{{Short description|Battle in the French conquest of Algeria}} {{About|Issers||Issers (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = First Battle of the Issers | width = | partof = the French conquest of Algeria | image = Oued Isser واد يسر - panoramio.jpg | image_size = 300px | alt = | caption = River mouth of Oued Issers | date = 27–30 May 1837 | place = Issers, Kabylia, {{flagcountry|Algeria}} | coordinates = {{coord|36.7367021|N|3.665407|E|source:wikidata|display=inline}} | map_type = | map_relief = | map_size = | map_marksize = | map_caption = | map_label = | result = French victory | status = | combatants_header = | combatant1 = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Emirate of Mascara.svg}} Emirate of Mascara *{{flagicon|LBY|1977}} Islamic Zawiyas *{{flagicon image|Fujimori flag.svg}} Rahmaniyya | combatant2 = {{flagcountry|July Monarchy}} | commander1 = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Emirate of Mascara.svg}} Emir Abdelkader<br>{{flagicon|LBY|1977}} Cheikh Ali Boushaki<br>{{flagicon|LBY|1977}} Cheikh Ben Zamoum | commander2 = {{flagicon|FRA|1794}} Damrémont<br>{{flagicon|FRA|1794}} Schauenburg<br>{{flagicon|FRA|1794}} Perrégaux<br>{{flagicon|FRA|1794}} La Torré<br>{{flagicon|FRA|1794}} Lixières | units1 = | units2 = | strength1 = Kabyles: * 4,000 warriors * 500 riders | strength2 = Troupes coloniales: * 5,000 infantrymen * 600 riders | casualties1 = | casualties2 = | notes = | campaignbox = }} The '''First Battle of the Issers''' in May 1837, during the French conquest of Algeria, pitted the troupes coloniales under General Perrégaux and Colonel Schauenburg against the troops of Kabylia of the ''Igawawen''.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xbOfvDvN-wkC&pg=PA207|title = Revue africaine0|year = 1876|access-date = 2021-04-23|archive-date = 2024-05-21|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240521152051/https://books.google.com/books?id=xbOfvDvN-wkC&pg=PA207#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m80OAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA175|title=Revue africaine|last1=Algérienne|first1=Société Historique|year=1875|access-date=2021-04-23|archive-date=2024-05-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521152154/https://books.google.com/books?id=m80OAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA175#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Background== [[File:Colonel Maximilien Joseph Schauenburg 4 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Maximilien Joseph Schauenburg]] {{Main|First Raid on Reghaïa}} {{See also|Expedition of the Col des Beni Aïcha|First Battle of Boudouaou}} The ceasefire situation which presided between the Kabylia and the French colonial power in Algiers after the invasion of the troupes coloniales in 1830 suddenly changed when the Kabyle marabouts of the Rahmaniyya Sufi brotherhood rallied to Emir Abdelkader in early 1837.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=i6EYt3B5nTcC&pg=PA107|title = Les zouaves: Le corps des zouaves, le régiment des zouaves, 1830-1852. 2 tom|last1 = Cangloff|first1 = Gaston|year = 1893|access-date = 2021-04-23|archive-date = 2024-05-21|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240521152152/https://books.google.com/books?id=i6EYt3B5nTcC&pg=PA107#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status = live}}</ref>
This is how the Emirate of Abdelkader spread to the eastern suburbs of the Casbah of Algiers and the appointment of Emir Mustapha, younger brother of Emir Abdelkader, as Bey of Titteri encouraged Algerians to plan to attack the new French colonies which extended in Mitidja after the successive massacres which occurred after the massacre of El Ouffia in 1832 and accelerated the spoliation and the sequestration of the lands and properties of the Algerians.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m80OAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA176|title=Revue africaine|last1=Algérienne|first1=Société Historique|year=1875|access-date=2021-04-23|archive-date=2024-05-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521152153/https://books.google.com/books?id=m80OAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA176#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>
The Kabyle response was not long in coming when the massacre in the Réghaïa region allowed the French to appropriate thousands of hectares of arable land which they distributed on agricultural concessionaires for the establishment of pilot farms, like the two settlers Mercier and Saussine who benefited from 3000 hectares of land for the creation of their farm.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jIIPAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA458|title = L'Ami de la religion|year = 1837}}</ref>
The Emir Mustapha called on the Kabyle marabouts to attack this large farm by carrying out a raid on Reghaïa on 8 May 1837 and to sack the colonial establishment after its plunder.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3h5_FoC3YRUC&pg=PA49|title = La légion étrangère de 1831 à 1887: Avec un plan|last1 = Grisot|first1 = Paul Adolphe|year = 1888}}</ref>
A disconcerting panic fell on the governor of Algiers, General Damrémont, who decided to punish the Kabyles who contracted a "sacrosanct alliance" with Emir Abdelkader, and he hastened to order the General Perrégaux and Colonel Schauenburg to organize a punitive expedition against the Kabyles of the Khachna Massif, from the Issers valley to the Dellys region.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHVbO_AJDGkC&pg=PA281|title = Campagnes de l'armée d'Afrique, 1835-1839|last1 = Orléans|first1 = Ferdinand-Philippe d'|year = 1870}}</ref>
The military column which was going to chastise the Kabyles began its journey in the evening of 17 May 1837 from the Boudouaou valley towards the Col des Beni Aïcha, but bad weather thwarted this revengeful company, and the few scuffles between the Algerians and the French quickly stopped this first game by summoning the colonial infantry and cavalry to fall back on the bank of Oued Boudouaou on 19 May.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xMXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA95|title = Revue des deux mondes|year = 1887}}</ref>
But this French withdrawal to the Boudouaou camp to build a starting point for the future pacification of Kabylia was not long in raising the reluctance of the marabouts who organized an attack and a miraculous and unexpected counter-offensive on the 25 May on this camp commanded by Captain La Torré who then responded vigorously against the rebels while waiting for reinforcements arriving from Algiers to support him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ruw7-IcbkJYC&pg=PA179|title = Annales algériennes|last1 = Pellissier De Reynaud|first1 = E.|year = 1854}}</ref>
==Battle of the Issers== [[File:Bordj Ménaiel.jpg|thumb|Dreuh Mountain in Ouled Aïssa]] {{Main|Chasseurs d'Afrique}} {{See also|French Foreign Legion}} After the First Battle of Boudouaou turned in favor of the French because of the advantage of artillery, General Damrémont decided to organize from Algiers a massive offensive dated 26 May 1837 against the Kabyle tribes of Beni Aïcha, Issers, Amraoua and Flissa who had challenged the French colonial power.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YPEHAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA94|title = La revue des deux mondes|year = 1887}}</ref>
The battalion of the French Foreign Legion then detached four of its companies which were sent to reinforce the military column of General Perrégaux who was going to move towards the plain beyond the course of the Oued Isser to punish the villagers who had landed in the Mitidja to carry out raids in the villages (douars) subservient to the French.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umBKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA220|title = Les commencements d'une conquète: l'Algérie de 1830 à 1840|last1 = Rousset|first1 = Camille|year = 1887}}</ref>
The march of the French column began on the evening of 27 May from the Boudouaou encampment to the coastal town of Dellys which was previously impregnable because of the long ceasefire that had been maintained with the Kabyles since the fall of Algiers in 1830.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CewPIexkYfUC&pg=PA165|title = Historique du 63e Régiment d'infanterie (1672 - 1887)|last1 = Molard|first1 = Jules|year = 1887}}</ref>
While General Perrégaux took the old Ottoman paved path which leads from Boudouaou to the Col des Beni Aïcha via the valley of Oued Meraldene, Colonel Schauenburg meanwhile took a coastal path by the coast of Boudouaou El Bahri to Zemmouri El Bahri, so that the two contingents meet in the Legata region in front of the mouth of Oued Isser to attack rebellious villagers from all sides.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uG9eAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA132|title = Correspondance militaire, ou recueil de modèles, pièces et actes authentiques relatifs au service militaire: ... Avec un vocabulaire militaire français - allemand|last1 = Schuster|first1 = Georg H.|year = 1842}}</ref>
When they met near Legata on 28 May, the soldiers of the two contingents crossed the bed of the river to mark their massive presence in the Issers valley, which had until then been a forbidden zone for colonial troops.
The assaulting forces of General Perregaux then headed for the Dreuh mountain ({{langx|ar|جبل الدروع}}) where the warriors of Beni Aïcha and Issers had taken refuge with the tribe of Ouled Aïssa whose strategic villages overlooked the plain of Oued Issers, the plain of Oued Sebaou and the Mediterranean Sea coast.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SmIPAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA179|title = Annales algériennes|year = 1854}}</ref>
Cheikh Ben Zamoum, with Sheikh Boushaki and Sheikh Cherifi, had concentrated their defense on this cliff perched at an altitude of more than 400 meters that the French assailants had to climb and take control with vigor after a tough fight looming.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m80OAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA176|title=Revue africaine|last1=Algérienne|first1=Société Historique|year=1875}}</ref>
==Talks of peace== [[File:Sidi Soussan à Dellys.jpg|thumb|Qubba of "Sidi Soussan" overlooking Dellys.]] {{Main|Zawiyet Sidi Amar Cherif}} In the morning of 29 May 1837, a deputation of important sheikhs and marabouts from the Zawiyet Sidi Amar Cherif came to General Perregaux to implore him for the clemency of the victor and to ask to be spared in order to preserve the lives of the villagers and the Kabyle warriors captured in this ultimate showdown.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58289929/f229.item.r=perregaux+schauenburg.zoom|title = L'Algérie de 1830 à 1840 : Les commencements d'une conquête. Tome 2 / Par Camille Rousset|year = 1887}}</ref>
It is thus that this first Kabyle insurrection of 1837 was crushed and that Sheikh Ben Zamoum was able to escape in time with his close collaborators to the heights of the Djurdjura massif.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i6EYt3B5nTcC&pg=PA107|title = Les zouaves: Le corps des zouaves, le régiment des zouaves, 1830-1852. 2 tom|last1 = Cangloff|first1 = Gaston|year = 1893}}</ref>
This Kabyle defeat east of Mitidja had opened before General Damrémont the ambition and the hope of controlling the other insurrectional strongholds in the south-west of Algiers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZRPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA220|title = L'Algérie de 1830 à 1840|last1 = Rousset|first1 = Camille|year = 1887}}</ref>
==Assault of Dellys== {{Main|First Assault of Dellys}} After the armistice of the Kabyles of Beni Aïcha and Issers, a French steamboat and a barge commanded by Félix-Ariel d'Assigny (1794-1846) arrived in front of the small town of Dellys, near the stronghold of the Amraoua tribe, and docked in its port where its notables were are eager without feats of arms and without bloodshed to make all the submissions that the French demanded of them.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHVbO_AJDGkC&pg=PA282|title = Campagnes de l'armée d'Afrique, 1835-1839|last1 = Orléans|first1 = Ferdinand-Philippe d'|year = 1870}}</ref>
The governor of Dellys named El Mouloud Ben Hadj Allal, the cadi Si Ahmed El Mufti and several notables of the city were taken as hostages to Algiers as a form of submission and signs of allegiance and obedience.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbOfvDvN-wkC&pg=PA209|title = Revue africaine0|year = 1876}}</ref>
==External links== * {{YouTube|AFl6d6lFtUo|(fr) Information on the capture of Algiers in 1830}} * {{YouTube|00QiSziElDo|(fr) The conquest of Algeria: Interview with Ahmed Djebbar}} * {{YouTube|jIRQIsRnAqo|1- (fr) The conquest of Algeria (1830-1847)}} * {{YouTube|txTj_wbH1EY|2- (fr) The conquest of Algeria (1830-1847)}} * {{YouTube|3Hbx7NydQUk|(fr) The conquest of Algeria: Interview with Jacques Frémeaux}} * {{YouTube|vcxv61UDufI|(fr) Conquest of Algeria - Marshal Bugeaud}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book |last= |date=1837 |title=L'Ami de la religion, Volume 93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jIIPAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA458 |location=Paris |publisher=Librairie Ecclésiastique d'Adrien le Clere et Cie |page= 458 }}
* {{cite book |last=Léon Blondel |date=1838 |title=Nouvel aperçu sur l'Algérie: Trois nécessités en Afrique: conserver, pacifier, coloniser |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zHcoAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA5-PA64 |location=Paris |publisher=Delaunay, Éditeur |pages= 64–65 }}
* {{cite book |last=Georg H. Schuster |date=1842 |title=Correspondance militaire, ou recueil de modèles, pièces et actes authentiques relatifs au service militaire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uG9eAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA132 |location=Vienna |publisher=Rohrmann, Libraire |pages= 132–133 }}
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* {{cite book |last=Léon Galibert |date=1846 |title=L'Algérie ancienne et moderne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p6mD0oLMWXcC&pg=RA1-PA602 |location=Paris |publisher=Furne et Cie, Libraires-Éditeurs |page= 602 }}
* {{cite book |last=Edmond Pellissier de Reynaud |date=1854 |title=Annales algériennes, Volume 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SmIPAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA177 |location=Paris |publisher=Librairie Militaire |pages= 177–180 }}
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* {{cite book |last=Société Historique Algérienne |date=1876 |title=Revue africaine, Volume 20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbOfvDvN-wkC&pg=PA207 |location=Algiers |publisher=Adolphe Jourdan, Libraire-Éditeur |page= 207 }}
* {{cite book |last=Henri d'Ideville |date=1882 |title=Le maréchal Bugeaud: d'après sa correspondance intime et des documents inédits, Volume 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ToJE7ca-c5MC&pg=PA60 |location=Paris |publisher=Firmin Didotet Cie, Libraire |page= 60 }}
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* {{cite book |last= Camille Rousset |date=1887 |title=Les commencements d'une conquète: l'Algérie de 1830 à 1840, Volume 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umBKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA220 |location=Paris |publisher=Librairie Plon |page= 220 }}
* {{cite book |last= |date=1887 |title=Revue des deux mondes, Volume 80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xMXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA95 |location=Paris |publisher=Bureau de la Revue des deux mondes |page= 95 }}
* {{cite book |last= Ferdinand-Désiré Quesnoy |date=1888 |title=L'armée d'Afrique depuis la conquête d'Alger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DnULAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA117 |location=Paris |publisher=Jouvet et Cie, Éditeurs |pages= 117–118 }}
* {{cite book |last= Paul Adolphe Grisot, Ernest Auguste Ferdinand Coulombon |date=1888 |title=La Légion étrangère de 1831 à 1887 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3h5_FoC3YRUC&pg=PA49 |location=Paris |publisher=Librairie Militaire, Berger-Levrault et Cie |page= 49 }}
* {{cite book |last= Narcisse Faucon |date=1890 |title=Le livre d'or de l'Algérie: histoire politique, militaire, administrative |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhAqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA540 |location=Paris |publisher=Augustin Challamel, Éditeur |pages= 540–542 }}
* {{cite book |last= Gaston Cangloff |date=1893 |title=Les zouaves: le corps des zouaves, le régiment des zouaves, 1830-1852, Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i6EYt3B5nTcC&pg=PA107 |location=Rambervillers |publisher=Valentin Risser, Éditeur |page= 107 }}
* {{cite book |last= Germain Bapst |date=1899 |title=Le Maréchal Canrobert: souvenirs d' un siècle, Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ShhIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA402 |location=Paris |publisher=Librairie Plon |page= 402 }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Emirate of Abdelkader topics}} {{Algerian resistance against French invasion}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Issers, First Battle Of}} Category:Battles of the French conquest of Algeria Category:Conflicts in 1837 Category:1837 in Algeria Category:May 1837 Category:19th century in Boumerdès Province Category:Battles involving the Emirate of Abdelkader