Over the winter both sides re-organised. Reinforcements were transported from Britain in order to shore up the Coalition line. In the Austrian army Coburg's
Chief of Staff Prince Hohenlohe was replaced by
Karl Mack von Leiberich. At the beginning of 1794 the allied field army numbered somewhat over 100,000 troops, the bulk of the army in positions between
Tournai and
Bettignies, with both flanks further extended with small outposts and cordons to the Meuse on the left and the Channel coast on the right. Facing them the Armée du Nord was now under the command of
Jean-Charles Pichegru, and had been greatly reinforced by conscripts as the result of the
Levée en masse, giving the combined strength of the Armies of the North and Ardennes (excluding garrisons) as 200,000, nearly two to one of Coburg's force.
Siege of Landrecies At the beginning of April 1794, Austrian troops were greatly encouraged when the Emperor
Francis II joined Coburg at Allied headquarters. The first action of the campaign was a French advance from
Le Cateau on 25 March, which was beaten off by
Clerfayt after a sharp fight. Two weeks later the Allies began their advance with a series of covered marches and small actions to facilitate the investment of the fortress of
Landrecies. York advanced from
Saint-Amand towards
Le Cateau, Coburg led the centre column from Valenciennes and Le Quesnoy, and to his left the Hereditary Prince led the besieging corps from
Bavay through the
Forest of Mormal towards Landrecies. On 17 April York drove
Goguet from
Vaux and
Prémont, while the Austrian forces advanced in the direction of
Wassigny against
Balland. The Hereditary Prince then began the
Siege of Landrecies, while the Allied army covered the operation in a semi-circle. On the Left at the eastern end of the line lay the commands of
Alvinczi and
Kinsky, stretching from
Maroilles four miles east of Landrecies, south to
Prisches, then south-west to the line of the
Sambre river. On the western bank of the river the line ran west from
Catillon towards Le Cateau and Cambrai. The right of the Allied line was under the Duke of York and ended near Le Cateau. A line of outposts then ran north-west along the line of the
Selle river. The French plan was to attack both flanks of the allies, while sending relief columns towards Landrecies. On 24 April a small force of British and Austrian cavalry drove back just such a force under
Chapuis at
Villers-en-Cauchies. Two days later Pichegru launched a three-pronged attempt to relieve Landrecies. Two of the columns in the east were repulsed by the forces of
Kinsky,
Alvinczi and the young
Archduke Charles, while Chapuis's third column advancing from Cambrai was all but destroyed by York at
Beaumont/Coteau/Troisvilles on 26 April.
French May counter-offensive Landrecies fell on 30 April 1794 and Coburg turned his attention to
Maubeuge, the last remaining obstacle to an advance on the French interior. But on the same day Pichegru began his overdue northern counter-offensive, defeating Clerfayt at the
Battle of Mouscron and retaking Courtrai (
Kortrijk) and Menen. (29 April 1794), painted by Charles Louis Mozin (1839) For 10 days a lull descended as both sides consolidated before Coburg launched attacks to regain the northern positions on 10 May.
Jacques Philippe Bonnaud's French column was defeated by York at the Battle of
Willems, but Clerfayt failed to recapture Courtrai and was again driven back in the
Battle of Courtrai. The Coalition forces planned to stem Pichegru's advance with a broad attack involving several isolated columns in a scheme devised by Mack. At the
Battle of Tourcoing on 17–18 May this effort became a logistical disaster as communications broke down and columns were delayed. Only a third of the allied force came into action, and were only extricated after the loss of 3,000 men. Pichegru being absent on the Sambre, French command at Tourcoing had devolved onto the shoulders of
Joseph Souham. On his return to the front Pichegru renewed the offensive to press his advantage but despite repeated attacks was held off at the
Battle of Tournay on 22 May. Meanwhile, the eastern prong of Pichegru's offensive was taking place on the Sambre river, where divisions of the right wing of Pichegru's Army of the North under Jacques Desjardin and the Army of the Ardennes under Louis Charbonnier attacked across the river to try and establish a foothold on the northern bank. Their objective was the capture of Mons, which would cut the lines of supply and communication from the main Allied base at Brussels to Coburg's centre around Landrecies and Le Quesnoy. The first French crossing was turned back at the
battle of Grand-Reng on 13 May, where a fatally divided high command led to the failure of Desjardin's frontal attack on Allied commander Prince Kaunitz while Charbonnier stood by and ignored the battle, leaving Desjardin vulnerable to an Allied counterattack. A second attempt at consolidating a foothold on the north bank was defeated at the
battle of Erquelinnes on 24 May as the Allies surprised the French by attacking out of early morning fog. Although the allied front remained intact, subsequently the Austrian commitment to the war became increasingly weakened. The Prussians were already on the point of pulling out of the war due to perceived Austrian duplicity in Bavaria. The Emperor was strongly influenced by Foreign Minister
Baron Johann von Thugut, and for Thugut political considerations always overrode military plans. In May 1794 his fixation was with profiting from the
Third Partition of Poland, and troops and generals began to be stripped from Coburg's command. Mack resigned as Chief-of-Staff in disgust on 23 May and was replaced by
Prince Christian August von Waldeck-Pyrmont, a supporter of Thugut. In a
Council of War on 24 May
Emperor Francis II called for a vote on withdrawal, then left for Vienna. Only the Duke of York dissented with the withdrawal. The decision to retreat was taken despite victories on southern flank such as Grand-Reng, Erquelinnes, and
Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorf's victory at the
Battle of Kaiserslautern after his Prussians surprised the French on 24 May. With the northern flank temporarily stabilised Coburg moved forces south to support Kaunitz, who promptly resigned after being replaced by the Hereditary Prince. Pichegru then took advantage of the weakening of the Allied northern sector to return to the offensive and initiate the
Siege of Ypres on 1 June. A series of supinely ineffective counter-attacks by Clerfayt through the first half of June were all beaten off by Souham. On the Sambre front, after the previous two defeats, the divisions of Desjardin and Charbonnier had decided to capture Charleroi as a fortified base to anchor their position on the north bank, before trying to advance towards Mons. They crossed a third time and besieged Charleroi, but were counterattacked on 3 June by the Prince of Orange at the
battle of Gosselies and thrown back across the Sambre.
Battle of Fleurus at
Fleurus with the
balloon ''l'Entreprenant'' in the background (
Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse 1837;
Galerie des Batailles,
Palace of Versailles) At this time, the French were reinforced by four divisions from the Army of the Moselle under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, who had been ordered to reinforce the army on the Sambre while operating to the southeast against Johann Peter Beaulieu. Jourdan, who then took over command of the entire force, launched a fourth crossing and second siege of Charleroi. At the
battle of Lambusart on 16 June, his advancing divisions ran into Orange's attack columns in thick fog. Taken by surprise, the French were forced to retreat. Not really damaged by Lambusart, the French army crossed the Sambre and attacked again just two days later, on 18 June, catching Coburg by surprise. On this day also, Ypres surrendered to Pichegru. With no further need to relieve Ypres, Coburg decided to concentrate most of his forces on the Sambre instead to drive Jourdan back, leaving York at Tournai and Clerfayt at
Deinze to face Pichegru and cover the right. Clerfayt was however soon driven from Deinze and retreated behind
Ghent, obliging York to withdraw behind the Scheldt. Charleroi surrendered to the French a day before Coburg's relief attempt with the main Austrian force. On 26 June, Coburg attacked Jourdan at the
Battle of Fleurus. Despite being pushed back at first, Jourdan managed to hold the line and even counterattack at the end of the day. Although the results of the battle were tactically inconclusive, Coburg opted to withdraw after ascertaining that Charleroi had been captured and there was no siege for his army to relieve. The battle of Fleurus would prove to be the decisive turning point. Historian
Digby Smith (1998) noted: 'By this stage of the war the court in
Vienna was convinced that it was no longer worth the effort to try to hold on to the Austrian Netherlands and it is suspected that Coburg gave up the chance of a victory here so as to be able to pull out eastwards.' With French gains in both north and south the Austrians called off the attack before a clear result and retreated north towards Mont St. Jean, then towards Brussels on 1 July when Jourdan's left wing advanced from Charleroi and captured Mons. It was the beginning of an Allied general retreat to the
Rhineland and Holland, with the Austrians all but abandoning their 80-year-long control of the
Austrian Netherlands. Thugut's negative influence has been cited as one of the most decisive factors in the loss of the campaign, possibly more important than Tourcoing and Fleurus.
Allied retreat from Fleurus to Malines The Allied forces in Flanders were now divided into two distinct groups, the corps of the Duke of York, and the main Austrian and Dutch army under Coburg. While all forces were still nominally under Coburg's command, the two forces essentially functioned separately, with their own respective political objectives, and often without consideration for the other. Where Coburg's concern was to retreat eastward to protect the Rhine river and Germany from the French, York's objective was to retreat north to protect Holland. Meanwhile, Pichegru's Army of the North had been menacing the Duke of York's forces on the Scheldt at Oudenaarde, but was ordered at the end of June to move to the coast and capture the Flemish ports of
Ostend (Oostende), Nieuport (
Nieuwpoort) and Sluys (
Sluis), then invade Holland. While spared from attack, York was nevertheless compelled to retreat towards Alost (modern
Aalst) via Grammont (
Geraardsbergen) when the French captured Mons and Soignies on 1 and 2 July respectively, pushing Coburg eastwards and exposing York's left flank and rear. While York had evacuated every British garrison as part of his retreat, the garrison of Nieuport (
Nieuwpoort) had been left in place due to a promise from the British Secretary of War, Henry Dundas, that they would be evacuated by sea. This promise was not kept. Nieuport was besieged, captured on 16 July, and the French emigres in the garrison were massacred by artillery in the town's defensive ditch. At Waterloo on 5 July, Coburg and York agreed that the Allied army would try to defend a line from Antwerp to Louvain (
Leuven), Wavre, Gembloux and Namur. However, the next day, in the face of attacks from Jourdan (whose forces had been officially constituted as the
Army of Sambre-and-Meuse on 29 June) all along the line from Braine-le-Comte to Gembloux, Coburg cancelled the agreement and retreated eastwards to Malines (
Mechelen) and Louvain, vacating Brussels, and exposing York's left. On 7 and 8 July, Jourdan attacked Coburg's left wing near Namur, forcing it back to Ramillies and isolating Namur, which he then besieged. Fearing to be cut off from the Meuse, Coburg then retreated his entire army further towards Tirlemont (modern
Tienen), prompting York to also retreat further to the Dyle river (modern
Dijle) via Malines and Assche. The Allies were now arrayed with York's 30,000 men guarding the Dyle river from Antwerp to Malines, the Prince of Orange's Dutch army defending from Malines to Louvain, and Coburg's Austrians on a line from Louvain to Tirlemont, Landen, Waremme and the banks of the Meuse, with a further detachment across the river between the Meuse and Ourthe rivers. Pichegru then occupied Brussels on 10 July, with both his and Jourdan's armies marching through it in victory parades that day.
Allied retreat from Malines to Holland and the Meuse Throughout this retreat, the Allies had been not been heavily pressed, in large part due to the fact that Pichegru's army was diverted to the Flanders coast, while Jourdan had been ordered to detach 40,000 men of his approximately 140,000 strong field force under Barthelemy Scherer to recapture the key Austrian fortresses of Landrecies, Le Quesnoy, Valenciennes and Conde (
Conde-sur-l'Escaut), in the interior of France, now isolated by the Austrian retreat. On 12 July, Pichegru advanced against Malines with 18,000 men, while Jourdan advanced against Louvain, Jodoigne and Huy on the Meuse. Pichegru easily captured Malines from York on the 15th, while Jourdan captured Louvain the same day. Jodoigne was reportedly captured sometime before the 17th, and Namur surrendered on 19 July. When Louvain was taken, the Dutch army retreated northwards towards their homeland, instead of following the Austrians defending the city with them in retreat east to Diest. At this point, the Dutch too began pursuing their own military objectives, separate from Coburg's Austrian army though still ostensibly under his command. With his left flank exposed again, York refused it by drawing it back along the Nethe river from Lierre (Lier) to Duffel, while planning with the Dutch to recapture Malines on the 18th. However, on the 18th itself, York received word from Coburg that he had decided to withdraw his main force even further, from Tirlemont to Landen. Two days later, York realised that Coburg had quietly ordered the Austrians protecting his left flank at Diest to retreat further east to Hasselt, exposing his rear to attack yet again without even informing him. Coburg's further withdrawal eastward forced York to retreat north again, evacuating Antwerp on 22 July (it was occupied by Pichegru three days later) and retreating north across the Dutch border into
Roosendaal on 24 July, the day that Coburg finally retreated across the Meuse (Maas) at Maastricht, taking up position around Fouron-le-Comte (
's-Gravenvoeren). This withdrawal marked the final separation of British and Austrian forces, and an end to even the nominal cooperation that they had before, as the two armies were now each pursuing completely divergent objectives. On 27 July, the French captured Liège, abolishing the Prince-Bishopric for the
third time since 1789, this time for good. The demolition of
Saint Lambert's Cathedral, in revolutionary eyes the symbol of clerical power and oppression, was initiated.
Second invasion of the Dutch Republic In August 1794 a pause in operations fell as the French focused their efforts against the Belgian
Channel ports (
Sluis fell on 26 August), and York attempted in vain to encourage Austrian support. Under pressure from Britain, the Emperor dismissed Coburg, however his place was filled temporarily by the even more unpopular Clerfayt. After the fall of Le Quesnoy and Landrecies to the French, Pichegru renewed his offensive on the 28th, obliging York to pull back to the line of the
Aa River where he
was attacked at
Boxtel and persuaded to withdraw to the Meuse. On 18 September Clerfayt was defeated at the
Battle of Sprimont on the banks of the
Ourthe, followed by a further defeat at the hands of Jourdan at the
Battle of Aldenhoven on the
Roer River on 2 October, causing the Austrians to retreat to the Rhine and finally ending Austrian presence in the
Low Countries. Only the garrison in the strong fortress of
Luxembourg City remained, but beginning on 22 November, it would be
heavily beleaguered for seven months. By autumn, in the Netherlands the French, including
Herman Willem Daendels'
Dutch Patriots, had taken
Eindhoven and paused their pursuit on the
Waal. The Dutch Orangists surrendered
's-Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc) on 12 October after a heavy 3-week siege. York planned a counter-offensive with Austrian assistance to relieve
Nijmegen, but this was abandoned when the Hanoverian contingent backed out. On 7 November, after a brief siege, Nijmegen was found to be untenable and the city also abandoned to the French. York made preparations to defend the line of the Waal through the winter but in early December he was recalled to England. In his absence, Hanoverian Lieutenant General Count von Walmoden took charge of the allied army while
William Harcourt, commanded the British contingent. At this stage the Prussians were in peace talks with the French, and Austria looked to be ready to follow suit.
William Pitt the Younger angrily rejected any suggestion of negotiating with France, but the British position in the Dutch Republic looked increasingly insecure. On 10 December, troops under
Herman Willem Daendels assaulted across the Meuse in an unsuccessful attack on Dutch defences in the
Bommelerwaard. However, in the days that followed, temperatures plummeted and the rivers Meuse and Waal began to freeze solid, allowing the French to resume their advance. By 28 December the French had occupied the Bommelerwaard and the Lands of Altena. Brigades of Delmas' division, under
Herman Willem Daendels and
Pierre-Jacques Osten, moving at will, infiltrated the
Dutch Water Line and captured fortifications and towns along a twenty-mile front. == 1795 campaign ==