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"Osgiliath was the scene of some of the earliest fighting in the War of the Ring. In T.A. 3018 skirmishes broke out as the Black Captain tested the strength of Gondor's outer defences, by occupying East Osgiliath and trying to capture the Western half in addition. Boromir, son of Denethor II, led a force that managed to destroy its last stone bridge and therefore halted the advance. After Boromir's departure and subsequent death, his younger brother Faramir took command, but the men of Gondor were hard pressed to prevent the enemy from breaking through at Osgiliath and were eventually driven out by the forces of Mordor shortly before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields."

The Battle of Osgiliath was a prelude to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Background

Prior to this event, Sauron had regained all his military strength and was prepared to attack Middle-earth. He first planned to attack his most powerful enemy, the land of Gondor. But in order to destroy Gondor's capital, Minas Tirith, he first needed to capture Osgiliath, Gondor's former capital city, strategically positioned on the Anduin, the Great River. Fords across the river were located in Osgiliath (half of the city was located on each side of the river) that were the only path a large army could cross the Anduin for hundreds of miles up or downstream (the crossing was also possible at Cair Andros or Pelargir, but Osgiliath was the most direct). If captured, Sauron could freely move his main army across the river and to the primary target of his strategy in the war, Minas Tirith.

The battle to control the ruins of Osgiliath had actually been fought, on and off, for over a century since the fall of Ithilien to Mordor. Minas Tirith was surrounded by the Rammas Echor, a fortified wall encircling the Pelennor Fields and meeting up with Osgiliath, where the Causeway Forts were built and garrisoned, though Osgiliath itself remained in ruins. This outwall fell into disrepair as the kingdom declined.

A renewed offensive by Mordor to take the city had begun in June 3018. The Eastern half of the city soon fell to the Orcs, but they were pushed back from the western bank by Boromir who was able to destroy the last standing bridge in the city which connected the two banks of the river. This temporarily halted Mordor's offensive for the time, with Gondor possessing the West of the city and Mordor the East. This lull in Mordor's offensive was probably due to the fact that the attack was mostly a probe of Gondor's defences rather than an all out attack. During this break in heavy fighting Boromir left Gondor to seek counsel at Rivendell about a dream he and his brother shared about Isildur's Bane; he would never return.

During this time, Faramir, Boromir's brother, led several Ranger attacks deep into Mordor-occupied Ithilien, ambushing enemy armies moving to the Black Gate; Frodo and Sam stumbled into one such attack on a group of Haradrim.

The battle

When the Great Signal from Mordor went up and another answered from Minas Morgul, the War of the Ring properly began (although Isengard had been fighting before this and Sauron had been pursuing his other fronts to the north). Thus the Battle of Osgiliath was the first battle of the war in the south.

Before Mordor's assault, the Steward Denethor ordered Faramir to lead a force out of Minas Tirith to reinforce the garrison. Gandalf also went back and forth from Minas Tirith to Osgiliath, aiding Faramir and escorting the wounded. However, Mordor was prepared. Months beforehand, the Orcs in East Osgiliath had been secretly constructing massive numbers of boats and rafts, and swelled by reinforcements they swarmed across the River Anduin to the Gondorian positions on the other bank.

After long and heavy fighting the troops under Faramir's command were forced to retreat, first to the Causeway Forts on the Rammas Echor where they delayed the enemy at a great loss. The orcs blasted through the wall and the men pulled back to Minas Tirith itself. Faramir himself was badly wounded in the retreat, when a poisoned Southron arrow pierced him while he fought off a mounted champion of the South; more severe damage was done by the Black Breath of the Nazgûl, but Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth led a cavalry charge ordered by Denethor to rescue the rearguard and routed the enemy temporarily. In the meantime, the Orcs made makeshift repairs to several destroyed bridges. The main combined army of Mordor then arrived, formed from those that Frodo saw leaving Minas Morgul, but this was "but one and not the greatest of the hosts that Mordor now sent forth": a far greater host that had massed at the Black Gate joined them at Osgiliath, and the combined forces now entered the western bank of Osgiliath. More also came from the fords at Cair Andros, which was recently captured, but they would not reach Minas Tirith until later.

With Osgiliath now completely in the hands of Mordor, the vast army of Sauron marched from the city and surrounded Minas Tirith, beginning the siege of Gondor and leading directly into the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

In 3014, Saruman began using his influence to weaken the King, Théoden, as part of a campaign to invade or take over the kingdom. In 3019, he launched a great invasion of Rohan, with victory in the two first battles (at the Fords of Isen; Théoden's son, Théodred was killed during these attacks) and defeat at the Battle of the Hornburg, where the Huorns came to the aid of the Rohirrim.