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Revision as of 01:46, 28 June 2009 by Paramandyr (talk | contribs) (Rv unsubstantiated claim. You have a reference?)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Battle of Čegar | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of First Serbian uprising | |||||||
 Monument on Čegar, near Niš | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Serbian revolutionaries |
 Ottoman Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Stevan Sinđelić |
Hurshid Pasha | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ~3,000 troops | ~20.000 troops | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| most of the contingent | ~12.000 troops | ||||||
The Battle of Čegar was an engagement in the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
On May 31, 1809, the most prominent trench on Čegar Hill, under the command of Stevan Sinđelić, was attacked by the Ottoman troops. The battle lasted the whole day. As Milovan Kukic witnessed,
the Turks attacked five times, and the Serbs managed to repulse them five times. Each time their losses were great. Some of the Turks attacked, and some of them went ahead, and thus when they attacked for the sixth time they filled the trenches with their dead so that the alive went over their dead bodies and they began to fight against the Serbs with their rifles, cutting and sticking in their enemies with their sabers and knives. The Serbian soldiers from other trenches cried out to help Stevan. But there was no help, either because they could not help without their cavalry, or because Miloje Petrović did not allow it. When Stevan Sinđelić saw that the Turks had taken over the trench, he ran to the powder cave, took out his gun, and fired into the powder magazine. The explosion was so strong that all the surroundings were shaken, and the whole trench was caught in a cloud of dense smoke.
Three thousand Serbian insurgents, and more than double of that on the Turkish side were killed on Čegar Hill.
After the defeat of the Serbian rebel army, the Turkish commander of Niš, Hursid Pasha, ordered that the heads of the killed Serbians were to be mounted on a Skull Tower to serve as a warning to whoever opposed the Ottoman Empire. In all, 952 skulls were included, with the skull of Sinđelić placed at the top.
Notes
- Judah, Tim, The Serbs, (Yale University Press, 2000), 279.
- Judah, Tim, The Serbs, 279
See also
Categories: