During the advance of 5th UNION army into Iran, the 6th army had taken up blocking positions due west of the main road to Tehran about 200 miles north of the border. The army faced due west and was positioned to block any attempt by Syria to attack the UNION forces from the flank. On 5th January 1886 UNION cavalry patrolling to the east located a substantial Syrian force moving rapidly east towards the main UNION positions. In the afternoon of 6th January the leading elements of the Syrian army located the UNION front line and launched an immediate assault.
Having been warned by the cavalry of the impending arrival of the Syrians the UNION army was well prepared and initiated a massive artillery bombardment on the advancing Syrians. Syrian forces were deployed into the attack as they arrived , consequentially the Syrian assault took the form of a series of human waves. As each wave moved forward it was met with a devastating artillery barrage. By dusk no Syrian soldier had got closer than 500 yards to the UNION front line and the majority lay dead or wounded across a mile wide battlefield.
Next morning the Syrians launched a more coordinated series of attacks but once again these were broken up by very heavy UNION artillery fire. By the end of the day the Syrians were in full retreat. UNION casualties were 27 wounded only. Subsequent battlefield clearance operations by UNION medical and Pioneer details buried over 14,000 Syrians and treated another 3000 wounded most of whom could not be saved and were just given morphine and left to die. Other than UNION cavalry who briefly followed the retreating Syrians, no attempt was made to pursue the Syrians. Another Arab nation had learned the folly of attacking the UNION army.
As the 5th army continued its withdrawal from Iran the 6th army covered the retreat so that by 2nd March all UNION troops had left Iranian territory. The scorched earth policy had been carried out efficiently in Iran. All buildings, trees, crops, bridges and wells had been destroyed and all domestic animals had been captured and removed by Mexican cowboys. The civilian population had been cleared from the southern part of the country and was now crowded into the area between Tehran and the Iraqi border in conditions of starvation and destitution. Tehran itself was a smoldering, uninhabitable shambles.
The UNION armies crossed the border back into Mexico and quickly entrained for their home bases leaving only the regular UNION garrison forces to monitor the border by means of cavalry patrols into southern Iran to ensure the area remained clear. Although the UNION army had secured another great victory and had again proven its power, the success of the campaign was over shadowed by the massacre of Iranian civilians on 19th December 1885. Not only had this event caused serious doubts to be expressed by the UNION's allies but more importantly, the people of the UNION were asking why war with other nations apparently required the brutal destruction of the civilian population of those countries. For the first time ever the nation's admiration of the army was being challenged. A rethink of the UNION army's strategic approach to war was needed.
In the meantime with the total breakdown of the Iranian government, the appalling defeat of the army and the desperate condition of the civilian population, the Iranian people became violently opposed to the old religious led regime. The only ray of hope for the future lay with the small but disciplined regular forces commanded by General Suleiman.
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