Siege of Landrecies (1794)
Siege of Landrecies (1794) | |||||||
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Part of the Low Countries theatre of the War of the First Coalition | |||||||
Positions of the armies in early April 1794 First Coalition forces
French Republic forces | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
First French Republic |
First Coalition: Dutch Republic Habsburg monarchy | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Henri Victor Roulland | Prince of Orange | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
7,000[1]: 257 | 20,000[2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2,000[3] | 500[4] |
The siege of Landrecies (17–30 April 1794) was a military operation during the Spring 1794 campaign in the
Background
In the amended
The Coalition armies, under supreme command of the Austrian emperor
The siege
The Dutch mobile army (about 16,000 strong) was reinforced with Austrian infantry and auxiliaries under command of Major-General Count Baillet de Latour and Austrian artillery under Major-General Johann Kollowrat (about 4,000). On 18 April 1794 this corps left its camp near Cambrai and marched on Landrecies. On 19 April the force made preparations and on 20 April the corps opened a three-pronged attack on the fortress. Two columns marched via Fontaine-au-Bois and the Forêt de Mormal toward the Sambre river, where they took the villages of Hapegarde, Etoguis and the reinforced camp of Preux-au-Bois, within range of the artillery of the fortress. The Swiss Guards of the brigade of De Gumoëns and the brigade of Hesse-Darmstadt distinguished themselves in this fight.[6][7]: 15 [8] The middle column overran the redoubts and demi-lunes of the outer fortress. The garrison of the fortress was forced to withdraw within its walls. The Dutch losses were 23 officers and 358 other ranks.[1]: 257
The mobile army immediately started to invest the fortress. Work was begun on a line of
On 26 April the
The gun emplacements were finished on 28 April. Eleven batteries with a total of 48 guns (varying from 3-pdrs to 24-pdrs) and 18 siege mortars (varying from 30 to 60 pounds caliber) were in place. These guns would fire about 14,000 projectiles during the three days of the bombardment, that started on 28 April. The devastation of the fortress and town was immense. Hardly a house remained undamaged. The front of the attack was leveled. Around 2,000 people (both soldiers and civilians) were killed (one mortar bomb killed a woman and her eight children at one stroke).[1]: 258–259 But the civilians took part in the defense, organised as artilleurs-bourgeois (burgher artillerists) and stood shoulder to shoulder with the battalions of the Meuse and Moselle that formed the garrison. Their wives nursed the wounded and succoured the dying.[9]: 130 The city would later collectively receive the Légion d'Honneur for its bravery.[10]
Despite the severe losses the garrison commander, general Roulland, at first refused repeated demands to surrender, possibly because the French launched a desperate last attempt to relieve the fortress on 27 April, but this again came to nothing.[7]: 16–18 However, the bombardment did not miss its influence on the morale of the troops. On 29 April an order for a sortie was refused and Roulland convened a council of war of the soldiers, as was sometimes done in the French revolutionary army. This council asked him to consider a surrender. The pressure of the council steadily increased and on 30 April Roulland gave in: he asked for a ceasefire.[11]: 479–484 This was immediately granted, and followed by protracted negotiations about a capitulation on terms. The negotiations were conducted by the Dutch quarter-master-general Bentinck and the Austrian major-general Mack on the Coalition side, and general Roulland on the French side. They led to the capitulation with honor of the French garrison on 30 April. The garrison had been reduced to 5,000 men. They became prisoners-of-war in the Dutch Republic. The fortress was taken over by Swiss and Dutch Guard regiments.[1]: 258–259
Aftermath
The next day Emperor Francis and the stadtholder reviewed the defeated French troops filing by. The Hereditary Prince handed the keys of the city to the Emperor at this occasion.[1]: 258–259
After the fall of Landrecies the Austrians did nothing for eleven days, as if they had forgotten why the fortress had been taken in the first place. Only on 12 May did operations of the combined Austro-Dutch forces resume near Le Cateau-Cambrésis. A chance to cut off Pichegru was missed, however, because of hesitation by the Emperor. This did not bode well for the remainder of the campaign. Indeed the tide eventually turned in favor of the French after the Battle of Fleurus (26 June 1794), and they retook Landrecies on 17 July 1794 after a brief siege.[1]: 260, 308
The Hereditary Prince apparently had made a good impression on the Emperor. When general Kaunitz disappointed him by his hesitant conduct, the Emperor replaced him by the Hereditary Prince in May 1794, giving the Prince command of all Dutch and Austrian forces near the Sambre.[1]: 270
Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bas, François de (1887). Prins Frederik Der Nederlanden en Zijn Tijd, vol. 1. H. A. M. Roelants. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
- ^ De Bas gives the strength of the Austro-Dutch corps as 19 squadrons of cavalry (of which 9 Austrian), 31 battalions of infantry and artillery (of which 6 Austrian), and 9 detached companies of auxiliaries (all Austrian); Cf. De Bas, p. 648
- ^ Excluding civilian casualties, which probably were substantive; De Bas writes that the garrison of 7,000 had been reduced to 5,000 at the end of the siege; Cf. De Bas, p. 258
- ^ De Bas writes that the Dutch had 381 casualties in the assault of 19 April, but does not give an explicit tally for the siege. One may assume that there were casualties as a consequence of French sorties and artillery fire also; Cf. De Bas, p. 257
- ^ This was possibly because the States Army was strong in siege artillery. François de Bas writes that the Dutch offered their artillery to the British at the siege of Dunkirk (1793) but that York insisted on shipping British siege artillery overseas; Cf. Bas, p. 201.
- ^ Switzerland itself was not a belligerent in this war. The States Army had used Swiss mercenary regiments for more than a century by 1794. In fact, many, if not most, soldiers in the army were foreign professionals. "Dutch" should therefore be read as "in Dutch service" in this context.
- ^ a b Jomini, Antoine Henri de (1840). Histoire critique et militaire des guerres de la révolution, Tome deuxième. Bruxelles: J.B. Petit. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
- ^ Jomini speaks of the "brigade of Paravicini," instead of De Gumoëns, but this must be an error, as major-general Paravicini de Capelli was a gunner and did not command the Swiss brigade.Cf. De Bas, p. 312
- ^ Marmottan, Paul (1891). Le général Fromentin et l'armée du Nord (1792-1794) avec portrait, carte et nombreuses pièces justificatives. E. Dubois. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
- ^ "Landrecies enfin française ! (1655 - 1794)". Retrieved 15 April 2013.
- ^ Coutanceau, M.H.M.; et al. (1907). La Campagne de 1794 à l'Armée du Nord. Paris: Chapelot et Cie. Retrieved 15 April 2013.