Battle of Mazagran

Défense héroïque du capitaine Lelièvre à Mazagran
by Jean-Adolphe Beaucé

Date	Early February 1840
Location	Mazagran, near Mostaganem, French Algeria
Result	French victory

Belligerents

France

Algerian resistance

Commanders and leaders

Captain Hilaire Lelièvre
Lieutenant Colonel Dubarrail

Ben Khami

Strength

123 Light Infantrymen

20,000

Casualties and losses

3 killed, 16 wounded (garrison)
23 killed (relief)

500 to 600

The Battle of Mazagran was a combat between Arab and Berber forces against French troops during the French conquest of Algeria. The small French contingent, holed up in a fortification at Mazagran, near the port city of Mostaganem, withstood several days of assault by `Abd al-Qādir's troops. Unaware that the French defenders were running short of gunpowder, Abdal-Qādir's troops withdrew after several days of ineffectual activity.

While the standoff was a relatively minor affair, the French press touted the event as a great success. Captain Lelièvre was rewarded for his success, and a medal was struck commemorating the action. The battle of Mazagran became the anniversary of the Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa, a French penal military unit.

In 1839, the French conquest of Algeria, which had begun in 1830, entered a new phase when `Abd al-Qādir renewed the struggle after French troops violated his interpretation of the 1837 Treaty of Tafna.

Lieutenant Colonel Dubuessil, the commander of the French garrison at Mostaganem, ordered Captain Lelièvre and 122 men from the 10th Company of the Battalion of Africa to occupy a small fort in the town of Mazagran. They arrived at the fort on 1 February, which was fortified with a single 4-pound gun, one barrel of gunpowder, and between 30,000 and 40,000 cartridges of ammunition.

According to some sources, Algerian resistance forces under the command of Ben Khami (one of Abdal-Qādir's lieutenants) began arriving and surrounding the fort as early as the evening of 1 February, with actual organized assault beginning either then or the next day. Other sources place the arrival of these forces on 2 February, with attack commencing the next day. The duration of the battle is reported to be either three or four days.

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Wikipedia