Timeline of Historical Events

This is designed to be a brief overview of world events that people in 1811 would be aware of. I have done my best to include as much as possible, but naturally things have probably slipped through the cracks. Just remember: The world has been at war for the majority of the period 1793-1811; characters in their twenties won't know any different.

This remains a work in progress.

By Sharpie

American War of Independence

Key Battles:

• 28th June, 1776: Battle of Sullivan's Island
• 27th August 1776: Battle of Long Island
• 16th September 1776: Battle of Harlem Heights
• 16th November 1776: Battle of Fort Washington
• 11th September 1777: Battle of Brandywine Creek
• September 19 and October 7, 1777: Battles of Saratoga
• 4th October 1777: Battle of Germantown
• 5th-8th December 1777: Battle of Edge Hill
• 28th June 1778: Battle of Monmouth
• 29th March - 12th May 1780: siege of Charleston
• 16th August 1780: Battle of Camden
• September 29 – October 19, 1781: Battle or Siege of Yorktown
• 16th Jan, 1780: The Moonlight Battle (off Cape St. Vincent) (Naval)
• 12th April 1782: The Battle of the Saintes (Naval)

French Revolution

• 14th July 1789: A mob storms the Bastille, marking the beginning of the French Revolution
• 21st January 1793: Execution of Louis XVI
• 16th October 1793: Execution of Marie Antoinette
• c. September 1792-July 1794: 'Reign of Terror'

29 August – 19 December 1793: Siege of Toulon - Revolutionary forces besieged the city of Toulon, where a large number of Royalists had fled

French Revolutionary War 1793 to 1802

1793: Britain, as part of the First Coalition, declares war on Revolutionary France

• Flanders Campaign 1792-1795
  • Battle of Boxtel 1793 (Army; Wellington was later quoted as saying of this campaign that I learned what not to do and that is always something.)

Naval battles and actions include:

• Battle of the Glorious First of June (Naval; fleet battle) 1793
• Tenerife 1794 (Land attack; Nelson loses his arm)
• Battle of the Nile 1797 (Naval; fleet battle)
• Battle of Copenhagen 1801 (Naval; fleet battle)

The British were, and are, an island nation, whose wealth depended on their sailing skills. When the British fought a battle at sea, they gained experience, while the French correspondingly found that their men were taken prisoner and their ships seized, and so they could not learn from their own experiences, for the men who had fought their battles ended up dead or in prison in England.

British Campaigns in India

During the 1790s, the East India Company sought to consolidate and expand its holdings in India during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (!798-1799) and Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803-1805), in which it was supported by regular Army troops. Actions included:

• Battle of Malavelly (1799)
• Siege of Seringapatam 1799
• Assaye September 1803
• Storming of Gawilghur 1803

Beginning of Napoleon's Campaigns

14th June 1803: Battle of Marengo 1803, in Italy: Napoleon defeats an Austrian army in Northern Italy

Egypt campaign - the British sent troops to Egypt in an attempt to dissuade Napoleon from reaching India overland

• 21st March 1801: Battle of Alexandria (Army)

Peace of Amiens

25 March 1802: The Peace of Amiens was declared, leading to a cessation of outright hostility. The British immediately began to downsize her military forces where the French used the time to consolidate and train their army.

May 1803: Britain declares war on Napoleonic France, and institutes a naval blockade of French ports, which blockade was maintained until 1814 and the cessation of hostilities. Napoleon responds with an embargo on British trade in an attempt to cripple Britain financially. This was the Continental System (of which I have written more elsewhere).

Planned Invasion of England

1803-1805: Napoleon encamps at Boulogne with the 'Armee d'Angleterre' waiting for a chance to invade Britain.

• 1804: Britain begins construction of a chain of 'Martello towers' around the southern coast in response to this threat, and also mobilises regular and militia troops in order to repel any invasion.

26th May 1805: Napoleon, previously First Consul, crowns himself and Josephine as Emperor and Empress of France

21st October 1805: Battle of Trafalgar: A Naval fleet under the command of Horatio Nelson defeats the combined French and Spanish fleets off the coast of Spain after a three months' chase around the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic and back. This ended Napoleon's hopes of conquering Britain, as the Combined Fleet had been planned to protect his troops as they crossed the English Channel.

2nd December 1805: Battle of Austerlitz : Land battle; Napoleon marches the 'Armee d'Angleterre' away from the coast and employs it to defeat Austria and Russia

6th February 1806: Battle of San Domingo. A Royal Navy fleet under the command of Sir John Duckworth defeats a French fleet in the last great fleet action of the Napoleonic Wars.

14th October 1806: Jena-Auerstadt: France defeats Prussia and Napoleon enters Berlin

1807: Eylau: France wins a pyrrhic victory over the Russians.

1807: Friedland: France crushes a Russian army.

1809: Wagram: Napoleon defeats Austria, which becomes an ally of France.

1807: Napoleon invades Spain and tries to invade Portugal to implement the Continental System there.

1808: Spain rebel against French control on the 2nd May.

1808: Britain is asked to help Portugal against France and sends a small force, initially under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley. This marks the beginning of the Peninsular War, which lasted until 1814.

• 17th August 1808: Battle of Roliça
• 21st August 1808: Battle of Vimeiro, during which Wellesley was superseded by first Sir Harry Burrard and then Sir Hew Dalrymple, who did not allow him to pursue the defeated French army.
• 30th August 1808: Dalrymple, Burrard and Wellesley signed the Convention of Cintra (the latter only signed under protest) which allowed the French to sail home, in English ship, with their plunder. The three British signatories were recalled to face an inquiry, which lasted from November 14 to December 27, 1808. All three were cleared, but Dalrymple and Burrard were never again employed on active service. Their recall led to Sir John Moore's being sent to take command of the British Army in Spain.
• 21st December 1808: Battle of Sahagun, during the retreat to Corunna – raid on French picquets by British cavalry
• 29th December 1808: Battle of Benevente, during the retreat to Corunna – cavalry clash between British and French troops
• 3rd January 1809: Battle of Cacabelos: Minor skirmish between French troops and the British rearguard. The French general, Colbert, was killed at long distance by Thomas Plunket of the 95th Rifles.
• 16th January 1809: Battle of Corunna. Delaying battle fought between the British and the French under Marshal Soult. Moore had marched as far as Madrid before learning that Napoleon had arrived in Spain himself, and elected to preserve his army at all costs, retreating through northern Spain to the ports of Vigo and Corunna. At Corunna, he fought a defensive action to give his army time to board the Naval ships waiting for them. Moore was killed during the fighting.
• 12th May 1809: Battle of Oporto (also known as the Battle of the Douro): Wellesley, havign returned to Portugal, marched north from Lisbon, and crossed the River Douro uncontested, before taking the town of Oporto on the north bank.
• 27th - 28th July 1809: Battle of Talavera. British-Spanish victory over French forces under Marshal Jourdain and Joseph Bonaparte. Despite this battle being a British victory, Wellesley had to retreat back to Portugal due to shortage of supplies.
• November 1809 – September 1810: The Lines of Torres Vedras were constructed in secrecy, to protect Lisbon and provide a secure foothold on the Lisbon Peninsula where the British could regroup. The British adopted a scorched earth policy during their retreat behind the Lines, negating the French practice of living off the land.
• 27th September 1810: Battle of Bussaco. British victory over French forces under the command of Marshal Massena. Massena eventually withdrew from his positions in front of the Lines in spring 1811.
• 5th March 1811: Battle of Barossa: Unsuccessful attempt to break the French siege of Cadiz. A British division under Sir Thomas Graham defeated two French divisions under Marshal Victor, and captured a French Eagle (a regimental standard), marking the first time a French Eagle had been taken by British troops.
• 3rd - 5th May 1811: Battle of Fuentes de Onoro. A British victory over the Armee du Portugal, led by Marshal Massena, preventing the French from relieving the garrison at Almeida, which was under siege by the British.
• 16th May 1811: Battle of Albuera. A nominal victory by British troops under General Beresford, and their Spanish allies under General Blake, against French troops led by Soult and Girard. Fought in appalling weather, British muskets could not fire and the British commander failed to make use of the 'reverse slope' tactic employed by Wellesley (now Viscount Wellington of Talavera). This was compounded by the French use of lancers – cavalry soldiers armed with a 12-foot long lance rather than the more usual sword or sabre, who could pick off individual soldiers in square. News of this battle did not reach England until the end of May, so cannot yet be referenced in LL.

Walcheren Campaign

30th July-9th December 1809: The Walcheren Campaign was a second attempt by Britain to aid Austria and engage France on a second front. It failed due to poor resources, despite the force sent being larger than that engaged in the Peninsular War (40, 000 men and 15, 000 horses compared to the 20,000 men that Wellesley had at the Battle of Oporto in March of the same year.) Men who had been involved in this campaign were struck down with 'Walcheren fever' (probably malaria) and numbers of them were rendered unfit to serve - Rifleman Harris was one who had survived the retreat to Corunna but was brought low by Walcheren fever and never regained his full strength, ending up in an invalid battalion, and was assessed for a pension as a veteran at some point before he turned 33 13th March 1811: Battle of Lissa. A Naval engagement in the Adriatic between a British frigate squadron and a larger combined French and Italian force. British victory.

Further Reading

Most of these events, campaigns and battles have their own pages on Wikipedia, which is a good starting point for those wishing to delve deeper. For those who prefer books, Osprey have published books on the majority of the individual battles of the period, which include colour maps and charts of the various battlefields as well as clear and detailed description of the action as it unfolded.

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