Battle of Segale - The Engagement

The Engagement

His father and most important supporter, Negus Mikael of Wollo, was slow to march south upon the capital and restore Iyasu to the throne, not moving until the middle of October. Yet, when he did, the Negus crushed the troops sent against him. On 18 October, Negus Mikael's troops defeated an advance force of 11,000 men in Menz and killed their leader, Ras Lul Seged. Under the command of the regent Ras Tafari (the future Emperor Haile Selassie) and Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, a force estimated to number between 25,000 and 35,000 marched north to do battle and the two armies came to face each other at Segale on the 22nd.

Afterwards, the then Ras Tafari stated that because "bloodshed among Ethiopians themselves is extremely saddening, I arranged that monks from the monasteries of Debre Libanos and Zequala ... come with their crosses to request Negus Mikael to go back to Wollo without making war." Negus Mikael is said to have simply arrested these emissaries, ignoring their message.

Negus Mikael opened the battle early in the morning, but his artillery was put out of commission by his opponent and his machine-gunners ran out of ammunition. Aleqa Gebre-Igziabiher Elyas, drawing from eyewitness accounts, describes the battle opening with a charge of Negus Mikael's infantry and cavalry. However, the Shewan troops had been trained to fire their rifles in rows and from the prone position, allowing them to fire in quick succession "and felled like leaves." Then the Shewans attacked, "and they pursued the army of Wello and took captives. And particularly the Shewan cavalry went from valley to valley" and overran Negus Mikael's camp." At 3:25 pm, one of the Shewan officers telephoned to the capital that they had won the battle. "The dead are very numerous on both sides." Aleqa Gebre-Igziabiher Elyas explains one cause for this bloodshed was that the two sides did not differ in dress or insignia, and could only distinguish each other by their passwords, which were not always well known to the soldiers. Bahru Zewde succinctly comments: "The Wallo forces were defeated. Negus Mikael was captured. The coup was now sanctioned by blood."