August 1
1714 – George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain, marking the beginning of the Georgian era of British history.
1759 – Seven Years' War: The Battle of Minden, an allied Anglo-German army victory over the French. In Britain, this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments.
1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay): Battle begins when a British fleet engages the French Revolutionary Navy fleet in an unusual night action.
1800 – The Acts of Union 1800 are passed, which merge the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1801 – First Barbary War: The American schooner USS Enterprise captures the Tripolitan polacca Tripoli in a single-ship action off the coast of modern-day Libya.
1834 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, although it remains legal in the possessions of the East India Company until the passage of the Indian Slavery Act, 1843.
1834 – Construction begins on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston Upon Hull.
August 2
1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence takes place.
1784 – The first British mail coach service runs from Bristol to London.
1790 – The first United States Census is conducted.
1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of the Nile concludes in a British victory.
1830 – July Revolution: Charles X of France abdicates the throne in favor of his grandson Henri.
August 3
1778 – The theatre La Scala in Milan is inaugurated with the première of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
1795 – Treaty of Greenville is signed, ending the Northwest Indian War in the Ohio Country.
1811 – First ascent of Jungfrau, third third-highest summit in the Bernese Alps, by brothers Johann Rudolf and Hieronymus Meyer.
1829 – The Treaty of Lewistown is signed by the Shawnee and Seneca peoples, exchanging land in Ohio for land west of the Mississippi River.
August 4
1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however, he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.
1701 – The Great Peace of Montreal between New France and the First Nations is signed.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, a fleet of six East India Company ships sets sail from Fort Marlborough to raid the Dutch VOC factories on the West coast of Sumatra, including the major port of Padang.
1783 – Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing about 1,400 people (Tenmei eruption). The eruption causes a famine, which results in an additional 20,000 deaths.
1789 – France: abolition of feudalism by the National Constituent Assembly.
1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
1791 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.
1814 – War of 1812: The ultimately unsuccessful Siege of Fort Erie begins as British forces attempt to recapture the fort and drive American forces out of Canada.
1821 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
August 5
1716 – Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718): One-fifth of a Turkish army and the Grand Vizier are killed in the Battle of Petrovaradin.
1735 – Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true.
1763 – Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run: British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.
1772 – First Partition of Poland: The representatives of Austria, Prussia, and Russia sign three bilateral conventions condemning the "anarchy" of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and imputing to the three powers "ancient and legitimate rights" to the territories of the Commonwealth. The conventions allow each of the three great powers to annex a part of the Commonwealth, which they proceed to do over the course of the following two months.
1781 – The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place.
1796 – The Battle of Castiglione in Napoleon's first Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars resulted in a French victory.
1816 – The British Admiralty dismisses Francis Ronalds's new invention of the first working electric telegraph as "wholly unnecessary", preferring to continue using the semaphore.
1824 – Greek War of Independence: Konstantinos Kanaris leads a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian naval forces in the Battle of Samos.
August 6
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix.
1787 – Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1806 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares the moribund empire to be dissolved, although he retains power in the Austrian Empire.
1819 – Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
1824 – Peruvian War of Independence: Patriot forces led by Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish Royalist army in the Battle of Junín.
1825 – The Bolivian Declaration of Independence is proclaimed.
August 7
1714 – The Battle of Gangut: The first important victory of the Russian Navy.
1743 – The Treaty of Åbo ended the 1741–1743 Russo-Swedish War.
1782 – George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.
1786 – The first federal Indian Reservation is created by the United States.
1789 – The United States Department of War is established.
1791 – American troops destroy the Miami town of Kenapacomaqua near the site of present-day Logansport, Indiana, in the Northwest Indian War.
1794 – U.S. President George Washington invokes the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.
1819 – Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyaca.
August 8
1709 – Bartolomeu de Gusmao demonstrates the lifting power of hot air in an audience before the king of Portugal in Lisbon, Portugal.
1786 – Mont Blanc on the French-Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard.
1794 – Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.
1831 – Four hundred Shawnee people agree to relinquish their lands in Ohio in exchange for land west of the Mississippi River in the Treaty of Wapakoneta.
August 9
1810 – Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire.
1814 – American Indian Wars: The Creek signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia.
1830 – Louis Philippe becomes the king of the French following the abdication of Charles X.
August 10
1741 – King Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeats the Dutch East India Company at the Battle of Colachel, effectively bringing about the end of the Dutch colonial rule in India.
1755 – Under the direction of Charles Lawrence, the British begin to forcibly deport the Acadians from Nova Scotia to the Thirteen Colonies and France.
1792 – French Revolution: Storming of the Tuileries Palace: Louis XVI is arrested and taken into custody as his Swiss Guards are massacred by the Parisian mob.
1808 – Finnish War: Swedish forces led by General von Döbeln defeat Russian forces led by General Šepelev in the Battle of Kauhajoki.
1835 – P. T. Barnum begins his career as a showman and circus entrepreneur by exhibiting Joice Heth, an octogenarian African slave whom he claims was George Washington's nursemaid.
August 11
1786 – Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia.
1804 – Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria.
1812 – Peninsular War: French troops engage British-Portuguese forces in the Battle of Majadahonda.
1813 – In Colombia, Juan del Corral declares the independence of Antioquia.
August 12
1765 – Treaty of Allahabad is signed. The Treaty marks the political and constitutional involvement and the beginning of Company rule in India.
1788 – The Anjala conspiracy is signed.
1793 – The Rhône and Loire départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.
1806 – Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires, retook the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, after the first British invasion.
1831 – French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.
August 13
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim: English and Imperial forces are victorious over French and Bavarian troops.
1724 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101, a chorale cantata on a famous tune.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of United States naval forces before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal and declared an enemy of the people.
1806 – Battle of Mišar during the Serbian Revolution begins. The battle ended two days later with a Serbian victory over the Ottomans.
1814 – The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Netherlands, is signed in London, England.
August 14
1720 – The Spanish military Villasur expedition is defeated by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.
1784 – Russian colonization of North America: Awa'uq Massacre: The Russian fur trader Grigory Shelikhov storms a Kodiak Island Alutiit refuge rock on Sitkalidak Island, killing 500+ Alutiit.
1790 – The Treaty of Wereloe ended the 1788–1790 Russo-Swedish War.
1791 – Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony led by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking the start of the Haitian Revolution.
1814 – A cease-fire agreement, called the Convention of Moss, ended the Swedish–Norwegian War.
1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
August 15
1695 – French forces end the bombardment of Brussels.
1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Liegnitz: Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians under Ernst Gideon von Laudon.
1814 – War of 1812: British forces launch a costly and unsuccessful night attack against American defenders during the siege of Fort Erie.
1824 – The Marquis de Lafayette, the last surviving French general of the American Revolutionary War, arrives in New York and begins a tour of 24 states.
August 16
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.
1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention.
1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England.
August 17
1717 – Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18: The month-long Siege of Belgrade ends with Prince Eugene of Savoy's Austrian troops capturing the city from the Ottoman Empire.
1723 – Ioan Giurgiu Patachi becomes Bishop of Fagaras and is festively installed in his position at the St. Nicolas Cathedral in Fagaras, after being formally confirmed earlier by Pope Clement XI.
1740 – Pope Benedict XIV, previously known as Prospero Lambertini, succeeds Clement XII as the 247th Pope.
1784 – Classical composer Luigi Boccherini receives a pay rise of 12,000 reales from his employer, the Infante Luis, Count of Chinchón.
1798 – The Vietnamese Catholics report a Marian apparition in Quang Tri, an event which is called Our Lady of La Vang.
1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
1808 – The Finnish War: The Battle of Alavus is fought.
1827 – Dutch King William I and Pope Leo XII sign the concord.
1836 – British Parliament accepts registration of births, marriages, and deaths.
August 18
1721 – The city of Shamakhi in Safavid Shirvan is sacked.
1783 – A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast.
1809 – The Senate of Finland is established in the Grand Duchy of Finland after the official adoption of the Statute of the Government Council by Tsar Alexander I of Russia.
August 19
1692 – Salem witch trials: In Salem, province of Massachusetts Bay, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, and clergyman George Burroughs are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
1725 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137, a cantata setting the unchanged text of Neander's hymn.
1745 – Prince Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard in Glenfinnan: The start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, known as "the 45".
1745 – Ottoman–Persian War: In the Battle of Kars, the Ottoman army is routed by Persian forces led by Nader Shah.
1759 – Battle of Lagos: Naval battle during the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France.
1772 – Gustav III of Sweden stages a coup d'état, in which he assumes power and enacts a new constitution that divides power between the Riksdag and the King.
1782 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks: The last major engagement of the war, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Charles Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.
1812 – War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, earning the nickname "Old Ironsides".
1813 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's Second Triumvirate.
1839 – The French government announces that Louis Daguerre's photographic process is a gift "free to the world".
August 20
1707 – The first Siege of Pensacola comes to an end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.
1710 – War of the Spanish Succession: A multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg defeats the Spanish-Bourbon army commanded by Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Ba, in the Battle of Saragossa.
1775 – The Spanish established the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.
1794 – Northwest Indian War: United States troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
August 21
1716 – Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War: The arrival of naval reinforcements and the news of the Battle of Petrovaradin forced the Ottomans to abandon the Siege of Corfu, thus preserving the Ionian Islands under Venetian rule.
1770 – James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
1772 – King Gustav III completes his coup d'état by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing himself as an enlightened despot.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging the French outpost at Pondichéry.
1791 – Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue, led by Dutty Boukman, held a Vodou ceremony that became a pivotal act of resistance. This gathering sparked a mass uprising against slavery, marking the beginning of the Haitian Revolution.
1808 – Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat the French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War.
1810 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates.
1821 – Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances.
1831 – Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, which will claim the lives of 55 to 65 whites and about twice that number of blacks.
August 22
1711 – Britain's Quebec Expedition loses eight ships and almost nine hundred soldiers, sailors, and women to rocks at Pointe-aux-Anglais.
1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia.
1770 – James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, and claims the east coast of Australia for Britain as New South Wales.
1777 – British forces abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix after hearing rumors of Continental Army reinforcements.
1780 – James Cook's ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage).
1791 – The Haitian slave revolution begins in Saint-Domingue, Haiti.
1798 – French troops land at Kilcummin, County Mayo, Ireland, to aid the rebellion.
1827 – José de La Mar becomes President of Peru.
August 23
1703 – Edirne event: Sultan Mustafa II of the Ottoman Empire is dethroned.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St James', stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion.
1782 – British forces under Edward Despard complete the reconquest of the Black River settlements on the Mosquito Coast from the Spanish.
1784 – Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it is not accepted into the United States, and only lasts for four years.
1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power.
1813 – At the Battle of Großbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.
1831 – Nat Turner's rebellion of enslaved Virginians is suppressed.
1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for the First Opium War with Qing China.
August 24
1690 – Job Charnock of the East India Company establishes a factory in Calcutta, an event formerly considered the founding of the city (in 2003, the Calcutta High Court ruled that the city's foundation date is unknown).
1743 – The War of the Hats: The Swedish army surrenders to the Russians in Helsinki, ending the war and starting Lesser Wrath.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: A small force of Pennsylvania militia is ambushed and overwhelmed by an American Indian group, which forces George Rogers Clark to abandon his attempt to attack Detroit.
1789 – The first naval battle of the Svensksund began in the Gulf of Finland.
1812 – Peninsular War: A coalition of Spanish, British, and Portuguese forces succeeded in lifting the two-and-a-half-year-long Siege of Cádiz.
1814 – British troops capture Washington, D.C. and set the Presidential Mansion, Capitol, Navy Yard, and many other public buildings ablaze.
1815 – The modern Constitution of the Netherlands is signed.
1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.
1820 – Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal.
August 25
1758 – Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1814 – War of 1812: On the second day of the Burning of Washington, British troops torch the Library of Congress, United States Treasury, Department of War, and other public buildings.
1823 – American fur trapper Hugh Glass is mauled by a grizzly bear while on an expedition in South Dakota.
1825 – The Thirty-Three Orientals declare the independence of Uruguay from Brazil.
1830 – The Belgian Revolution begins.
August 26
1748 – The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia.
1767 – Jesuits all over Chile are arrested as the Spanish Empire suppresses the Society of Jesus.
1768 – Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavour.
1778 – The first recorded ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia.
1789 – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France.
1791 – John Fitch is granted a United States patent for the steamboat.
1810 – The former viceroy Santiago de Liniers of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata is executed after the defeat of his counter-revolution.
1813 – War of the Sixth Coalition: An impromptu battle takes place when French and Prussian-Russian forces accidentally run into each other near Liegnitz, Prussia (now Legnica, Poland).
1814 – Chilean War of Independence: Infighting between the rebel forces of José Miguel Carrera and Bernardo O'Higgins erupts in the Battle of Las Tres Acequias.
August 27
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Members of the 1st Maryland Regiment repeatedly charged a numerically superior British force during the Battle of Long Island, allowing General Washington and the rest of the American troops to escape.
1791 – French Revolution: Frederick William II of Prussia and Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, declaring the joint support of the Holy Roman Empire and Prussia for the French monarchy, agitating the French revolutionaries and contributing to the outbreak of the War of the First Coalition.
1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: The city of Toulon revolts against the French Republic and admits the British and Spanish fleets to seize its port, leading to the Siege of Toulon by French Revolutionary forces.
1798 – Wolfe Tone's United Irish and French forces clash with the British Army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, resulting in the creation of the French puppet Republic of Connacht.
1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeats the British Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbour of Grand Port on Île de France.
1813 – French Emperor Napoleon I defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.
1828 – Brazil and Argentina recognize the sovereignty of Uruguay in the Treaty of Montevideo.
1832 – Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War.
August 28
1709 – Meidingnu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.
1789 – William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn: Enceladus.
1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy accepts the surrender of a British Royal Navy fleet at the Battle of Grand Port.
1830 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's new Tom Thumb steam locomotive races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam's role in U.S. railroads.
1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives royal assent, making the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal in the British Empire with exceptions.
August 29
1728 – The city of Nuuk in Greenland is founded as the fort of Godt-Haab by the royal governor Claus Paarss.
1741 – The eruption of Oshima–Oshima and the Kampo tsunami: At least 2,000 people along the Japanese coast drowned in a tsunami caused by the eruption of Oshima.
1756 – Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War in Europe.
1758 – The Treaty of Easton establishes the first American Indian reservation, at Indian Mills, New Jersey, for the Lenape.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and American forces battle indecisively at the Battle of Rhode Island.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: American forces battle and defeat the British and Iroquois forces at the Battle of Newtown.
1786 – Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
1807 – British troops under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeat a Danish militia outside Copenhagen in the Battle of Køge.
1825 – Portuguese and Brazilian diplomats sign the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, which has Portugal recognise Brazilian independence, formally ending the Brazilian War of Independence. The treaty will be ratified by the King of Portugal three months later.
1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
August 30
1721 – The Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia ends in the Treaty of Nystad.
1727 – Anne, the eldest daughter of King George II of Great Britain, is given the title Princess Royal.
1757 – Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf: Russian force under Field Marshal Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin beats a smaller Prussian force commanded by Field Marshal Hans von Lehwaldt, during the Seven Years' War.
1791 – HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on the outer Great Barrier Reef the previous day.
1799 – The entire Dutch fleet is captured by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell during the War of the Second Coalition.
1800 – Gabriel Prosser postpones a planned slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia, but is arrested before he can make it happen.
1813 – First Battle of Kulm: French forces are defeated by an Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.
1813 – Creek War: Fort Mims massacre: Creek "Red Sticks" kill over 500 settlers (including over 250 armed militia) in Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama.
1835 – Australia: Melbourne, Victoria, is founded.
1836 – The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen.
August 31
1776 – William Livingston, the first Governor of New Jersey, begins serving his first term.
1795 – War of the First Coalition: The British capture Trincomalee (present-day Sri Lanka) from the Dutch to keep it out of French hands.
1798 – Irish Rebellion: Irish rebels, with French assistance, establish the short-lived Republic of Connacht.
1813 – Peninsular War: Spanish troops repel a French attack in the Battle of San Marcial.