Siege of Luxembourg (1794–1795)
Siege of Luxembourg | |||||||
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Part of the Flanders campaign in the War of the First Coalition | |||||||
Siège de Luxembourg 1794-1795 by Charles-Caïus Renoux | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
French First Republic | Habsburg monarchy | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Jean René Moreaux Jean-Jacques Ambert Jacques Maurice Hatry |
Blasius Columban Freiherr von Bender | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
25,500[1] to 39,000[2] | 15,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
unknown |
1,200 casualties 12,396, 819 guns captured | ||||||
The siege of Luxembourg was a
Luxembourg's long defence led Lazare Carnot to call Luxembourg "the best [fortress] in the world, except Gibraltar",[3] giving rise to the city's nickname 'the Gibraltar of the North'.
The result of the capture of Luxembourg was the annexation of the Southern Netherlands into France on 1 October 1795.[3] Most of Luxembourg (including all of the modern Grand Duchy), became a part of the département of Forêts, which was created on 24 October 1795.[4]
Background
After taking Rheinfels Castle, the French were masters of the left bank of the Rhine, with the exception of the fortresses of Mainz and Luxembourg. The Committee of Public Safety therefore ordered that both of these should be conquered.
The
Field Marshal Baron
Prelude
On 19 November 1794, the two companies of the 5th Dragoon Regiment which made up the vanguard of the division of General Jean-Baptiste Debrun were met around Liège by a large Austrian contingent of 1,500 infantrymen and 400 cavalry, which they defeated despite their numerical inferiority.
On 21 November, on the edge of the forest of Grünewald, Debrun's division encountered an Austrian outpost of 400 infantrymen, 300 Hussars and 6 artillery pieces. The brigade of General Guillaume Péduchelle pursued the enemy up to the reach of the cannons of Luxembourg. The confrontation, started at 11:30, lasted until nightfall, and ended in a victory for the French, who captured 4 cannons and their caissons.
Siege
The commander-in-chief, General of Division Jean René Moreaux, arrived on 22 November and deployed his three divisions around the city. Alexandre Camille Taponier's division occupied the road to Trier; Debrun's division took the road to Arlon; the third was on the road to Thionville; the reserve was in Frisange.
The artillery of the city engaged in intense firing on anything that was within range. The soldiers of the Army of the Moselle suffered from the hardships of winter, and lacked supplies. Often, half the men were not at their posts, but were busy pillaging the neighbouring villages to find food. General Moreaux, in late January, requested Field Marshal Bender to surrender honourably, but this was declined.
Unable to allow themselves to pillage like their soldiers, the officers also suffered from hunger. Moreaux fell ill and had to be evacuated to Thionville, where he died in the night of 10 February. Command now passed to General of Division Jean-Jacques Ambert, but the Committee of Public Safety, in order to put an end to the siege of Mainz, decided to send the three divisions of the Army of the Moselle and a new commander to replace the Army of the Rhine.
The Army of the Rhine's place would be taken by three divisions of the
The two armies crossed on 20 March. Witnessing these movements, those inside the city thought that the French were lifting the siege, and engaged in several sorties to harass them, but were repulsed.
In the last days of April, General Hatry renewed the offer for the city to surrender, but this was declined again. He then started constructing a shielded battery on a nearby height, equipped with mortars, in order to bombard the city. Faced with this threat, the Austrians attempted a massive sortie on the night of 15 to 16 May, but were repulsed with heavy losses. Now convinced of the futility of such actions, the governor ordered the continuous bombardment of the French artillery positions. The firing lasted 12 days, but the French batteries retaliated and caused numerous casualties, to the extent that the residents asked Bender to capitulate.
On 1 June, an envoy was sent to General Hatry, and on 7 June, the capitulation was signed at the French headquarters in Itzig.[5] On 12 June, the 12,396 men still making up the garrison, left with the honours of war in front of 11,000 French soldiers. The last Austrian column was mostly composed of Belgian and Walloon soldiers, who laid down their arms, refused to follow the Austrians, and asked to serve France.
The French made a triumphal entry into the city; their first act was to plant a "tree of liberty" on the Place d'Armes.[5]
Consequences
As they had hoped, the French captured a large amount of war material: 819 cannons, 16,244 firearms, 4,500 sabres, 336,857 cannonballs, 47,801 bombs, 114,704 grenades, and 1,033,153 pounds of powder.
The capture of the Fortress of Luxembourg allowed the French Republic's annexation of the Southern
Footnotes
- ^ Lefort, Alfred (1905). Publications de la Section Historique: De l'Institut G.-D. de Luxembourg. Vol. 50. Luxembourg: Worré-Mertens. p. 21. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
- ^ a b Lefort (1905), pp. 69-71
- ^ a b c Kreins (2003), p.64
- ^ Kreins (2003), p.64–5
- ^ a b (in French) Thewes, Guy; Wagener, Danièle. "La Ville de Luxembourg en 1795." Ons Stad, No. 49, 1995. p.4-7
References and further reading
- Atten, Alain (1995). "Die Post des Feldmarschalls" (PDF). ons stad (in German) (49): 12–14.
- Kreins, Jean-Marie (2003). Histoire du Luxembourg (in French) (3rd ed.). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. ISBN 978-2-13-053852-3.
External links
- Media related to Siege of Luxembourg (1794–1795) at Wikimedia Commons
Preceded by Battle of Aldenhoven (1794) |
French Revolution: Revolutionary campaigns Siege of Luxembourg (1794–1795) |
Succeeded by Peace of Basel |