by the allied armies of Great Britain and Holland under the Duke of
Marlborough, Aug. 2, 1704.

Battle of Pultowa, the Swedish army under Charles XII, defeated by the
Russians under Peter the Great, July 8, 1709. Victory of the American
army under General Gates over the British under General Burgoyne at
Saratoga, Oct. 17, 1777.

Battle of Valmy where the allied armies of Prussia and Austria were
defeated by the French under Marshal Kellerman. Sept. 20, 1792.

Battle of Waterloo, the allied forces of the British and Prussians
defeated the French under Napoleon, the final overthrow of the great
commander, June 18, 1815.

These battles are selected as decisive, because of the important
consequences that followed them. Few students of history, probably,
would agree with Prof. Creasy, in restricting the list as he does.
Many other conflicts might be noted, fraught with great importance to
the human race, and unquestionably "decisive" in their nature; as,
for instance, the victory of Sobieski over the Turkish army at Vienna,
Sept. 12, 1683. Had the Poles and Austrians been defeated there, the
Turkish general might readily have fulfilled his threat "to stable his
horses in the Church of St. Peter's at Rome," and all Western Europe
would, no doubt, have been devastated by the ruthless and bloodthirsty
Ottomans. Of important and decisive battles since that of Waterloo
we may mention in our own Civil War those of Gettysburg, by which the
invasion of the North was checked, and at Chattanooga, Nov. 23 and 25,
1863, by which the power of the Confederates in the southwest received
a deadly blow.