Siege of Maastricht (1794)
Siege of Maastricht (1794) | |||||||
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Part of the Flanders campaign in the War of the First Coalition | |||||||
Contemporary plan of the Siege of Maastricht | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
France |
Habsburg Monarchy Dutch Republic Hesse-Kassel | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Jean-Baptiste Kléber |
Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel Wilhelm von Klebeck | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Army of Sambre-et-Meuse | Coalition | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
35,608 | 8,000, 344 guns | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
300 |
500, 344 guns Garrison went free. |
The siege of Maastricht (22 September – 4 November 1794) was a successful
The Coalition armies in the Austrian Netherlands faced two French armies, one near the North Sea coast and one farther inland. The Coalition armies retreated after the French victory at Fleurus. As the French armies pressed forward, the British and Dutch armies withdrew north while the Austrian army fell back to the east. After another victory over the Austrians, the French army led by GD Jean-Baptiste Jourdan isolated Maastricht and its Coalition garrison. Once Jourdan compelled the Austrian army to retire to the east bank of the Rhine River, he detached Kléber's full siege army to force the fortress' surrender.
Background
Aftermath of Fleurus
The historian
Coburg's army sustained 2,286 casualties at Fleurus, plus the 2,800 men lost when
French conquest of Belgium
Ordered by the Committee of Public Safety to move northwest to seize Mons, Jourdan did so,
At this time, the Committee of Public Safety insisted that the Coalition-held fortresses in northern France must be retaken at once.[7] Therefore, GD Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer was detached with 30,000 men for that purpose.[8] Meanwhile, the French captured Mechelen and Leuven on 15 July and, a few days later, Coburg's army began withdrawing east to Hasselt. With his left flank in air, York was compelled to abandon Antwerp on 22 July and pull back north into the Dutch Republic.[9] At the end of July, York's army consisted of 38,419 officers and men in the infantry and cavalry. Of these, 21,753 infantry and 4,515 cavalry were British and the rest mostly Hanoverians and Hessians.[10] On 27 July, the left wing of Jourdan's army under GD Jean-Baptiste Kléber seized Tongeren (Tongres) while the right wing under GD Jacques Maurice Hatry captured Liège. The Austrian army was deployed behind the Meuse, facing east, with its right flank at Roermond, its center at Maastricht, and its left flank opposite Liège. At this time, Coburg was replaced in command of the Austrian army by Clerfayt.[11]
The French armies paused as the Coalition-held fortresses were besieged and captured. During this lull, incompetent officers such as GD François Muller were removed and the various regular and volunteer battalions were welded into regiments.[12] Landrecies fell on 16 July, Nieuwpoort surrendered on 18 July, Le Quesnoy capitulated on 16 August, and Sluis fell on 24 August. Their garrisons became prisoners of war.[13] Valenciennes surrendered on 27 August and Condé-sur-l'Escaut capitulated on 29 August; their garrisons were paroled.[14] The fall of Maximilien Robespierre occurred at the end of July 1794, effectively ending the Reign of Terror.[15]
Schérer's siege corps rejoined the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse on 11 September 1794, and Jourdan assigned it to his right wing where he determined to make his attack. Schérer's wing crossed the Meuse at Namur and Huy and on 14 September it seized a crossing of the Ourthe River at Comblain-au-Pont. The right wing included the divisions of GDs François Séverin Marceau, Jean Adam Mayer, Honoré Hacquin, and part of Hatry's. On 17 September, Kléber feinted an attack on Maastricht so convincingly that Clerfayt reinforced his right flank and center.[16] In the Battle of Sprimont on 18 September, Schérer's 35,000 troops defeated Clerfayt's left wing under FML Maximilian Anton Karl, Count Baillet de Latour, which counted 18,000 men. The French lost about 1,000 casualties, but inflicted 1,500 killed and wounded on their foes, as wells as capturing 1,000 men and 36 cannons.[17]
Siege
Clerfayt abandoned Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) and retreated behind the Rur (Roer) River. The Austrian right flank was still at Roermond while the rest of their defense line ran past Linnich, Jülich, Düren, and ended at Nideggen. Clerfayt also maintained a bridgehead at Aldenhoven on the west bank. The divisions of Hatry and GD Jean-Étienne Championnet crossed the Meuse at Liège and took Aachen. Kléber's left wing surrounded Maastricht which the Committee of Public Safety wanted besieged immediately. Not wanting to repeat Charles François Dumouriez's mistake in the 1793 Siege of Maastricht by tying up too much of his field army, Jourdan detached GD Guillaume Philibert Duhesme's 15,000 men to blockade the city while keeping the remainder of Kléber's wing for active operations.[18]
The siege of Maastricht commenced on 22 September 1794. The 8,000-man garrison was commanded by Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel.
Jourdan first established his army on the west bank of the Rhine, then he sent Kléber's three divisions back to lay siege to Maastricht. At this time, the two French armies farther south also closed up to the Rhine. These were the
Phipps stated that Kléber's Armée devant Maastricht comprised the divisions of Duhesme, Bernadotte, and André Poncet[25] while Digby Smith included the divisions of Bernadotte, Richard (with Poncet as a subordinate), Duhesme, and Friant.[26] One amusing event during the siege occurred when a mine exploded under one of the forts exposing a cavern. When French soldiers rushed in, they discovered a herd of pigs that had been cached there by the garrison. At first, Jourdan retained Ney with the main army because he valued his ability. Ney led cavalry raids as far as Kleve (Cleves) and Nijmegen, but when he came near Maastricht, Kléber got the Représentant en mission Pierre-Mathurin Gillet to reassign Ney to the siege army.[25]
Kléber summoned Prince Frederick to surrender, and when he refused, the 80 French siege guns opened fire on 1 November. The morale of the Austrian defenders crumbled under the intense bombardment. Austrian soldiers began plundering the homes of the city's inhabitants and were fired on by Dutch soldiers.[27] Twice Kléber sent Ney into the fortress to negotiate. On Ney's second visit, he accused the fortress commander of "sacrificing the town to his personal glory", and he was so persuasive that Prince Frederick capitulated on 4 November. The garrison marched out with the honors of war on 7 November,[25] and was allowed to go free. The defenders surrendered 344 guns and 31 regimental colors. French forces sustained 300 casualties while the Coalition garrison lost 500 killed and wounded.[19]
Maastricht was the home of the famous mosasaur fossil, and the French intellectuals insisted that the building housing the fossil should not be fired upon during the siege. When the city was captured, the French appropriated the head of the mosasaur fossil and sent it to Paris.[28]
Forces
Coalition order of battle
Units | Size/Strength |
---|---|
Michael Wallis Infantry Regiment Nr. 11 | 2 battalions |
Kheul Infantry Regiment Nr. 19 | 2 battalions |
Kinsky Infantry Regiment Nr. 36 | 2nd Battalion |
Stain Infantry Regiment Nr. 50 | 1 battalion |
Wenzel Colloredo Infantry Regiment Nr. 56 | 2 battalions |
Nassau-Usingen Infantry Regiment | 1 battalion |
Von Wilcke Infantry Regiment | Depot |
Gunners | 316 men |
Miners | 173 men |
Hesse-Kassel Dragoon Regiment | 4 squadrons |
Coalition total | 8,000 men, 344 guns |
French order of battle
Divisions | Brigades | Units | Size/Strength |
---|---|---|---|
GD Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte
9,215 men[note 2] |
GB Henri Jacques Jean Boyer | 32nd Light Infantry Demi-Brigade | 1 battalion |
21st Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3rd Battalion | ||
71st Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
72nd Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
2nd Hussar Regiment | - | ||
4th Hussar Regiment | - | ||
7th Dragoon Regiment | - | ||
13th Cavalry Regiment | - | ||
32nd Gendarmes | 2 companies | ||
34th Gendarmes | 2 companies | ||
Foot Artillery | 2 batteries | ||
Engineers | 1 company | ||
GB Joseph Léonard Richard 9,961 men[note 3] |
GB André Poncet GB Joseph-Valérian de Boisset |
1st Foot Chasseurs Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions |
35th Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
97th Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
127th Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
128th Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
12th Horse Chasseur Regiment | - | ||
16th Horse Chasseur Regiment | - | ||
Foot Artillery | 1 battery | ||
GD Guillaume Philibert Duhesme 7,663 men |
GB Charles Daurier | 93rd Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions |
111th Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
123rd Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
Volunteer Chasseurs | 4th Battalion | ||
2nd Horse Chasseurs Regiment | - | ||
17th Cavalry Regiment | - | ||
Engineers | 1 company | ||
GB Louis Friant 8,769 men[note 4] |
GB Brusette (?) GB Claude Ursule Gency |
33rd Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions |
49th Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
74th Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 2nd Battalion | ||
161st Line Infantry Demi-Brigade | 3 battalions | ||
Guard National Somme | 2nd Battalion | ||
Guard National Vosges | 3rd Battalion | ||
Engineers | 1 company | ||
French totals | - | - | 35,608 men |
Notes
- Footnotes
- ^ The Army of the Sambre-et-Meuse was officially created on 27 June 1794, that is, the day after the Battle of Fleurus. (Phipps, p. 172)
- ^ Bernadotte was promoted GD (general of division) on 22 October 1794. (Phipps, p. 189)
- ^ Smith listed Richard as GD, but Broughton showed that he was promoted GB (general of brigade) in 1793 and never promoted GD.
- ^ Smith listed Friant as a GD, but in fact he was only a brevet GB. (Friant, p. 10)
- Citations
- ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 165–166.
- ^ Phipps 2011, p. 164.
- ^ a b Phipps 2011, p. 172.
- ^ a b Fortescue 2016, pp. 142–144.
- ^ Fortescue 2016, p. 148.
- ^ Phipps 2011, p. 165.
- ^ Fortescue 2016, p. 149.
- ^ Phipps 2011, p. 173.
- ^ Fortescue 2016, pp. 149–150.
- ^ Fortescue 2016, p. 155.
- ^ Phipps 2011, p. 176.
- ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 179–180.
- ^ Smith 1998, pp. 87–89.
- ^ Smith 1998, p. 90.
- ^ Phipps 2011, p. 179.
- ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 181–182.
- ^ Smith 1998, p. 91.
- ^ a b Phipps 2011, pp. 183–184.
- ^ a b c Smith 1998, pp. 94–95.
- ^ Smith & Kudrna 2008.
- ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 176–177.
- ^ Friant 1857, p. 10.
- ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 183–187.
- ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 187–188.
- ^ a b c Phipps 2011, p. 191.
- ^ a b Smith 1998, p. 94.
- ^ Jaspar 1968, pp. 98–100.
- ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 191–192.
References
- ISBN 978-1-78282-500-5.
- Friant, Jean François (1857). "Vie militaire du lieutenant-général comte Friant" (in French). Paris: E. Dentu. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- Jaspar, E. (1968). "Kint geer eur eige stad?" (in Dutch). Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse letteren. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-908692-25-2.
- ISBN 1-85367-276-9.
- Smith, Digby; Kudrna, Leopold (2008). "Austrian Generals of 1792-1815: Klebeck, (Ernst) Wilhelm von". napoleon-series.org. Retrieved August 22, 2023.
Further reading
- Broughton, Tony (2007). "Generals Who Served in the French Army during the Period 1789 - 1814: Rheinwald to Ruty". The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 17 August 2023.