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Siege of Zaatcha
Part of the French conquest of Algeria
Capture of Zaatcha, by Jean-Adolphe Beaucé.
Date 16 July – 26 November 1849 Location Zaatcha, about 30 km south-west of Biskra, Algeria Result French victory
Belligerents
France	Arab and Berber tribes of eastern Algeria
Commanders and leaders
Émile Herbillon	Sheikh Bouziane  † El Hadj Moussa  †
Strength
about 7,000 men	about 1,500 men and women
Casualties and losses
Estimates vary: 200 killed and 850 wounded; or about 1,500 killed and wounded; or about 2,000 total losses, including 600 from cholera	about 1,500 killed

The Siege of Zaatcha was fought from 16 July to 26 November 1849 at Zaatcha, an oasis village near Biskra in Algeria, during the French conquest of Algeria. The siege opposed French troops commanded by General Émile Herbillon to Arab and Berber fighters led by Sheikh Ahmed Bouziane, also known as Bou Zian or Bû Ziyân.^[1]

Zaatcha was located in the Zibans, south of the Constantinois, between the northern Sahara and the foothills of the Aurès Mountains. The region lay on one of the routes between central Africa and the Mediterranean coast. At the time of the battle, the region included nomadic tribes from the Algerian Tell as well as settled oasis populations.^[2] The fortified village of Zaatcha stood north-west of its oasis and was surrounded by palm groves. Access routes were bordered by walls enclosing gardens of varying heights. This made the village difficult to attack.^[3]

Zaatcha already had a reputation for being hard to capture. In 1833, Ahmed Bey had pacified the rebellious region but not the oasis of Zaatcha. In 1844, Emir Abdelkader also failed to take it, adding to its reputation for inviolability.^[4]

Nearby settlements included Lichana and Farfar. The oasis of Tolga was also close to the area.^[3]

In 1844, the Duke of Aumale occupied Biskra, a town in the oasis region known as the Zibans. The French garrison placed there was later massacred. In September 1847, Thomas Robert Bugeaud resigned as Governor-General of Algeria, ending one phase of the French expansion of the conquest. On 23 December 1847, Emir Abdelkader surrendered to the French authorities. In 1848, Ahmed Bey, who had taken refuge in the Aurès since 1837, also made an agreement with the French. These events did not end local revolts. After 1848, five governors succeeded one another in Algeria within seven months. In 1848, General Émile Herbillon took command of the province.^[1]

Ahmed Bouziane, also written Bou Zian or Bû Ziyân, was probably from Bordj Oulad Arouz, a village in the valley of the Oued Abiod in the Aurès. He was a religious preacher and marabout. He had served as sheikh of Zaatcha under the emirate of Abdelkader.

After being replaced in his position, Bouziane proclaimed a holy war, or jihad, at the beginning of 1849. He mobilised neighbouring villages and prepared fighters for an attack on Biskra, predicting a rapid defeat of the Christians. He settled with his family in the oasis village of Zaatcha, about thirty-five kilometres south-west of Biskra.

Bouziane used the increase in the palm tax, known as the lezma, as a pretext for launching the Zibans uprising.

On 18 May 1849, Lieutenant Joseph Adrien Seroka of the Arab affairs service attempted to stop the rebellion by arresting Bouziane. The operation failed, and Seroka narrowly escaped from Zaatcha.^[5]

On 16 July 1849, Colonel Jean-Luc Carbuccia arrived near the fortified village of Zaatcha with the 1st Battalion of the French Foreign Legion and the 3rd Light Infantry Battalion of Africa. He had about 900 men.

Bouziane had assembled about 600 fighters. Despite contrary orders from General Herbillon, Carbuccia immediately engaged in combat. French forces initially pushed back their opponents and pursued them towards the village. The oasis, however, proved to be a maze of walls and plantations unsuited to the usual French methods of fighting in open or mountainous terrain. A crenellated wall, protected by a ditch seven metres wide and three metres deep filled with water, blocked the way to Zaatcha.

Carbuccia was forced to retreat. The assault cost the French thirty-two men. The French setback encouraged the insurgents and strengthened their mobilisation.

On 7 October 1849, after a delay of nearly three months to avoid the summer heat, General Herbillon personally took command of the operations. He brought an expeditionary force of about 4,000 men with siege equipment.

With artillery support, the 2nd Foreign Regiment, again under Carbuccia, captured a group of houses north of the palm grove known as the Zaouïa, where an important water source was located. Although French guns were installed there, the positions could not be held under enemy fire.

Colonel Mathieu Petit of the engineers was gravely wounded in the arm while supervising the installation of a new battery. Lieutenant Seroka was wounded by the same projectile. Petit was evacuated to Biskra, where his arm was amputated, but he died on 2 November.

French troops advancing through the surrounding gardens suffered heavy losses. The defenders also mutilated wounded French soldiers, according to contemporary French accounts.

French troops built siege works to breach the defences of the ksar of Zaatcha. On 20 October, sappers attacked, supported by legionnaires and the 43rd Line Infantry Regiment. The assault failed. The ditches had not been properly filled and remained almost impossible to cross, while buildings inside the village had been mined.

The attackers suffered heavy losses and were repulsed by the defenders.

The French position remained under pressure. Zaatcha, although surrounded, still received reinforcements and supplies by night. French supply and communication lines were vulnerable and convoys were harassed by populations from the Tell.

General Herbillon ordered the cutting down of about 10,000 palm trees, the main wealth of the oasis, on the grounds that they served as firing positions for the defenders. This was done in November, during the date harvest.

On 8 November, Colonel François Certain de Canrobert arrived with two battalions of zouaves. The 8th Chasseurs à Pied Battalion joined the besieging force on 12 November, raising French strength to about 7,000 men.

Cholera spread among Canrobert's zouaves and caused losses comparable to those inflicted by the enemy.

On 12 November, two engineer officers finally replaced Colonel Petit. Siege engineering work then resumed intensively. On 19 November, artillery pieces were moved into position and the towers of Zaatcha were taken. The fort remained strongly defended.

On 24 November, Arab insurgents launched a surprise attack during a guard change and struck the French trenches with edged weapons. Chasseurs à pied, supported by Algerian tirailleurs under Captain Charles Denis Bourbaki, repelled the assault.

On 24 November, General Herbillon sent a final summons to the defenders, warning them of the coming assault. Bouziane refused to surrender.

By 25 November, French trenches had reached the ditches. During the night of 25–26 November, three breaches were opened in the wall, making it easier to fill the ditch.

At 07:00 on 26 November 1849, three columns of about 300 men each, commanded by Colonels Canrobert, de Barral and de Lourmel, launched a simultaneous assault. To divert attention and block possible reinforcement routes, Bourbaki's tirailleurs went into action with local troops belonging to Si-Mohamed-Skrir, caid of Biskra.

The fighting was extremely violent. The narrow streets gave an advantage to the defenders, but French troops took the village and then the rooftops despite fire from fortified houses. Fighting then continued from house to house.

After the capture of the fortified village, resistance continued. Bouziane left his house near the mosque and took refuge in the fortified house of the former sheikh Ali-ben-Azoug, near the Farfar gate. The building was defended by more than one hundred fighters.

French artillery could not easily reduce the house, and engineers used mines to bring down parts of the wall. According to later French accounts, the final assault involved gunfire, bayonet fighting and close combat.

Bouziane was captured and executed. His son Hassan and his lieutenant, El Hadj Si-Moussa Eddarkaoui, were also executed. The heads of Bouziane, Hassan and Si-Moussa were displayed at Biskra in order to prove their deaths and break the belief that Bouziane had survived.

The village was then systematically destroyed. Engineers mined individual houses to end the remaining resistance and reduce French losses. Many of the besieged were killed under the ruins.

The heads of Bouziane, his son and Si-Moussa became part of the memory of the siege. Some of the skulls taken after the fighting were later kept at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.

The skulls were rediscovered in the twenty-first century by Ali Farid Belkadi, who campaigned for their repatriation to Algeria. On 3 July 2020, twenty-four skulls of Algerian anti-colonial fighters were returned to Algeria. They were displayed at the Palace of Culture Moufdi Zakaria for public homage and then buried on 5 July 2020 in the martyrs' square at El Alia Cemetery in Algiers, in a ceremony attended by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

Casualty figures vary between sources. French losses are given as about 200 killed and 850 wounded, or as about 1,500 killed and wounded. Other estimates give about 2,000 total French losses, including about 600 caused by cholera.

The number of Arab and Berber defenders killed is commonly estimated at about 1,500. Some accounts state that about 800 visible corpses were counted among the ruins, with many more buried under collapsed houses.

Dysentery and cholera caused many deaths on both sides.

The siege caused heavy losses for the French Army of Africa and for the Arab and Berber defenders. On 26 November alone, the French suffered 43 killed and 175 wounded.

The French siege works began in earnest only from 12 November. After earlier failures in oasis warfare, the Army of Africa adapted its methods and eventually captured Zaatcha, which had previously been considered almost invulnerable.

The palm grove, consisting of several thousand trees, was cut down during the siege, depriving the oasis of its main resource. After the fall of the village, the fort of Zaatcha was completely destroyed. The neighbouring oasis of Naarha, which had supported the defenders of Zaatcha, was attacked by French forces in January 1850.

Zaatcha remained in ruins, although palm trees were later replanted. The neighbouring ksar of Lichana survived until its destruction in 1969.

After the French victory, neighbouring tribes came to General Herbillon to submit and request aman, or protection. French troops withdrew to Biskra and left the region on 1 December 1849.

Herbillon recalled Carbuccia to France, holding him responsible for some of the military setbacks during the siege. In 1863, Herbillon published an account of the siege, titled Relation du siège de Zaatcha, with the subtitle Insurrection survenue dans le sud de la province de Constantine.

The later sieges of Laghouat in 1852 and Touggourt in 1854 also became major episodes of French fighting against resistance in Algerian oases.

The 33rd promotion of the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, 1849–1851, was named the "Promotion de Zaatcha".

The siege is also mentioned in Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, where Hugo compares the capture of the barricade of the Faubourg du Temple to Zaatcha and Constantine.

• 1st Battalion of the French Foreign Legion, arrived 16 July
• 3rd Light Infantry Battalion of Africa, arrived 16 July
• 2nd Battalion of the French Foreign Legion, arrived 7 October
• One battalion of the 43rd Line Infantry Regiment, arrived 7 October
• 5th Chasseurs à Pied Battalion, arrived 7 October
• Battalion of native tirailleurs of the province of Constantine, later the 3rd Algerian Tirailleurs Regiment, commanded by Charles Denis Bourbaki, arrived 7 October
• Elements of the 2nd Engineer Regiment, present from 7 October
• Elements of the 12th Artillery Regiment, present from 7 October
• One battalion of the 38th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel de Barral, arrived 12 October
• Elite elements of the 16th Infantry Regiment
• Two battalions of zouaves under Colonel François Certain de Canrobert, arrived in October and on 8 November
• Two battalions of the 8th Line Infantry Regiment, arrived 12 October and 15 November
• 3rd Battalion of the 51st Line Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Frédéric Henri Le Normand de Lourmel, arrived 15 November
• 8th Chasseurs à Pied Battalion, arrived 15 November
• Elements of the 11th Artillery Regiment

• French conquest of Algeria
• French Algeria
• Biskra
• Laghouat
• French Foreign Legion
• Army of Africa (France)

• Herbillon, Émile (1863). Relation du siège de Zaatcha: insurrection survenue dans le sud de la province de Constantine (in French).
• Bourseul, E.-Ch. (1851). Souvenirs de la guerre d'Afrique. Insurrection des Zibans. Zaatcha (in French).
• Clancy-Smith, Julia (15 July 2000). "La Révolte de Bû Ziyân en Algérie, 1849". Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée (in French) (91–94): 181–208.
• Schaub, Nicolas (27 April 2021). "Récits, images et mémoires d'une violence coloniale. Le siège de Zaatcha, 1849" (in French).
• Kateb, Kamel (2001). Européens, indigènes et juifs en Algérie, 1830–1962: représentations et réalités des populations (in French). INED. ISBN 978-2-7332-0145-9.

• Le siège de Zaatcha

Category:French conquest of Algeria Category:Battles involving France Category:Battles involving the French Foreign Legion Category:Battles involving Algeria Category:Sieges involving France Category:July 1849 Category:November 1849 Category:Massacres in Algeria