THIS MONTH IN HISTORY DRAGASHANI

JUNE 19 1821

The Battle Dragashani was fought in Wallachia, between the Ottoman forces of Sultan Mahmud II and the Greek Filiki Etaireia insurgents as a part of the Greek War of Independence. 2000 Ottoman cavalry, 7,500 troops and four cannons attacked but were counter charged by 500 horsemen and the Greek “Sacred Band”: a volunteer unit under Vasileios Karavias. The vastly outnumbered Sacred Band stood and fought the much greater Ottoman force, even though they had no hope. After some distracting tactics about a hundred men with their leaders escaped to inspire the uprisings in the Peloponnese.