Battle of Quiévrain (1792) explained

Partof:the War of the First Coalition
Date:28 and 30 April 1792
Place:Quiévrain, Belgium
Result:1st Battle: French Victory2nd Battle: Austrian Victory
Combatant1: Kingdom of France
Combatant2: Austria
Commander1: Armand-Louis de Gontaut Biron
Auguste Marie Henri Picot de Dampierre
Commander2: Johann Peter Beaulieu
Strength1:15,000[1]

The Battle of Quiévrain was a pair of skirmishes between the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of France in late April 1792 during the War of the First Coalition.

On 28 April, there was a minor skirmish at Quiévrain, just across the Franco-Belgian border, resulting in a victory for the French army under the command of general Armand-Louis de Gontaut Biron. However, although Biron advanced and planned to take the city of Mons and eventually Brussels, he judged his forces were not strong enough and decided to retreat. On 30 April, as his troops were passing by Quiévrain again, a false alarm of an Austrian attack caused the soldiers to panic, and they fled back to Valenciennes in a disorderly fashion. His ally Théobald Dillon, who served with Biron under marshal Rochambeau during this invasion, suffered an even worse fate during the battle of Marquain (29 April), some 35 kilometres to the northeast.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Connelly, Owen . 2012 . The Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon, 1792-1815 . London . Routledge . 23 . 9781134552894 . 30 July 2018.
  2. Book: Gallaher, John G. . 1997 . General Alexandre Dumas: Soldier of the French Revolution . Carbondale, Illinois . Southern Illinois University Press . 18 . 9780809320981 . 29 July 2018.