> [!info] Metadata > - publication:: [[The Iceberg]] > - related:: [[successful last stands]] > - link:: [Last Stands](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/last-stands>) %% ( [[2022-06-27 Last Stands]] ) %% > - got a tip about [admiral yi in korea](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5C45ST5eQr8Sn3vWc7YgLBf) video from extra credits that's pretty good > - also: masada in israel, snake island in Ukraine > I'm a big fan of Tanya Huff's _Confederation_ series. _The Better Part of Valor_ is one of the few books that my husband and I both enjoy, and I was delighted to learn that it was based on real history — specifically, the Battle of Rorke's Drift. But history has _lots_ of "impossible defense" last stands, so I went looking for more examples to use as inspiration, since it's pretty hard to write epic fantasy without at least one big epic battle. ## Quick Facts * One of the most symbolic last stands was that of [Emperor Constantine XI](https://dbpedia.org/page/Constantine_XI_Palaiologos) Palaiologos of Byzantium. He died fighting during the [Fall of Constantinople](https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1180/1453-the-fall-of-constantinople/), the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. It was the destruction of the last remnant of the Roman Empire 1,500 years after its establishment.   * The [Great Siege of Malta](https://www.historyhit.com/a-turning-point-for-europe-the-siege-of-malta-1565/) is an example of a last stand which didn’t end in defeat. The Ottoman Turks tried to capture the island in 1565 from the Knights of St John. They would have almost certainly died fighting to a man but after four months a Spanish expedition arrived and [changed the course of the battle](https://www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/great-siege-malta-1565-crusaders-last-stand-when-what/) in the Christians’ favour.   * At the [Battle of Myeongnyang](https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Myeongnyang) (1597) 13 Korean ships were confronted by a Japanese armada of over 300 warships. Despite the terrible odds, the Koreans managed to sink 30 Japanese vessels before withdrawing without any losses themselves.  * The [Battle of the Alamo](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/remembering-the-alamo-101880149/) in 1836 is one of the most famous last stands in American history, when just over 200 Texans held off thousands of Mexicans for two weeks. Despite the orders of the Mexican General, Antonio Santa de Anna, to spare no one as many as twenty non-combatants [survived the final assault](https://www.history.com/news/who-survived-the-alamo). * The [Siege of Jadotville](https://historyofyesterday.com/the-irish-thermopylae-90288bad67bb) saw 155 Irish soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in the Congo [hold off an onslaught of 3,000 mercenaries](https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-40365881.html) on the mining town of Jadotville for five days. They were eventually forced to surrender, though the attackers suffered huge numbers of casualties and wounded before they took the town. ## The Battle of Rorke’s Drift For those who don't know (which I imagine is most!), the Battle of Rorke's Drift involved a little over 150 British soldiers hold off an army of thousands of Zulu warriors in 1879, at the start of [the Anglo-Zulu War](https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Timeline-of-the-AngloZulu-War/). The Zulus were trying to seize the mission station of Rorke’s Drift. It After [ten hours of engagement](https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/defence-rorkes-drift), hundreds of Zulus were dead, compared to fewer than twenty British casualties. The Zulu broke off the siege and left, although they were actually very close to victory. The British had 20,000 rounds of ammunition when the siege started and were down to less than 900 rounds when the Zulus abandoned the battle. The British went on to win the war. ## The 300 Spartans at Thermopylae Surely the foundational story for a last stand is that of the 300 Spartans who held off the advancing Persian armies of Emperor Xerxes at the [Pass of Thermopylae](https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/leonidas) in northern Greece. As Herodotus, the Greek historian who recounted the events of [the Persian Wars](https://www.worldhistory.org/Persian_Wars/), depicted it, the Persian hoard was so vast that the Spartans were informed their enemies’ arrows would blot out the sun, to which one Spartan wit commented that [it would be good to fight in the shade](https://sites.psu.edu/thefinalstand/2017/03/03/then-we-shall-fight-in-the-shade/). The Spartans nearly all died, but they did enough to slow the Persian advance that the other Greek states had made preparations to resist them before they reached central Greece. ## The Battle of Karbala The [Battle of Karbala](https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1645/battle-of-karbala/) on the 10th of October 680 in what is now central Iraq was not a great last stand from a military perspective, but a highly symbolic one in Islamic history. During it an army of approximately 4,000 troops of the Umayyad Caliph Yazid I attacked a small party of seventy Islamic warriors led by Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and his direct successor. This was part of a civil war for control of the [Arab Caliphate](https://www.worldhistory.org/Islamic_Caliphates/) between the descendants of Muhammad and the powerful generals. In the battle at Karbala Husayn and his followers were quickly overcome and killed, but the event is honoured by Shi’a and Sunni Muslims alike today as the [Day of Ashura](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-16047713). ## Custer’s Last Stand Surely Custer’s Last Stand at the [Battle of Little Bighorn](https://www.history.com/news/little-bighorn-battle-facts-causes) in 1876 is one of the most notorious last stands in history. It was part of the [Great Sioux War of 1876](http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.war.044) as the Lakota Indians and Sioux tried to resist American encroachments into the Great Plains. Custer’s 7th Cavalry Regiment was comprehensively defeated. But maybe it wasn’t such a surprise. Custer, after all, had [finished bottom of his class](https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-george-armstrong-custer) at West Point Military Academy and was only made an officer because the Union was in dire need of them during the American Civil War.