The Ending Of The Beginning: An End To The French Revolutionary War (1790 - 1798)
1796 began with two major events.
The first was a part of the Anarchy. Polish citizens, whose citizenship and rights were stripped away by the Orthodox Russians, rose up in rebellion on the 18th March 1796 along with the remainder of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (under the rule of Stanisław II August) as well as the Electorate of Saxony. In the following April Frederick Augustus III of Saxony negotiated with Polish ringleaders to expel all Russian forces from the region, in return accepting Frederick Augustus and his son as King and heir to the PLC. The Polish, who were angry at Stanisław for being unable to implement reforms and angry at Russia occupying their territory, agreed to the proposal on the 19th April 1796.
The fighting started in late March, with Warsaw being the scene of large demonstrations and Stanisław's estate being attacked by lower class civilians, who were radicalised by the French Revolutionaries (although they were protesting in favour of Elector Frederick Augustus rather than a Maratist/Saint-Justian Regime). Warsaw and the surrounding region declared for Frederick Augustus in April, who recalled all of his soldiers from the fighting in the Low Countries. Frederick Augustus III marched into the PLC with 30,000 Saxon infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 27 cannons of different kinds on the 24th April 1796. Throughout his march, he faced little to no resistance from the people. When he reached Warsaw on the 17th May 1796, he was declared King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony and Poland-Lithuania. Lithuanians rose up against the Russian authorities, who were already in the throes of civil war between Platonists and Paulite forces. Meanwhile Protestants in the region of Silesia protested in favour of joining Saxony in May-June, which drew great protests from the Austrian court.
The second event was the surrender of General Charles François Dumouriez and his 68,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 32 guns on the 14th March 1796 at Padua. Austrian Field Marshal Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser and Corsican General Napoleone di Buonaparte accepted the surrender, an act which raised the profile of both men. Dumouriez and his men fought under the Austrian Emperor, whose lands had not been crippled unlike that of the Low Countries, Spain or Sardinia. Dumouriez turned his army around, now 70,000 infantry, 3,500 cavalry and 40 guns. Wurmser followed after him, with 136,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and 108 guns. Buonaparte led last with a total of 64,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 38 guns. On the 26th March 1796, all three armies marched westward, aiming to reach France before the 1st May.
Meanwhile, General David Dundas replaced Major General Moore as commander of the British forces in the Italian Peninsula, who were now to be transported to Spain to assist King Ferdinand VII of Spain and Andorra. Ships left Genoa on the 23rd March 1796 to take General Dundas and his men, some 20,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 24 guns. On the 9th April 1796, landings were made at Cadiz, joining the local forces under British General John Cradock and Spanish General Luis Firmín de Carvajal, Conde de la Unión (who had marshalled 96,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry and 89 guns) and French deserters under the command of Lazare Carnot (who defected following Saint-Just's ascension and arrests of his enemies). Dundas and Carvajal commanded a total of 116,000 infantry, 9000 cavalry and 113 guns, holding the line from Portugal and the Murcia-Madrid-Burgos-Santander line. Portuguese forces added another 35,000 men to be placed under Cradock's command, who was deemed as the Commander-in-Chief on the 25th April 1796.
The Battle of Madrid (27th - 28th April 1796) tore apart the city, with pictures and accounts comparing the city to Lisbon following the 1755 Earthquake. General Dagobert and General de Flers had a combined total of 94,000 infantry, 8,500 cavalry and 190 guns. Dundas stood his ground when Dagobert exploited a gap and sent 2,000 cavalry to attack. Forming square a bit too late, the American, Scottish and African soldiers stood their ground, beating back the cavalry at the moment Portuguese and Spanish troops push through the centre of the city. Pushing them back street by street, the Spanish flew their flags on rooftops, rallying the citizens to defy the gunfire, pelting the French with bricks and any other debris. Cradock's forces suffered 7,701 dead, 23,668 wounded and 618 captured, with 27 guns destroyed or captured. The French had 18,516 dead, 36,884 wounded or captured and 68 guns destroyed or captured. The French lost the legitimacy that was in their grasp. In the remainder of May and June, the Catalonian and Basque Republics began to be subtle in their refusal to give more troops. While they do not have any love for King Ferdinand VII, they do see a sinking ship coming, so to speak. In the middle of May, French troops under Saint-Just's orders threatened to conscript Catalonian and Basque men outright, with or without their consent. This led to the Ebro River Riots, from 26th June to the 18th August 1796, where Basque men rose up against the French. By September (when Allied forces liberated Santander, Valencia and Zaragoza), the Basque Republic fell into open warfare, while Catalonia had (under President-General Diego Pacheco Téllez-Girón Gómez de Sandoval) begun to send aid to Basque and allowed British ships to use its ports in return for a guarantee of independence. At the Battle of Pamplona (26th October 1796), General Dagobert was killed by Basque snipers while his army was overwhelmed by Allied forces and the arrival of Basque reinforcements (a total of 147,000 infantry, 7200 cavalry and 152 guns vs 63,000 infantry, 5800 cavalry and 165 guns). It was there that Catalonia officially rose up against the French, depriving Dagobert of any direct reinforcements and forcing General de Flers to march north. In the following November, both generals force-marched into France, seeing the countryside harry their forces now that their threats were empty. It was in that time that the Basque President Martín Fernández de Navarrete (1765 - 1844) and Catalonian President-General Diego Pacheco Téllez-Girón Gómez de Sandoval (1754 - 1822) cooperated with King Ferdinand VII. The British consulate advised Cradock to keep the Royalist, Catalonian and Basque forces out of each other's way for the 1797 Campaign.
The Battle of Oldenburg, had it gone the way of the French, would have opened the way for Hanover, Denmark and Brandenburg to be subdued and for the HRE to be broken. It was the one single surge that allowed Ferdinand IV of the Holy Roman Empire to escape certain death. It was this battle that confirmed his right to rule. The battle allowed for the liberation of the Low Countries. It began on August 1794, where the Principality of East Frisia was retaken in the Battle of Emden (17th - 21st August), where Dutch republicans betrayed their French commanders, forcing the enemy to flee across the Ems River. Up until November 1795, the Allied forces under Emperor Ferdinand IV and Dutch Stadholder William VI of Orange and Elector Frederick Wilhelm III captured the Lordship of Frisia, Groningen and the Ommelanden, the Lordship of Papenburg and the Bishopric of Munster as the Battle of the Camperdown defeated French naval power in March 1795. The Battle of Amsterdam on the 23rd August - 19th September 1795 led to a severe backlash against the French defenders, who took to demolishing houses in order to form barricades as well as steal any food that was inside civilian homes (as well as 40 frigates and ships of other ranks). Mobs of Dutchmen would be driven back with canister shot, while many more fled to the countryside with their possessions lost to fires or looted by French and Belgian soldiers. Such was the devastation that Amsterdam, having 216,000 people in 1795, would have close to 184,000 by 1799. It would be one factor in a few that would allow Rotterdam to become the Capitol City in 1801.
The liberation of Amsterdam and the Stolen Fleet would settle in the mind of Dutch republicans, who now felt defeat come closer and closer. Dutch republicans rebelled on the 7th October at Tilberg, with 6,000 marching across supply lines, stealing as much food as they could before they reached the French garrisons at the Waal River. Over the course of the winter, the French garrisons soon suffered. In the March of 1796, the French forces withdrew southward, crushing the Dutch rebel republicans and meeting with Lafayette's forces stationed at Antwerp.
April 1796 occurred, with Frederick Augustus III of Saxony recalling his forces with permission being granted by the Holy Roman Emperor (though the Elector never stated the part where he was to be made King of Saxony and Poland), much to the private grumbles of Frederick Wilhelm III of Brandenburg. The 100,000-strong Russian force also marched eastwards due to the Anarchy tearing apart Russian . It would be on the 3rd May where the Battle of Antwerp began. Allied forces numbered 117,000 infantry, 16,000 cavalry and 168 guns versus the Franco-Belgian force of 72,000 infantry, 5000 cavalry and 145 guns under General Lafayette. In the span of twelve hours, Lafayette saw his lines devastated with the same tactics he used against the Dutch and the Royalist Belgians under Elector Charles Theodore IV. It was here that he would suffer defeat, being forced to retreat southward at the expense of 39,000 men killed or captured. It was outside of Brussels that General Jacques François Dugommier would relieve Lafayette of command, before allowing Saint-Just's agents to arrest Lafayette and execute him in Ghent on the 2nd June 1796. The Allied forces overwhelmed Dugommier, who lasted until September, where the Battle of Charleroi (9th - 15th September) allowed his forces to be encircled. The following October led to Saint-Just withdrawing French forces from Belgian territory. Charles Theodore IV was restored as the Elector of his rightful territories by the end of the year.
Étienne Macdonald would raise a total of 26,000 French infantry, 50 cavalry and 8 guns, to invade on the 40 Dutch ships as well as another 12 French ships. On the 12th June 1796, Macdonald landed at Bantry Bay in Ireland with his wife Charlotte and son Charles James Francis Edward Macdonald-Stuart, the Last Pretender and her son. It would prove to be too little too late, as the Catholic Irish had found themselves satisfied over the course of a decade due to Whiggish policy surrounding Catholic emancipation (with PM Burke supporting it wholeheartedly). That, and the invasion had been a waste of materials. The Last Jacobite Rebellion was defeated by an Anglo-Irish force led by General John Moore, with the 2000 - 3000 Irishmen supporting the invasion being from nonconformists (Presbyterians and Protestants that were not in union with the Church of England). The Battle of Cork on the 22nd August 1796 ended the rebellion when Moore attacked the city with assistance from the Royal Navy. Not only were all of the cannons captured, but so were Charlotte and her son. Etienne Macdonald and the surviving 32 cavalrymen and 17,000 French soldiers were defeated at Kilbrin on the 7th October 1796, with local Irish militias under Moore's command defeating Macdonald and wounding him. On the 16th October 1796, Charlotte and her son were taken from Cork to be placed under house arrest in Truro in Cornwall for the rest of their lives. Macdonald would never see his wife or son again, being forced to surrender on the 26th October 1796 after his soldier mutinied. Macdonald would return to Paris, before being executed on the 7th November.
The American Republic and the United Kingdom continued to conduct expeditions in New Spain, with Mexico City placed under official American occupation in November 1795. Despite not having as many soldiers as the UK, the American Republic authorised privateering and coastal raids across New Spain and New Granada. Fighting between the American Republic and the Empire of Haiti began in August 1795, but it would be bogged down in guerrilla warfare until the Peace of Dresden, signifying the first American defeat. However in New Granada, local militias dealt with American raiders, with 8000 or so plundering and occupying the lands east of the Caroni River, an action that would be resolved until the Peace of Dresden.
1797 started with the passing of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, at the age of 61, having succumbed to gunshot wounds from the Battle of Grenoble (where the Allied forces were victorious at the expense of 30,000 lives lost altogether) on the 24th October 1796. Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, succeeded his father as commander (as he himself led the Black Brunswickers, giving him the nickname of "The Black Duke"). Frederick William and Austrian General Maximilian Anton Karl (Count Baillet de Latour) conducted a reorganisation of their forces at Geneva. Frederick William would command 86,000 infantry, 7,000 cavalry and 87 guns. General Maximilian Anton Karl would command 74,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and 73 guns.
General François Christophe de Kellermann and General Louis Marie Turreau were the only high ranking men that managed to halt the movements of the enemy into the French interior. Kellermann had a total of 180,000 infantry, 16,000 cavalry and 186 guns. Turreau had 88,000 infantry, 8000 cavalry and 92 guns. General Jean-Baptiste Kléber accepted command of 65,000 infantry, 2000 cavalry and 47 guns. Several other generals (under Kellermann's authority) commanded a combined total of 160,000 men, 4000 cavalry and 104 guns.
France, at this point, had blockades on its Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, with few privateers and Ottoman ships being able to run the blockades conducted by the British Empire. The Allied forces under Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand IV and Stadholder William VI of Orange, dubbed the Army of the North (made of 130,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry and 112 guns), clashed with Kellermann at the Battle of Sedan (19th April 1797), which the French managed to capture the Stadholder. William of Orange was ransomed for 15 million francs, a payment that The Netherlands was too willing to accept (hoping that any peace talks would lead to a repayment or a doubling of the reparations). The Holy Roman Emperor, much to the protest of his subordinates, halted the offensive to allow for the exchange to occur. This delay allowed Kellerman to order Kléber to confront General Karl and General Frederick William, who were gathering forces at Dijon.
20th May 1797, Battle of Chaumont. General Maximilian Anton Karl would confront Kléber, a man who had risen through the ranks of the French Army through his organisation and his ruthless streak in dealing with civilians and soldiers (he was complicit in the Culling of the Vendee). Karl had struggled in the last few months, with winter supplies not about to keep morale high alongside resistance from French locals and skirmishes with French dragoons. Kléber, being hardened by atrocities he committed, did not flinch from the Austrian advance. French artillery bombarded the concentrated centre of Karl's line, while dragoons and lancers pushed aside the fatigued Austrian cavalry. Karl would suffer 28,000 casualties to Kléber's 4,000, a victory that would give hope to a regime bent upon bringing every other foe down with it. Karl would face Kléber again at Mirecourt on the 26th June 1797 and again at Vesoul on the 20th September, both times being beaten by the Frenchman.
The defeat at Chaumont spurred the protests towards the Holy Roman Emperor, who kept the forces back until the Stadholder returned on the 26th June 1797. Ferdinand IV ordered an advance, confronting Kellermann again at Cambrai on the 17th July. Kellermann once again beat the Emperor, but it was a pyrrhic victory, forcing Kellermann to stay in his place to recover his manpower. Ferdinand IV, however, managed to capture Lille and Dunkirk in August and September with little resistance. Kellermann, however, was ordered to keep the Army away from Paris and to bleed the enemy dry.
Frederick William would meet up at Montpellier on the 14th June 1797 with the three men who had managed to fight French garrisons and scorched earth tactics for several months:
- General Charles François Dumouriez and his 43,000 infantry, 1,400 cavalry and 21 guns
- Austrian Field Marshal Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser led 81,000 infantry, 7,000 cavalry and 89 guns.
- Corsican General Napoleone di Buonaparte led a total of 48,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 25 guns
The objective, with Frederick William in command, was to advance southward to join up with British General John Cradock and Spanish General Luis Firmín de Carvajal, Conde de la Unión. Frederick William managed to march in time to meet Cradock and Carvajal on the 9th August at Toulouse.
General de Flers and General Jacques François Dugommier would unite their forces at Aurillac in early July, before they faced the Allied Army of the South.
Battle of Montauban - 27th August to the 7th September. Dugommier and de Flers held a combined 146,000 infantry, 16,000 cavalry and 167 guns. The Allied Army of the South, under Frederick William and John Cradock's joint command, fielded 322,000 infantry, 23,400 cavalry and 286 guns. It would become one of the largest battles in human history. Such large numbers for the Allied powers meant that command and control became unwieldy, as Frederick William and John Cradock shared command until Cradock deferred to William after the 2nd September. The French, under Dugommier's authority, managed to flank the lines and prevent encirclement, meeting no great barrier until Buonaparte attacked the left flank of the French on the 4th September, giving the first real victory of the Allied forces. Dumouriez, on the right flank of the Allied line, faced Dugommier's cavalry, who battered the infantry several times. On the 5th September, several French officers attacked Dumouriez and capturing him before placing their command under Dugommier. The sudden exposure of Cradock's flank to the French in the afternoon of that day meant the Allied forces lost the initiative. The 6th-7th September saw an attempt to fall back south to Toulouse, with Buonaparte engaging in a rearguard struggle against de Flers' cavalry and artillery.
The battle led to 42,000 French soldiers either killed or captured with 36 guns captured or destroyed. The Allied forces lost 73,000 soldiers, killed or captured with 92 guns captured or destroyed. Frederick William ordered all forces to rest in Toulouse, being unable to pursue due to the size of their forces.
Dugommier advanced northward with 50,000 men, 3,000 cavalry and 60 guns, leaving the remainder with General de Flers. Dugommier clashed with Vendee forces in Bordeaux (14th September) before capturing Cognac and La Rochelle on the 26th September and 9th October respectively. Jacques Cathelineau was occupied with Turreau capturing Nantes after conquering Normandy and Brittany in early April. The British maintain their hold on the coast between Nantes and La Rochelle, while the Vendee forces withdrew to concentrate their strength.
It was said that Croesus of Lydia asked the oracles of Delphi and Thebes the question of going to war with Persia. Both gave the same answer, that by going to war with Persia he would destroy a mighty empire. The following war would see Croesus lose and his empire destroyed. On the 7th January 1798, General Charles François Dumouriez would stand on the gallows, condemned by the Parisian crowd (sources say 10,000 to 20,000 onlookers). He would repeat the story, stating that Saint-Just would destroy a great nation, omitting the fact that he meant France. Dumouriez, for his sedition and treason, had his eyes gouged out and his hands amputated and cauterised before his execution via guillotine in front of the baying crowd. Saint-Just looked at the spectacle on horseback, surrounded by 4,000 armed guards, before withdrawing to Versailles.
France faced three armies:
- To the north at Lille lay an army composed of Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Brandenburger, Bavarian, Hessian and Austrians numbering 147,000 infantry, 14,000 cavalry and 239 guns. This force is commanded by Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand IV, Dutch Stadholder William VI of Orange and Elector of Brandenburg Frederick Wilhelm III.
- To the east, just outside of Dijon, an army of Hessian, Austrian and Swiss numbering 53,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 46 guns remained under the command of General Maximilian Anton Karl.
- To the south, in the vicinity of Toulouse, was "The Black Duke's Army". Frederick William would command 292,000 infantry, 24,000 cavalry and 214 guns. The Army was composed of Brunswickers, Hessians, Swiss, Austrian, Venetian, Sardinian, Spanish, Basque, Catalonian, Neapolitan, Portuguese, British, American, Genovese, Corsican, Hanoverian, Belgian and Dutch soldiers as well as German mercenaries.
- To the west lay the Catholic and Vendee Army under General Jacques Cathelineau and General Henry Clinton, numbering 36,000 British and Vendee infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 27 guns.
Saint-Just ordered more men to be drafted from Paris and from the area. Unmarried men, criminals who would be given lighter sentences, men between 18-19 years old, they would be given the rushed course. This order would quickly draft 100,000 men.
1798 started with a sickening defeat. General Jacques François Dugommier and General Louis Marie Turreau joined forces at Parthenay, before turning to face the Anglo-Vendee force situated at La Châtaigneraie on the 4th April 1798. The French had a combined strength of 61,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 56 guns, facing the full force of the British and Vendee infantry. Turreau and Dugommier managed to pincer the British and Vendee flanks, before setting the cavalry on the rearlines before allowing a gap to form to motivate the enemy to retreat. In the middle of the cavalry skirmish, Henry Clinton was shot in the chest, with his wheezing body taken from the battlefield alongside the retreating British soldiers. The Vendee forces under Cathelineau surrendered when they were reduced to 3,000 men. Turreau, after dealing with the Vendee for so long, ordered the wholesale massacre of the prisoners. Dugommier did not say a word. The British defeat meant that the Vendee was now occupied by the French republicans by the 16th April. Turreau's barbarism would continue to press onto the civilians, while Dugommier marched his forces south to delay the advance of Frederick William's army.
Meanwhile, Kellermann faced the Allied Army of the North at Saint-Quentin on the 23rd March 1798, suffering the first defeat of the year. Kellermann asked for reinforcements from Paris, which he received once he reached Soissons on the 15th April. On the 18th, the Allied army reached him again, where he managed to defeat them at the Battle of Soissons, sustaining 26,000 French casualties to the 32,000 Allied casualties. On the 22nd April, the Allied forces attempted to encircle Kellermann at Vauxbuin, but the path out forced him closer to Paris. Soon it became a game of rearguard actions, with both sides sustaining casualties. It was on the 7th May that Kellermann's forces would be defeated at Compiègne. The French were now running straight to Paris. However, Frederick William III and his horse were shot with cannon fire during a cavalry charge, with the Elector passing away on the 11th May. The Electorate of Brandenburg then fell to Frederick's brother, Prince Louis Charles, who became Elector Louis I. Out of respect to the late Elector, Brandenburger soldiers were allowed to return to their homes, a total of 14,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and 14 guns.
General Jean-Baptiste Kléber would defeat General Maximilian Anton Karl at Montbard on the 17th March, sustaining 16,000 casualties to Karl's 22,000. News would arrive of Kellermann's situation at Saint-Quentin on the 6th April. Kléber, commanding 47,000 infantry and 5000 cavalry and 46 guns, ordered a march towards Paris. Hearing news of over 100,000 men being mobilised, he hoped that Kellermann's forces and the recruits could be a powerful defence against the armies of Europe. "One great struggle on one day and we can overcome a decade of strife, a century of stagnation and a millennium of suffering", Kléber once wrote in his journals. General Anton Karl gave chase on the 9th April, realising what was indeed occurring. Sending a letter to Frederick William, Karl set his men on a forced march to catch up before a major offensive can come from France.
Frederick William advanced north to confront General de Flers at the Battle of Bergerac on the 28th April 1798, with the French waiting for the enemy to come in. Despite the great strength of the Allied forces, Frederick William was unable to match the speed of de Flers' men, who managed to sustain 5,000 casualties to Frederick William's 18,000. The Allied forces, sick of the inability to keep up, decided to split up into two forces. Field Marshal Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser and General Napoleone di Buonaparte would take 112,000 infantry, 8000 cavalry and 65 guns before marching into the Vendee, while Frederick William would take the remainder to march on Paris.
On the 6th May, Wurmser and Buonaparte marched on Bordeaux, receiving supplies from the Royal Navy as well as an injured Henry Clinton commanding 16,000 British infantry, 2000 cavalry and 28 guns. Frederick William met de Flers again on the 23rd May at Limoges, a city that was devastated by Allied artillery, causing the French to retreat and civilians to flee northward in their thousands. Wurmser's forces liberated Rochefort and La Rochelle on the 12th and 15th May respectively, before defeating Turreau at Poitiers on the 25th May. Wurmser managed to steal a march towards Paris, being far closer than Turreau.
France was now in free fall. Civilians were clamouring towards Paris and there were around 100,000 men ready to fight, while French Royalists joined the ranks of the oncoming armies. Saint-Just ordered the complete fortification of the city starting on the 18th May. Over 200,000 men were set to work, building ditches, barricades and other barriers around the city and Versailles. Kellermann arrived with his force intact, with Saint-Just giving him command of the city's forces. All males over the age of 16 were put to work constructing the defences, a precursor to the Total War Mindset of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Then, on the 17th June, Ferdinand IV arrived at the head of an Allied force. 136,000 infantry, 21,000 cavalry and 235 guns. Kellermann lead the defence. 226,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry and 338 guns. Artillery bombardments started the fighting the following day, as the Allied infantry faced six foot ditches and choke points where grapeshot was ready and waiting for them. 9,000 Allied soldiers died on that day, compared to 2,230 French soldiers. Realising how outnumbered they were, Emperor Ferdinand IV and Stadholder William VI drafted a plan of encircling the city, denying supplies. The 19th and 20th was spent sending forces to scout in all directions, to see where enemy reinforcements may turn up.
On the 21st June 1798, Field Marshal Dagobert Wurmser, General Buonaparte and Henry Clinton arrived with 138,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and 114 guns. It would be on the 24th and 25th when the Allied forces commended an assault which only allowed Meaux, Corbeil-Essonnes and Orsay to be captured. Kellermann ordered a breakout at Élancourt on the 3rd July, which forced Field Marshal Wurmser to withdraw from Orsay on the 5th July. On the 9th July 1798, General Kléber arrived with his army at the rear of Henry Clinton and William of Orange's forces. The two men were trapped, breaking out in the late afternoon after sustaining 14,000 dead to 4,000 French dead. The line for more supplies had been made, but there would be no more chances. General de Flers and General Turreau were too far away, as were General Frederick William and General Anton Karl.
Versailles would be assaulted by Wurmser and Buonaparte, with Élancourt taken alongside Orsay on the 17th July. Buonaparte managed to find several gaps in the lines before surrounding the Palace of Versailles, where the National Congress was assembled. Buonaparte would arrest every member of the Congress, before holding them in tents under guard. Saint-Just, however, evaded the enemy, retreating deeper into Paris. Kléber's forces could not keep the breach open, as William of Orange and Field Marshal Wurmser encircled his forces at Pontault-Combault on the 21st July. Meanwhile, British bomb ketches sailed down the Seine River, before entering Paris itself. Dozens of carcass shots were unleashed upon the city, with civilians in panic over food supplies dwindling. On the 26th July, civilians rioted, with Notre Dame declared to be the sight of a "Second Kingdom of France". Moderates soon rushed towards the enemy lines, with quite a large number being shot by republican guards over the course of 28th July.
On the 1st August, the Allied forces beat back offensives by General de Flers and General Turreau, while General Anton Karl came to reinforce their lines. On the 3rd August, the city was breached on several fronts, with the poorly trained defenders either surrendering or fighting to the death. Kellermann was found as a suicide in the early hours of the following day. Saint-Just was discovered by starving Parisians and hanged from Notre Dame. As the Holy Roman Emperor entered the city, he noticed the corpse hanging from the church. Ferdinand IV was told of the last words that Dumouriez stated before execution. Once the Emperor laughed, Saint-Just's corpse snapped from the rope, slamming into the ground and spilling some blood even on the Emperor himself. "I pray that I shall have peace in my life," he quickly said, shocked by the blood that dropped on his face.
Paris was taken, but republican resistance occurred until the 27th October 1798, where General Jacques François Dugommier and General Louis Marie Turreau surrendered at Tours. This would become the end of the Eight Years' War or the French Revolutionary War.
It would begin the Peace of Dresden.
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Fuck that took far too long.
All comments and thoughts welcome. The next post will be tonight or tomorrow.
The first was a part of the Anarchy. Polish citizens, whose citizenship and rights were stripped away by the Orthodox Russians, rose up in rebellion on the 18th March 1796 along with the remainder of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (under the rule of Stanisław II August) as well as the Electorate of Saxony. In the following April Frederick Augustus III of Saxony negotiated with Polish ringleaders to expel all Russian forces from the region, in return accepting Frederick Augustus and his son as King and heir to the PLC. The Polish, who were angry at Stanisław for being unable to implement reforms and angry at Russia occupying their territory, agreed to the proposal on the 19th April 1796.
The fighting started in late March, with Warsaw being the scene of large demonstrations and Stanisław's estate being attacked by lower class civilians, who were radicalised by the French Revolutionaries (although they were protesting in favour of Elector Frederick Augustus rather than a Maratist/Saint-Justian Regime). Warsaw and the surrounding region declared for Frederick Augustus in April, who recalled all of his soldiers from the fighting in the Low Countries. Frederick Augustus III marched into the PLC with 30,000 Saxon infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 27 cannons of different kinds on the 24th April 1796. Throughout his march, he faced little to no resistance from the people. When he reached Warsaw on the 17th May 1796, he was declared King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony and Poland-Lithuania. Lithuanians rose up against the Russian authorities, who were already in the throes of civil war between Platonists and Paulite forces. Meanwhile Protestants in the region of Silesia protested in favour of joining Saxony in May-June, which drew great protests from the Austrian court.
The second event was the surrender of General Charles François Dumouriez and his 68,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 32 guns on the 14th March 1796 at Padua. Austrian Field Marshal Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser and Corsican General Napoleone di Buonaparte accepted the surrender, an act which raised the profile of both men. Dumouriez and his men fought under the Austrian Emperor, whose lands had not been crippled unlike that of the Low Countries, Spain or Sardinia. Dumouriez turned his army around, now 70,000 infantry, 3,500 cavalry and 40 guns. Wurmser followed after him, with 136,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and 108 guns. Buonaparte led last with a total of 64,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 38 guns. On the 26th March 1796, all three armies marched westward, aiming to reach France before the 1st May.
Meanwhile, General David Dundas replaced Major General Moore as commander of the British forces in the Italian Peninsula, who were now to be transported to Spain to assist King Ferdinand VII of Spain and Andorra. Ships left Genoa on the 23rd March 1796 to take General Dundas and his men, some 20,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 24 guns. On the 9th April 1796, landings were made at Cadiz, joining the local forces under British General John Cradock and Spanish General Luis Firmín de Carvajal, Conde de la Unión (who had marshalled 96,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry and 89 guns) and French deserters under the command of Lazare Carnot (who defected following Saint-Just's ascension and arrests of his enemies). Dundas and Carvajal commanded a total of 116,000 infantry, 9000 cavalry and 113 guns, holding the line from Portugal and the Murcia-Madrid-Burgos-Santander line. Portuguese forces added another 35,000 men to be placed under Cradock's command, who was deemed as the Commander-in-Chief on the 25th April 1796.
The Battle of Madrid (27th - 28th April 1796) tore apart the city, with pictures and accounts comparing the city to Lisbon following the 1755 Earthquake. General Dagobert and General de Flers had a combined total of 94,000 infantry, 8,500 cavalry and 190 guns. Dundas stood his ground when Dagobert exploited a gap and sent 2,000 cavalry to attack. Forming square a bit too late, the American, Scottish and African soldiers stood their ground, beating back the cavalry at the moment Portuguese and Spanish troops push through the centre of the city. Pushing them back street by street, the Spanish flew their flags on rooftops, rallying the citizens to defy the gunfire, pelting the French with bricks and any other debris. Cradock's forces suffered 7,701 dead, 23,668 wounded and 618 captured, with 27 guns destroyed or captured. The French had 18,516 dead, 36,884 wounded or captured and 68 guns destroyed or captured. The French lost the legitimacy that was in their grasp. In the remainder of May and June, the Catalonian and Basque Republics began to be subtle in their refusal to give more troops. While they do not have any love for King Ferdinand VII, they do see a sinking ship coming, so to speak. In the middle of May, French troops under Saint-Just's orders threatened to conscript Catalonian and Basque men outright, with or without their consent. This led to the Ebro River Riots, from 26th June to the 18th August 1796, where Basque men rose up against the French. By September (when Allied forces liberated Santander, Valencia and Zaragoza), the Basque Republic fell into open warfare, while Catalonia had (under President-General Diego Pacheco Téllez-Girón Gómez de Sandoval) begun to send aid to Basque and allowed British ships to use its ports in return for a guarantee of independence. At the Battle of Pamplona (26th October 1796), General Dagobert was killed by Basque snipers while his army was overwhelmed by Allied forces and the arrival of Basque reinforcements (a total of 147,000 infantry, 7200 cavalry and 152 guns vs 63,000 infantry, 5800 cavalry and 165 guns). It was there that Catalonia officially rose up against the French, depriving Dagobert of any direct reinforcements and forcing General de Flers to march north. In the following November, both generals force-marched into France, seeing the countryside harry their forces now that their threats were empty. It was in that time that the Basque President Martín Fernández de Navarrete (1765 - 1844) and Catalonian President-General Diego Pacheco Téllez-Girón Gómez de Sandoval (1754 - 1822) cooperated with King Ferdinand VII. The British consulate advised Cradock to keep the Royalist, Catalonian and Basque forces out of each other's way for the 1797 Campaign.
The Battle of Oldenburg, had it gone the way of the French, would have opened the way for Hanover, Denmark and Brandenburg to be subdued and for the HRE to be broken. It was the one single surge that allowed Ferdinand IV of the Holy Roman Empire to escape certain death. It was this battle that confirmed his right to rule. The battle allowed for the liberation of the Low Countries. It began on August 1794, where the Principality of East Frisia was retaken in the Battle of Emden (17th - 21st August), where Dutch republicans betrayed their French commanders, forcing the enemy to flee across the Ems River. Up until November 1795, the Allied forces under Emperor Ferdinand IV and Dutch Stadholder William VI of Orange and Elector Frederick Wilhelm III captured the Lordship of Frisia, Groningen and the Ommelanden, the Lordship of Papenburg and the Bishopric of Munster as the Battle of the Camperdown defeated French naval power in March 1795. The Battle of Amsterdam on the 23rd August - 19th September 1795 led to a severe backlash against the French defenders, who took to demolishing houses in order to form barricades as well as steal any food that was inside civilian homes (as well as 40 frigates and ships of other ranks). Mobs of Dutchmen would be driven back with canister shot, while many more fled to the countryside with their possessions lost to fires or looted by French and Belgian soldiers. Such was the devastation that Amsterdam, having 216,000 people in 1795, would have close to 184,000 by 1799. It would be one factor in a few that would allow Rotterdam to become the Capitol City in 1801.
The liberation of Amsterdam and the Stolen Fleet would settle in the mind of Dutch republicans, who now felt defeat come closer and closer. Dutch republicans rebelled on the 7th October at Tilberg, with 6,000 marching across supply lines, stealing as much food as they could before they reached the French garrisons at the Waal River. Over the course of the winter, the French garrisons soon suffered. In the March of 1796, the French forces withdrew southward, crushing the Dutch rebel republicans and meeting with Lafayette's forces stationed at Antwerp.
April 1796 occurred, with Frederick Augustus III of Saxony recalling his forces with permission being granted by the Holy Roman Emperor (though the Elector never stated the part where he was to be made King of Saxony and Poland), much to the private grumbles of Frederick Wilhelm III of Brandenburg. The 100,000-strong Russian force also marched eastwards due to the Anarchy tearing apart Russian . It would be on the 3rd May where the Battle of Antwerp began. Allied forces numbered 117,000 infantry, 16,000 cavalry and 168 guns versus the Franco-Belgian force of 72,000 infantry, 5000 cavalry and 145 guns under General Lafayette. In the span of twelve hours, Lafayette saw his lines devastated with the same tactics he used against the Dutch and the Royalist Belgians under Elector Charles Theodore IV. It was here that he would suffer defeat, being forced to retreat southward at the expense of 39,000 men killed or captured. It was outside of Brussels that General Jacques François Dugommier would relieve Lafayette of command, before allowing Saint-Just's agents to arrest Lafayette and execute him in Ghent on the 2nd June 1796. The Allied forces overwhelmed Dugommier, who lasted until September, where the Battle of Charleroi (9th - 15th September) allowed his forces to be encircled. The following October led to Saint-Just withdrawing French forces from Belgian territory. Charles Theodore IV was restored as the Elector of his rightful territories by the end of the year.
Étienne Macdonald would raise a total of 26,000 French infantry, 50 cavalry and 8 guns, to invade on the 40 Dutch ships as well as another 12 French ships. On the 12th June 1796, Macdonald landed at Bantry Bay in Ireland with his wife Charlotte and son Charles James Francis Edward Macdonald-Stuart, the Last Pretender and her son. It would prove to be too little too late, as the Catholic Irish had found themselves satisfied over the course of a decade due to Whiggish policy surrounding Catholic emancipation (with PM Burke supporting it wholeheartedly). That, and the invasion had been a waste of materials. The Last Jacobite Rebellion was defeated by an Anglo-Irish force led by General John Moore, with the 2000 - 3000 Irishmen supporting the invasion being from nonconformists (Presbyterians and Protestants that were not in union with the Church of England). The Battle of Cork on the 22nd August 1796 ended the rebellion when Moore attacked the city with assistance from the Royal Navy. Not only were all of the cannons captured, but so were Charlotte and her son. Etienne Macdonald and the surviving 32 cavalrymen and 17,000 French soldiers were defeated at Kilbrin on the 7th October 1796, with local Irish militias under Moore's command defeating Macdonald and wounding him. On the 16th October 1796, Charlotte and her son were taken from Cork to be placed under house arrest in Truro in Cornwall for the rest of their lives. Macdonald would never see his wife or son again, being forced to surrender on the 26th October 1796 after his soldier mutinied. Macdonald would return to Paris, before being executed on the 7th November.
The American Republic and the United Kingdom continued to conduct expeditions in New Spain, with Mexico City placed under official American occupation in November 1795. Despite not having as many soldiers as the UK, the American Republic authorised privateering and coastal raids across New Spain and New Granada. Fighting between the American Republic and the Empire of Haiti began in August 1795, but it would be bogged down in guerrilla warfare until the Peace of Dresden, signifying the first American defeat. However in New Granada, local militias dealt with American raiders, with 8000 or so plundering and occupying the lands east of the Caroni River, an action that would be resolved until the Peace of Dresden.
1797 started with the passing of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, at the age of 61, having succumbed to gunshot wounds from the Battle of Grenoble (where the Allied forces were victorious at the expense of 30,000 lives lost altogether) on the 24th October 1796. Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, succeeded his father as commander (as he himself led the Black Brunswickers, giving him the nickname of "The Black Duke"). Frederick William and Austrian General Maximilian Anton Karl (Count Baillet de Latour) conducted a reorganisation of their forces at Geneva. Frederick William would command 86,000 infantry, 7,000 cavalry and 87 guns. General Maximilian Anton Karl would command 74,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and 73 guns.
General François Christophe de Kellermann and General Louis Marie Turreau were the only high ranking men that managed to halt the movements of the enemy into the French interior. Kellermann had a total of 180,000 infantry, 16,000 cavalry and 186 guns. Turreau had 88,000 infantry, 8000 cavalry and 92 guns. General Jean-Baptiste Kléber accepted command of 65,000 infantry, 2000 cavalry and 47 guns. Several other generals (under Kellermann's authority) commanded a combined total of 160,000 men, 4000 cavalry and 104 guns.
France, at this point, had blockades on its Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, with few privateers and Ottoman ships being able to run the blockades conducted by the British Empire. The Allied forces under Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand IV and Stadholder William VI of Orange, dubbed the Army of the North (made of 130,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry and 112 guns), clashed with Kellermann at the Battle of Sedan (19th April 1797), which the French managed to capture the Stadholder. William of Orange was ransomed for 15 million francs, a payment that The Netherlands was too willing to accept (hoping that any peace talks would lead to a repayment or a doubling of the reparations). The Holy Roman Emperor, much to the protest of his subordinates, halted the offensive to allow for the exchange to occur. This delay allowed Kellerman to order Kléber to confront General Karl and General Frederick William, who were gathering forces at Dijon.
20th May 1797, Battle of Chaumont. General Maximilian Anton Karl would confront Kléber, a man who had risen through the ranks of the French Army through his organisation and his ruthless streak in dealing with civilians and soldiers (he was complicit in the Culling of the Vendee). Karl had struggled in the last few months, with winter supplies not about to keep morale high alongside resistance from French locals and skirmishes with French dragoons. Kléber, being hardened by atrocities he committed, did not flinch from the Austrian advance. French artillery bombarded the concentrated centre of Karl's line, while dragoons and lancers pushed aside the fatigued Austrian cavalry. Karl would suffer 28,000 casualties to Kléber's 4,000, a victory that would give hope to a regime bent upon bringing every other foe down with it. Karl would face Kléber again at Mirecourt on the 26th June 1797 and again at Vesoul on the 20th September, both times being beaten by the Frenchman.
The defeat at Chaumont spurred the protests towards the Holy Roman Emperor, who kept the forces back until the Stadholder returned on the 26th June 1797. Ferdinand IV ordered an advance, confronting Kellermann again at Cambrai on the 17th July. Kellermann once again beat the Emperor, but it was a pyrrhic victory, forcing Kellermann to stay in his place to recover his manpower. Ferdinand IV, however, managed to capture Lille and Dunkirk in August and September with little resistance. Kellermann, however, was ordered to keep the Army away from Paris and to bleed the enemy dry.
Frederick William would meet up at Montpellier on the 14th June 1797 with the three men who had managed to fight French garrisons and scorched earth tactics for several months:
- General Charles François Dumouriez and his 43,000 infantry, 1,400 cavalry and 21 guns
- Austrian Field Marshal Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser led 81,000 infantry, 7,000 cavalry and 89 guns.
- Corsican General Napoleone di Buonaparte led a total of 48,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 25 guns
The objective, with Frederick William in command, was to advance southward to join up with British General John Cradock and Spanish General Luis Firmín de Carvajal, Conde de la Unión. Frederick William managed to march in time to meet Cradock and Carvajal on the 9th August at Toulouse.
General de Flers and General Jacques François Dugommier would unite their forces at Aurillac in early July, before they faced the Allied Army of the South.
Battle of Montauban - 27th August to the 7th September. Dugommier and de Flers held a combined 146,000 infantry, 16,000 cavalry and 167 guns. The Allied Army of the South, under Frederick William and John Cradock's joint command, fielded 322,000 infantry, 23,400 cavalry and 286 guns. It would become one of the largest battles in human history. Such large numbers for the Allied powers meant that command and control became unwieldy, as Frederick William and John Cradock shared command until Cradock deferred to William after the 2nd September. The French, under Dugommier's authority, managed to flank the lines and prevent encirclement, meeting no great barrier until Buonaparte attacked the left flank of the French on the 4th September, giving the first real victory of the Allied forces. Dumouriez, on the right flank of the Allied line, faced Dugommier's cavalry, who battered the infantry several times. On the 5th September, several French officers attacked Dumouriez and capturing him before placing their command under Dugommier. The sudden exposure of Cradock's flank to the French in the afternoon of that day meant the Allied forces lost the initiative. The 6th-7th September saw an attempt to fall back south to Toulouse, with Buonaparte engaging in a rearguard struggle against de Flers' cavalry and artillery.
The battle led to 42,000 French soldiers either killed or captured with 36 guns captured or destroyed. The Allied forces lost 73,000 soldiers, killed or captured with 92 guns captured or destroyed. Frederick William ordered all forces to rest in Toulouse, being unable to pursue due to the size of their forces.
Dugommier advanced northward with 50,000 men, 3,000 cavalry and 60 guns, leaving the remainder with General de Flers. Dugommier clashed with Vendee forces in Bordeaux (14th September) before capturing Cognac and La Rochelle on the 26th September and 9th October respectively. Jacques Cathelineau was occupied with Turreau capturing Nantes after conquering Normandy and Brittany in early April. The British maintain their hold on the coast between Nantes and La Rochelle, while the Vendee forces withdrew to concentrate their strength.
It was said that Croesus of Lydia asked the oracles of Delphi and Thebes the question of going to war with Persia. Both gave the same answer, that by going to war with Persia he would destroy a mighty empire. The following war would see Croesus lose and his empire destroyed. On the 7th January 1798, General Charles François Dumouriez would stand on the gallows, condemned by the Parisian crowd (sources say 10,000 to 20,000 onlookers). He would repeat the story, stating that Saint-Just would destroy a great nation, omitting the fact that he meant France. Dumouriez, for his sedition and treason, had his eyes gouged out and his hands amputated and cauterised before his execution via guillotine in front of the baying crowd. Saint-Just looked at the spectacle on horseback, surrounded by 4,000 armed guards, before withdrawing to Versailles.
France faced three armies:
- To the north at Lille lay an army composed of Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Brandenburger, Bavarian, Hessian and Austrians numbering 147,000 infantry, 14,000 cavalry and 239 guns. This force is commanded by Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand IV, Dutch Stadholder William VI of Orange and Elector of Brandenburg Frederick Wilhelm III.
- To the east, just outside of Dijon, an army of Hessian, Austrian and Swiss numbering 53,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 46 guns remained under the command of General Maximilian Anton Karl.
- To the south, in the vicinity of Toulouse, was "The Black Duke's Army". Frederick William would command 292,000 infantry, 24,000 cavalry and 214 guns. The Army was composed of Brunswickers, Hessians, Swiss, Austrian, Venetian, Sardinian, Spanish, Basque, Catalonian, Neapolitan, Portuguese, British, American, Genovese, Corsican, Hanoverian, Belgian and Dutch soldiers as well as German mercenaries.
- To the west lay the Catholic and Vendee Army under General Jacques Cathelineau and General Henry Clinton, numbering 36,000 British and Vendee infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 27 guns.
Saint-Just ordered more men to be drafted from Paris and from the area. Unmarried men, criminals who would be given lighter sentences, men between 18-19 years old, they would be given the rushed course. This order would quickly draft 100,000 men.
1798 started with a sickening defeat. General Jacques François Dugommier and General Louis Marie Turreau joined forces at Parthenay, before turning to face the Anglo-Vendee force situated at La Châtaigneraie on the 4th April 1798. The French had a combined strength of 61,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 56 guns, facing the full force of the British and Vendee infantry. Turreau and Dugommier managed to pincer the British and Vendee flanks, before setting the cavalry on the rearlines before allowing a gap to form to motivate the enemy to retreat. In the middle of the cavalry skirmish, Henry Clinton was shot in the chest, with his wheezing body taken from the battlefield alongside the retreating British soldiers. The Vendee forces under Cathelineau surrendered when they were reduced to 3,000 men. Turreau, after dealing with the Vendee for so long, ordered the wholesale massacre of the prisoners. Dugommier did not say a word. The British defeat meant that the Vendee was now occupied by the French republicans by the 16th April. Turreau's barbarism would continue to press onto the civilians, while Dugommier marched his forces south to delay the advance of Frederick William's army.
Meanwhile, Kellermann faced the Allied Army of the North at Saint-Quentin on the 23rd March 1798, suffering the first defeat of the year. Kellermann asked for reinforcements from Paris, which he received once he reached Soissons on the 15th April. On the 18th, the Allied army reached him again, where he managed to defeat them at the Battle of Soissons, sustaining 26,000 French casualties to the 32,000 Allied casualties. On the 22nd April, the Allied forces attempted to encircle Kellermann at Vauxbuin, but the path out forced him closer to Paris. Soon it became a game of rearguard actions, with both sides sustaining casualties. It was on the 7th May that Kellermann's forces would be defeated at Compiègne. The French were now running straight to Paris. However, Frederick William III and his horse were shot with cannon fire during a cavalry charge, with the Elector passing away on the 11th May. The Electorate of Brandenburg then fell to Frederick's brother, Prince Louis Charles, who became Elector Louis I. Out of respect to the late Elector, Brandenburger soldiers were allowed to return to their homes, a total of 14,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and 14 guns.
General Jean-Baptiste Kléber would defeat General Maximilian Anton Karl at Montbard on the 17th March, sustaining 16,000 casualties to Karl's 22,000. News would arrive of Kellermann's situation at Saint-Quentin on the 6th April. Kléber, commanding 47,000 infantry and 5000 cavalry and 46 guns, ordered a march towards Paris. Hearing news of over 100,000 men being mobilised, he hoped that Kellermann's forces and the recruits could be a powerful defence against the armies of Europe. "One great struggle on one day and we can overcome a decade of strife, a century of stagnation and a millennium of suffering", Kléber once wrote in his journals. General Anton Karl gave chase on the 9th April, realising what was indeed occurring. Sending a letter to Frederick William, Karl set his men on a forced march to catch up before a major offensive can come from France.
Frederick William advanced north to confront General de Flers at the Battle of Bergerac on the 28th April 1798, with the French waiting for the enemy to come in. Despite the great strength of the Allied forces, Frederick William was unable to match the speed of de Flers' men, who managed to sustain 5,000 casualties to Frederick William's 18,000. The Allied forces, sick of the inability to keep up, decided to split up into two forces. Field Marshal Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser and General Napoleone di Buonaparte would take 112,000 infantry, 8000 cavalry and 65 guns before marching into the Vendee, while Frederick William would take the remainder to march on Paris.
On the 6th May, Wurmser and Buonaparte marched on Bordeaux, receiving supplies from the Royal Navy as well as an injured Henry Clinton commanding 16,000 British infantry, 2000 cavalry and 28 guns. Frederick William met de Flers again on the 23rd May at Limoges, a city that was devastated by Allied artillery, causing the French to retreat and civilians to flee northward in their thousands. Wurmser's forces liberated Rochefort and La Rochelle on the 12th and 15th May respectively, before defeating Turreau at Poitiers on the 25th May. Wurmser managed to steal a march towards Paris, being far closer than Turreau.
France was now in free fall. Civilians were clamouring towards Paris and there were around 100,000 men ready to fight, while French Royalists joined the ranks of the oncoming armies. Saint-Just ordered the complete fortification of the city starting on the 18th May. Over 200,000 men were set to work, building ditches, barricades and other barriers around the city and Versailles. Kellermann arrived with his force intact, with Saint-Just giving him command of the city's forces. All males over the age of 16 were put to work constructing the defences, a precursor to the Total War Mindset of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Then, on the 17th June, Ferdinand IV arrived at the head of an Allied force. 136,000 infantry, 21,000 cavalry and 235 guns. Kellermann lead the defence. 226,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry and 338 guns. Artillery bombardments started the fighting the following day, as the Allied infantry faced six foot ditches and choke points where grapeshot was ready and waiting for them. 9,000 Allied soldiers died on that day, compared to 2,230 French soldiers. Realising how outnumbered they were, Emperor Ferdinand IV and Stadholder William VI drafted a plan of encircling the city, denying supplies. The 19th and 20th was spent sending forces to scout in all directions, to see where enemy reinforcements may turn up.
On the 21st June 1798, Field Marshal Dagobert Wurmser, General Buonaparte and Henry Clinton arrived with 138,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and 114 guns. It would be on the 24th and 25th when the Allied forces commended an assault which only allowed Meaux, Corbeil-Essonnes and Orsay to be captured. Kellermann ordered a breakout at Élancourt on the 3rd July, which forced Field Marshal Wurmser to withdraw from Orsay on the 5th July. On the 9th July 1798, General Kléber arrived with his army at the rear of Henry Clinton and William of Orange's forces. The two men were trapped, breaking out in the late afternoon after sustaining 14,000 dead to 4,000 French dead. The line for more supplies had been made, but there would be no more chances. General de Flers and General Turreau were too far away, as were General Frederick William and General Anton Karl.
Versailles would be assaulted by Wurmser and Buonaparte, with Élancourt taken alongside Orsay on the 17th July. Buonaparte managed to find several gaps in the lines before surrounding the Palace of Versailles, where the National Congress was assembled. Buonaparte would arrest every member of the Congress, before holding them in tents under guard. Saint-Just, however, evaded the enemy, retreating deeper into Paris. Kléber's forces could not keep the breach open, as William of Orange and Field Marshal Wurmser encircled his forces at Pontault-Combault on the 21st July. Meanwhile, British bomb ketches sailed down the Seine River, before entering Paris itself. Dozens of carcass shots were unleashed upon the city, with civilians in panic over food supplies dwindling. On the 26th July, civilians rioted, with Notre Dame declared to be the sight of a "Second Kingdom of France". Moderates soon rushed towards the enemy lines, with quite a large number being shot by republican guards over the course of 28th July.
On the 1st August, the Allied forces beat back offensives by General de Flers and General Turreau, while General Anton Karl came to reinforce their lines. On the 3rd August, the city was breached on several fronts, with the poorly trained defenders either surrendering or fighting to the death. Kellermann was found as a suicide in the early hours of the following day. Saint-Just was discovered by starving Parisians and hanged from Notre Dame. As the Holy Roman Emperor entered the city, he noticed the corpse hanging from the church. Ferdinand IV was told of the last words that Dumouriez stated before execution. Once the Emperor laughed, Saint-Just's corpse snapped from the rope, slamming into the ground and spilling some blood even on the Emperor himself. "I pray that I shall have peace in my life," he quickly said, shocked by the blood that dropped on his face.
Paris was taken, but republican resistance occurred until the 27th October 1798, where General Jacques François Dugommier and General Louis Marie Turreau surrendered at Tours. This would become the end of the Eight Years' War or the French Revolutionary War.
It would begin the Peace of Dresden.
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Fuck that took far too long.
All comments and thoughts welcome. The next post will be tonight or tomorrow.
