Battle of Čegar

Battle of Čegar
Part of First Serbian uprising
Sinđelić blowing up the powder kegs at the Čegar hill.
Date 31 May 1809 Location Čegar, Sanjak of Niš (now Serbia) Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Serbian revolutionaries	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Miloje Petrović Petar Dobrnjac Stevan Sinđelić† Ilija Barjaktarević Paulj Matejić Veljko Petrović	Hurshid Pasha Ismail Bey Mustafa Pasha Mahmut Pasha Ahmet Pasha Karafeiza Pasha Shashim Pasha Malic Pasha
Strength
~ 8,000–10,000	~ 20,000
Casualties and losses
1,000–3,000	Unknown

The Battle of Čegar (Serbian: Битка на Чегру/Bitka na Čegru), also known as the Battle of Kamenica (Бој на Каменици/Boj na Kamenici) was a battle of the First Serbian Uprising between the Serbian Revolutionaries and Ottoman forces near the Niš Fortress on 31 May 1809. Fought on the Čegar hill situated between the villages of Donji Matejevac and Kamenica near Niš in what is today southeastern Serbia, it ended in an Ottoman victory. Commander Stevan Sinđelić famously blew up the gunpowder magazine when the Ottomans overtook his trench, killing every one in it. Skulls of dead Serb rebels were embedded into the Skull Tower.

On April 15, 1809, the 10,000 Serbian rebels approached the villages of Kamenica, Donji and Gornji Matejevac, near the Fortress of Niš with Miloje Petrović as Commander-in-chief. They made six trenches. The first and the biggest one was on Čegar Hill in charge of vojvoda Stevan Sinđelić. The second one was in the village Gornji Matejevac with Petar Dobrnjac as the commander. The third trench was north-east to Kamenica with vojvoda Ilija Barjaktarević. The fourth trench was in Kamenica with Miloje Petrović as the chief commander. The fifth trench was in the mountain above Kamenica and under the control of vojvoda Paulj Matejić while the sixth one was in Donji Matejevac. The Ottoman commander of the fortress was Hurshid Pasha who had 8,000 troops in the fort and the surrounding area. The Serbs then launched several attacks against the Niš Fortress, but they could not take the fort due to lack of heavy artillery. In such circumstances, their strategy was to force Hursid Pasha to surrender with the long siege. But Hurshid had different tactics; after every Serbian attack, he was offered negotiations and this way he bought time while fresh troops arrived.

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