Dervenakia

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Dervenakia (the correct form is in the plural) is a small hamlet in the prefecture of Corinth, in the NE Peloponnesus (southern Greece); the name is derived from the Turkish word derven, meaning a mountain pass. Between the 26th and 28th of July, 1822, the nearby pass of that name was defended by the Greek revolutionary leader Theodoros Kolokotronis with some 2,300 irregular troops against the advance of the Turkish general, Mahmout Dramali Pasha, who was moving south with 24,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry. The Greek War of Independence, with its centre in the Peloponnesus and the capital city of Tripolis, was just over a year old; had Dramali succeeded in breaking through and into the plain of Tripolis, the revolution would undoubtedly have been doomed.

Main article: Battle at Dervenakia

In the event, while the Turkish advance guard, consisting of about a thousand Albanian skirmishers, managed to slip through, the main body was brought to a halt and suffered a major defeat at the hands of Kolokotronis’ men; Dramalis’ expeditionary corps was effectively destroyed, and the Greeks given a much-needed breathing space. On this occasion at least, the victory was a vindication of the Greek irregulars’ tactics, which consisted of firing their long muskets (kariofilia) at a distance from behind small individual stone fortifications, then slowly drifting uphill into the glens in the face of counter-attack, keeping up a steady and relatively accurate fire as they went. Faced with this war of movement and attrition, and unable to bring their cavalry properly into action in the very broken terrain, the Turks were steadily ground down without ever managing to inflict serious casualties on their enemies.