CHAPTER VIII.

CAMPAIGN OF 1794.

WHILE the career of the French armies was thus marked by alternations of victory and defeat, a different fortune awaited her naval armaments. Power at sea, unlike conquest on land, cannot spring from mere suffering, or from the energy of destitute warriors with arms in their hands; nor are triumphs to be achieved on the ocean by merely forcing column after column of conscripts on board ships of war.

At the commencement of the contest, the French navy consisted of seventy-five ships of the line and seventy frigates; but the officers, drawn chiefly from the aristocratic classes, had, for the most part, emigrated on the breaking out of the Revolution, and those who supplied their places were deficient both in naval education and experience. On the other hand, England had one hundred and twenty-nine ships of the line and more than a hundred frigates; ninety of each class were immediately put in commission, and seamen of the best description, to the number of eightyfive thousand, were drawn from the inexhaustible merchant-service. Unable to face the English in large squadrons, the French navy remained for a time in total inactivity; but the French merchants, not having any pacific means of employing their capital, fitted out an immense number of privateers which proved extremely injurious to British commerce.

Meanwhile, the ascendency of the navy of Great Britain produced its wonted effects on the colonial possessions of her enemies. Soon after the commencement of hostilities, Tobago was taken by a British fleet, and in the beginning of March, 1794, an expedition was sent against Martinique, which island surrendered on the 23rd of that month. Soon after, the principal forts in St. Domingo were wrested from the Republicans by the English forces, while the wretched planters, a prey to the commotion excited by Brissot and the friends of negro emancipation at the commencement of the Revolution, were totally ruined. St. Lucia and Guadaloupe were next subdued, and thus in little more than a month the French were despoiled of their West India possessions, with hardly any loss to the conquerors.

In the Mediterranean, also, the power of the British navy was speedily felt. Corsica was selected as the point of attack. Three thousand marines and soldiers were landed, and they nearly effected the subjugation of the island by capturing the fortress of Bastia, which capitulated at the end of May: and on the 1st of August, Calvi, the only remaining stronghold, surrendered to the British arms. The crown of Corsica was then offered by Paoli and the Royalist party to the King of England, who accepted it.

But a more important achievement was at hand. The French government, by great exertions, had equipped for service twenty-six ships of the line at Brest, in order to secure the arrival of a large fleet laden with provisions from America, and on the 20th of May, the fleet put to sea, under Admiral Joyeuse. On the 28th, Lord Howe hove in sight with the Channel-fleet of England, consisting also of six-and-twenty ships of the

line. The French were immediately formed in order of battle, and a partial action ensued between their rear-guard and the British van, during which the Revolutionaire was so much damaged that she struck to the Audacious; but as the victors did not take possession of her before nightfall, she was on the following morning carried off by the French and towed into Rochefort. The next day each party endeavored to gain the weather-gage, and, during the two following days, a thick fog concealed the rival fleets from each other's view. On the 1st of June, the sun broke forth with unusual splendor, and Lord Howe, having obtained the weather-gage, bore down obliquely on the enemy's line, broke it near the centre, and doubled, with a preponderating force, on one half of their squadron. The French fleet was arrayed in close order in a line extending nearly east and west, and a heavy fire was commenced on the British ships as soon as they came within range. The battle then became general and was contested with great bravery on both sides; but the superiority of the British seamen everywhere prevailed. One of the French ships was sunk, and ten surrendered; but subsequently four of the prizes with the remainder of the fleet escaped. Six ships of the line remained in the hands of the British admiral, and were brought into Plymouth. The Republicans were in some degree consoled for this disaster, by the safe arrival of the fleet from America, consisting of one hundred and sixty vessels laden with provisions-a supply of incalculable importance to a population, whom the Reign of Terror and civil disunion had brought to the verge of famine.

Never was a victory more seasonable than Lord Howe's to the British government. The war, preceded as it was by violent party divisions in England, had been regarded with lukewarm feelings by a large portion of the people; and until the Reign of Terror had shocked the respectable portion of the advocates of the Revolution, these short-sighted friends of freedom had feared the success of the British arms, lest it should extinguish the dawn of liberty in the world. But the victory of the 1st of June captivated the affections of the giddy multitude: the ancient, but recently half-expiring loyalty of the British people, wakened at the sound of their conquering cannon, and the hereditary rivalry of the two nations revived in all its force. From this period, may be dated the commencement of entire union among the inhabitants on the subject of the war.

The secession of Prussia from the allied cause was a serious loss, and greatly embarrassed the opening movements of this year's campaign. Indeed, Mr. Pitt, by a renewed and energetic remonstrance, caused the King of Prussia a second time to promise his cooperation, but no effectual aid resulted from it. General Mack was intrusted by the Austrian and English governments with the preparation of a plan of the campaign, and he proposed one which, had it been vigorously carried into effect, might have produced brilliant results: this was, to open the French frontier by the capture of Landrecy and march with the army in Flanders, through Laon direct to Paris, while the Prussian forces, by a forward movement on the side of Namur, supported the operation. This plan, however, was not adopted; for the inhabitants of West Flanders protested against having their province made a theatre of war, the Prussians declined any active cooperation, and the remainder of the allied forces were unequal to such an expedition. The number and disposition of the troops on both sides, at the opening of the campaign, were as follows:

Unaware, as yet, of the immense military resources of a despotic and evolutionary government, whose requisitions for soldiers, money and munitions of war were enforced by the terrors of the guillotine, and whose young men, deprived by the agitation of the period from all other occupation, voluntarily crowded into the ranks of the army, the allies resolved to capture Landrecy, and still entertained the hope of marching thence to Paris. Preparatory to this movement, the Emperor of Austria, on the 16th of April, reviewed a large division of the allied troops on the plains of Cateau, amounting to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand The troops were in the finest condition, the cavalry, in particular, were superb; but, instead of profiting by their concentrated force to fall on the opposing armies, they were the next day divided into eight columns and spread over many leagues of the Flemish frontier, with the absurd intention of covering every point of entrance against the French; and that, too, while their project of pushing forward to Paris was not yet abandoned. Landrecy was however besieged and captured, after ten days of open trenches, with its garrison of five thousand men.

men.

Notwithstanding the defect in the plans of the allies, their operations were attended with considerable success. The plan of the French consisted of a series of attacks on the posts and corps forming the line of the allies, followed by an advance of their two wings, the one toward Philipville, and the other toward Dunkirk. On the 26th of April, the movement took place along the whole line. The centre, which attacked the Duke of York near Cambray, experienced a bloody reverse. When the Republicans arrived at the redoubts of Troisville, they were intrepidly assailed by the English guards in front, supported by Prince Schwartzenberg with a regiment of Austrian cuirassiers, while General Otto charged them in flank, at the head of the English cavalry, and completed their rout. The whole corps was driven back to Cambray, with a loss of thirtyfive pieces of cannon and more than four thousand men. While this disaster was taking place on the left of the French army, the centre sustained a similar repulse from the Austrian covering force. But these advantages were counterbalanced by the defeat of General Clairfait on the right, who was attacked by fifty thousand French troops under Souham and Moreau, and forced to retreat precipitately with a loss of thirty pieces of cannon and twelve hundred prisoners. Prince Cobourg immediately detached the Duke of York to Tournay to support Clairfait, and himself remained in the neighborhood of Landrecy, to put that fortress in a state of defence.

The Convention, greatly dissatisfied with the progress of their armies against the allied centre, ordered Jourdan to march with forty thousand men to the Ardenne forest, and unite himself with the army on the Sambro

Previously to his march, on the 10th of May, the French army crossed that river to attack the allies at Grandrengs, and a furious battle ensued, in which the Republicans were defeated, and forced to recross the river with a loss of ten pieces of cannon and four thousand men. On the 20th of May they renewed the attack, but were so roughly handled that, had not Kleber arrived on the ground with fresh troops, the French army would have been totally destroyed: as it was, they lost four thousand men and twenty-five pieces of artillery.

While blood was thus flowing freely on the banks of the Sambre, some movements of importance took place in West Flanders. The allies had there collected ninety thousand men, and the situation of the French left wing suggested the design of cutting it off from the main body, and forcing it back on the sea, where it must needs surrender: and had the allies acted more in concert, they might readily have accomplished this bold undertaking. But, obstinately pursuing the old system of dividing their forces, they moved in separate detachments and were easily defeated in detail by the French troops. On the 22nd of May, Pichegru assumed the command of the French, with the intention of laying siege to Tournay. A number of indecisive actions ensued, in which no object was accomplished, though large numbers of troops were destroyed; no less than twenty thousand men having fallen on the two sides.

The result of these bloody actions, which demonstrated the strength of the Republicans, and showed the desperate strife that must follow any further attempts to subdue them, produced a change in the Austrian counsels, and led to a determination on the part of the Emperor to withdraw from the contest as soon as decency would permit.

Meanwhile, the Convention, unaware of this favorable change in their prospects, stimulated the army on the Sambre to fresh exertions. They again crossed that river under Kleber, on the 26th of May, but were easily repulsed. Nothing daunted, they renewed the attempt on the 29th, and this time succeeded in driving back the allies, after which they invested Charleroi. But the Emperor soon arrived with ten thousand additional troops, attacked the French lines on the 3rd of June, and again drove them across the Sambre. On the following day, Jourdan arrived with forty thousand men, and the French army, thus reënforced, returned to the siege of Charleroi, and on the 12th of June destroyed a strong redoubt which constituted its principal defence. The allies, alarmed at this result, made great efforts to raise the siege, and succeeded in breaking up the position of the Republicans, driving them over the river with a loss of three thousand men. On the 18th of June, the French army for the fifth time crossed the Sambre, and for the third time invested Charleroi. As the French before this place now numbered seventy thousand men, it became necessary for the allies to reënforce the covering army, which was done by withdrawing the Austrian troops from the Scheldt, leaving the Duke of York with the English and Hanoverians alone in that position: this separation of the Austrian and English forces contributed not a little to augment the misunderstanding which already existed between those two nations. The Austrian auxiliaries did not arrive in time to relieve Charleroi, which capitulated on the 25th of June. The garrison had hardly left the gates, however, when the Austrians arrived; and, as the allied forces were now sufficiently numerous to warrant the undertaking, they resolved to hazard a battle. This took place on the 26th, on the plains

of Fleurus: it was commenced in the morning and continued with great vigor throughout the whole day. In the event, the allies retreated, leaving the French masters of the field; but neither party had any cause for triumph. The loss on both sides was nearly equal, being between four and five thousand men of each army: but this material advantage ensued to the French, that by the eastwardly movement of the Austrians and the pacific intentions of their Emperor, Flanders was in effect abandoned to the Republican armies, who not long after were enabled to concentrate themselves without opposition at Brussels. The sole care of the British was now to cover Antwerp and Holland; but on the 15th of July, they were forced to evacuate the former, after which they withdrew their whole force to Breda for the defence of the latter.

While the fortune of war was thus decisively inclining to the Republican side on the northern frontier, events of but trifling importance were taking place on the Rhine, though their tendency was favorable to the French. In Piedmont, they gained a more decided advantage, General Dumas having made himself master of Little St. Bernard and Mount Cenis, by which means the whole ridge of the Alps separating Piedmont from Savoy, fell into the possession of the Republican troops, and the keys of Italy were placed in the hands of the French government. The operations on the frontiers of Nice, under the direction of General Bonaparte, were not less successful, and before the end of May, the Republicans were masters of all the passes through the maritime Alps; while, from the summit of Mount Cenis they threatened a descent upon the valley of Susa, and from the Col di Tende they could advance without interruption to the siege of Coni.

On the Spanish frontier, the war assumed a still more decisive aspect. The reduction of Toulon having enabled the central government to detach General Dugommier to reenforce the army on the Eastern Pyrenees, it was resolved to act offensively at both extremities of that range of mountains. During the winter, great exertions had been made to improve the discipline and condition of the French troops; while on the other hand, the Spanish government, destitute of energy, and exhausted by the exertions they had already made, were unable to maintain the number and efficiency of their forces. Before the end of the year 1793, they had been reduced to the necessity of issuing more than sixty millions of dollars in paper money, secured on the income of the tobacco-tax; but all their efforts to recruit their armies from the natives of the country proved inef fectual, and they were obliged to take into their service some of the foreigners employed in the siege of Toulon. Between two such contending powers as the French and Spanish, victory could not long remain doubtful. The Republicans prevailed in almost every encounter, defeating and dispiriting the Spanish troops, making them prisoners, taking their cannon, and capturing not only the fortresses of which they had possessed themselves on the French territory in the preceding campaign, but also the Spanish fortresses of Figueras and Rosas, two of the most important posts on the whole frontier, hitherto regarded as nearly impregnable, and of the greatest consequence to the French as they laid open the richest plains of Spain to their invasion. Nor were the Spaniards more successful on the Western Pyrenees, where the French made themselves masters of St. Marcial, Bidossoa, Fontarabia, and St. Sebastian; and thus, as early as August found themselves firmly posted in the Spanish territory, with am