Invasion of Corsica (1794)
Invasion of Corsica | |||||||
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Part of the French Revolutionary Wars | |||||||
![]() Loss of his Eye Before Calvi, National Maritime Museum | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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The invasion of Corsica was a campaign fought in the spring and summer of 1794 by combined British military and Corsican irregular forces against a French garrison, early in the French Revolutionary Wars. The campaign centred on sieges of three principal towns in Northern Corsica; San Fiorenzo, Bastia and Calvi, which were in turn surrounded, besieged and bombarded until by August 1794 French forces had been driven from the island entirely.
Combining naval bombardments with
Corsica proved a mixed asset for the British; the island's anchorages provided some relief for a fleet operating at the end of a long supply chain, but the instability of Corsican politics and repeated French efforts to disrupt British control consumed valuable resources. By late 1796, with the French victorious in Northern Italy and the Spanish declaration of war on Britain following the
Background
Following the
Corsican affairs were however a secondary priority for Hood, as shortly after his arrival the citizens of Toulon overthrew their republican government and, with British encouragement, declared for the deposed French monarchy. Hood's fleet entered the port, seized the French Mediterranean fleet, and garrisoned the landward fortifications.
Corsican operations in 1793
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/1794_Jeffreys_Map_of_Corsica%2C_France_-_Geographicus_-_Corsica-jeffreys-1794.jpg/220px-1794_Jeffreys_Map_of_Corsica%2C_France_-_Geographicus_-_Corsica-jeffreys-1794.jpg)
At Paoli's urging, Hood had sent a small squadron to Corsica during the siege of Toulon under Commodore Robert Linzee, with instructions to appeal to the French garrisons of Bastia and Calvi to surrender. When this was not forthcoming, he attempted to capture San Fiorenzo with his squadron.[18] Linzee led his ships into the bay on 19 September, and captured the Torra di Mortella, which overlooked the anchorage. A second attack on 1 October on the well-prepared Torra di Fornali however came under heavy fire and Linzee was forced to withdraw with heavy casualties, many caused by heated shot.[19]
In late October a French frigate squadron attempted to land reinforcements on Corsica, escaping an attack by the British ship of the line
With the British now forced to seek another Mediterranean base, Paoli sent messages offering to provide Corsica to Hood as a self-governing colony of the British Empire, along the model adopted by the Kingdom of Ireland.[24] In early January 1794, Hood sent Edward Cooke and Thomas Nepean as ambassadors to Paoli to gauge his reliability, the officers returning with overly-optimistic assessments of the defences of the French-held towns and of overall numbers; Paoli promised no more than 2,000 French troops, when in fact there were more than 4,500 split between the three garrisons.[25] Convinced by Paoli's offer, Hood sent Sir Gilbert Elliot to negotiate terms, along with Lieutenant-Colonel John Moore and engineer Major George Koehler to offer military support.[26] In early February Hood sailed from his temporary anchorage in the Îles d'Hyères, and ordered the invasion of the island to go ahead.[27]
Landings in Corsica
Siege of San Fiorenzo
The British Army officer tasked with leading the operation was Major-General David Dundas. Dundas was a cautious and despondent officer, whose attitude clashed with that of Hood; the two had fallen out during the siege of Toulon.[28] On Paoli's advice, the first attack was made on San Fiorenzo, the scene of Linzee's defeat six months earlier. On 7 February British troops disembarked from the transports, landing unopposed on the coast to the west of the Torra di Mortella.[27] The Torra di Mortella was ineffectually attacked first from the sea on 8 February by a small naval squadron, during which HMS Fortitude was hit with several heated shot which ignited an ammunition box and killed six men and wounded another 56.[29] The plan to attack from the sea was abandoned and instead batteries were erected on land by parties of British sailors under Moore. On 10 February artillery fire from shore batteries established by Moore set the tower on fire and the garrison surrendered.[30] Moore then marched his force overland with their cannon to attack the nearby Convention Redoubt, which was successfully stormed on 17 February. With the town and ships in the harbour under threat of bombardment the French withdrew the following day, leaving two scuttled frigates in the bay.[27]
Siege of Bastia
The French had retreated across the Serra mountains to Bastia, evading Corsican forces stationed to block their withdrawal.
For 14 days the town was bombarded from batteries Moore erected on heights overlooking the defences, Hood impatient for a surrender from the French commander, Lacombe-Saint-Michel. On 25 April he ordered D'Aubant to storm the town, but the army commander refused, and Hood resolved instead to starve the defenders out.[35] On 12 May Lacombe-Saint-Michel escaped from the town to return to France, and ten days later, with food reserves depleted and nearly a quarter of the garrison sick or wounded, his deputy Antoine Gentili surrendered to Hood offshore.[36][37] The terms of the surrender allowed the French forces safe passage back to France and were highly controversial with the Corsicans, who protested strongly but were ignored.[38]
In the aftermath of the surrender of Bastia, Paoli agreed terms with Hood for British control of Corsica and on 1 June national elections were held, the island's parliament sitting on 16 June for the first time and announcing a new constitution.[39] Paoli's deputy Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo was named president and Elliott became acting viceroy. The constitution offered wide male suffrage, biennial elections and strong executive powers firmly held by Paoli through Pozzo di Borgo,[24] but within weeks government had broken down in bickering between Elliott and Pozzo di Borgo over Corsican persecution of French supporters still living on the island.[40]
Siege of Calvi
The final operation of the campaign targeted Calvi, a fortified port on the northwestern coast of Corsica commanded by the French commander in Corsica,
By 6 July Mollinochesco was badly damaged and the garrison withdrew into Calvi. British attention then turned to Mozello, which was bombarded for twelve days. A large breach was blown in the walls of Mozello,[42] but counter battery fire caused significant casualties in the British gun crews, including Nelson, who was blinded in one eye.[45] On 18 July Stuart ordered Moore and David Wemyss to lead an attack on the fort, which was taken in a fierce battle following hand-to-hand fighting on the walls.[42] The British then subjected the town to heavy bombardment, causing significant damage and casualties.[46] In late July there were a series of negotiations and a truce, but the arrival of supplies at Calvi at the end of the month caused a brief resumption of hostilities.[47] Eventually, with food and ammunition running low, Casabianca formally surrendered, receiving the same terms as had been awarded at Bastia.[46] By the time of the surrender there were barely 400 British soldiers remaining fit for duty, as malaria and dysentery swept through the camp.[38][47] In some ways, the siege is most notable for the prominence it brought to the career of Nelson, whose acknowledged leadership in these operations led to future command opportunities.[48]
Aftermath
With the French expelled from the island, Corsica settled into its status as a self-governing part of the British Empire. Hood used San Fiorenzo as an anchorage for his fleet, despite its lack of dockyard facilities. Danger to Corsica from the sea remained an ever-present concern; in August 1794 the 16-gun
In the aftermath of the successful invasion of Corsica, developments focused on the island's capital Bastia, where a series of personal disputes threatened to derail the government of the island. First Stuart and Elliott engaged in a bitter squabble over control of the military forces on the island which eventually resulted in Stuart's resignation.[51] At about the same time, Elliott was also engaged in preventing Paoli from enacting reprisals and seizing the property of French-supporters in Corsica, a violation of the terms of surrender.[40]
These divisions only widened as the relationship continued; in 1795 the British established an Extraordinary Commission which ostensibly investigated crime on the island, but also considered matters of treason. This was in direct contravention of the constitution agreed the previous year and proved unpopular.[52] Alongside this issue, broken British promises on infrastructure investment and a growing rift between Paoli and Pozzo di Borgo created tension; in 1795 Paoli established an informal rival presidency at Rostino and a growing faction in his support at the Bastia parliament, led by his nephew Leoni Paoli.[53] In July 1795 these disputes boiled over in the "assassination of the bust", in which a bust of Paoli was publicly mocked by Corsican members of Elliot's entourage in Ajaccio.[54] Rioting and protest swept the island, and civil violence was only narrowly avoided by Paoli's departure for Britain in October.[55]
In 1796, resentment against British taxation added to the political stresses of the colony, and in March some of the central highlands of the island rose up against the British, centred on the Corte area.[56] For several months there was scattered fighting between rebels and Corsican government forces, including a successful British offensive at Ajaccio and another near Bastia which failed to come to grips with rebel forces. Eventually, unable to effectively crush the rebellion and with French agents operating openly on the island, Elliot placated some rebels and pacified others achieving some stability by October.[57] The situation in the Mediterranean was deteriorating however, with British forces increasingly stretched by Bonaparte's victories in Italy.[58]
In August 1796 the government of Spain signed the
Eight years later, when the British government was designing invasion defences during the
References
- ^ Mostert, p.120
- ^ James, p.186
- ^ Gregory, p.16
- ^ Gregory, p.18
- ^ a b Ireland, p.145
- ^ Ireland, p.195
- ^ Gregory, p.25
- ^ Gregory, p.26
- ^ Ireland, p.213
- ^ Gardiner, p.14
- ^ James, p.65
- ^ Gregory, p.32
- ^ Gregory, p.27
- ^ Ireland, p.178
- ^ Gardiner, p.95
- ^ Gardiner, p.105
- ^ Ireland, p.295
- ^ James, p.85
- ^ Clowes, p.212
- ^ James, p.106
- ^ a b Gregory, p.41
- ^ a b Bennett, p.35
- ^ Gregory, p.42
- ^ a b Gregory, p.68
- ^ Gregory, p.44
- ^ Gregory, p.46
- ^ a b c "No. 13631". The London Gazette. 11 March 1794. pp. 221–226.
- ^ Gregory, p.53
- ^ Clowes, p.243
- ^ James, p.188
- ^ Gregory, p.54
- ^ Gregory, p.56
- ^ Clowes, p.244
- ^ James, p.190
- ^ Gregory, p.57
- ^ Gardiner, p.110
- ^ "No. 13668". The London Gazette. 7 June 1794. pp. 529–532.
- ^ a b Gregory, p.59
- ^ Gregory, p.65
- ^ a b Gregory, p.72
- ^ James, p.191
- ^ a b c "No. 13698". The London Gazette. 2 September 1794. p. 883.
- ^ Bennett, p.37
- ^ James, p.193
- ^ Bennett, p.40
- ^ a b Gregory, p.63
- ^ a b Bennett, p.39
- ^ Mostert, p.127
- ^ Gregory, p.85
- ^ Gregory, p.129
- ^ Gregory, p.74
- ^ Gregory, p.70
- ^ Gregory, p.93
- ^ Gregory, p.96
- ^ Gregory, p.107
- ^ Gregory, p.114
- ^ Gregory, p.118
- ^ Gregory, p.116
- ^ Gregory, p.153
- ^ Gregory, p.154
- ^ James, p.313
- ^ Gregory, p.158
- ^ Gregory, p.156
- ^ James, p.314
- ^ Gardiner, p.101
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