military tactic Military tactics encompasses the art of organizing and employing fighting forces on or near the battlefield. They involve the application of four battlefield functions which are closely related – kinetic or firepower, mobility, protection or ...

s, a camisado or camisade is a surprise attack occurring at night or at daybreak, when the enemy are supposed to be asleep. The term comes from Spanish (shirt): when the

Tercio A ''tercio'' (), Spanish for " third") was a military unit of the Spanish Army during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and Habsburg Spain in the early modern period. They were the elite military units of the Spanish monarchy and ...

had actions (skirmishes) of around fifty men attacking at night with minimum equipment, only sword and dagger (although some soldiers could carry

arquebus An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier. The term ''arquebus'' was applied to many different forms of firearms ...

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...

), and they were dressed only with a white shirt (thus the Spanish word :es:encamisada), in order to kill in silence as many enemies as possible while they were sleeping. This is reflected in the film ''

Alatriste ''Alatriste'' is a 2006 Spanish epic historical war film directed by Agustín Díaz Yanes, based on the main character of a series of novels written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, '' The Adventures of Captain Alatriste'' (). The film, which stars Vig ...

'', based on the main character of '' The Adventures of Captain Alatriste'' (), a series of novels written by

Arturo Pérez-Reverte Arturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez (born 25 November 1951) is a Spanish novelist and journalist. He worked as a war correspondent for RTVE for 21 years (1973–1994). His first novel, '' El húsar'', set in the Napoleonic Wars, was published in ...

Notable camisados

* On 16 December 1332, Scots forces successfully led a surprise attack in the early morning hours against King

Edward Balliol Edward Balliol or Edward de Balliol (; – January 1364) was a claimant to the Scottish throne during the Second War of Scottish Independence. With English help, he ruled parts of the kingdom from 1332 to 1356. Early life Edward was the el ...

and his supporters at the

Battle of Annan The Battle of Annan, also referred to in contemporary sources as the Camisade of Annan, took place on 16 December 1332 in the town of Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Edward Balliol had seized the Scottish crown three months earlier f ...

. * On 18 July, 1539, Ottoman forces landed at Castelnuovo and began the

Siege of Castelnuovo The siege of Castelnuovo was an engagement during the Ottoman-Habsburg struggle for control of the Mediterranean, which took place in July 1539 at the walled town of Castelnuovo, present-day Herceg Novi, Montenegro. Castelnuovo had been conquer ...

. The soldiers of the Tercio of Sarmiento would launch several deadly attacks. The Spanish would even defeat several

Janissary A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted dur ...

units along with routing them in one of the assaults towards the Ottoman camp, which subsequently, also forced

Hayreddin Barbarossa Hayreddin Barbarossa (, original name: Khiḍr; ), also known as Hayreddin Pasha, Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis (c. 1466/1483 – 4 July 1546), was an Ottoman corsair and later admiral of the Ottoman Navy. Barbarossa's ...

, the commander of the Ottoman forces in the siege, to leave the camp. * On 9 October 1544, French forces under the Dauphin assaulted

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; ; ; or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boul ...

by night, but were ultimately unsuccessful. * On 14 October 1758, General Daun surprised

Frederick the Great Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...

in the

Battle of Hochkirch The Battle of Hochkirch took place on 14 October 1758, during the Third Silesian War (part of the Seven Years' War). After several weeks of maneuvering for position, an Austrian army of 80,000 commanded by Lieutenant Field Marshal Leopold Jos ...

. * On 26 December 1776, General

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

and his

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

swiftly defeated the Hessians in the

Battle of Trenton The Battle of Trenton was a small but pivotal American Revolutionary War battle on the morning of December 26, 1776, in Trenton, New Jersey. After General George Washington's George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, crossing of the ...

Quotations

References

External links

{{wiktionary, camisado Assault tactics