A pitched battle is a battle where both sides choose to fight at a chosen location and time and where either side has the option to disengage either before the battle starts, or shortly after the first armed exchanges.

A pitched battle is not a chance encounter such as a skirmish, or where one side is forced to fight at a time not of their choosing such as happens in a siege. For example the Battle of Edgehill was the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg started by chance as a skirmish, but as both generals chose to reinforce their positions instead of disengaging, they turned a skirmish into a pitched battle.

Battles by type | Military strategy

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