Siege of Zaatcha
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Conquest of Zaachta
| date | July 16 - November 26, 1849 |
|---|---|
| place | Zaatcha Oasis 30 km southwest of Biskra |
| output | French victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
|
Algerian warriors |
| Commander | |
|
Sheikh Bouziane |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 7,000 | 400 |
| losses | |
|
2,000 fallen and deceased of cholera |
12,900 killed (men, women and children) |
The expedition to siege and capture the desert city of Zaatcha ( Algeria ) was carried out in 1849 by French troops under Général Émile Herbillon . The defenders of the fortified complex were Berber and Algerian warriors of Sheikh Bouziane. It was part of the holy war that was intended to drive the French out.
In order not to endanger their supremacy and to protect the conquered areas, the French moved with more than 7,000 men in front of the strongly defended Ksar .
The campaign before the battle
During this time, the Emir Abd el-Kader and leader of the uprisings directed against the French was already in French custody, but this did not mean that peace had returned to the exposed areas. The settlers of French descent saw the efforts of the colonial power with mixed feelings and there was a general urge to return to France.
In May 1849, Sheikh Bouzian used the increase in the date palm tax as an excuse to incite the population. He claimed that he had received a divine message on the basis of which he was called to drive out the French new settlers. After a lieutenant from the Bureau of Arab Affairs tried to kidnap the sheikh, he declared holy war. The "2 e régiment étranger d'infanterie" (2nd infantry regiment of the Foreign Legion ), which was on a security operation at Batna and Sétif , was ordered to Zaatcha.
Course of the action
The legionaries of Colonel Jean-Luc Carbuccia, as well as the "3 e bataillon d'Afrique" (3rd African battalion) appeared on July 16 in front of the ksar. The attacks, which were launched immediately, were rejected with great losses, as the oasis was surrounded by a tangle of walls and ditches. Zaatcha had a crenellated wall and a moat that blocked the attackers' path.
The siege
On October 7th, Général Herbillon appeared on the scene, with him an expedition corps of 4,000 men, who also carried siege material with them. After an artillery preparation, the 2nd regiment of the Foreign Legion attacked a group of houses in the north of the palm plantation and occupied them. However, it was not possible to take the entire oasis at this time.
First general attack
The French troops began to build field entrenchments from which an attempt was made to cut a breach in the wall of the Ksar. On October 20, the Foreign Legionnaires and the 43e regiment d'infanterie de ligne started a storm, which was supported by the pioneers. The well-entrenched defenders were able to repel them and inflict heavy losses on the attackers. At the same time, the French were constantly able to repel enemy troops who were trying to come to the aid of the besieged as reinforcements.
French reinforcement
On November 8th, Colonel François Certain Canrobert reached the besiegers with two battalions of Zouaves . On November 12th, the last unit was the 8 e bataillon de chasseurs à pied (8th hunter battalion on foot), which brought the French troops to a total of 7,000 men.
However, the Zouaves brought cholera with them, which in the end caused great losses.
On November 24, the besieged, taking advantage of the changing of the guard, made a surprising sortie. The Berber warriors and their wives stormed into the trenches of the besiegers. The hunters, reinforced by the tirailleurs (riflemen) of Lieutenant-Colonel Bourbaki, rejected them bloody.
The decisive attack
On the night of November 25th to 26th, three breaches were made in the defensive wall and the trench in front was filled in. At 7:00 a.m., three attack columns, each three hundred men strong, started operating independently of one another. They were under the command of Colonels Canrobert, Barral and Lourmel. Commandant Bourbaki's tirailleurs simultaneously launched a diversionary attack elsewhere.
The attack itself was a complete slaughter, the narrow streets were crammed with hard-fighting defenders who could not prevent the French from taking house after house with heavy losses.
The subsequent massacre, carried out by the Armée d'Afrique, was intended to discourage future insurgents; it should not be an act of revenge. Regarding the atrocities that followed this attack, however, Alfred Nettement wrote:
“The tenacity of the defenders (von Zaatcha) had angered the Zouaves. Our victory was dishonored by criminal excesses. […] Nothing was sacred to them, not gender, not age. The blood, the smoke and the frenzy of battle led to these terrible violations of humanity - compassion and morality no longer existed. Children's heads were smashed against the walls, women were violated until death was a redemption for them. The military bulletins later insisted that this procedure, as well as the news of the destruction of Zaachta and the atrocities that had taken place there, which had spread rapidly across all the oases, had served its purpose. "
Balance sheet
The Sheikhs Bouzian, Moussa and Lahcène were captured by the Zouaves of the Commandant Lavarande. On the orders of Général Herbillon, they were executed and their heads displayed in Biskra . This was done to refute their alleged invulnerability and to take the motivation of the rebellion in this area away.
Just one day after the French victory, the first representatives of tribes appeared before Général Herbillon to submit.
The siege , which lasted 52 days, cost the Armée d'Afrique more than 2,000 men in losses, 600 of whom died of cholera.
All Zaatcha residents, men, women and children, were killed without exception.
literature
- Halim Cherfa, L'Héroïque Bataille de Zaatcha , El-Maraaf-Annaba 2007 ISBN 978-9947-0-1646-6 .
- P. Cart-Tanneur et T. Szecsko, Le Deuxième Étranger , BIP, 1986 ISBN 2-905393-02-5 .
- Site Internet de l'algériansite .
- Général Émile Herbillon , Insurrection survenue dans le sud de la province de Constantine en 1849: relation du siège de Zaatcha , Paris, J. Dumaine, 1863.
Footnotes
- ↑ Alfred François Nice Movement - French journalist and historian (* 21st August 1805 ; † 14. November 1869 )
- ↑ Histoire de la conquête de l'Algérie , op. cité, pp. 298-299.