Battle of Wattignies (1793)

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Wattignies
partof=the French Revolution


caption=
date=15-16 October 1793
place=Wattignies-la-Victoire, near Maubeuge, France
casus=
territory=
result=French victory
combatant1=flagicon|France First French Republic
combatant2=flagicon|Holy Roman EmpireHabsburg Austria
combatant3=
commander1=Jean-Baptiste Jourdan,
Lazare Carnot
commander2=Josias of Coburg
commander3=
strength1=43,000
strength2=23,000
strength3=
casualties1=3,000
casualties2=2,500
casualties3=
notes=The Battle of Wattignies, during the French Revolutionary Wars, was fought near the village of Wattignies-la-Victoire, near Lille, France on October 15-16 1793. It resulted in the victory of the French under General Jourdan and Lazare Carnot against the Austrians under General Coburg. This victory forced Cobourg to lift the siege of Maubeuge and retreat eastward.

It should be noted that a number of historians are often making the confusion between 2 battles of the 2 Wattiginies existing in France: the Battle of the Revolution (1793) near Maubeuge and the Battle of the siege of Lille won by the Duke of Malborough in 1708 near Lille.Fact|date=November 2007

Wattignies

15 October

The Allied army, chiefly Austrians, under Coburg, was besieging Maubeuge, and the Revolutionary army, preparing to relieve it, gathered behind Avesnes. Coburg disposed a covering force of 21,000 astride the Avesnes-Maubeuge road, 5,000 on the right with their flank on the Sambre, 9000 in the centre, on a ridge in an amphitheatre of woods, and on the left, chiefly on the plateau of Wattignies.

The long line of woods enabled the Republican commander, Jourdan, to deploy unseen; 14,000 men under Gen. Fromentin were to attack the right, 16,000 under Gen. Duquenoy were sent towards Wattignies, and 13,000 under Gen. Balland were to demonstrate in the centre until the other columns had succeeded in their mission and was then to attack. Meantime (though this part of the programme miscarried) the Maubeuge garrison under Gen. Ferrand, which was almost as strong as its besiegers, was to sally out. Even without the Maubeuge garrison Jourdan had a two-to-one superiority. But the French were still the undisciplined enthusiasts of Hondschoote. Their left attack progressed as long as it could use dead ground in the valleys, but when the Republicans reached the gentler slopes above, the volleys of the Austrian regulars crushed their swarms, and the Austrian cavalry, striking them in flank, rode over them. The centre attack, ordered by Carnot on the assumption that all was well on the flanks, was premature; like the left, it progressed while the slopes were sharp, but when the Republicans arrived on the crest they found a gentle reverse slope before them, at the foot of which were Coburgs best troops. Again the disciplined volleys and a well-timed cavalry charge swept back the assailants.

The French right reached, but could not hold, Wattignies. But these reverses were, in the eyes of Carnot and Jourdan, mere mishaps. Jourdan wished to renew the left attack, but Carnot, the engineer, considered the Wattignies plateau the key of the position and his opinion prevailed.

16 October

In the night the nearly equal partition of force, which was largely responsible for the failure, was modified, and the strength of the attack massed opposite Wattignies. Coburg meanwhile strengthened his wings. He had heard, wrongly, that Jourdan had been reinforced up to 100,000. But he called up few fresh battalions, and put into line only 23,000 men. In reality Jourdan had not received reinforcements, and the effects of the first failure almost neutralized the superiority of numbers and enthusiasm over discipline and confidence.

On October 16, after a long fight the French army managed to win the plateau and forced Coburg, having lost 2,500 to Jourdan's 3,000, to withdraw to the east and to lift the siege of Maubeuge.

Trivia

The Battle happened the same day Marie Antoinette was executed at the guillotine in Paris, 130 miles to the south.

References

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