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Spanish Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Spanish Succession, War of the, 1701–14, last of the general European wars caused by the efforts of King Louis XIV to extend French power. The conflict in America corresponding to the period of the ...

Vimeiro

(Encyclopedia)Vimeiro vēmāˈrō [key], village, Lisboa dist., W central Portugal, in Estremadura. It was the scene of a battle (1808) of the Peninsular War, in which Wellington defeated Junot, thus ending the fir...

Napier, Sir William Francis Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Napier, Sir William Francis Patrick nāˈpēr, nəpērˈ [key], 1785–1860, British general and historian; brother of Sir Charles James Napier. He served in the Peninsular War and wrote a famous and ...

Duane, James Chatham

(Encyclopedia)Duane, James Chatham, 1824–97, American army engineer, b. Schenectady, N.Y., grad. Union College, 1844, and West Point, 1848; grandson of James Duane. In the Civil War he organized the engineer equi...

Bailén

(Encyclopedia)Bailén bīlānˈ [key], city, Jaén prov., S Spain, in Andalusia. In 1808, early in the Peninsular War, a French army was surrounded and forced to surrender near Bailén by the Spanish under Castaño...

Polish Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Polish Succession, War of the, 1733–35. On the death (1733) of Augustus II of Poland, Stanislaus I sought to reascend the Polish throne. He was supported by his son-in-law, Louis XV of France. The r...

Ross, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Ross, Robert, 1766–1814, British general. He served against the French in the Netherlands, in Egypt, and in the Peninsular War. In the War of 1812 he defeated a U.S. force at Bladensburg, and on the...

Magruder, John Bankhead

(Encyclopedia)Magruder, John Bankhead məgro͞oˈdər [key], 1810–71, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. Winchester, Va. His reckless daring in the Mexican War won him quick promotion in the army. ...

Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace

(Encyclopedia)Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, at Stanford, Calif. It was established in 1919 as the Hoover War Library by Herbert Hoover to extend his collection of documents of World War I, but i...

Elvas

(Encyclopedia)Elvas ĕlˈvəsh [key], town, E central Portugal, in Altro Alentejo, near the Spanish border....