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Battles inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe

  • Battle of RoveretoOn the 26th of August, orders arrived from Emperor Francis II to immediately attempt a second relief of the fortress of Mantua.
  • Revolt of CairoThe Revolt of Cairo erupted on the 21st and the 22nd of October 1798, when the people of Cairo rose up against the French soldiers occupying their city.
  • Battle of ChampaubertOn the 10th of February 1814, a 19-year-old French conscript with fewer than six months of military service walked up to one of Russia's senior generals and…
  • Battle of MontmirailThe Battle of Montmirail, fought on the 11th of February 1814, was one of Napoleon's most daring gambles. With only 70,000 soldiers facing roughly 200,000…
  • Battle of HeilsbergThe Battle of Heilsberg was fought near a town on the Łyna River on the 10th of June 1807, and it cost the French army an estimated 12,000 men.
  • Battle of BassanoFeldmarschall Wurmser received a direct order from Emperor Francis II to relieve Mantua at once. The first attempt to break the siege had failed at the…
  • Battle of Landshut (1809)The Battle of Landshut on the 21st of April 1809 was not supposed to happen where it did. Napoleon had chased what he believed was the main Austrian army to…
  • Battle of MillesimoThe Battle of Millesimo, fought on the 13th and the 14th of April 1796, was not quite the battle Napoleon Bonaparte said it was.
  • Battle of EckmühlThe Battle of Eckmühl, fought on the 21st and the 22nd of April 1809, began as a potential disaster for Napoleon and ended with him calling the surrounding…
  • Battle of MaloyaroslavetsOn the 19th of October 1812 Napoleon left Moscow and marched southwest toward Kaluga. Eugène de Beauharnais led the advance guard of this massive force.
  • Second Battle of DegoNapoleon Bonaparte stood at the edge of a new campaign in northwestern Italy during April 1796. His army numbered roughly 15,000 men after defeating the…
  • Battle of CastiglioneThe Battle of Castiglione was fought on the 5th of August 1796. General Napoleon Bonaparte's French Army of Italy attacked a Habsburg force under…
  • Battle of HanauThe Battle of Hanau lasted just two days, the 30th and the 31st of October 1813, yet it decided whether Napoleon Bonaparte would escape Germany alive.
  • Battle of Lützen (1813)On the 2nd of May 1813, near the town of Lützen in Saxony, Napoleon Bonaparte rode among disordered conscripts on a battlefield that was going badly wrong.
  • Battle of Bautzen (1813)The Battle of Bautzen, fought on the 20th and the 21st of May 1813, came down to a single question: could Napoleon finally destroy the Prusso-Russian army in…
  • Battle of Mount Tabor (1799)Napoleon Bonaparte stood in Nazareth on the 16th of April 1799, staring at a map that showed his army trapped between Acre and a massive Ottoman force.
  • Battle of the PyramidsOn the 2nd of July 1798, French troops landed in Ottoman-controlled Egypt and seized Alexandria. General Bonaparte marched his army across the scorching…
  • Siege of Mantua (1796–1797)The Siege of Mantua began on the 4th of June 1796 and would not end until the 2nd of February 1797 , a grinding, eight-month ordeal that decided who would…
  • Battle of FriedlandThe Battle of Friedland on the 14th of June 1807 opened with a trap that snapped shut on the wrong army. Russian General Levin August von Bennigsen spotted…
  • Battle of LignyThe Battle of Ligny, fought on the 16th of June 1815 near a small Belgian stream, marked the last time Napoleon Bonaparte would ever win a battle.
  • Battle of MontereauThe Battle of Montereau was fought on the 18th of February 1814, and it turned on a single bridge. Two bridges, actually.
  • Battle of RatisbonThe Battle of Ratisbon on the 23rd of April 1809 produced one of the most unusual moments in Napoleon's career: the Emperor of the French was struck by a…
  • Battle of Aspern-EsslingOn the 10th of April 1809, Austrian troops under Archduke Charles crossed the border into Bavaria. This action began hostilities without a formal declaration…
  • Battle of DresdenThe Battle of Dresden began on the 26th of August, 1813, and within two days it had produced one of Napoleon's most tactically impressive victories.
  • Battle of RivoliThe Battle of Rivoli, fought on the 14th of January 1797, nearly ended in catastrophe for France. By eleven in the morning, an Austrian column under the…
  • Battle of MontenotteOn the 27th of March 1796, a young General Bonaparte arrived in Nice to take over the Army of Italy. His army included 63,000 troops, but only 37,600 men and…
  • Battle of UlmIn 1805, the United Kingdom, Austria, Sweden and Russia formed the Third Coalition against France. An Austrian army of 72,000 men under Karl Mack von…
  • Battle of AusterlitzThe Battle of Austerlitz, fought on the 2nd of December 1805, began with a French army that was outnumbered, tired, and deliberately pretending to be weaker…
  • Battle of LodiThe Battle of Lodi, fought on the 10th of May 1796, was not the most decisive engagement of Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian campaign.
  • Battle of Abukir (1799)On the 25th of July 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte stood near the Egyptian peninsula of Abukir and looked out at a problem that should have been unsolvable.
  • Battle of Jena–AuerstedtOn the 14th of October 1806, two battles were fought simultaneously on the plateau west of the river Saale, in what is today Thuringia, Germany.
  • Battle of WagramThe Battle of Wagram, fought on the 5th and the 6th of July 1809, was the largest battle in European history up to that time.
  • Siege of JaffaThe Siege of Jaffa lasted just five days, from the 3rd to the 7th of March, 1799, but what happened in those days and in the hours after would haunt Napoleon…
  • Battle of Smolensk (1812)On the 27th of July, General Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly slipped his First Western Army away from Vitebsk. He avoided a general engagement with Emperor…
  • Battle of BorodinoOn the 7th of September 1812, near a small village called Borodino on the outskirts of Moscow, roughly a quarter of a million soldiers collided in a single…
  • Battle of MondovìThe Battle of Mondovì, fought on the 21st of April 1796, was the moment a young French general named Napoleon Bonaparte cracked open the door to Italy.
  • Battle of EylauThe Battle of Eylau ended with a French marshal riding across a field of bloodstained snow and frozen corpses, muttering four words: "Quel massacre!
  • Battle of CorunnaIn early October 1808, Sir John Moore took command of a British force numbering 30,000 men in Portugal. The political landscape had shifted dramatically…
  • Battle of MarengoThe Battle of Marengo, fought on the 14th of June 1800, began as a near-catastrophe for Napoleon Bonaparte and ended as one of his most celebrated victories.
  • Battle of ArcoleThe Battle of Arcole nearly ended Napoleon Bonaparte's career in a muddy ditch. On the 15th of November 1796, Bonaparte grabbed a flag and walked to within…
  • Battle of SomosierraOn the 30th of November 1808, at a mountain pass 60 miles north of Madrid, a Polish cavalry officer named Jan Kozietulski called out to his men in French…