Читать книгу The Battles of the World or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events онлайн

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ADMIRAL.—This, the highest title in the navy, does not appear to have been adopted till about 1300. This title was first given in England to William de Leybourne, by Edward I, in 1297. The first Lord High Admiral of England was created by Richard II in 1388. It is an office which has seldom been trusted to single hands. Prince George of Denmark, consort to Queen Anne, was Lord High Admiral in her reign. Since that time (1708) the duties were uninterruptedly executed by Lords Commissioners until 1827, when the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV, was appointed. He resigned August 12th, 1828, and the office has ever since been vested in the Lords of the Admiralty.

AEGOS POTAMOS.—This place is famous for the victory of Lysander over the Athenian fleet, on the 13th December, B.C. 405, in the last year of the Peloponnesian war. All the triremes of the Athenians, 180 in number, were either lost or captured, without the loss of a single ship on the side of Lysander.

AFGHAN WAR.—A fierce rebellion broke out on November 2nd, 1842, at Cabul; Burnes and Macnaughten, the British ministers, with other civil and military officers, were successively murdered, and the whole country rose in arms under the treacherous Akbar Khan, the son of the deposed king, Dost Mohammed, who determined on the massacre of the whole British force. Pusillanimity and indecision in the councils of the general-in-chief, led to an immediate evacuation of the country. 4,500 fighting men, together with about 12,000 camp followers, besides women and children, set forward, through ice and snow, on their lamentable retreat; and no sooner had they cleared out of their cantonments, than the blood-thirsty Afghans began to plunder the baggage, and fire upon the soldiery; they continued without ceasing their revengeful assaults upon the bewildered and desponding multitude, till there was nothing left to plunder, and none left to kill. Out of a host of about 26,000 human beings, only a few hundreds were rescued from death by captivity. The ladies and the wounded had been given up to the enemy early in the march, and Dr. Brydon was the only officer who made good his retreat. In the following year, however, on the appointment of Lord Ellenborough to the governor-generalship of India in the place of Lord Auckland, the British national character was repaired, the honour of their arms retrieved, and the unfortunate prisoners rescued. General Pollock was despatched into Afghanistan with an invading army; he advanced on Cabul with all possible rapidity; while, on the other side, General Nott, who had held out at Candahar during the recent difficulties, brought his forces also to bear on the capital. Victory everywhere attended the British arms; and the British officers and ladies, who had been taken prisoners, were also rescued, at Bameean, on the road to Turkistan. These disgraces having been so gloriously redeemed, it was determined to evacuate a country which ought never to have been entered; the fortifications and other works of Cabul having been destroyed, the British troops set forward, on their return home, and, after a march of about ten weeks, arrived safely on the banks of the Sutlej, December 17th, 1842.