On the night of 18-19 December 1813, 562 British regulars and Canadian and native militia under Colonel John Murray crossed the Niagara River from Canada and took the American garrison at Fort Niagara by surprise. Murray's forces won the short but fierce battle, capturing the fort at bayonet point.

17 December 1812: The 29th Bulletin of the Grande Armée was published in Paris, revealing the full extent of the French army's annihilation in Russia to the French public. It shocked France and the rest of Europe, as previous bulletins had minimised losses or exaggerated victories.

17 December 1807: The Milan Decree was issued by Napoleon in response to the British Orders in Council (1807), under which ships from any country trading with France could be seized by the Royal Navy. The Decree, an expansion of the Continental System, intensified the economic war against Britain.

In December 1793, the 79th (Highland-Cameron Volunteers) Regiment of Foot paraded for the first time at Fort William in Lochaber. A Letter of Service authorising the raising of the regiment had been issued by the War Office on 17 August, with Alan Cameron of Erracht as major commandant.

15 December 1805: In Vienna, France and Prussia signed the Treaty of Schönbrunn. Under this agreement, Prussia was to enter an offensive-defensive alliance with France, cede certain territories, and in return acquire Hanover.

14 December 1794: The French began the third and ultimately unsuccessful siege of Mainz, a major fortress city on the Rhine River during the War of the First Coalition. The siege would last until October 1795 when Austrian forces launched an attack on the besiegers and drove them off.

13 December 1812: The battered remnants of Napoleon's Grande Armée finally crossed the Niemen River, the border between Russia and the Duchy of Warsaw, marking the end of Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia.

12 December 1812: The remnants of Napoleon's Grande Armée arrived at Kovno (modern-day Kaunas) in a state of severe disarray. Their arrival was marked by a fresh attack from Russian Cossacks, which triggered a widespread panic among the already demoralised soldiers.

11 December 1807: The Siege of Graudenz concluded with a Prussian victory as French and allied forces abandoned the blockade after nearly 11 months. The French finally abandoned the siege once the borders between Prussia and the newly created Duchy of Warsaw were officially defined.

The Battle of Port Louis was a naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars that took place on 11 December 1799 off Port Louis, then on Île de France (modern-day Mauritius). The 74-gun HMS Tremendous and the 50-gun HMS Adamant intercepted the 40-gun Preneuse and destroyed her.

The Treaty of Valençay, signed on 11 December 1813, was Napoleon's attempt to end the Peninsular War by restoring Ferdinand VII to the Spanish throne and securing Spanish neutrality or support against Britain and Portugal. It failed as the Spanish Cortes repudiated it and Ferdinand reneged.

During the War of the Fourth Coalition, the Electorate of Saxony signed the Peace of Posen with France on 10 December 1806. This treaty brought Saxony into the Confederation of the Rhine, an alliance of German states under Napoleon's influence, and transformed the Elector of Saxony into a king.

10 December 1792: The trial of the former French king (referred to as Citizen Louis Capet) opened before the National Convention. He was brought before the convention the following day, charged with high treason and conspiracy against public liberty.

10 December 1813: At the battle of Sehested in Holstein, a Danish army commanded by Prince Frederik of Hesse defeated a Coalition army of Swedish, Prussian, Russian, British, Hanoverian, and Mecklenburg troops led by Major-General Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn.

Detail from John Wood's 1825 map of Rothesay, Isle of Bute, Scotland, showing the five-gun battery guarding Rothesay harbour and anchorage. In 1799, five 18-pounder guns were mounted at what is now known as Battery Place, just along from the site of an earlier Cromwellian battery.

9 December 1797: The French Army of Germany was officially divided by a Directory decree into two distinct field armies, the Army of Mainz (Armée de Mayence) and the Army of the Rhine (Armée du Rhin). It followed the Treaty of Campo Formio and the consolidation of forces after the Rhine campaign.

9-13 December 1813: General Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington's British, Portuguese and Spanish forces defeated Marshal Nicolas Soult's French army in a series of battles near the city of Bayonne in southwest France.

8 December 1796: General Louis Lazare Hoche, preparing for the French expedition to Ireland, expressed his extreme dissatisfaction with the state of his fleet to the Directory. His dissatisfaction was primarily aimed at the naval command, and specifically Vice-Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse.

7 December 1813: A Swedish Hussar Regiment commanded by Bror Cederström clashed with Danish, Polish and German forces led by Prince Frederik of Hesse, at the Battle of Bornhöved during the Dano-Swedish War (1813–1814), which was part of the wider War of the Sixth Coalition.

7 December 1815: Marshal Michel Ney was executed by firing squad in Paris for high treason. After Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo and the second Bourbon Restoration, Ney was tried by the Chamber of Peers. He was condemned on 6 December and executed the following day near the Luxembourg Gardens.

6 December 1793: General Jacques François Dugommier, the commanding officer at the Siege of Toulon, sent a letter to the National Convention praising the young artillery commander Napoleon Bonaparte for his conduct and plans.

6 December 1803: Five French warships, Republic, Temeraire, Belle Louise, Active and Sally Warner, which were attempting to escape the Royal Navy blockade of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), were seized by Royal Navy warships during the Haitian Revolution.

5 December 1812: Napoleon abandoned his disintegrating army during the disastrous retreat from Russia to return to Paris, fearing political instability and needing to shore up his power base amidst rumours of a coup, leaving the remnants of his Grande Armée under Joachim Murat.

4 December 1808: Madrid surrendered to Napoleon's forces after a short siege during the Peninsular War. Following the city's capitulation, Napoleon issued decrees abolishing feudal rights, the Spanish Inquisition, and reducing the number of monasteries in Spain.

4 December 1805: Napoleon met with Austrian Emperor Francis II to agree upon an armistice after the decisive French victory at the Battle of Austerlitz two days earlier. This meeting effectively ended the War of the Third Coalition and led to the Treaty of Pressburg later that month.

The Battle of Somosierra was fought on 30 November 1808, during the Peninsular War, resulting in a crucial Franco-Polish victory that opened the road for Napoleon's forces to capture Madrid. The battle is famous for the charge of the Polish light cavalry against heavily fortified Spanish positions.

Painting of French troops entering Lisbon on 30 November 1807, by an alleged first-hand witness. The Portuguese royal family, along with many nobles and government officials, had boarded ships on 29 November and sailed for the Portuguese colony of Brazil.

French frigate Pomone fighting HMS Alceste and Active during the Action of 29 November 1811 by French painter Pierre-Julien Gilbert.

Jan Hoynck van Papendrecht's painting of Dutch soldiers covering the retreat of Napoleon's Imperial army over the river Berezina (26 to 29 November 1812) across bridges built by Dutch engineers, during the retreat from Russia in 1812.

Grand Tactician: Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815), the second wargame in the Grand Tactician series, has been announced.