Campaigns of 1792 of the French Revolutionary Wars

From 1789 to early 1792, the French Revolution gradually radicalised, breaking with old institutions and practices as it went, and targeting defenders of the Ancien Régime. Some of these defenders, or people who were unintentionally caught in the crossfire, emigrated from France to avoid persecution. King Louis XVI himself attempted to escape with his family to Varennes in June 1791, but he was caught. The French king was put under surveillance, and increasingly suspected of conspiring with other European monarchs, who wished to preserve the House of Bourbon in France and restore its pre-revolutionary authority. This was explicitly stated in the Declaration of Pillnitz (17 August 1791) by king Frederick William II of Prussia and emperor Francis II (Austria, Hungary and Bohemia), who called on all monarchs in Europe to 'liberate' Louis. Leading radical revolutionaries called for the complete abolition of the monarchy, but the republican movement was dealt a severe blow in the July 1791 Champs de Mars Massacre. Although this cleared the way for the establishment of the constitutional monarchy in September, They cited the Declaration of Pillnitz to justify the urgent need to strike first. However, there was a real risk that France would be overwhelmed by foreign forces if a large anti-French coalition were to be formed. This is why many leftist deputies within the Assembly such as Robespierre opposed a war, arguing France was not ready for it and could lose all progress (as they saw it) made thus far during the Revolution. == Preparations ==

Diplomacy . 1834 painting by Jean-Sébastien Rouillard. Major-general Charles François Dumouriez was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in March 1792, and by mid-April had managed to obtain the neutrality of all European great powers except Austria and Prussia through diplomacy. Meanwhile, he organised plans to incite a rebellion in the Austrian Netherlands by cooperating with the Committee of United Belgians and Liégeois, who represented remnants of the rebel armies formed during the recently failed anti-Austrian Brabant Revolution and Liège Revolution (August 1789 – January 1791). Strategy Finally, France declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792. Dumouriez planned to defeat the Austrian army within 15 days to achieve a successful quick victory. From Dunkirk to Strasbourg, the French northern frontier comprised 164,000 soldiers, divided into three armies under the leadership of general Lafayette (Armée du Centre; targets: from Givet to Namur and Liège), marshal Luckner (Armée du Rhin; As soon as the French army enters the Belgian provinces, it will be helped by the people, who are ashamed of their own futile revolutionary efforts of [1789–1790]. They will join forces with our troops and will easily drive the dispersed hordes of Austrian mercenaries from their towns or scatter them. Paris will be defended on the banks of the Meuse. For the Country of Liège, the one most worthy of freedom of all those who have raised its flag, our negotiators will depart to dictate a wise peace, which we will under no circumstances spoil by the spirit of conquest. State of the French military The French army was plagued by troubles: leading generals such as Lafayette and Rochambeau were moderate royalists, and had doubts about the republican minister's intentions as well as the feasibility of his strategies; the troops were poorly equipped, many of them untrained volunteers, and they distrusted their aristocratic officers; and finally, queen Marie Antoinette, who was Austrian and feared further republican radicalisation would result in her execution, secretly passed war plans to the Austrian government in Brussels, with Louis XVI's approval. One lasting morale-boosting effect was the composition of the battle hymn ''Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin ("War Song for the Rhine Army") by Rouget de Lisle in April 1792. It became popular among French soldiers nationwide, and was soon identified with a battalion from Marseille. Thus, the song became known as La Marseillaise'', and on 26 Messidor III (14 July 1795) and again on 14 February 1879 it was officially recognised as the national anthem of France. == Belgian front ==

April: first French invasion defeated the French invaders. Despite protesting that the army was not in condition to fight, Rochambeau obeyed his orders. Rochambeau's subordinate general Biron and maréchal du camp Théobald Dillon would lead the invasion. == Rhine front ==

July: allies rally and issue Brunswick Manifesto On the Rhine, a combined army of Prussians, Austrians, Hessians and French émigrés under the Duke of Brunswick was formed for the invasion of France, flanked by two smaller armies on its right and left, all three being under the supreme command of King Frederick William II of Prussia. In the Southern Netherlands, plans called for the Austrians to besiege Lille, and in the south the Piedmontese also took the field. Observing the enemy coalition gathering at its borders, the Assembly declared the 'nation in danger', and commanded 100,000 National Guards (Fédérés) to strengthen the defence of Paris; the king vetoed the decision, but he was ignored. The first step was the issue of the Brunswick Manifesto (25 July), a proclamation which, couched in terms most insulting to the French nation, generated the spirit that was afterwards to find expression in the "armed nation" of 1793–1794, and sealed the fate of King Louis XVI. It was issued against the advice of Brunswick himself, whose signature appeared on it; the duke, a model sovereign in his own principality, sympathised with the constitutional side of the French Revolution, while as a soldier he had no confidence in the success of the enterprise. Brunswick stressed that civilians would not be harmed or looted, unless they harmed the royal family: "If the least violence, the least outrage, be done to their majesties... [my troops] will take... unforgettable vengeance [on] the city of Paris...". Brunswick now began his march on Paris and approached the defiles of the Argonne Forest. But Dumouriez, who had been training his raw troops at Valenciennes in constant small engagements, with the purpose of invading Belgium, now threw himself into the Argonne by a rapid and daring flank march, almost under the eyes of the Prussian advance guard. He barred all five road to Paris through the Argonne. Although Clerfayt seized one of the five roads and outflanked Dumouriez at Grandpré, Brunswick did not attack, instead camping for three days at Landres (15–17 September). The majority of his troops were plagued by dysentery, likely due to eating green apples in the Argonne, and needed to recover first. This seemingly minor engagement proved the turning point of the campaign. Ten days later, without firing another shot, the invading army began its retreat (30 September). Dumouriez did not press the pursuit seriously; he occupied himself chiefly with a series of subtle and curious negotiations which, with the general advance of the French troops, brought about the complete withdrawal of the enemy from the soil of France. Once gone, Dumouriez refocused his military efforts on the 'liberation' of Belgium. == Post-Valmy campaigns ==

Launch of the Flanders Campaign , with Dumouriez urging his troops forward. In the north, the Austrian siege of Lille had completely failed by 8 October, and Dumouriez now resumed his interrupted scheme for the invasion of the Southern Netherlands. He took command of the newly formed Armée de la Belgique – comprising 40,000 soldiers from the Valmy campaign – at Valenciennes on 20 October. Controlling enormously superior forces, ten days later he made his advance to Mons, Piedmontese front Meanwhile, the French forces in the south had driven back the Piedmontese and had conquered Savoy and Nice in September, annexing them in November. Army of the Var commander Anselme invaded the county of Nice on 28 September, and forced the city of Nice to surrender the next day at 4 pm. On 7 November, the army was renamed Army of Italy. Rhineland campaign Another French success was the daring expedition from Alsace into Germany made by Custine, leading the newly created 14,300 strong Armée des Vosges from 19 September onward. He attacked Speyer on 29 September and conquered it the next day. He went on to occupy Worms and Philippsburg without a fight. Custine captured Mainz on 21 October 1792 and penetrated as far as Frankfurt, which surrendered on 31 October. == Cultural representations ==

• The situation of 1792, and the feeling of dire threat felt by the invaded French, are reflected in large parts of the wording of the French anthem "La Marseillaise", written at the time: ''Against us, tyranny's/Bloody banner is raised./Do you hear in the countryside/Those ferocious soldiers roaring?/They come right into our bosom/To slit the throats of our sons, our wives!'' • Custine's invasion of the German Palatinate forms the background for Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea, written a few years later. The epic poem's plot takes place in a small town near Mainz, flooded by refugees who fled their villages on the western side of the Rhine in order to seek refuge from the French troops on the eastern side. == References ==