galway.—ireland.—in 1690, galway declared for king james, but it was invested and taken by general ginckel, immediately after the memorable battle of aughrim, july 12th, 1691.
general.—this rank has been given to commanders from very remote antiquity. in the french army, montmorency was the first officer who was so called, in 1203. cardinal richelieu was the first who took the title generalissimo, having coined the word when he assumed supreme command of the french armies in italy, in 1629.
genoa.—bombarded by the french, in 1684, and by the british, in 1688 and 1745. taken by the imperialists, december 8th, 1746. sustained a siege from the british fleet and austrian army, when it capitulated, may, 1800. surrendered to the french, after the battle of marengo. next surrendered to the combined english and sicilian armies, april 8th, 1814, but was transferred to the kingdom of sardinia, in 1826. the city seized by insurgents, who, after a murderous struggle, drove out the garrison, and proclaimed a republic, april, 1850, but in the end the insurgents surrendered to general marmora.
germanic confederation.—when napoleon determined that the german or holy roman empire should no longer exist, but that a confederation of states should be in its stead, the proposal was adopted by the allied sovereigns, in 1815, which has continued ever since.
gettysburg.—united states.—this battle was fought between the confederates of the southern states, and the northern army. general lee was defeated by the united states’ troops. this battle immediately followed the surrender of vicksburg to general grant. fought on the 4th july, 1863.
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ghent.—taken by the duke of marlborough, in 1706. several times taken and retaken during the napoleon wars. the peace of ghent, between great britain and america, signed here, december 24th, 1814.
ghiznee, battle of.—the british, under sir john keane, attacked this place, and having blown up the gates, forced their way into the city, and succeeded in fixing the british colors on the towers, july 23rd, 1839. ghiznee capitulated to the affghans, march 1st, 1842. the following account gives the items of general nott’s entering it, september 7th, 1842:
“ghiznee is situated on the base of a hill, which supports its rear or main post, and commands a most extensive plain, and it is in the midst of a rich, fertile country; it has ever held the most noble rank as a capital, and is capable of being rendered one of the most important fortifications in the eastern nations; its adjacent hills are great, and border on dora and bameean; it covers the routes of the latter, as well as loghar and cabool; near the low hills which command the city, are several cemeteries, and ancient buildings; at a short distance is rozah, in which stands the great sepulchre, and shrine of mahmood, the once famed emperor of ghiznee; and of whom “dow” speaks so much in his history of hindostan.
the fortress in itself is of great importance; the town is walled round, and contains several thousand houses; the former principally of stone, and the latter of mud. it is surrounded by a deep trench; the main entrance, being the one blown up by sir john keane, is in ruins, and another was made to the right. in the centre of the town stands the citadel, which had three tiers; the lower one had been much improved since we possessed it, and a parade ground, or large square, had been formed, as a park for the ordnance. a river ran close by, which afforded good water, and rendered it almost complete. all remained quiet, till within a short distance from them, fortunately for us, as it enabled us to get up our baggage, and cattle; close to the rear of the column the road was very difficult, being over extensive fields of long grass, and the ditches very numerous and wide, in crossing which the cattle were continually falling, which greatly delayed us. general nott directed the light battalion to proceed with the quarter master general, to take up an encampment opposite to ghiznee, at a place some two and a half miles from the fortress, known as sir john keane’s garden. i accompanied this body, and as we proceeded, we discovered the enemy in the citadel,[147] and a great number outside, preparing to advance. the quarter master general ordered a portion of his force to man a small hill, which commanded their approach, and left it in charge of captain adamson, of the 40th. the general dispatched, in another direction, the 16th native infantry, under colonel mclaren, who were met by the enemy, and a smart action took place; fortunately, however, after having rallied for some time, the corps managed to get under cover, in a walled garden, about a mile from the fort, and kept them off in fine style; the colonel, finding the enemy so numerous, feared a serious result, as the chances were, the general could not send him a re-inforcement before the whole of his ammunition would be expended, and a soldier without ammunition is not in the most enviable situation. the quarter master general’s party was attacked, but effected a complete mastery over them, and drove them back. the general, perceiving the situation of mclaren, dispatched the 3rd regiment light cavalry, and two of anderson’s guns, who got up just in time to save them, as they were getting short of shot; at length came up the general with the main body; the cavalry made a grand charge after those outside the town, and we lost a great number of our men, but not before leaving a greater number of the enemy lying on the field; during all this time those in possession of the citadel were not idle, but made some excellent play with their guns from the square i named, as being situated on the lower part of the citadel; but fortunately for us their knowledge of the art of gunnery was so shallow that they did little or no damage with their guns. one of the hills mentioned as adjacent to the fortress, was called balloon hill, from its peculiar form, and difficulty of ascent; this hill was literally crowded with rebels, and their colours were planted in every direction; they now began to emerge from the gates in great numbers, and finding, after the charge of the cavalry, that they had no chance of overpowering the front, shooms-ood-dien dispatched a large force round, to attack the rear of our columns. the general had, however, taken the necessary precaution, and reinforced the rear guard to 3000 men, with six guns, including the heavy battery. perceiving the object the enemy had in view, he let fly a volley of grape to meet them, which had the desired effect, and left numbers of them dead on the ground, and the rest immediately made off; the next thing to be done was to got possession of balloon hill. this hill was so situated that it commanded all around it, and more particularly the square in the citadel, as it immediately covered it. the general directed the 40th and 16th to proceed at once and take the hill.[148] the order was in itself easily given; my readers may imagine the position.
the guns from the citadel were in full play, the hill was in possession of, and covered by several hundreds of the enemy, both horse and foot; the ascent was considerable, and we were nearly two miles from it. however, it is not for britons to look at difficulties in such a moment, for had we done so we should never have accomplished it; we set forward, and those in the fortress seeing our advance, opened a heavy fire upon us, which, providence be thanked, showed us that they could not hit their mark, and we reached the foot of the hill with little loss. those in possession leapt for joy, at the apparent opportunity of cutting us off. we commenced the ascent, throwing out skirmishers in every direction; our fire was kept up steadily as on a parade, and every ball seemed to find its desired billet; numbers fell, of course, but not near so many as we had been anticipating. we were obliged to halt half way to gain breath, and necessitated to keep up a heavy fire; we again advanced, and the enemy began to show symptoms of retiring, which greatly encouraged us, and we made a desperate effort, and sent a volley into them, charged, and at length they retired; we followed, and at last gained the summit. they rushed down the other side, and made off in the direction of candahar, where they were met by a brigade sent round by the general for that purpose.
having gained possession of the hill, those in the citadel began to pour the fire of artillery into us, but as usual without success, and in order to get out of sight we were ordered to lie down, that they might imagine we had evacuated our position; as we lay there, the balls were fast whistling over us, and the force under the command of the general was making a clean sweep of all those outside the walls, which, after he had effected, next repaired to the citadel. it was, however, found impracticable to storm the fortress that day; first, because the sappers and miners would not have time to complete their operations; and secondly, in consequence of the fatigued state of the troops. the 16th was to be left in charge of the hill, and the 40th were ordered to return to the encampment; this order was, if anything, even worse than the first, because all being comparatively quiet, we should, on retiring, be the only targets for them to fire at, and our utter destruction seemed inevitable; we, however, had to obey, and as was expected, no sooner did we come under cover of their guns than they opened a severe fire from all their pieces, but their firing was always either too far, or too short; and thus we reached camp in almost safety.
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the followers had been all employed in pitching the tents, and the cooks (natives) had prepared our scanty meal; the 16th were left in possession of the hill; and the general ordered two guns, either under captain blood or anderson, to proceed to the top of the hill, and dislodge them in the citadel, which, after some difficulty, was effected, and most ably did they accomplish their duty; they soon put a stop to them, and by their superior arrangement and management of artillery, disabled nearly all their guns. we had scarcely got well seated in our tents when we were suddenly surprised by the whizzing of a ball over the camp, which lodged in the officer’s mess tent of the 41st; after that came another and another, and they kept up a fine string of them, aiming most admirably. we soon discovered that they had a sixty-eight pounder, which before had remained quiet.
those shots coming so fast, and lodging just in our midst, doing considerable damage, although we were nearly two miles from it, compelled the general to shift camp a mile further off, and we were at last out of the reach of the bull-dog; they most certainly in this distance did put us to the rout. this piece was called “chuppa jung,” of persian manufacture, and as is usual in all the forts of importance in asia, was placed in the citadel; and a most powerful piece it was.
the general now began to arrange his plans for storming and taking the fortress; the engineers were all busily employed in preparing for the operation; and as the day began to draw to a close, orders were issued for the troops to be in readiness to move just before daylight on the morrow. the night at length came on, and lights were ordered to be extinguished at eight p.m.; and at that hour all was darkness, and enveloped upwards of 20,000 souls.
all was at length prepared for the attack, and about half an hour before the day broke, the word was passed from tent to tent, to form up. each rose in sadness, and many shook the hand of his comrade as for the last time; the cattle were dispatched with the powder, to ensure the explosion, and platforms had been carefully planted for the heavy battery to commence a breach. the troops were slowly and silently advanced, and arranged ready to storm immediately after the gates were blown up; and daybreak was to be the signal. at length the day dawned, and lo! what was our surprise when we saw floating on the highest tower the english colors. the sight relieved each heart as though we had a fortune. the enemy had during the night evacuated the citadel, having received certain orders to that effect from caboul. colonel mclaren,[150] who had kept the hill, finding they had left it, took immediate possession, and placed “the flag that braved a thousand years” on the highest point. thus did providence prevent the inevitable loss of some hundreds of our force, and never was a force more agreeably surprised than those at ghiznee, on the 6th of september, 1842.”
gibraltar.—a british fortress on the straits of the same name. from the circumstance of its immense strength and impregnability, other great fortresses have also received its name, as quebec, which is called the gibraltar of america. the height of the wall is 1437 feet. taken by the saracens, in 712. in 1462, the king of castile took the fortress and town from the moors; and the english, under sir george brooke, the prince of hesse-denmark, sir john leake, and admiral byng, bravely won it, july 24th, 1704. it was surrendered, after a dreadful cannonade, to the british by the governor, the marquis de salines, and has ever since continued one of the most brilliant gems in the coronet of england’s queen. long may she reign to wear it. the following are the different attacks which have been made upon it since the british took it. on the 11th october, 1704, the same year it was captured by the british, it sustained a siege from the spaniards and french, who lost 10,000 whilst the british loss was only 400. again the spaniards attacked it in 1720, but were repulsed with great loss. in 1728, they again attacked it but were driven back with the loss of 5000 out of 20,000, while the english lost 300. after this came the memorable siege of the spaniards and french, whose prodigious armaments astonished the whole of europe. they were the most stupendous up to that time ever brought before any city or fortress. the siege continued from july, 1770, to february, 1783. the allied army amounted to 40,000 men. the duke of crillon had 12,000 of the best troops of france, 1000 pieces of artillery were brought to bear against the fortress, besides which there were forty-seven sail of the line all three-deckers, ten great floating batteries esteemed invincible, carrying 212 guns, an immense number of frigates, xebeques, bomb-ketches, cutters, and gun and mortar boats; while small craft literally covered the bay. for weeks and weeks together 6000 shells were daily thrown into the town, and, on one single occasion, 8000 barrels of gunpowder were expended by the enemy, yet in one single night were all these immense batteries destroyed by red-hot cannon balls, and their whole line of works annihilated by a sortie of the garrison, commanded by general elliot, november 27th, 1781. the loss of the enemy in this memorable night alone, amounted to upwards of ￡2,000,000 sterling.[151] the grand defeat by the garrison of only 7000 british, occurred september 13th, 1782. since then the british have remained in peaceful possession.
gisors, battle of.—in france.—fought between the armies of france and england, in which the former were signally defeated by richard i, who commanding in person, and whose parole for the day was “dieu et mon droit,” and from this it was made the motto of the royal arms of england, a.d. 1193.
glencoe, massacre of.—the mcdonalds of glencoe, were cruelly massacred, may 9th, 1691, merely for not surrendering in time after king william’s proclamation perpetrated by the earl of argyle’s regiment. 38 men besides women and children perished.
goojerat, battle of.—india.—fought february 21st, 1849. lord gough with 21,000 men and 100 guns attacked the enemy, numbering 60,000 men, with 59 guns. the sikh chief was strongly posted between two river courses which protected his flanks, and yet allowed him good man?uvring space to retire either on the east or west side of the town of goojerat, which afforded shelter and protection to his rear. the battle began at 7 a.m. after a severe engagement of nine hours, at 4 p.m. the enemy had been driven from every post and was in general retreat, which the field artillery and cavalry converted into a rout and flight. they were pursued for 15 miles, and next day another fresh force took up the direct pursuit. some of the guns and the whole of the ammunition and camp equipage fell into the hands of the british. the chief, shere-singh, escaped with only 8000 men out of 60,000. the loss on the side of the british was 100 killed and 900 wounded.
goree.—taken by the english admiral holmes, in 1693—ceded to france 1678. again taken by the british, 1758—1779—1800—and 1804.
gorey, battle of.—fought june 4th, 1798, between the king’s troops and the irish rebels, in which, after a desperate battle, the king’s forces were routed with great slaughter. they lost several pieces of artillery, and retreated to gorey and afterwards to arklow.
gorget.—an ancient breastplate. it was of great size, and gave rise to the modern diminutive breastplate which was in existence at the restoration. it is now disused.
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grampian hills, battle of the.—this was a celebrated engagement between the scots and picts—the former under galgacus, and the latter under agricola. fought a.d. 79.
grand alliance.—signed at vienna between england and the states general—to which spain and the duke of savoy afterwards acceded, may 12th, 1689.
granicus, battle of.—alexander the great fought and won this battle against the persians—b.c. 334. the macedonian troops crossed the granicus in the face of the persian army, and totally defeated them. alexander’s army was only 30,000 foot and 5000 horse and the persian 600,000 foot, and 60,000 horse.
grenades.—a kind of bombshell invented in 1594. it is a small hollow globe or ball of iron, two inches diameter, and filled with fine powder and set on fire by a fusee at a touch-hole. the grenadiers were those soldiers who were armed with a pouch of hand grenades—established in france in 1667—and england in 1685. the latter word is applied now, according to gay, to the tall soldiers—of which there is generally a company in every regiment.
grochow, battle of.—near praga, warsaw.—fought february 20th, 1831, between the poles and russians. after a bloody battle, which continued all day and almost all the next, the poles remained masters of the field. the russians retreated, having lost 70,000 men, and the poles, 2000.
guadaloupe.—taken by the english, in 1759, and restored 1763. again taken in 1779, 1794, and 1810. at last, restored to france at the peace of 1814.
guards.—the custom of having guards was introduced by saul, king of israel, b.c. 1093. bodyguards instituted by henry vii, 1485. horse guards by edward vi, 1550. the three regiments of the british service, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd foot guards, were raised in 1660, and the command of them given to colonel russell, general monk, and lord linlithgow. the second, or the coldstream, was the first raised. the horse grenadier guards, first troop raised 1693, and second in 1702.
gunpowder.—invented by a monk of cologne, 1320. it has entirely revolutionized the art of war; consists of three ingredients, viz., charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre.
