Siege of Anselmar
| Siege of Anselmar | |
|---|---|
 The seaward gate of Anselmar, night of 18 May 2050 | |
| Date | 3 March to 19 May 2050 |
| Location | Anselmar, ██████████████ |
| Result | Banner victory; siege lifted; the Protectorates abandon the southern Coast |
| Commanders | Logan Huss (Banner Brigades) against Grand Marshal ████████████ |
| Strength | 9,000 Banner against about 28,000 |
| Casualties | Banner about 2,100; Ulmarkan about 7,400; attendants about 310 |
The Siege of Anselmar (3 March to 19 May 2050) was the first great action of the ██████████████ campaigns and the battle that made Logan Huss a general. A Banner garrison of about 9,000 held the pilgrim city of Anselmar, which the Empire had taken in 2041, against a force three times its size under the Ulmarkan Grand Marshal ████████████, and ended the siege by riding out at night and returning with the Grand Marshal's banner.[1][2]
Background
[edit]Anselmar fell to the Ulmarkan Empire at the end of the Protectorate Wars in 2041 and became the seat of the Empire's shore protectorates. In January 2050 Huss, then a brigadier, landed by sea with 9,000 men on a pilgrim feast day, when the garrison was thin, and took the town in an afternoon. He had been born there.[1]
The siege
[edit]Brann reached Anselmar on 3 March with about 28,000 and began a close siege by land, leaving the harbour open on the belief that Huss would not leave. By April the Banner had eaten the pilgrim stores and the town's horses, and the cavalry that Huss had brought were left standing in the pilgrim cloisters. Brann's staff wrote that he could be starved out by June. They were counting on cavalry being useless in streets.
The night ride
[edit]On the night of 18 May Huss led 2,000 lancers out of the seaward gate, along the strand at low tide and around the northern edge of the Ulmarkan line. His guides were the attendants of the dark, 40 in number, who walked in front by the sound of the camp and signalled the sentries' positions by hand. At the third bell the column reached the command tents. Brann's guard was destroyed in a quarter of an hour. The Grand Marshal escaped on a borrowed horse; her standard and staff chest were carried back into Anselmar before dawn.[1][2]
Aftermath
[edit]Without a commander and with the siege lines cut by their own panic, the Ulmarkan army withdrew down the coast road. Huss followed, and by autumn the Protectorates had abandoned the southern Coast. The Church celebrates the 19th of May as the Feast of the Banner. About 310 of the 400 attendants brought to Anselmar did not survive the siege; the Brigades' returns list them as "expended".[2]
Legacy
[edit]Brann, who wrote the Empire's inquiry into the loss herself, concluded that she had been beaten by "a general who treats the dark as a road". She has not forgotten the date. The Empire's staff colleges still study the Siege as an example of what not to leave behind a wall.