Battle of Mišar

Battle of Mišar
Part of First Serbian uprising
Date 12–15 August 1806 Location Mišar, Serbia Result Decisive Serbian victory
Belligerents
Serbian revolutionaries	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Karađorđe Petrović Jakov Nenadovic	Sulejman Paşa Skopljak Mehmed-beg Kulenović † Sinan-paša Sijerčić †
Strength
8,000 serbian rebels	40,000 + several French artillery officers
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The Battle of Mišar took place from 12 to 15 August 1806, with a Serbian victory over the Ottomans. For months the Serbian insurgents remained entrenched in sconces on the field of Misar Hill as a pitched battle itself seemed suicidal from the Serbian standpoint since their army of 7,000-9,000 men stood against an Ottoman force some 40,000 strong.

The Turkish army made its way toward occupied Belgrade. Karadjordje Petrović came to Mišar, and made his plans with the rest of the Serbian commanders. During the following four days, from Saturday to Thursday, there were smaller clashes with Turkish scouts, but on the morning of Wednesday, the main event happened.

When Karadjordje arrived, he calculated the strategic position. He then made his decision, that the sconce should be on top of Mišar Hill, on the field on the hill, between the river Sava, the wood and the villages Zabar, Jelenča and Mišar. The sconce was placed in a north-south direction with cannons placed at two of its corners whe. The fortress was made from earth in shape of a square with the northern side a little curved from the middle up to the gun position. It had a palisade as protection, and it had trenches around it. It had four cannons, from which one was a redan and a place to put powder and ammunition.

The fighting began on Misar Hill, with an opening charge of the Turkish Sipahi cavalry followed by a charge of their infantry units led by the Bosniak kapetan Mehmed-beg Kulenović of Zvornik. The Serbian rebels made a sconce in the form of a square, which measured 300x280 m. The rebel leader Karadjordje remained in the fortifications to keep the morale of the men. The fortification had trenches around it. The plan consisted of Karadjordje remaining in the fortification, while the Serbian cavalry would wait for the moment to attack led by Luka Lazarevic and Milos Obrenovic. The Serbian sharpshooters were divided into two lines on the sconce parapet, and beside them were two lines of men who loaded the rifles in the trench beside the parapet. The shooters and gunners mowed down the first line of cavalry and panic struck the Turkish lines when the horsemen retreated into the infantry led by Mehmed-beg Kulenović of Zvornik. However, the Ottomans soon regrouped and engaged the Serbian infantry. At one point Serbian men struck panic and they all went on the middle of the sconce fortress, but Karadjordje took his sabre and ordered them to get back on their posts. Then he signaled for the charge of the Serbian cavalry from the opposite ends with two simultaneously cannon fire, to come, and defeated the Ottomans on the field.

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Wikipedia