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Random Facts about Decisive Battles
WORLD'S DECISIVE BATTLES.--The fifteen decisive battles
of the world from the fifth century before Christ to the
beginning of the nineteenth century , are as follows:
The battle of Marathon, in which the Persian hosts were
defeated by the Greeks under Miltiades, B.C. 490. The defeat
of the Athenians at Syracuse, B.C. 413. The battle of Arhela,
in which the Persians under Darius were defeated by the
invading Greeks under Alexander the Great, B.C. 331. The
battle of the Metanrus, in which the Carthaginian forces
under Hasdrubal were overthrown by the Romans, B.C. 207.
Victory of the German tribes under Arminins over the Roman
legions under Varus, A.D. 9. (The battle was fought in what
is now the province of Lippe, Germany, near the source of
the river Ems.) Battle of Chalons, where Attila the terrible
King of the Huns, was repulsed by the Romans under Aetius,
A.D. 451 Battle of Tours, in which the Saracen Turks
invading Western Europe were utterly overthrown by the
Franks under Charles Martel, A.D. 732. Battle of Hastings,
by which William the Conqueror became the ruler of England,
Oct. 14, 1066. Victory of the French under Joan of Arc over
the English at Orleans, April 29, 1429. Defeat of the
Spanish Armada by the English naval force, July 29 and 30,
1588. Battle of Blenheim, in which the French and Bavarians
were defeated by the allied armies of Great Britain and
Holland under the Duke of Marlborough, Aug. 2, 1704. Battle
of Pultowa, the Swedish army under Charles XII, defeated by
the Russians under Peter the Great, July 8, 1709. Victory of
the American army under General Gates over the British under
General Burgoyne at Saratoga, Oct. 17, 1777. Battle of Valmy
where the allied armies of Prussia and Austria were defeated
by the French under Marshal Kellerman. Sept. 20, 1792.
Battle of Waterloo, the allied forces of the British and
Prussians defeated the French under Napoleon, the final
overthrow of the great commander, June 18, 1815. These
battles are selected as decisive, because of the important
consequences that followed them. Few students of history,
probably, would agree with Prof. Creasy, in restricting the
list as he does. Many other conflicts might be noted,
fraught with great importance to the human race, and
unquestionably "decisive" in their nature; as, for instance,
the victory of Sobieski over the Turkish army at Vienna,
Sept. 12, 1683. Had the Poles and Austrians been defeated
there, the Turkish general might readily have fulfilled his
threat "to stable his horses in the Church of St. Peter's at
Rome," and all Western Europe would, no doubt, have been
devastated by the ruthless and bloodthirsty Ottomans. Of
important and decisive battles since that of Waterloo we may
mention in our own Civil War those of Gettysburg, by which
the invasion of the North was checked, and at Chattanooga,
Nov. 23 and 25, 1863, by which the power of the Confederates
in the southwest received a deadly blow.
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