The Military History Thread

[Ennath]

June 9, 1862
Jackson Completes His Victory

During the night of June 8–9, 1862, Winder’s Stonewall Brigade was withdrawn from its forward position near Bogota and rejoined Jackson's division at Port Republic. Confederate pioneers built a bridge of wagons across the South Fork of the Shenandoah River at Port Republic. Winder's brigade was assigned the task of spearheading the assault against Union forces east of the river. Brig. Gen. Isaac Trimble's brigade and elements of Col. John M. Patton, Jr.'s, were left to delay Maj. Gen. Frémont's forces at Cross Keys, while the rest of Maj. Gen. Richard Ewell's division marched to Port Republic to be in position to support Winder's attack.

Brig. Gen. Tyler's Union brigade joined Col. Carroll's brigade north of Lewiston on the Luray Road. The rest of Brig. Gen. James Shields's division was strung out along the muddy roads back to Luray. General Tyler, in command on the field, advanced at dawn of June 9 to the vicinity of Lewiston. He anchored the left of his line on a battery positioned on the Lewiston Coaling, extending his infantry west along Lewiston Lane to the South Fork near the site of Lewis's Mill. The right and center were supported by artillery, 16 guns in all.

Winder's brigade crossed the river by 5 a.m. and deployed to attack east across the bottomland. He sent two regiments into the woods to flank the Union line and assault the Coaling. When the main Confederate battle line advanced, it came under heavy fire from the Union artillery and was soon pinned down. Confederate batteries were brought forward onto the plain but were outgunned and forced to seek safer positions. Ewell's brigades were hurried forward to cross the river. Seeing the strength of the Union artillery at the Coaling, Jackson sent Richard Taylor's brigade (including the famed Louisiana Tigers) to the right into the woods to support the flanking column that was attempting to advance through the thick underbrush.

Winder's brigade renewed its assault on the Union right and center, taking heavy casualties. Tyler moved two regiments from the Coaling to his right and launched a counterattack, driving Confederate forces back nearly half a mile. While this was occurring, the first Confederate regiments probed the defenses of the Coaling, but were repulsed.

Finding resistance fiercer than anticipated, Jackson ordered the last of Ewell's forces still north of Port Republic to cross the rivers and burn the North Fork bridge. These reinforcements began to reach Winder, strengthening his line and stopping the Union counterattack. Taylor's brigade reached a position in the woods across from the Coaling and launched a fierce attack, which carried the hill, capturing five guns. Tyler immediately responded with a counterattack, using his reserves. These regiments, in hand-to-hand fighting, retook the position. Taylor shifted a regiment to the far right to outflank the Union battle line. The Confederate attack again surged forward to capture the Coaling. Five captured guns were turned against the rest of the Union line. With the loss of the Coaling, the Union position along Lewiston Lane became untenable, and Tyler ordered a withdrawal about 10:30 a.m. Jackson ordered a general advance.

William Taliaferro's fresh Confederate brigade arrived from Port Republic and pressed the retreating Federals for several miles north along the Luray Road, taking several hundred prisoners. The Confederate army was left in possession of the field. Shortly after noon, Frémont's army began to deploy on the west bank of the South Fork, too late to aid Tyler's defeated command, and watched helplessly from across the rain-swollen river. Frémont deployed artillery on the high bluffs to harass the Confederate forces. Jackson gradually withdrew along a narrow road through the woods and concentrated his army in the vicinity of Mt. Vernon Furnace. Jackson expected Frémont to cross the river and attack him on the following day, but during the night Frémont withdrew toward Harrisonburg. Union losses were 1002 men, Confederate 816.

Together, the battles of Cross Keys (fought the previous day) and Port Republic were the decisive victories of Jackson's Valley Campaign, forcing the Union armies to retreat and leaving Jackson free to reinforce Gen. Robert E. Lee for the Seven Days Battles outside Richmond.

[Ennath]

June 10, 1358
French Nobles Crush the Jacquerie

After the capture of the French King by the English during the Battle of Poitiers in September 1356, power in France devolved and disputes between nobles provoked disunity. Consequently the prestige of the French nobility – which had begun the century at Courtrai (the "Battle of the Golden Spurs") by fleeing the field and leaving their infantry to be hacked to pieces, and had given up their king at Poitiers – had sunk to a new low. To secure their rights, the French privileged classes, the nobility, the merchant elite, and the clergy, forced the peasantry to pay ever-increasing taxes and to repair their war-damaged properties under corvée— without compensation. In addition, bands of English, Gascon, German and Spanish routiers— unemployed mercenaries and bandits employed by the English during outbreaks of the Hundred Years' War— were left uncontrolled, to loot, rape and plunder the lands of Northern France almost at will, the States General powerless to stop them. Many peasants questioned why they should work for a government that clearly could not protect its people.

This combination of problems set the stage for a brief series of bloody rebellions in northern France in 1358. The peasants involved in the rebellion seem to have lacked any real organization, instead rising up locally as an unstructured mass. When asked as to the cause of their discontent they apparently replied that they were just doing what they had witnessed others doing. Froissart's account portrays the rebels as mindless thugs bent on destruction, which they wreaked on over 150 noble houses and castles, murdering the families in horrendous ways. Outbreaks occurred in Rouen and Rheims, while Senlis and Montdidier were sacked by the peasant army. The townsmen of Beauvais, Senlis, Paris, Amiens and Meaux, sorely pressed by the court party, accepted the Jacquerie, and the urban underclass were sympathetic.

The nobles’ response was furious. Aristocracy from across France united together and formed an army in Normandy which was joined by English and foreign mercenaries, sensing work and a chance to loot the defeated peasants. This army moved into the Beauvais, preparing to strike at the peasants who had set up camp at the plateau above Mello near Silly-le-Long. The peasants had arrived there three days before, many ragged bands united under a leader from Paris. Another peasant force, 800-strong, was dispatched to Meaux, where they besieged the castle of Marché which contained a large number of nobles returning from crusading with the Teutonic Knights.

The armies were composed very differently. The peasant army under the leadership of Guillaume Cale was several thousand Beauvais peasants with a core of 400 Parisians, sent by the leader of the Paris commune following a simultaneous uprising in the city. The force was poorly armed, untrained, and lacking in even the basics of tactical knowledge. Opposed to them was a smaller force of French nobles eked out by English mercenaries, routiers and a few Royal troops. They were led by a pretender to the throne of France, King Charles II of Navarre, who brought a substantial body of his own men with him. The noble army was between 1,500 and 2,500 strong, the peasants probably double this strength.

On the morning of the 10 June 1358, the peasant army was lined up on the hillside near Mello, archers in the front rank, infantry behind them and cavalry forming an emergency reserve. The position was a strong one and the force of nobles, being weaker in numbers than their opponents, would have had difficulties in breaking through the peasant army's lines had the situation remained the same. However, Charles of Navarre had a plan to deal with the peasant leader Guillaume Cale before hostilities began, thus cutting the head off his opponent's army. A message was dispatched inviting Cale for treaty talks with the leader of the noble army, inviting the rebels to disperse unharmed. Cale was offered safe-passage through the noble army for the talks and foolishly agreed. Once he entered the noble lines he was seized and thrown in irons. That evening he was tortured to death.

With their leader gone, the peasant army’s morale plummeted, their line coming apart and allowing a cavalry charge to tear through their center, causing them to break into a shapeless mass. This mass was then systematically exterminated, the charge led by Charles of Navarre. Significantly, even against such inferior opposition, the main body of the French noble army fought on foot demonstrating that they had learnt the lesson of the ineffectiveness of cavalry against archers in a secure position taught at the Battle of Crécy twelve years before. All of the peasants were hunted down and killed on the spot, or later in great mass executions by beheading, hanging or even more violent deaths.

The second engagement of the battle was fought simultaneously in the nearby town of Meaux, where the garrison of the castle of Marché was preparing for an assault. Realizing that the peasant army was not prepared for a straight battle in the streets of the town, the two dozen soldiers in the keep sallied out on horseback. The peasant army had been feasting with the sympathetic townsfolk the night before, and were still hazy from their excesses when the cavalry hit their packed ranks. The Parisian forces fought hardest before breaking, but within minutes the entire army was nothing but a panicked rabble blocking every street away from the castle. They were joined by the town’s populace, who also feared vengeance for their support of the peasants, and the cavalry simply hacked their way through the masses, killing dozens if not hundreds of people for the loss of just one of their own. When the peasants had been driven out the entire town was razed to the ground as punishment for disloyalty.

Refugees spread out across the countryside where they were exterminated along with thousands of other peasants, many innocent of any involvement in the rebellion, by the vengeful nobles and their mercenary allies. Villages were burnt, crops destroyed and families executed, reducing a valuable farming area into a wasteland as revenge for the peasant’s attempt to reverse the social order. The Beauvais and many unaffected surrounding areas were thus blighted for decades to come. The Paris Jacquerie collapsed without the support of the food producing peasants in the countryside, and the entire area was within noble control again by the end of the year.

[Ennath]

June 11, 1913
Defeat of the Moros at Bud Bagsak

During the pacification of the Philippines, the Americans fought an extended war in the “Moro Province” in the South – Mindanao and the Sulu Islands. Individual Datus (or Dattos) – tribal leaders – occasionally rebelled against US forces. When one tribe rebelled, others remained allied to the US. It was easy enough to put down the occasional rebellion.

In January of 1913, Datto Amil used nationalist and religious appeals to encourage a widespread revolt against the United States and the Sultan of Sulu. Amil’s forces skirmished with and defeated a small detachment of local US and Moro police forces. A combined force of Philippine Constabularies and Scouts (indigenous police and military units with American officers) attacked a nearby rebel fort. They used the standard procedure that normally worked. They hit the fort with a brief artillery barrage and followed with an infantry charge. Amil’s forces repulsed the Scouts. This was the first time in the entire decade that Moro rebels won a battle.

These rebels were nothing like the poorly armed tribes the Americans encountered in 1903-06. They now used modern Krag rifles used far better tactics. They dug slit trenches to survive rifle and artillery fire, rather than relying on bamboo-mud walls as they had in the past. They threw dynamite like hand-grenades. They were fairly accurate with their rifles. Amil’s forces always tried to shoot the officers first. This was made easy because Americans were taller and whiter than anyone else on the battlefield.

Datto Amil’s forces redeployed to Bud Bagsak by late January– an extinct volcano ringed by a series of cotta forts and very steep slopes. The rebels were numbered some 2-3,000.

In early February, newly-minted General John Pershing brought in the 8th Infantry to reinforce the Sulu capital of Jolo City and set out to besiege Bud Bagsak. Pershing, having considerable experience in putting down Muslim rebels, did not intend to attack immediately. He intended to use soft-power to separate the population from the rebel Datu. After surrounding the volcano, Pershing refused to attack. Instead the Sultan of Sulu went up the volcano to negotiate terms. He succeeded – Datto Amil returned home on the condition that US forces leave.

This lead Datto Amil to believe the Americans weak. Through March and April, his forces took over most of the island and besieged Jolo City, taunting the Americans to come out and fight. He received no response. The 8th Infantry and Philippine Scouts fortified the City and refused to engage.

In May, Amil once again retreated to the forts at Bud Bagsak after Pershing resumed aggressive patrolling of the island. Datto Amil had overstayed his welcome. The Moros of Jolo City loathed him and his rebels. Moros outside the city lamented the loss of trade and poor farming. Amil took too many men away from the farms during the spring months. He reduced trade and encouraged lawlessness in the countryside. When he returned to Bud Bagsak in May, his force was a fraction of his forces in January.

When Moros made their stands in their forts, they brought their women and children with them. Effectively, they made the non-combatants human shields against US artillery. The anti-imperialist movement loved stories of how Americans were butchering children, so the Army avoided this as much as possible. The nearby presence of women and children made Bud Bagsak an even tougher shell to crack.

In early June, Pershing partially besieged Bud Bagsak and asked the Sultan to resume negotiations with Amil. Pershing then decided to unilaterally withdraw, apparently without even telling his own officers his plans. He made it appear that he was leaving Jolo for the time being as if the situation was a stalemate. US forces lifted the siege of Bud Bagsak, allowing the Moros to come and go at their leisure. Then, Pershing made a sudden return with a Philippine Scout unit, and ordered the immediate siege of Bud Bagsak. The Americans cut off Bud Bagsak so quickly and unexpectedly that few women and children were in the forts as a result.

Amil’s forces consisted of some 500 warriors. All were committed Muslims who wanted to die fighting the Christian invaders. After 6 months, a wide-spread revolt had deteriorated into a small knot of fanatics.

The US force attacked Bud Bagsak between June 11th and June 15th. They killed nearly all of the defenders. Pershing began the assault with a heavy artillery barrage. US Infantry laid down fire on Moros who retreated from the outer positions. US and Philippine infantry then advanced up the steep mountain and captured the cotta forts. Pershing was in the front-lines at one point of the attack. 13 Americans died in the battle.

Few Moros surrendered. They took the juramentado – the religious oath to fight to the death. It was the last major rebellion against U.S. rule in The Philippines.

[Ennath]

June 12, 1653
Battle of Gabbard Bank

After the English victory off Portland (February 28 – March 2, 1653), negotiations were opened between Cromwell and the Dutch, but both sides also prepared for another battle, which each hoped would give them the advantage in the peace talks. A series of opportunities for battle were missed during May. First the English fleet under Monck and Deane failed to intercept Tromp and a home-bound convoy from the Baltic. The combined Dutch fleet under Maarten van Tromp, de Ruyter, De With, Jan Evertsen and Floriszoon then attempted to catch the English in the Downs (May 24), only to find that they were at sea. Tromp was driven away from Dover by a bombardment from the castle, and crossed over to the Flanders coast, where he received news that the English had been seen off Nieuwpoort.

In fact on June 11, the English were further to the north, off Great Yarmouth. Learning that the Dutch were closing in, the English moved to a new anchorage two miles outside the Gabbard Bank (seventeen miles to the south-east of Orford. Tromp spent the night of June 11-12 anchored a similar distance to the north-east of the North Foreland, placing him just to the south of the English. On the morning of June 12, when the two fleets sighted each other, the Dutch were sailing S.S.W., and were to the leeward of the English, sailing away from them on a north-easterly wind.

The Dutch had ninety-eight men of war and six fireships, the English one hundred men-of-war and five fireships. Given than the English ships were generally larger and better armed than their Dutch equivalents, the English had quite a substantial advantage. They also benefited from the new Instructions for the Better Ordering of the Fleet in Fighting of March 1653, a set of fighting instructions put together by Monck, Blake and Deane. These instructions contained the first version of the line of battle that would soon come to dominate naval warfare. Although the Dutch, and Tromp in particular, seem to have been responsible for the earliest use of some sort of line formation, they were still prone to break the line to board damaged enemy ships. At the Gabbard the English maintained their discipline for much longer. At this date the line of battle didn't involve the individual ships –there were simply too many ships involved in major battles for that to be possible, but instead saw the fleet divided into a number of small subdivisions, which formed in a line of divisions.

The first days fighting, on June 12, saw the Dutch lose two ships in fierce fighting, and almost lose Tromp's flagship Brederode to boarding (only after Tromp had attempted to board Penn's flagship the James). At about 1800 the fighting ended, although another Dutch ship exploded before nightfall. Tromp was aware that his ships were running short of ammunition, and so on the morning of June 13, he attempted to escape from the battlefield, but at 1100, as he was on the brink of success, the wind fell, leaving the Dutch fleet marooned under the heavier guns of the English. The somewhat one-sided fight lasted from noon until about 1600, when the Dutch finally managed to escape. By the end of the battle the English had captured eleven major warships, sunk six and seen two burnt or explode. 1,350 prisoners were taken, amongst them six captains.

The English lost no ships, although they did suffer 126 dead and 236 wounded. The battle finally established the role of the warship as a floating artillery platform.

After the battle the Dutch ports were blockaded and peace negotiations resumed, but once again the Dutch prepared to fight one more battle in an attempt to restore the situation. Only after this battle too ended in defeat at Scheveningen did the war finally come to an end.

[sydney1]

It always amazed me, why were we fighting the Dutch? They were never a threat in the same way the Spanish or the French were. More often than not we supported or were actively involved in fighting with the Dutch.

[haroldeye]

Trade. The Dutch had some of the best navigators and seamen and were a direct threat to English trade.

[henryf]

In fact the English started it by attacking Dutch merchantmen.

[richardoe]

Wasn't the worlds thirst greet map makor Mercator a Dutchman?

[Tmee2020]

This continues from the short summary of events leading to Canute's reign.

Documentary evidence for the first part is sketchy, but there is a lot for the later years. The best sources are probably The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and the Bayeux Tapestry, which are contemporary. Any coverage of events nearly 1,000 years ago should be prefaced with "possibly" or "perhaps", so this is very much my take on it. At the end of these postings I will list some sources.

Part 1: 1016>1035 Canute

Once Canute was established as King of England he introduced a new level of administration and a new title: the earl.

The four earldoms covered areas similar to the largest kingdoms prior to England becoming a unified kingdom: Northumbria (Eric Haakonsson), Mercia (Eadric Streona), East Anglia (Thorkell) and Wessex. Initially Canute ruled in Wessex. The earls were responsible for maintaining an army and raising taxes. They were powerful and the king needed to be powerful himself to guarantee their continued support. Eadric in no way met his criteria and within a year Canute had him executed. Mercia passed to Leofwine, then to his son Leofric, whose famous wife was Lady Godiva.

There were a number of executions of English considered suspect by Canute, and members of the previous royal families of England fled, if they were able. Ethelred's son Eadwig fled but was killed. His two sons Edward (The Confessor) and Alfred Atheling fled to Normandy. The sons of Edmund Ironside, Edward the Exile and Edmund, were sent to Sweden supposedly to be put to death. Instead they were sent on to Hungary.

Canute's methods may have been murderous but that doesn't set him apart from other kings.

Canute claimed Denmark in 1018, Norway in 1028 and part of Sweden too. While the king was campaigning in Pomerania in 1019 Godwin, one of his English commanders, came to Canute's attention and won his trust. Godwin's background is obscure, his family were probably thanes in Sussex. By about 1020 Godwin is Earl of Wessex, though this is also Canute's power base and he has a home there. So the main players are: Godwin (Wessex), Siward (now in Northumbria) and Leofric (Mercia).

Canute's Empire, AD1028 in red

The wealth of England gave Canute massive support for the campaign in Scandinavia, and despite the heavy taxation England prospered because the battles were being fought elsewhere. With England and Denmark united the threat of raids on England had diminished.

In 1027 Canute attended the coronation of Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor.

Canute was married first to Ælfgifu of Northampton, then to Emma, Ethelred's queen. and both of them outlived him. It was not unusual for a king to put aside one wife and take another. How the second marriage affected Ælfgifu's status as consort is not known, but there is no evidence she lost all influence and authority.

Canute's marriages and children :
1. Ælfgifu
- Daughter (1012-1020)
- Harold Harefoot (1015-1040), King of England (Harold I)
- Sweyn (1016-1035), King of Norway

2. Emma
- Harthacnut (1018-1042) King of Denmark and England
- Gunhilda (1020-1038) Queen consort of Henry III, King of Germany and later Holy Roman Emperor. Gunhilda had lived in the German court since 1025.

Canute nominated Harthacnut as his heir, but him nominating it does not make it so.

Canute died at Shaftesbury in 1035 and was buried in Winchester. The cathedral was plundered by Roundhead troops during the civil war. The mortuary chests containing the bodies of the early kings of England were broken and the bones scattered. Later they were gathered and replaced in the chests, but all mixed up. There they remain.

[Ennath]

June 13, 1740
Siege of St. Augustine Begins

When the war of Jenkin's Ear commenced between Britain and Spain in 1739, it gave the British colonies in Carolina and Georgia an opportunity to attack and lay siege to their hereditary foes the Spanish at St. Augustine, Florida, with its formidable castle fortress.

A small European force was sent from England which included the "Old" 42nd Regiment of Foot; colonial militia was furnished by Virginia and North Carolina; the rest of the army was composed of the Georgia militia and a strong regiment from South Carolina, commanded by a Colonel Vanderdussen. An Amerindian contingent consisted of warriors from the Creek and Chickasaw tribes. The Governor's force, backed by a small navy of eight warships, amounted to about 1000 infantry, 900 sailors detached for shore duty, 1200 Indians and 56 guns. The martial reputation of Georgia's Governor James Oglethorpe lead to his command of the combined force.

After numerous delays, which some were to hold against Governor Oglethorpe, the Spanish, through spies, were made aware of all that was coming and given time to make ready against the invaders. Oglethorpe finally reached St. Augustine, having captured three smaller forts in the area on the way there. During this time, the Spanish garrison in the Castillo received an increase in strength from six galleys, armed with brass 9-pounder cannon, and two sloops packed with plenty of supplies. These timely arrivals assured that no shortages would occur in the fortress during a lengthy siege. The garrison contained some 750 men and 50 guns.

On arrival the Governor summoned the fort to surrender. He was answered back with a confident defiance by the disdainful governor, Manuel de Montiano, safe and secure in his stronghold. The fortress commander sent Oglethorpe the answer that he would be more than happy to shake hands with him inside the Castillo San de Marcos -- if he could make it in that is.

A bombardment originating from across the water on the island of Santa Anastasia, followed this reply, but, without effecting any change in the morale of the defenders. The bombardment was answered with counter-fire from the castle and galleys, however, little damage was done to either side and the besiegers soon found it more prudent to parley than exchange cannonades. The relatively light British guns were not up to the task of a formal siege.

On June 26, the Spanish commander noticed that the besiegers had lessened their vigilance some. Not one to miss an opportunity, the Don sent forth a sortie of free black and Spanish regulars to retake outlying Fort Mose. The Highland rangers from Darien, Georgia, occupying the place and under the command of Colonel Palmer, were not only surprised by the assault, but caught napping and cut to pieces after a brief but fierce struggle.

This bloody disaster, in combination with the loss of a large part of the Indian contingent, were reasons enough to abandon the expedition. The warriors were tired and had lost patience; in addition to being offended by the haughtiness of the Governor himself. When they proudly brought Oglethorpe an enemy scalp, he called them "barbarous dogs", rejected their trophy, and told them to begone from his sight. They obliged the Georgian commander with wholesale desertion.

As if in revenge, the British guns at the inlet opened fire. The townspeople fled, 2,000 of them, some to the woods, others to the covered way where Castillo walls screened them from the shelling. For 27 nerve-shattering days the British bombardment continued, but the walls held.

The heavy guns of San Marcos and the long 9-pounders of the fast little galliots in the harbor kept the British back; the siege had stalemated. Astride the inlet, Oglethorpe and his men battled insects and shifting sand on barren, sun-baked shores, while Spanish soldiers in San Marcos, down to half rations themselves, saw their families and friends starving. On July 6 Montiano wrote, "My greatest anxiety is provisions. If these do not come, there is not doubt that we shall die in the hands of hunger."

The very next day came news that supplies had reached a harbor down the coast south of Matanzas. Shallow-draft Spanish vessels went down the waterway behind Anastasia Island, fought their way out of Matanzas Inlet and, hugging the coast, went to fetch the provisions. Coming back into Matanzas that same night, they found the British blockader gone and reached St. Augustine unopposed.

Meanwhile, regardless of the low morale of his men, Oglethorpe made ready to assault the Castillo. His naval commander, however, was nervous over the approach of the hurricane season and refused to cooperate. Without support from the warships, Oglethorpe was beaten. Daybreak on the 38th day of the siege revealed-to Montiano's wondering relief-that the redcoats were gone. The British lost 122 dead and 56 artillery pieces captured. Spanish losses are unknown.

The failure was blamed by the army and colonial officials on the slow advance of its commander and his subsequent reluctance to make any attempt at storming the place. In defense of his methods, Oglethorpe declared he had no confidence in making a direct assault using the provincials and natives. Truth be told, the castle was so strongly fortified, so well provided for and strongly manned, that in all likelihood an attack would have failed, even though conducted by the very best officers and executed by the most highly motivated troops. However, the Governor's forces started off in high spirits but, after a while were demoralized, and sadly lacking in the motivation for much of anything.

The mutual allegations between the parties led to much rancor and many misunderstandings. To such a degree was this scorn felt by the Carolinians, that later when Georgia was attacked by a Spanish force, they at first refused to send any help at all to their sister colony, saying they could not risk the welfare of their troops to a leader in whom they had no faith. Eventually they changed their minds and dispatched several ships to the aid of the Georgians. The approach of this fleet on the coast was a powerful impetus for the invaders to flee, which they did. Oglethorpe had already defeated them however, showing himself the good leader he was, and made up for any mistakes he may have made while conducting the Florida expedition.