Decisive Battles
The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World from Marathon to Waterloo
By Sir Edward Creasy, M.A.
It is an honourable characteristic of the Spirit of this Age, that projects of violence and warfare are regarded among civilized states with gradually increasing aversion. The Universal Peace Society certainly does not, and probably never will, enrol the majority of statesmen among its members. But even those who look upon the Appeal of Battle as occasionally unavoidable in international controversies, concur in thinking it a deplorable necessity, only to be resorted to when all peaceful modes of arrangement have been vainly tried; and when the law of self-defence justifies a State, like an individual, in using force to protect itself from imminent and serious injury. For a writer, therefore, of the present day to choose battles for his favourite topic, merely because they were battles, merely because so many myriads of troops were arrayed in them, and so many hundreds or thousands of human beings stabbed, hewed, or shot each other to death during them, would argue strange weakness or depravity of mind.
THE FIFTEEN DECISIVE BATTLES OF THE WORLD.
CHAPTER I.--THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.
CHAPTER II. -- DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS AT SYRACUSE, B.C.413.
CHAPTER III. -- THE BATTLE OF ARBELA, B.C. 331.
CHAPTER IV. -- THE BATTLE OF THE METAURUS, B.C. 207.
CHAPTER V. -- VICTORY OF ARMINIUS OVER THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS,
CHAPTER VI -- THE BATTLE OF CHALONS, A.D. 451.
CHAPTER VII. -- THE BATTLE OF TOURS, A.D. 732,
CHAPTER VIII. -- THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS, 1066.
CHAPTER IX. -- JOAN OF ARC'S VICTORY OVER THE ENGLISH AT ORLEANS, A.D.
CHAPTER X. -- THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA, A.D. 1588.
CHAPTER XI. -- THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM, 1704.
CHAPTER XII. -- THE BATTLE OF PULTOWA, 1709.
CHAPTER XIII. -- VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS OVER BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA,
CHAPTER XIV. -- THE BATTLE OF VALMY.
CHAPTER XV. -- THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO, 1815.