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See also:CAMPAIGNS IN THE
See also:NETHERLANDS
The See also:year 1793 opened disastrously for the See also:Republic
.
As a consequence of See also:Jemappes and Valmy, See also:France had taken the offensive both in See also:Belgium, which had been overrun by See also:Dumouriez's See also:army, and in the See also:Rhine countries, where See also:Custine had preached the new See also:gospel to the sentimental and See also:half-discontented Hessians and Mainzers
.
But the See also:execution of See also:
There, however, they found a general
.
Picot (See also:comte de) Dampierre was a regimental officer of the old army, who, in spite of his vanity and extravagance, possessed real See also:loyalty to the new See also:order of things, and brilliant See also:personal courage
.
At the darkest See also:hour he seized the reins without orders and without reference to seniority, and began to reconstruct the force and the spirit of the shattered army by See also:wise See also:administration and dithyrambic proclamations
.
Moreover, he withdrew it well behind Valenciennes out of reach of a second See also:reverse
.
The region of See also:Dunkirk and See also:Cassel, the See also:camp of La Madeleine near See also:Lille, and Bouchain were made the rallying points of the various See also:groups, the See also:principal army being at the last-named
.
But the See also:blow of Neerwinden had struck deep, and the army was for See also:long incapable of service, what with the general distrust, the misconduct of the newer battalions, and the discontent of the old See also:
I See also:desire to see
a See also:stable See also:government, with a chief, king or other, with whom
we can treat." Soon, however, these personal negotiations
were stopped by the See also:emperor, and the See also:idea of restoring
See also:Assembly order in France became little more than a pretext
of the
See also:Ames. for a general intrigue amongst the confederate See also:powers,
each seeking to aggrandize itself at France's expense
.
" If you wish to See also:deal with the French," observed Dumouriez ironically to Coburg, " talk ` constitution.' You may See also:beat them but you cannot subdue them." And their subjugation was becoming less and less possible as the days went on and men
'For the following operations see See also:map in See also:SPANISH See also:SUCCESSION See also:WAR.talked of the See also:partition of France as a question of the moment like the partition of See also:Poland—a pretension that even the emigres resented
.
Coburg's See also:plan of campaign was limited to the See also:objects acceptable to all the Allies alike
.
He aimed at the See also:conquest of a first-class fortress—Lille or Valenciennes—and chiefly for this See also:reason
.
War meant to the burgher of See also:Germany and the 'Netherlands a See also:special See also:form of haute politique with which it was neither his business nor his inclination to meddle
.
He had no more compunction, therefore, in selling his worst goods at the best See also:price to the army commissaries than in doing so to his See also:ordinary customers
.
It followed that, owing to the distance between See also:Vienna and Valenciennes, and the exorbitant prices charged by carters and See also:horse-owners, a See also:mere concentration of Austrian troops at the latter See also:place cost as much as a campaign, and the transport expenses See also:rose to such a figure that Coburg's first See also:duty was to find a strong place to serve as a See also:market for the See also:country-See also:side and a See also:depot for the supplies See also:purchased, and to have it as near as possible to the front to See also:save the hire of vehicles
.
As for the other governments which Coburg served as best he could, the See also:object of the war was material concessions, and it would be easy to negotiate for the cession of Dunkirk and Valenciennes when the See also:British and Austrian See also:colours already waved there
.
The Allies, therefore, instead of following up their advantage over the French See also: This was followed by skirmishes around Valenciennes, so unfavourable to the French that their See also:officers See also:felt it would be madness to venture far beyond the support of the fortress guns . But the representatives on See also:mission ordered Dampierre, who was re-organizing his army at Bouchain, to advance and occupy Famars camp, See also:east of Valenciennes, and soon afterwards, disregarding his protests, bade him relieve Conde at all See also:costs . His skill, though not commensurate with his personal courage and devotion, sufficed to give him the idea of attacking Coburg on the right See also:bank of the See also:Scheldt while See also:Clerfayt, with the corps covering the See also:siege of Conde, was on the left, and then to turn against Clerfayt —in fact, to operate on interior lines—but it was far from being adequate to the task of beating either with the disheartened forces he commanded . On the 1st of May, while Clerfayt was held in check by a very vigorous demonstration, Coburg's positions See also:west of Quievrain were attacked by Dampierre himself . The French won some See also:local successes by force of See also:numbers and surprise, but the Allies recovered themselves, thanks chiefly to the address and skill of See also:Colonel Mack,and drove the Republicans in disorder to their entrenchments . Dampierre's discouragement now became desperation,and, urged on by the representatives (who, be it said, had exposed their own lives freely enough in the See also:action), he attacked Clerfayt on the 8th at Raismes . The troops fought far better in the See also:woods and hamlets west of the Scheldt than they had done in the plains to the east . But in the See also:heat of the action Dampierre, becoming again the brilliant soldier that he had been before responsibility stifled him, risked and lost his See also:life in leading a storming party, and his men retired sullenly, though this See also:time in See also:good order, to Valenciennes . Two days later the French gave up the open field and retired into Valenciennes . Dampierre's remains were by a See also:vote of the See also:Convention ordered to be deposited in the See also:Pantheon . But he was a " ci-devant " See also:noble, the demagogues denounced him as a traitor, and the only See also:honour finally paid to the See also:man who had tided over the See also:weeks of greatest danger was the placing of his bust, in the. See also:strange See also:company of those of See also:Brutus and See also:Marat, in the chamber of deputies . Another pause followed,Coburg awaiting the British contingent under the See also:duke of See also:York, and the Republicans endeavouring to assimilate the reinforcements of conscripts, for the most See also:part " undesirables," who now arrived . See also:Mutiny and denunciations augmented the confusion in the French camp . Plan of campaign there was none, save a See also:resolution to stay at Valenciennes in the See also:hope of finding an opportunity of relieving Conde and to create diversions elsewhere by expeditions from Dunkirk, Lille and See also:Sedan . These of course came to nothing, and before they had even started, Coburg, resuming the offensive, had stormed the lines of Famars (May 24), whereupon the French army retired to Bouchain, leaving not only Conde but also Valenciennes to resist as best they could . The central point of the new positions about Bouchain was called See also:Caesar's Camp . Here, surrounded by streams and marshes, the French generals thought that their troops were secure from the See also:rush of the dreaded Austrian See also:cavalry, and Mack himself shared their See also:opinion . Custine now took command of the abjectly dispirited army, the See also:fourth See also:change of command within two months . His first task was to See also:institute a severe discipline, and his See also:prestige was so great that his mere See also:threat of death sentences for offenders pro- duced the desired effect . As to operations, he wished for a concentration of all possible forces from other parts of the frontier towards Valenciennes, even if necessary at the cost of sacrificing his own conquest of See also:Mainz . But after he had induced the govern- ment to assent to this, the generals of the numerous other armies refused to give up their troops, and on the 17th of See also:June the idea was abandoned in view of the growing seriousness of the Vendean insurrection (see See also:VENDEE) . Custine, therefore, could do no more than continue the See also:work of reorganization . Military operations were few . Coburg, who had all this time succeeded in remaining concentrated, now found himself compelled to extend leftwards towards See also:Flanders,2 for Custine had infused some See also:energy into the scattered groups of the Republicans in the region of See also:Douai, Lille and Dunkirk—and during this See also:respite the Paris See also:Jacobins sent to the See also:guillotine both Custine and his successor La Marliere before See also:July was ended . Both were " ci-devant " nobles and, so far as is ascertainable, neither was guilty of anything worse than attempts to make his orders respected by, and himself popular with, the soldiers . By this time, owing to the innumerable denunciations and arrests,the confusion in the Army of the See also:North was at its height, and no further attempt was made either to relieve Valenciennes and Conde, or to See also:press forward from Lille and Dunkirk . Conde, starved out as Coburg desired, capitulated on the loth of June, and the Austrians, who had done their work as soldiers, but were filled with pity for their suffering and distracted enemies, marched in with See also:food for the See also:women and See also:children . Valenciennes, under the energetic General See also:Ferrand, held out bravely until the See also:fire of the Allies became intolerable, and then the See also:civil See also:population began to See also:plot treachery, and to See also:wear the See also:Bourbon See also:cockade in the open See also:street .. Ferrand and the representatives with him found themselves obliged to surrender to the duke of York, who commanded the siege corps, on the 28th of July, after rejecting the first draft of a See also:capitulation sent in by the duke and threatening to continue the See also:defence to the See also:bitter end . Impossible as this was known to be—for Valenciennes seemed to have become a royalist See also:town—Ferrand's soldierly bearing carried the See also:day, and See also:honourable terms were arranged . The duke even offered to assist the See also:garrison in repressing disorder . Shortly after this the See also:wreck of the field army was forced to evacuate Caesar's Camp after an unimportant action (Aug . 7–8) and retired on See also:Arras . By this they gave up the direct defence of the Paris road, but placed themselves in a " flank position " relatively to it, and secured to themselves the resources and reinforcements available in the region of Dunkirk - Lille . 1 Coburg refrained from a See also:regular siege of Conde . He wished to See also:pin See also:possession of the fortress in a defensible See also:state, intending to use it as his own depot later in the year . He therefore reduced it by See also:famine . During the siege of Valenciennes the Allies appear to have been supplied from See also:Mons . 2 Henceforth to the end of 1794 both armies were more or less " in See also:cordon," the cordon possessing greater or less See also:density at any particular moment or place, according to the immediate intentions of the respective commanders and the general military situation . Bouchain and See also:Cambrai, Landrecies and Le Quesnoy, were left to their own garrisons . With this ended the second See also:episode of the amazing campaign of 1793 . Military operations were few and spasmodic, on the one side because the Allied statesmen were less concerned with the nebulous See also:common object of restoring order in France than with their several schemes of aggrandisement, on the other owing to the almost incredible confusion of France under the regime of See also:Danton and Marat . The third episode shows little or no change in the force and direction of the allied efforts, but a very great change in France . Thoroughly roused by disaster and now dominated by the furious and bloodthirsty energy of the terrorists, the French See also:people and armies at last set before themselves clear and definite objects to be pursued at all costs . See also:Jean See also:Nicolas Houchard, the next officer appointed to command, had been a heavy cavalry trooper in the Seven Years' War . His See also:face See also:bore the scars of wounds received at See also:Minden, and Houctra .d. his bravery, his stature, his bold and fierce manner, his want of See also:education, seemed to all to betoken the ideal sans-culotte general . But he was nevertheless incapable of leading an army, and knowing this, carefully conformed to the See also:advice of his staff officers Berthelmy and See also:Gay-See also:Vernon, the latter of whom, an exceptionally capable officer, had been Custine's chief of staff and was consequently under suspicion . At one moment, indeed, operations had to be suspended altogether because his papers were seized by the civil authorities, and amongst them were all the confidential memoranda and maps required for the business of headquarters . It was the darkest hour . The Vendeans, the people of See also:Lyons, See also:Marseilles and See also:Toulon, were in open and hitherto successful revolt . Valenciennes had fallen and Coburg's See also:hussar parties pressed forward into the See also:Somme valley . Again the Allies had the decision of the war in their own hands . Coburg,indeed,was still afraid, on See also:Marie Antoinette's See also:account, of forcing the Republicans to extremities, and on military grounds too he thought an advance on Paris hazardous . But, hazardous or not, it would have been attempted but for the See also:English . The duke of York had definite orders from his government to capture Dunkirk—at See also:present a See also:nest of corsairs which interfered with the Channel See also:trade, and in the future, it was hoped, a second See also:Gibraltar—and after the fall of Valenciennes and the capture of Caesar's Camp the English and Hanoverians marched away, via See also:Tournai and See also:Ypres, to besiege the See also:coast fortress . Thereupon the king of Prussia in turn called off his contingent for operations on the See also:middle Rhine . Holland, too, though she maintained her contingent in face of Lille (where it covered Flanders), was not disposed to send it to join the imperialists in an See also:adventure in the See also:heart of France . Coburg, therefore, was brought to a See also:complete standstill, and the See also:scene of the decision was shifted to the See also:district between Lille and the coast . Thither came Carnot, the engineer officer who was in See also:charge of military affairs in the See also:Committee of Public Safety and is known to See also:history as the " Organizer of Victory." His views of the See also:strategy to be pursued indicate either a purely See also:geographical idea of war, which does not square with his later principles and practice, or, as is far more likely, a profound disbelief in the capacity of the Army of the North, as it then stood, to fight a battle, and they went no further than to recommend an inroad into Flanders on the ground that no enemy would be encountered there . This, however, in the event See also:developed into an operation of almost decisive importance, for at the moment of its inception the duke of York was already on the march . Fighting en route a very severe but successful action (Isincelles, Aug . 18) with the French troops encamped near Lille, the Anglo-Hanoverians entered the district—densely intersected with canals and morasses—around Dunkirk and See also:Bergues on the 21st and 22nd . On the right, by way of See also:Furnes, the British moved towards Dunkirk and invested the east front of the weak fortress, while on the left the Hanoverian field See also:marshal v . See also:Freytag moved via See also:Poperinghe on Bergues . The French had a See also:chain of outposts between Furnes and Bergues, but Freytag attacked them resolutely, and the defenders,except a brave handful who stood Fall of Valenciennes . to See also:cross bayonets, fled in all directions . The east front of Bergues was invested on the 23rd, and Freytag spread out his UunkI k. forces to cover the duke of York's attack on Dunkirk, his right being opposite Bergues and his centre at Bambeke, while his left covered the space between Roosbrugge and Ypres with a cordon of posts . Houchard was in despair at the See also:bad conduct of his troops . But one See also:young general, See also:Jourdan, anticipating Houchard's orders, had already brought a strong force from Lille to Cassel, whence he incessantly harried Freytag's posts . Carnot encouraged the garrisons of Dunkirk and Bergues, and caused the sluices to be opened . The moral of the defenders rose rapidly . Houchard prepared to bring up every available man of the Army of the North, and only waited to make up his mind as to the direction in which his attack should be made . The Allies themselves recognized the extreme danger of their position . It was cut in half by the Great Morass, stretches of which extended even to Furnes . Neither Dunkirk nor Bergues could be completely invested owing to the inundations, and Freytag sent a See also:message to King See also:George III. to the effect that if Dunkirk did not surrender in a few days the expedition would be a complete failure . As for the French, they could hardly believe their good See also:fortune . Generals, staff officers and representatives on mission alike were eager for a See also:swift and crushing offensive . " ` Attack' and ` attack in See also:mass' became the See also:shibboleth and the catch-phrase of the camps " (Chuquet), and fortresses and armies on other parts of the frontier were imperiously called upon to See also:supply large drafts for the Army of the North . Gay-Vernon's strategical See also:instinct found expression in a wide-ranging See also:movement designed to secure the See also:absolute annihilation of the duke of York's forces . Beginning with an attack on the Dutch posts north and east of Lille, the army was then to press forward towards Furnes, the left wing holding Freytag's left wing in check, and the right swinging inwards and across the line of See also:retreat of both allied corps . At that moment all men were daring, and the See also:scheme was adopted with See also:enthusiasm . On the 28th of See also:August, consequently, the Dutch posts were attacked and driven away by the See also:mobile forces at Lille, aided by parts of the See also:main army from Arras . But even before they had fired their last shot the Republicans dispersed to See also:plunder and compromised their success . Houchard and Gay-Vernon began to fear that their army would not emerge successfully from the supreme test they were about to impose on it, and from this moment the scheme of destroying the English began to give way to the simpler and safer idea of relieving Dunkirk . The place was so See also:ill-equipped that after a few days' siege it was in extremis, and the political importance of its preservation led not merely the civilian representatives, but even Carnot, to implore Houchard to put an end to the crisis at once . On the 3oth, Cassel, instead of Ypres, was designated as the point of concentration for the " mass of attack." This surprised the representatives and Carnot as much as it surprised the subordinate generals, all of whom thought that there would still be time to make the detour through Ypres and to cut off the Allies' retreat before Dunkirk See also:fell . But Houchard and Gay-Vernon were no longer under any illusions as to the manoeuvring See also:power of their forces, and the government agents wisely left them to execute their own plans . See also:Thirty-seven thousand men were left to See also:watch Coburg and to secure Arras and Douai, and the See also:rest, 50,000 strong, assembled at Cassel . Everything was in Houchard's favour could he but overcome the indiscipline of his own army . The duke of York was more dangerous in See also:appearance than in reality—as the result must infallibly have shown had Houchard and Gay-Vernon possessed the courage to execute the See also:original plan—and Freytag's covering army extended in a line of disconnected posts from Bergues to Ypres . Against the left and centre of this feeble cordon 40,000 men advanced in many columns on the 6th of See also:September . A confused outpost fight, in which the various assailing columns dissolved into excited swarms, ended, long after nightfall, in the orderly withdrawal of the various allied posts to Hondschoote . The French generals were occupied the whole of next day in sorting out their troops, who had not only completely wasted their strength against mere outposts, but had actually consumed their rations and used up their See also:ammunition . On the 8th, the assailants, having more or less recovered themselves, advanced again . They found Wallmoden (who had succeeded Freytag, disabled on the 6th) entrenched on either side of the See also:village of Hondschoote, the right resting on the great morass and the left on the village of Leysele . Here was the opportunity for the " attack in mass " that had been so freely discussed; but Houchard was now concerned more with the See also:relief of Dunkirk than with the defeat of the enemy . He sent away one See also:division to Dunkirk, another to Bergues, and a third towards Ypres, and left himself only some 20;000 men for the battle . But Wallmoden had only r3,000—so great was the disproportion between end and means in this ill-designed enterprise against Dunkirk . Houchard despatched a See also:column, guided by his staff officer Berthelmy, to turn the Hanoverians' left, but this column lost English . See also:Miles o 3- 1 Contours See also:ate intervals of 20 metres = ns.e's feel Fn I4 .... Redrawn from a map in See also:Fortescue's History of the British Army, by permission of See also:Macmillan & Co., Ltd . its way in the dense country about See also:Loo . The centre waited motionless under the fire of the allied guns near Hondschoote . In vain the representative Delbrel implored the general to order the advance . Houchard was obstinate, and ere long the natural result followed . Though Delbrel posted himself in front of the line, conspicuous by his white horse and tricoloured See also:sash and plume, to steady the men, the bravest left the ranks and skirmished forward from See also:bush to bush, and the rest sought cover . Then the allied commander ordered forward one See also:regiment of Hessians, and these, advancing at a ceremonial slow march, and firing steady See also:rolling volleys, scattered the Republicans before them . At this crisis Houchard uttered the fatal word "retreat," but Delbrel overwhelmed him with reproaches and stung him into renewed activity . He hurried away to urge forward the right wing while Jourdan rallied the centre and led it into the fight again . Once more Jourdan awaited in vain the order to advance, and once more the troops See also:broke . But at last the exasperated Delbrel rose to the occasion . " You fear the responsibility," he cried to Jourdan; " well, I assume it . My authority overrides the general's and I give you the formal order to attack at once!" Then, gently, as if to soften a rebuke, he continued, "You have forced me to speak as a See also:superior; now I will be your aide-de- Hondschoote . camp," and at once hurried off to bring up the reserves and to despatch cavalry to collect the fugitives . This incident, amongst many, serves to show that the representatives on mission were no mere See also |