Query: The Battle of the Trebia was an American Civil War battle.

Relevant passages:
Battle of the Trebia <=SEP=> The Battle of the Trebia ( or Trebbia ) was the first major battle of the Second Punic War , fought between the Carthaginian forces of Hannibal and the Roman Republic in December of 218 BC , on or around the winter solstice . It was a resounding Roman defeat with heavy losses , and yet some 10,000 and more Romans , over 2.5 legions , survived on the field and retreated in order to Placentia ( Piacenza ) . In this battle , Hannibal got the better of the Romans by exercising the careful and innovative planning for which he was famous . The impetuous and short-sighted opposing general , the consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus , allowed himself to be provoked into a frontal assault under physically difficult circumstances and failed to see that he was being led into a trap .   The battle took place in the flat country of the Province of Piacenza on the left bank of the Trebbia River , a shallow , braided stream , not far south from its confluence ( from the south ) with the Po river . The battle is named for the river . Although the precise location is not known for certain , it is generally accepted as being visible from the Via Emilia , now paralleled by highway A21/E70 and a railroad trunk line , all of which come from Piacenza , a contemporaneously placed Roman colony ( though perhaps on an existing settlement ) , and cross the river north of where the Romans did in the battle . The area is possibly in the comune of Rottofreno at its main settlement , San Nicolò a Trebbia , in the vicinity of the coordinates given at the head of this article.Over the course of more than two millennia the precise configuration of the Trebbia and its streams as well as that of the Po have changed geologically . Although the location of Placentia is believed to be roughly the same , the original surfaces are under new layers of sediment and the locations of the bends , the depths and widths of the streams all have changed . Construction in the area also has been extensive , not to mention the turning over of the soil and obliteration of features by heavy bombing when the bridges and rail lines were destroyed in World War II . The Trebbia and the Po are currently heavily diked .

Second Punic War <=SEP=> The Second Punic War , also referred to as The Hannibalic War and ( by the Romans ) the War Against Hannibal , lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean . This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic and its allied Italic socii , with the crucial participation of Numidian-Berber armies and tribes on both sides . The two states fought three major wars with each other over the course of their existence . They are called the `` Punic Wars '' because Rome 's name for Carthaginians was Poeni , derived from Poenici ( earlier form of Punici ) , a reference to the founding of Carthage by Phoenician settlers .   The war was to a considerable extent initiated by Carthage at Saguntum in Spain and is marked by Hannibal 's surprising overland journey and his costly crossing of the Alps , followed by his reinforcement by Gallic allies and crushing victories over Roman armies in the Battle of the Trebia and the ambush at Trasimene . In the following year ( 216 ) , Hannibal 's army defeated the Romans again , this time in southern Italy at Cannae . In consequence of these defeats , many Roman allies went over to Carthage , prolonging the war in Italy for over a decade . Against Hannibal 's skill on the battlefield , the Romans deployed the Fabian strategy . Roman forces were more capable in siege warfare than the Carthaginians and recaptured all of the major cities that had joined the enemy , as well as defeating a Carthaginian attempt to reinforce Hannibal at the Battle of the Metaurus . In the meantime , in Iberia , which served as the main source of manpower for the Carthaginian army , a second Roman expedition under Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major took Carthago Nova by assault and ended Carthaginian rule over Iberia in the Battle of Ilipa . The final engagement was the Battle of Zama in Africa between Scipio Africanus and Hannibal , resulting in the latter 's defeat and the imposition of harsh peace conditions on Carthage ( Carthaginian peace ) , which ceased to be a major power and became a Roman client-state .   A sideshow of this war was the indecisive First Macedonian War in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Ionian Sea .   All battles mentioned in the introduction are ranked among the most costly traditional battles of human history ; in addition , there were a few successful ambushes of armies that also ended in their annihilation .