaica to rustle livestock. The mobile groups were put on alert and scouts dispatched. On the afternoon of September 9, the rebel band was spotted near Slonta, 18 miles south of the garrison at Cyrene. At dawn on the 11th, 3 Eritrean battalions and several Savari squadrons attacked the rebels at the Wadi Bu Taga. The rebels immediately split up into small groups to filter through Italian lines. One of these groups was spotted from the air and the nearest Savari squadron set off in pursuit. The group of 12 was overtaken; 11 were killed and 1 captured. That 1 was Omar al-Mukhtar.

Mukhtar was escorted to Apollonia on the coast and taken to Benghazi by sea. The received a short trial and was sentenced to death; hanged at the Soluk concentration camp on September 16 in front of 20,000 deportees.

Three of Mukhtar’s lieutenant’s tried to escape to Egypt through the frontier wire, but only 1 succeeded. The last, Yusuf bu Rahil, was killed in a skirmish on December 19, the last action of the war. On January 20, 1932, Badoglio issued an Order of the Day declaring the war over.

[Ennath]

March 7, 1778
Battle off Barbados

Construction of the 36-gun frigate USS Randolph was authorized in December 1775 and the ship was ready for sea by October 1776. Captain Nicholas Biddle was placed in command. Seamen were scarce and recruiting was slow, delaying the ship’s maiden voyage. Captured British seamen were “dragged” from jail in Philadelphia; the resulting riot required the soldiers appointed to carry the men to the ship to fire into the prison windows.

Finally manned, Randolph sailed down the Delaware River on February 3, 1777, and three days later rounded Cape Henlopen, escorting a large group of American merchantmen to sea. On the 15th, the convoy separated, with some of Randolph’s charges heading for France and the rest setting course for the West Indies. The frigate herself turned northward, hoping to encounter HMS Milford, a British frigate which had been capturing New England shipping. Before long, she boarded a ship which proved to be French and was set free. Then, as she continued the search, Randolph sprung her foremast. While the crew labored to rig a jury mast, the mainmast broke and toppled into the sea. Continuing the hunt was out of the question. Biddle ordered the ship south toward the Carolina coast. Fever broke out as the Randolph painfully made her way, and many members of the crew were buried at sea. A mutiny of the British seamen had to be put down before the ship could reach Charleston, South Carolina, on the afternoon of March 11.

Twice, after her repairs had been completed and as she was about to get underway, the frigate was kept in port by lightning-splintered mainmasts. Meanwhile, the ship, undermanned when she left Philadelphia, was losing more men from sickness, death, and desertion. Recruiting was stimulated by bounty, and Randolph was finally readied for sea - this time with her masts protected by lightning rods. She departed Charleston on August 16; 2 days later, a party from the frigate boarded merchantman Fair American, and impressed two seamen who earlier had been lured away from Biddle’s ship.

Inshore winds kept Randolph in the roadstead until the breeze shifted on September 1, wafting the frigate across Charleston Bar. At dusk, on the 3rd, a lookout spotted 5 vessels: 2 ships, 2 brigs, and a sloop. After a nightlong chase, she caught up with her quarry the next morning and took 4 prizes: a 20-gun privateer, True Briton, laden with rum for the British troops at New York; Severn, the second prize, had been recaptured by True Briton from a North Carolina privateer while sailing from Jamaica to London with a cargo of sugar, rum, ginger, and logwood; the two brigs, Charming Peggy, a French privateer, and L’Assomption, laden with salt, had also been captured by True Briton while plying their way from Martinique to Charleston.

Randolph and her rich prizes reached Charleston on the morning of September 6. While the frigate was in port having her hull scraped, the president of South Carolina’s General Assembly, John Rutledge, suggested to Biddle that Randolph, aided by a number of State Navy ships, might be able to break the blockade which was then bottling up a good number of American merchantmen in Charleston Harbor. After breaking the blockade Biddle was to sail to the South Atlantic for commerce raiding. Biddle accepted command of the task force, which, besides Randolph, included General Moultrie, Notre Dame, Fair American, and Polly.

The American ships sailed on February 14, 1778. When they crossed the bar, Biddle’s ships found no British in sight, so the American fleet headed for the West Indies where Biddle would raid commerce.
After two days, they took and burned a dismasted New England ship which had been captured by a British privateer while headed for St. Augustine. Thereafter, game was scarce. They encountered only neutral ships until Polly took a small schooner on March 4 bound from New York to Grenada. Biddle manned the prize as a tender.

Three days after that, at about 5:30 PM, on March 7, the Americans were sailing off the eastern coast of Barbados when lookouts spotted a large ship to windward. Biddle assumed the vessel to be a man-of-war so he directed most of his ships to continue on while he remained behind with Randolph and the 18-gun brig General Moultrie to engage the oncoming vessel.

The enemy ship turned out to be the 64-gun HMS Yarmouth under the command of Captain Nicholas Vincent. After a few hours of maneuvering, at about 9:00 PM, the Americans raised their colors and opened fire. The British responded. A fierce battle raged for 20 minutes. Captain Biddle was wounded early in the battle but continued to fight. It is thought that the shots that wounded him came from the General Moultrie, which accidentally struck the Randolph. The fight was still undecided when a spark entered Randolph’s powder magazine, causing a huge explosion that completely destroyed the frigate in an instant. The Randolph sank with a loss of 301 men and only 4 survivors. Captain Biddle died 10 days later from his wounds.

According to Captain Hall of the Notre Dame, Biddle and his men heavily damaged the Yarmouth in the first 12-15 minutes, while the American ships were still mostly unharmed. Yarmouth lost her bowsprit and her topmasts, a portion of which fell and damaged the poop deck. Another portion of the topmasts fell into the top-gallants and then onto the cap. Five British sailors were killed and another 12 men received wounds. Captain Vincent attempted to pursue the other American ships, to no avail, as they dispersed. Damage to the Yarmouth’s sails also enabled the Americans to slip away.

The death of Captain Biddle was considered a severe blow to the Continental Navy, as he was well respected and regarded as a professional sailor and a strong leader.

[Ennath]

189 BC
Galatian War

In 191 BC, Seleucid Emperor Antiochus the Great the invaded Greece. The Romans decided to intervene and defeated the Seleucids at Thermopylae, forcing the Seleucids back to Asia Minor. The Romans followed across the Aegean Sea and together with their allies from Pergamum, decisively defeated the Seleucids at the Battle of Magnesia (190 BC). It was the first entry of Roman forces into Asia.

The Seleucids sued for peace and began discussing terms with Scipio Asiaticus. In spring, the new consul, Gnaeus Manlius Vulso, arrived to take control of the army from Scipio and complete the negotiations. However, he was not content with the task given to him and he started to plan a new war. He addressed the soldiers and congratulated them on their victory and then proposed a campaign against the Galatian Celts of Asia Minor. The pretext used was that the Galatians had supplied soldiers to the Seleucid army at Magnesia. The principal reason was Manlius’ desire to seize the wealth of the Galatians, who had become rich from plundering their neighbors, and to gain glory for himself, and a triumph. This war was the first occasion on which a Roman general started a war without the permission of the Senate or people. This was a dangerous precedent for the future.

Manlius started his war preparation by summoning the Pergamenes to help. However, the King of Pergamum, Eumenes II, was in Rome so his brother, Attalus, who was serving as regent, took command of a Pergamene detachment.

The Roman-Pergamene army started its march from Ephesus, advancing inland to Antiochia where it was met by Antiochus’ son, Seleucus who offered grain as part of the treaty being concluded. It then marched through the upper Maeander valley and Pamphylia gathering levies from local princes and tyrants without much opposition. The consul then spent several weeks extorting gold and grain from local towns.

The Romans soon reached the border with the Tolistobogii, one of the 3 Galatian tribes. The consul sent envoys to Eposognatus, chieftain of the Tectosagi, the only chieftain who was friendly with Pergamum. The envoys returned and replied that the chieftain of the Tectosagi begged the Romans not to invade his territory. He also claimed that he would attempt to force the submission of the other chieftains.

The army marched deeper inland and pitched camp near a Galatian stronghold called Cuballum. While there, Galatian cavalry attacked the Roman advance guard and caused significant casualties before the Roman cavalry drove them back with heavy losses. The consul, knowing that he was in reach of the enemy, decided to move more cautiously.

The Romans arrived at the city of Gordium and found it deserted. As they camped there they were met by a messenger sent by Eposognatus. The messenger reported that Eposognatus had failed in persuading the Galatians not to attack and that they were mustering nearby in the mountains. The Tolostobogii occupied Mount Olympus, while the Tectosagi and the Trocmi went to another mountain. On Mount Olympus, the Galatians had fortified themselves with a ditch and other defensive works. For 2 days, the Romans scouted the mountains. On the 3rd day, they attacked.

The battle began with skirmishing by light troops. Livy claims that the Galatians fared badly right from the start, having few light troops of their own. When they rushed the Roman velites (skirmishers), they were repulsed. The legions then advanced and drove the Galatians back to their camp, occupying the surrounding hills. Here the legions rested while the velites gathered what missiles they could for a renewed assault. The Galatians prepared by stationing themselves in front of the walls of their camp, as the camp itself was insufficiently sturdy to serve as a fortification. The second assault broke them and they scattered, pursued by the allied cavalry. The Galatians are said to have lost 10,000 dead.

After the Roman victory at Mount Olympus, the Tectosagi begged the allies not to attack them and asked to meet Vulso for a conference halfway between their camp and Ancyra. The main aim of the conference was to delay the Roman attack so that they could allow the women and children to retreat across the Halys River. Their other aim was to assassinate the consul. While on the way to the conference Vulso’s bodyguard was overpowered by Galatian cavalry, but the escort that had been accompanying Roman foragers arrived and forced the Galatians to retreat. Vulso was unharmed.

The second battle of the campaign occurred at the Galatian capital of Ancyra. Again the Romans scouted the Galatian position for 2 days before attacking. After the velites did their work, the legions advanced. The Galatian center shattered at the first attack and fled in the direction of the camp. The flanks stood their ground for longer but were eventually forced to retreat. The Romans followed and plundered the camp as the surviving Galatians fled across the river to join the women and children.

This campaign greatly enriched Vulso and his legions as the Galatians had gathered great wealth through their conquests in Asia Minor. The Galatians sent envoys asking for peace but Vulso, who at the time was hurrying back to Ephesus as winter was approaching, bade them to come to Ephesus. Meanwhile, he finalized the peace with Antiochus.

Vulso arrived back in Rome in 187 BC and came in for much criticism because of his unauthorized war against the Galatians. However, he eventually overcame the arguments and was awarded his triumph.