To understand the situation that developed in 1793 in the south of France, it is necessary to abandon the stereotype that exists in our country that the modern borders of this state have always existed and only Frenchmen lived there, who, of course, spoke French. In fact, when the French kings began to collect lands around their domain, in the south of France they spoke Provencal Gascon and Basque, in the west - Breton (Celtic), in Alsace and Lorraine - German, and in Corsica in the run was a dialect of Italian.
In fact and finally, most of the French provinces fell under the royal authority after the end of the Fronde at the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV, and others even later. So, Corsica was captured by France in May 1769. It was there, three months later, on August 15, 1769, in the family of the lawyer Carlo Maria Buona-Parte, the son of Napolione was born. By the way, the future emperor began to study French only at the age of 10, having entered a school on the mainland.
French monarchs harshly suppressed any separatist tendencies in the provinces. But even with the fall of royal power, little has changed in this regard. Before the severed head of Louis XVI rolled into the basket, the revolutionaries clearly formulated their position: "The French Republic is one and indivisible." The Girondins, Jacobins, Thermidorians sent each other to the guillotine, but did not touch this postulate. The revolutionaries turned out to be even more supporters of the unitary state than the Bourbons. At the start of the Great French Revolution in 1789, the French kingdom was divided into provinces, many of which were formed 300-800 years ago. The provinces had their own parliaments, laws, and taxes were collected there. The revolutionaries abolished the division into provinces, and instead of each of them they created dozens of departments with significantly curtailed rights. This measure saved France from collapse.
The activities of the revolutionary government in France were pushed against the decisive resistance of the provinces. In Vendée, Bretonne and other northwestern regions, the rebels opposed the "tyranny of Paris" mainly under monarchist and clerical slogans. But in Corsica (the French Caucasus), no one stuttered about the restoration of the monarchy. All the Corsican clans unanimously demanded "independence" for the island. After kicking the republican authorities out of their land, the Corsicans immediately began an inter-clan war. Among the refugees who left the island in search of salvation from the terror of the Paoli clan that seized Corsica was the Buona Parte family.
In the summer of 1793 a mutiny was raised by the southern French cities of Lyon, Toulouse, Marseille and Toulon. There were also royalists among the rebels, but the overwhelming majority demanded the creation of a "federation of departments" independent of the Parisian "tyrants". The rebels themselves called themselves federalists. The rebels were vigorously supported by the British.
On August 22, 1793, the republicans, under the leadership of the generals of the revolutionary period, captured Lyon, and the next day, Marcel. But Toulon was inaccessible.
At the very beginning of the 18th century. in Toulon, an impregnable coastal fortress was erected according to the project of the famous fortifier Vauban. In 1707, during the War of the Spanish Succession, the no less famous military leader, Prince Eugene of Savoy, unsuccessfully stormed it. And during the war with England in the 70s. XVIII century the fortifications of Toulon were further strengthened.
By 1793, the land defense of Toulon consisted of a fortress (citadel) and eight separate forts located at the dominant heights. The forts did not allow even the most long-range guns to shell the port and city. Fort La Malgue - the right flank of the defense, covered the rear of all coastal batteries of the large raid up to Cape Brune. Forts Artigue, St. Catherine, Faron covered the northeastern part of the city. The northern part was protected by the Red and White redoubts, as well as by the Pommie fort. Fort Malboske, with its adjacent batteries, covered the western part of Toulon.
The small roadstead was an internal natural bass-seine with a diameter of 3.7 km. At its eastern end, on a rather steep slope, the city was located. Here the basin was narrowed by two capes of opposite shores, which separated the small roadstead from the large one, which communicated directly with the sea. At the ends of the capes that formed the entrance (or gate), there were forts: La Gros-Tour and Eguillette. The distance between the fortifications was 600 m. These forts blocked the entrance to the small roadstead.
At the time of the beginning of the mutiny, a French squadron, consisting of 18 ships and several frigates, was stationed on the roadstead of Toulon. In addition, several more ships were being repaired at the docks.
Confusion reigned in the crews of the ships: most of the officers were inclined to be prophetic. But everything was decided by the guns of the coastal batteries captured by the separatists, aimed at the ships. As a result, the Mediterranean fleet of France joined the rebels.
On August 28, 1793, 40 British ships under the command of Admiral Hood entered Toulon, captured by the federalists. Most of the Mediterranean fleet and the military reserves of a huge arsenal fell into the hands of the British. Following the British, Spanish, Sardinian and Neapolitan troops arrived in Toulon - a total of 19.6 thousand people. They were joined by 6 thousand Toulon federalists. The command of the expeditionary force was taken over by the Spanish Admiral Graziano. The English "engineering general" O'Hara became the commandant of the Toulon fortress.
The Allies disarmed the Toulon National Guard, which they considered unreliable, and dismissed part of the French squadron's ship commands. 5 thousand sailors -Bretons and Normans, causing them special concern, were put on four French ships, turned into transports, and sent to Rochefort and Brest.
As you can see, the conflict was not so much a social one - revolutionaries against the royalists, as a national one: the northerners were expelled, and the southerners (Provençals) were left.
In Paris, the news of the occupation of Toulon by the British produced the effect of a bomb exploding. In a special message, the Convention addressed all citizens of France, urging them to fight the Toulon rebels. "Let the punishment of the traitors be exemplary," said the address, "the traitors to Toulon do not deserve the honor of being called French." The convention did not enter into negotiations with the rebels. The dispute about a united France was to be resolved by cannons - the last argument of the kings. Within a few weeks, the unprotected cities of Toulouse, Lyon and Marseille fell.
By the end of August, a republican army approached Toulon, "pine-forest" formed from separate units of different armies and volunteers from the central departments of France. The Republicans were led by the 42-year-old General Karto, who began his service as a dragoon, then became a gendarme, then an artist. In a turbulent revolutionary time, Karto made a dizzying career in a few weeks and became the commander of the army. It is not hard to guess that the "Toulon nut" turned out to be too tough for a free artist.
But what a free artist: perhaps any commander, acting according to the canons of military science, could not solve the task. The struggle for the forts would inevitably drag on for months. The Republicans did not have a fleet, and ammunition, reinforcements and provisions would arrive unhindered to Toulon by sea.
But even without Toulon, the republicans fought on two fronts - with the interventionists in the west and with the Chuan in the Vendée. In the fall of 1793, the very existence of the French Republic was in question. The situation with Toulon could only be saved by a miracle. And it happened.
Kartho only succeeded in laying siege to the city and fighting along the forts. During the fighting, Major Dommarten, the chief of the Republican siege artillery, was seriously wounded. One of the commissars in the army of Karto was the Corsican Salichetti, close to the Buona Parte clan. In addition, according to the historian Fleischman, Joseph Buona-Parte and Salichetti were linked through Masonic lodges. Salichetti was instrumental in the appointment of 24-year-old Captain Napolione Buona Parte to the position of chief of siege artillery.
The fact that Toulon was practically impregnable from land, Napolione realized immediately, and at the same time saw a weak point in the enemy's position - Fort Aiguille, which controlled the exit from the small raid of Toulon to the large one. Later historians will call Egillet "the key to Toulon." This is not at all the case: Egillet's cannons could block Toulon from the sea, but they did not reach either the city or, even more so, the chain of forts surrounding it. And the blockade from the sea could not be tight: ships could break through at night, and with a good wind during the day. Another question is that in doing so they would have suffered heavy losses. And, if the city was defended, for example, by the Russians or the Japanese, then the capture of Egiliet would have turned out to be just a tactical success, and the defense would have continued for an unpredictable time (recall the sevastopol blocked from the sea in 1854-1855 or Port Arthur in 1904 G.)
But Napolione had an ingenious ability to instantly assess the entire array of information and make the only correct decision. Here, not only the geography and ballistics of the guns were taken into account, but also the psychology of the enemy: for the sake of a French city, the British will never sacrifice ships. The English fleet will begin to leave, or rather, flee, so as not to be locked in the Toulon Bay. Naturally, some of the federalists will lose their nerves, they will rush to the ships, the flow of those fleeing will take on an avalanche-like character and the organized resistance will cease.
At the council of war, Buona-Parte, poking his finger on the map at Fort Eguillette, exclaimed: "This is where Toulon is!" “And the little guy, it seems, is not good at geography,” - followed by Karto's remark. Then the general advised Buona-Parte to go to Marseille, where there was a huge ancient kulevrina (long-barreled artillery gun), either the 16th or the 15th century. Later, Napoleon wrote: “The headquarters of the army decided that the surrender of Toulon depends only on this gun, that it has wonderful properties and shoots at least two leagues (author - 8 km). The chief of artillery was convinced that this gun, moreover extremely heavy, was all rusted and could not serve. However, I had to spend a lot of effort and money, removing and installing this junk, from which they made only a few shots. "
The captain complained to the Commissioner of the Convention Augustin Gaspard-rene, who had served as the captain of the royal army before the revolution. Gasparin agreed on everything with Buona-Parte and sent a courier to Paris, seeking the removal of Carteau.
A few days later, Gasparen died, but his note performed the desired action in the Convention. Kartho was removed from office, and the "general of the revolutionary era" Doppé was sent to Toulon in his place. Before the revolution, this strategist was a physician, and in his spare time he wrote love stories. In operations near Toulon, his literary skills could not help, and after 10 days he was removed from office. General Dugo-Mier was appointed commander.
On November 25, 1793, a council of war was convened, where, in addition to the military, commissioners Salichetti, Ricord, Freron and Augustin Robespierre (the younger brother of Maximilian Robespierre) participated. The Commissioners of the Convention strongly supported the Buon-Parte plan. Dugomier joined them, for it was clearly not worth arguing with the brother of the absolute dictator of France. Buona Parte proposed blocking Tu-lon from the sea. According to him, for this it was enough to deploy two batteries: one battery of thirty 36- and 24-pound cannons, four 16-pound guns firing hot cannonballs, and ten Homer mortars at the tip of Cape Egillette, and the other, of the same strength, at Cape Balagye. Both of these batteries will be no further than 700 tuaz from the big tower and will be able to fire bombs, grenades and cannonballs at the entire area of the large and small raids.
It should be noted that by this time the besieging army had grown to 30 thousand people. Nevertheless, the republican authorities in Marseilles learned that the siege had not really even begun, since trenches had not yet been laid against the forts and structures of the permanent fortification. Therefore, a letter was sent to the Convention from Marseilles with a proposal to lift the siege of Toulon, clear Provence and retreat across the Durance River.
The commander-in-chief of the interventionist troops, General O'Hara, also hoped to lift the siege. To launch a counterattack, he expected the arrival of a squadron in Toulon with reinforcements of 12 thousand infantry and 2 thousand cavalry. O'Hara expected to lift the siege and capture Republican heavy artillery. At the same time, the army of the Piedmont king Victor-Amedeus III was to strike from the west. So Captain Buon-Parte's plan was a saving straw for the besieging command.
By order of Buona Parte, six cannon and mortar batteries were built against Fort Egillet, and the advanced batteries and enemy fortifications were separated by only 400 m.
For the purpose of camouflage, a diversionary blow was struck at Fort Malboske, that is, from the diametrically opposite side. The Convent battery was built there, where eight 24-pounder guns and four 3-pound mortars were installed. On November 29, the Commissioners of the Convention visited her and ordered to open fire on the enemy. The distracting maneuver has reached its goal.
At dawn the next day, 7,000 Neapolitans and the British, led by O'Hara himself, attacked the Convention. Some of the Republicans were killed, while the rest fled. Heavy siege weapons were riveted by the invaders.
Captain Buona Parte led a detachment of grenadiers in a counterattack. The British and Neapolitans fled, and O'Hara was wounded and captured by Napolion himself.
Later, describing these events in his memoirs, Napoleon was cunning: "General Muret quite inappropriately had a desire to take advantage of the impulse of the troops to storm the fort of Malboske, which turned out to be impracticable." But Buona Parte himself was in the forefront of the attacking Republicans. What has Muret to do with it? It's just that the guns of Fort Malboske shot the Republicans with buckshot, and therefore the emperor who was writing the memoirs was offended for this little tactical failure.
On December 15 and 16, thirty 24-pounder cannons and 15 heavy mortars continuously bombarded Fort Mürgrave, nicknamed "Little Gibraltar" by the British. All of the fort's guns were silenced. On the night of December 16-17, 2.5 thousand selected gamekeepers and grenadiers went to the assault. The first two attacks of the Republicans were repulsed, and then Buona-Parte himself led a reserve column to attack. At three o'clock in the morning, the attackers broke into the fort. Captain Muiron was the first to pass through the embrasure, later one of the stars of "Bonaparte's cohort". By five o'clock in the morning, the whole of Myurgrav was in the hands of the Republicans.
The British command quickly assessed the situation: it took the French deputy a little more than a day to bring the fort into a combat-capable state and bring up new guns, and then the English fleet was locked in the inner roadstead of Toulon. Immediately on December 17, the landing of interventionist and rebel troops on ships began. The British left Toulon the next morning. The Republicans lacked some 4 hours to bring the Little Gibraltar battery into combat readiness. But one English frigate was still burned with hot cannonballs.
Leaving, the British set fire to the arsenal, port and military depots and 12 French ships in Toulon. The remains of these sunken ships were then dismantled by French and Neapolitan divers for 8 years.
Bonaparte's calculation was fully justified: the interventionists did not want to sacrifice the fleet and people, and the fighting spirit of the rebels after the flight of the British was broken. In the evening of December 18, the Republicans, almost without meeting any resistance, entered Toulon, lit by fires.
On December 22, 1793, Robespierre the Younger and Salichetti, by their authority of commissars, conferred the military rank of brigadier general on Bonaparte. Sending the submission for approval to the Committee of Public Safety, General Dugomier wrote: "Reward and nominate this young man, because if they are ungrateful towards him, he will nominate himself."
On December 25, a national holiday was held in Paris on the occasion of the capture of Toulon. Naturally, the promotion of Captain Bonaparte to general was approved by the government. A new chapter began in the history of Europe.
Our reference
Artillery during the battle of Toulon
An important role in the siege of Toulon was played by French mortars, which were in service with both republicans and separatists. To the modern reader, at first glance, they may seem exactly the same - they say, some kind of mortar.
In fact, in order to achieve the greatest efficiency with less weight, French engineers have created several types of powder chambers. For example, a cylindrical chamber of a 12-inch mortar system of Jean Baptiste de Griboval. Or the conical chamber of Homer's 12-inch mortar (manufactured since 1785). Thanks to the large conical chamber, the loading density decreased and the survivability of the artillery gun significantly increased.
Well, the 12-inch mortar of the de Volière system, most likely, was generally the first implementation of a gas-dynamic ignition scheme in history. Here the powder chamber was a "pear", with a narrow part (nozzle) connected to the channel (mortar cauldron). A similar scheme gave a gain in the kinetic energy of the projectile due to the dynamic impact of gases.
Alexander SHIROKORAD
Illustrations from the author's archive
During the War of the Spanish Succession of 1701-1714, by the end of 1706, the troops of the Holy Roman Empire and its English and Dutch allies completely captured Flanders. But then the situation for the allies in this direction turned into a strategic impasse - the French Marshal Vendome with 100 thousand soldiers blocked the Marlborough path to Paris. In this regard, the idea arose of an invasion of France from the south, for which it was necessary to destroy the French Fleet of the Levant, based on Toulon. If this succeeded, it would be possible to land allied troops in Provence, cut off the French troops in Northern Italy from the metropolis and develop an offensive deep into the kingdom of Louis XIV.
Taking Toulon as a way out of the strategic impasse
In the summer of 1706, Eugene of Savoy released Turin, and the French were forced to retreat from Piedmont and Savoy. In Spain, the coalition forces planned to conduct a large-scale offensive, which would pin down the Spanish-French troops in the Iberian Peninsula and, if successful in Provence, would prevent the transfer of reinforcements to Toulon. If, after the landing of the Austrians in Toulon or Nice, the French had withdrawn their troops from Spain, the Allies could well have taken Madrid.
In general, this plan should be recognized as rather adventurous, since it was not possible at that time to conduct large-scale active hostilities on two fronts simultaneously, coordinating them with a clear time schedule. However, the capture of Toulon would indeed be a serious blow to France, and the landing of a large army in Provence could have completely withdrawn it from the war.
Fortifications of the Toulon fortress, model
While in Lisbon, Admiral Claudisli Shovel received the following instructions from Queen Anne of England: to equip 40 battleships and a sufficient number of transports to transport the army (15 thousand bayonets), and also to agree with Prince Eugene of Savoy, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the operation, on its timing. However, from the very beginning, plans began to burst at the seams. The Austrians were the first to climb in with their adjustments - they considered it necessary to seize Naples before the operation began, and for this they diverted part of their forces to southern Italy.
Queen Anne tried to negotiate with Emperor Joseph. The British took over the supply of gunpowder to the expeditionary forces, allocated 100 thousand pounds to recruit troops in Piedmont and Savoy, but to no avail. Joseph wrote that, in his opinion, the capture of Naples is much more important than the landing in France, therefore, the Austrian troops see South Italy as the primary goal. However - Joseph reassured the queen - in Naples his adherents are strong and the occupation of this port will not take much time.
By May 1707, a fairly large force was assembled off the Spanish coast under the command of Chauvel: 31 British and 15 Dutch battleships, and in addition - 20 frigates and about 200 transports. However, the detachments were scattered in different places. 22 British ships under the command of Vice Admiral George Byng and Rear Admiral John Norris have been cruising off Alicante since the beginning of April, while the rest of the ships and vessels were in the ports of Catalonia.
Admiral Claudisli Shovel
The fact is that the English troops of the Earl of Galway were defeated on the eve of Almance by the Spanish-French troops of Count Berwick (the bastard son of the Duke of Marlborough, who supported James II and found himself on the other side of the barricades), so Royal Nevi was tasked with urgently delivering reinforcements there.
At the end of April, Norris' detachment received the task to advance to Genoa, and Rear Admiral Shovel himself appointed his representative at the headquarters of Yevgeny Savoysky, recommending him as "A person of great dedication and tremendous experience, whom you can fully trust".
Chauvel really trusted Norris - they had known each other for a very long time, from the battle against the French fleet in Bentry Bay off the coast of Ireland in 1689, where Norris served as a midshipman on Chauvel's ship. Rear Admiral John Norris had the joking nickname " Jack is bad weather " (Foul Weather Jack), because he often got into storms, but he was a competent and fearless sailor.
By land or by sea: a fable about a swan, pike and crayfish performed by Yevgeny Savoysky
On May 5, 1707, Admiral Norris arrived in Turin, but Prince Eugene was not there, Savoy was with his headquarters in Milan. A few days later, the prince arrived. An impromptu council of war was held, which was attended by Savoy himself, the British envoy John Chetwind and Rear Admiral John Norris.
The Austrian commander called the main problem a strong shortage of gunpowder and cannonballs and asked Royal Nevi to supply him with everything he needed. Norris objected. He said that the queen was ready to pay for ammunition, but it would be unreasonable to remove them from the ships - after all, the French could well bring the Levant Fleet into battle, and then this ammunition would be useful to Chauvel himself. The parties bickered until the evening, but did not come to a common opinion. Norris promised that he would write about this to the Earl of Sunderland, the secretary of the council of state, and Chetwind tried to convince Eugene to buy everything he needed in Livorno and Genoa.
Prince Eugene of Savoy
On May 10, Chauvel left Lisbon and went to the coast of Italy. Bing joined him abeam Alicante. Here the commander received news from Norris about the problems with ammunition from the Austrians. Shovel immediately ordered the two ships to head for Gibraltar and load 1,000 barrels of gunpowder and 12,000 cannonballs into his holds.
According to the commander's calculations, by the end of May, the British ships were to approach the mouth of the Var on the border between Italy and France. Marlborough, having received news from Shovel, Norris and Chetwind, authorized the purchase of the necessary for the squadron with his own money, promising after the campaign to compensate for the costs from public funds.
An English squadron was cruising between Nice and Antibes when the Marines spotted a small French detachment of 6 ships near Genoa. Norris and Byng sounded the alarm: if the French are not intercepted, the landing may well be in jeopardy, because the entire coast of Northern Italy knows about the preparations for the operation. A small detachment was allocated to intercept the French, but they were able to break away and calmly entered Toulon at the end of May.
The landing at Toulon was delayed. In early June, Archduke Charles wrote a letter to Prince Eugene and the Emperor with a request to send part of the troops from Italy to Spain. Norris, as the Royal Nevy's representative at the headquarters of Savoy, immediately wrote about this request to Marlborough, who issued a sharp rebuke to the Allies. Marlborough informed Archduke Charles that there were no plans for the participation of fleets in any operations other than the landing in Provence this year and that Holland and England did not approve of the weakening of the troops intended for the landing at all.
The Archduke did not calm down and sent a letter to Queen Anne, where he asked Chauvel to deliver the much-needed troops from Italy to Spain. "While in Catalonia it is still relatively calm"... The Queen ordered Chauvel to comply with Charles's request, and he was forced to obey. On May 20, the vice admiral met with the archduke in Barcelona, where he had a long conversation with him regarding the plans for the landing. He managed to convince Charles that the attack on Toulon would greatly help the affairs of the allies in Spain, so all possible forces must be allocated for this expedition.
On June 2, 1707, the Royal Nevy cruised 60 miles from Nice. Chauvel had 43 ships and 57 transports under his command. Norris informed the commander that the Austrian troops would be ready for loading in a week. Ships were sent to Livorno and Genoa to replenish supplies and provisions.
And just at this time Savoy again changed his plans. Now he was about to advance to Toulon by land, capturing the cities of Monaco, Villefranche and Antibes along the way. Chauvel, on the other hand, insisted on a sea landing near Toulon, which would have avoided protracted battles for second-rate fortresses.
On July 14, at the council of war, it was decided to advance to Toulon, and Chauvel sent 12 frigates to the Hyerski Islands. Prince Eugene swore and swore that his troops would approach the fortress in six days and strike at the main naval base of the Levantine Fleet from land. However, this did not happen. Savoy left Turin with 35 thousand bayonets and only 17 days later reached Susa (a city in Piedmont, not far from Switzerland). Of the 35,000 people, 8,000 were provided to the Savoy by Joseph for the capture of Naples, however, the remaining troops would have been more than enough for the landing. But the prince finally decided to break through to Provence by land.
When there is no agreement in the comrades, or who is in the forest, who is for firewood
On June 8, Yevgeny Savoisky arrived at the flagship Associate. He informed the British admiral that the French were well entrenched in Var. According to intelligence, at least 800 cavalrymen and 6 battalions of soldiers were concentrated there. On July 1, 4 British and 1 Dutch ships bombed Ware, while 600 sailors under the command of John Norris landed in the harbor. The attack did not end with anything significant: the ships fired 25 shots each and retreated, and the sailors plunged into the boats and went back. The Savoyans and Imperials did not support the British in a direct attack, but made a flanking maneuver. The French, whom Savoy threatened with a detour from the rear, retreated to Toulon.
Chauvel and Norris insisted on a speedy movement to Toulon, while the prince again dreamed of capturing Monaco and Antibes. Eugene once again refused the sea route, saying that he would approach Toulon from land.
On July 4, the Allied army began marching towards Toulon. The sun shone mercilessly, the road was very difficult, especially between Fréjus and Cannes. Dozens of soldiers died from sunstroke. It was only on the 15th that the Allied forces reached La Valletta, a fortress two miles from Toulon. At the next military council, Savoy spoke in the spirit that the idea of the siege of Toulon was stupid and unnecessary. Norris and Chauvel froze in disbelief. All questions were resolved by Chetwind, who understood the rationale behind these defiant words - the Austrians demanded more subsidies.
Cannon from Shovel's flagship "Associate"
Meanwhile, the French, having learned about the defeat at Var, urgently took measures to protect Toulon. The city arsenal was opened, in which all volunteers received weapons. The authorities also organized a collection of money for the workers in order to urgently put in order the strengthening. 28 battalions were sent to the city under the command of Marshal Tessier, who joined forces retreating from Var on the way.
By the beginning of the siege, the garrison of Toulon numbered 20 thousand bayonets with 350 guns. In the harbor of Toulon there were 46 French ships armed with 50 to 104 guns each. Among them were the 100-gun "Terribl", 104-gun "Soleil Royal" and "Fudroyan", as well as the ships of I-II ranks "Edatan", "Admirable", "Triomfan", "Orgillo" and others. However, most of the French ships were disarmed, since there was no money at all to prepare the fleet for going to sea.
Louis XIV, fearing that the British might break into the harbor of Toulon and seize the ships, ordered them to sink to the upper deck. This sinking was planned for a short period of time in the expectation that the ships could subsequently be saved.
Two 90-gunners - "Tonnan" and "St. Phillip" - the French turned into floating batteries. They were additionally sheathed with forest, nets were pulled to protect ships from bombs, detachable boules (flooded boats and small ships tied to the ship along the sides) were built on, which were supposed to protect them from fire ships.
On July 17, the Allied War Council met once again, where Admiral Shovel called for an immediate assault on Toulon. Savoy, on the other hand, insisted on a proper siege. In vain did the English admiral point out that the moment was now extremely favorable, because the French had not yet had time to finish work on the fortifications. Prince Eugene stubbornly stood his ground. Apparently, he feared being cut off by the French, who were rumored to be hastily forming a new army in Toulouse.
On the same day, the British admiral unloaded the British troops and began building batteries in the area of Cape Eguyit. Since the number of marines in the squadron was extremely small, Shovel from the crews organized 6 battalions of sailors who served the guns on land. The skillfully installed guns of the British made great devastation in Toulon: more than 800 French soldiers were killed, 160 buildings, 6 warehouses were destroyed.
The Austrians and Savoyards at this time slowly brought their trenches to the city's bastions. On July 23, they attempted to attack Fort St. Catherine, but the forces allocated for this were simply ridiculous - 55 grenadiers. Naturally, the attack drowned. By July 29, Prince Eugene was completely discouraged - he believed that the siege had failed, and the troops should be withdrawn back to Turin. In addition, Marshal Tessier was able to bring reinforcements of 10 thousand people to the French, so the city's garrison now consisted of 30 thousand bayonets, while the Savoyard army was reduced to 20 thousand due to diseases.
Siege of Toulon Map, 1707
On August 4, the French made a sortie with a fairly large force (12 thousand soldiers), attacked the Allied trenches near Croix-Faron and La Malgue, knocked them out of the bastion of Saint-Catherine, but were repulsed in all other directions. However, this event turned out to be the last straw: Prince Eugene said that he was withdrawing troops to Savoy.
Limited success
Chauvel did not want to surrender - he decided to finally shell Toulon, destroy French ships there, destroy the arsenal and shipyards. On the morning of August 5, Chauvel, Byng, and Dilcks took their ships to the harbor of Toulon. Byng had the task of neutralizing Fort Saint-Louis (located on the same promontory as the Grand Temple, only from the sea side). The lead Saint-George began a firefight with the French, supported by the Sweatshur and the Dursleys bombing ship, but the wind soon cleared up, which did not allow the British to conduct aimed fire. As a result, Bing retreated with losses.
Dilks and his squadron attacked a 9-gun battery between Grand Temple and Fort St. Louis. After the shelling of the battery, the French left it, and on August 7 the British landed there, who transported 22 guns to the shore. Now the fire on the inner harbor of Toulon could be conducted unhindered. As a result of the bombardment from the sea, the British managed to burn 2 French ships - the 54-gun Sazh and the 52-gun Fortune. The British also managed to inflict damage on the submerged 58-gun "Dyaman" and two French frigates.
On August 9, Royal Nevi left the vicinity of Toulon. On August 12, the Austrian army also retreated to Nice. The Allies were never able to take the city and port, but thanks to their actions, the French lost the entire Levant fleet. The fact is that the ships spent about a month in a flooded state (from July 17 to August 9), and a wormhole and rot went through the tree. The sunken ships urgently required timbering. Next, let's give the floor to the French historian Fernand Braudel:
“Immediately after the enemy's retreat, one by one the ships began to rise to the surface. In his letters, the Marquis de Lanzheron noted each of these ship-lifting operations as a new victory, and at the same time, of course, a new excuse for himself.
On August 30, he writes to Pontchartrain: “This morning I began pumping water out of the Fudroyan, one of those ships that were painted to you in the darkest colors in a letter from Marseilles; before noon the ship was already afloat ... "
September 6: dishonest people "claimed that he [that is, Langeron himself] sank the heavy warships of the king." This is a lie, “he only flooded them with water to the first cannon deck. And if any heavy ship had to be sunk, it would be raised back in four days. "
September 15: "... from the ships" Fudroyan "," Soleil Royal "," Triomfan "and" Admirable "the water is completely pumped out, not a drop is left ..." Soon the "Terribl" and "Entrepid" will also be raised to the surface ... the heroes of the siege - "St. Philip" and "Tonnan" - the first of them was not flooded at all, and the second was raised; “It's another matter that among all the royal ships there are no other two so rotten; they are so rotten that I would not have vouched for them in the summer campaign. " Finally, on October 9 - victory, "the work is over."<…>
After the siege, the financial difficulties in Toulon became obvious: all work began to be slowed down in it. The ships, which until then had been kept afloat by the tedious labor of convicts attached to hand pumps, now lay on the muddy bottom of the raid. This meant for them a direct path to the cemetery, to scrap - they were already suitable only for firewood. "
British fleet at the siege of Toulon
Shovel went to Lisbon. In the Mediterranean, he left 13 ships under the command of Dilks, and he himself hastened to England. On October 23, near the Isles of Scilly, George Byng saw distress signals aboard the Royal Ann, but because the sea was very rough, Byng could not come to help.
In the morning it became clear that the flagship Associate had smashed against the Scilly rocks. About 800 people died, including the admiral himself. According to another version, Shovel, a survivor of the shipwreck, was stabbed to death by one of the inhabitants of the island, who saw rings with diamonds on it. Claudisly Shovel's body was found by fishermen, loaded aboard the Arundel and transported to London with flags at half-mast. The admiral was buried with honors at Westminster Abbey.
In 2012, a series of memorable dates dedicated to the Thunderstorm of the twelfth year, the 200th anniversary of the Patriotic War, the war between Russia and Napoleonic France took place. Let's start with the life path of the initiator of these events, the person whom some called Robespierre on horseback and Corsican monster, while others deified, as the Emperor of freedom, the Emperor of the revolution ... 52 years of life, of which 6 were imprisoned on the island of St. Helena ...
Eight Episodes of Napoleon's Life Depicted by a Historical Artist
Charles Auguste von STEIBEN
This painting was painted during the restoration years, when the mention of the hero of my post was not welcomed, so any symbolism associated with him immediately attracted the attention of the public. And this famous cocked hat, which it was impossible not to recognize, was a representation of Napoleonic career, from the first steps of General Bonaparte to the death of the deposed emperor on the island of Saint Helena ...
The future emperor was born on August 15 in a remote province, the town of Ajaccio in Corsica, into a family of poor nobles Carlo Maria di Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino in the same year 1769 when Corsica became part of the French kingdom.
Carlo Maria Buonaparte. Anne-Louis GIRODE-TRIZON
Letizia Ramolino. Robert LEFEVRE
House in Ajaccio, where the future emperor lived
Carlo Maria Buonaparte
Unknown French artist
Bonaparte's father was a lawyer and respected man, a nobleman, but one of those who, according to the historian Desmond Seward ... called the aristocracy in Corsica, they were illiterate small landowners. In essence, these are the same peasants, but only with the family coat of arms. He was very proud of his nickname - Carlo the Magnificent - Magnificent, for his brilliant manners and ability to show off. Pope Carlo participated in the struggle for the independence of Corsica, but then went over to the side of France, which allowed him to become a fairly influential figure and be able to send his children to study in France. He died of cancer in 1785.Dying, he said to his eldest son Joseph:
- You are the eldest in the family, but remember that the head of the family is Napoleon ...
Maria Letizia Ramolino. Charles Guillaume Alexandre BOURGEOIS
Maria Letizia Ramolino. Unknown artist
At the cradle of the future emperor of France
Illustration for the book by William Milligan Sloane - The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1896
Jean Michel André CONSTAN
Mother Letizia was completely different, woman with a man's head and the true head of the family (despite the fact that she was almost always in a position). A demanding, strict, hardworking woman, she put honor above all, and while raising children, she taught them to be independent. Napoleon inherited his love for work and strict order in affairs from his mother. Boni was the second son in a large family with four more boys (Joseph, Lucien, Louis and Jerome) and three girls (Eliza, Pauline and Caroline). Five children died in infancy. Napoleon did not leave all his brothers and sisters in the future, they received high posts, positions and became famous thanks to his support. Many of them, with the exception of the sisters Paolina and Eliza who died early, actually left him at the end of his life, when the former emperor fell into difficult conditions. Much more devoted to Napoleon was his adopted daughter, the daughter of his wife Josephine.
Child portrait of Napoleon
Unknown artist
Napoleon Bonaparte as a child, arguing with comrades in front of the house in Ajaccio (Corsica)
Napoleon grew up as a child, playful, but sullen and irritable with an impatient character. In street fights, he was always one of the most notorious fighters, he never let anyone down. Nothing appealed to me, I was prone to quarrels and fights, I was not afraid of anyone. I beat one, scratched the other, and everyone was afraid of me. Most of all, my brother Joseph had to endure for me. I beat and bit him. And he was scolded for this, as it used to be before he came to himself from fear, I would already complain to my mother. My deceit was beneficial to me, because otherwise Mom Letizia would have punished me for my pugnacity, she would never have tolerated my attacks! His mother loved him, the boy also adored his mother, and until the end of his days, remembering her in his captivity, he often said:
- Ah, mother Letizia, mother Letizia, so she was right in this ..., right in this ...
Departure of Napoleon from Corsica to the continent
Jacques Marie Gaston Onfrey de BREVILLE
In the spring of 1779, when Napoleon was not yet ten years old, he was sent to France, where he studied briefly at the College of Autun, and then he was assigned to a government scholarship to a military school in Brienne, a tiny town near Paris. It was a prestigious educational institution where French nobles studied. But here, too, Napoleon remained an unsociable, withdrawn, hot-tempered boy, practically did not make friends with anyone and did not try to communicate.
Nicolas-Toussaint CHARLET
Napoleon at the cadet school in Brienne-le-Chateau
Moreover, he himself became the subject of ridicule by his comrades for his poor knowledge of French and the Corsican dialect (a mixture of Chismontan and Oltremontan). The cadets called him a straw in the nose, because this is how "la paille au nez" is translated, the nickname that the guys awarded him: Napoléon = Lopaloné. When schoolmates tried to offend, tease Napoleon, despite his small stature and small age, he, like an angry wolf cub, was able to show the class and repulse the offenders in several fights in the courtyard of the Brienne military school, so they tried not to mess with him anymore ...
Military school cadets are playing snowballs. Napoleon in the center with his arms crossed on his chest
At an early age, Bonaparte read his father's library, got acquainted with the works of Plutarch, Cicero, Voltaire, Rousseau, Goethe. These authors accompanied him almost all his life. Therefore, he studied well at school, he studied the history of Greece and Rome perfectly, excelled in mathematics, always remaining the first in this subject, geography and other disciplines. Only languages - Latin, German - were always difficult for him.
Fort attack at school in Brienne
It is bad if young people comprehend the art of war from books: this is a sure way to educate bad generals
Napoleon visits his sister Eliza, who was brought up in an aristocratic boarding house in Saint-Cyr, 1784
Jacques Marie Gaston Onfrey de BREVILLE
The young man stayed in Brienne for five years. If you or my godparents are unable to provide me with sufficient funds to support me in a decent life in college, then in that case, write a request to take me home. I am tired of being poor in the eyes of others and enduring the endless ridicule of arrogant youths, whose superiority over me lies solely in their rich origins. So Napoleon wrote to his parents a year before leaving school. He was tired of humiliation, but still on October 30, 1784 was commendably certified and immediately accepted (again on a royal scholarship) to the Paris military school, which trained personnel for the army.
Napoleon cadet at the Military School in Paris, 1784
Jean Michel André CONSTAN
Napoleon Bonaparte studying.
Jacques Marie Gaston Onfrey de BREVILLE
Excellent teachers were gathered here, including the famous mathematician Gaspard Monge and the physicist, mathematician and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace. Napoleon eagerly listened to the lectures and read. He had something and from whom to learn.
Pierre-Simon Laplace. Unknown artist
Gaspard Monge. Unknown artist
But soon misfortune befell him: father Carlo Bonaparte died and the family was left practically without means of subsistence. There was no hope for his older brother Joseph, he was incapable and lazy, and the 16-year-old cadet took care of his mother, brothers and sisters. After a year at the Paris military school, which Napoleon had to finish as an external student, he entered the army with the rank of second lieutenant and went to serve in the regiment in the provincial garrison stationed in the city of Valence.
Napoleon at the age of 16
Black chalk drawing by an unknown author
This is what Napoleon looked like after graduating from the Paris military school
Young Lieutenant in the community of Valensa
Illustration for the book by William Milligan Sloane The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1896
Jean Michel André CONSTAN
Life in the garrison was boring, dreary and monotonous. Plus a half-beggarly existence (Napoleon sent most of his salary to his mother), he ate twice a day, mainly bread and milk, there was no money for more. He tried to hide his plight, but his worn-out clothes, reshaped, reworked, not suitable for publication, betrayed him. And, nevertheless, it was here that he had his first love.
Napoleon and Mademoiselle du Colombier
Lieutenant Bonaparte and Mademoiselle Caroline du Colombier in Valence
Unknown artist
It was a girl from the good Caroline du Colombier family. Young people were invited to her mother's house. And Napoleon Bonaparte, with all his shaky financial situation, managed to attract the attention of a girl, maybe some kind of external gloom, romanticism, which reminded the then fashionable heroes of Childe Harold, Werther ... About this touching feeling almost thirty years later Napoleon recalled on Saint Helena: We made each other little dates. I especially remember one thing, in the summer, at dawn. And who can believe that all our happiness consisted in the fact that we ate cherries together.
Napoleon during his stay in Valence, where he began his career, with the rank of lieutenant
Illustration for the book by William Milligan Sloane The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1896
Always alone among people, I return to my dreams only alone with myself
From 1786 to 1788 he took long vacations and went to Ajaccio to settle financial problems and matters related to his father's confusing will. But he dreamed of a military career, he certainly wanted to become a captain. And he even tried to become a mercenary in the service of the Russian Empress Catherine II, on whose instructions the recruiters were recruiting troops for the Russian-Turkish war. But according to the imperial decree, it was necessary to accept only with a demotion. And how much lower? And Bonaparte was refused. He ran out in tears after this refusal: I'll go to the Prussian king, and he will give me a captain! .. This is the kind of officer the Russian army could have.
Napoleon at Oxonne 1788
Illustration for the book by William Milligan Sloane The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1896
Napoleon Bonaparte throws the book of the Marquis de Sade into the fire
Napoleon Bonaparte in the uniform of a lieutenant of the 1st battalion of Corsica in 1792
Returning to France in June 1788, Napoleon was soon sent for a short time with his regiment to Oxonne, where he no longer lived in a private apartment, but in the barracks. It was in Oxonne that he took up his pen and wrote a small treatise on ballistics "On Throwing Bombs." By this time, it became clear that artillery had become his favorite military specialty.
Napoleon Bonaparte in the rank of lieutenant
Illustration for the book by William Milligan Sloane The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1896
Heinrich Felix Emmanuel FILIPPOTO
Bonaparte enthusiastically accepted the Great French Revolution. He understood perfectly well that it was now that personal abilities could contribute to a person's ascent up the social ladder and promotion, which was what the artillery lieutenant Bonaparte needed to begin with. Having again received leave, he returned to his homeland and took an active part in the events, drew up an appeal to the Constituent Assembly of France, which soon afterwards adopted a decree on the equalization of the rights of the French and Corsicans. Taking with him one of his younger brothers, Napoleon returned to Valençon, where he supported and raised his brother with his lieutenant's salary.
Lieutenant Bonaparte with his younger brother
Jacques Marie Gaston Onfrey de BREVILLE
Having got to Paris at the end of May 1792 on business, he witnessed the stormy revolutionary events of that summer - the attack of the revolutionary rabble on the Tuileries Palace on June 20 and the uprising on August 10, 1792.
The attack of the mob on the Tuileries. Marie Antoinette defends her children on June 20, 1792
Unknown artist
Uprising of August 10, 1792
Jean DUPLESSE-BERTO
Napoleon standing in front of a revolutionary crowd. Jacques Marie Gaston Onfrey de BREVILLE
Napoleon mourning the destruction of the Tuileries Palace. Jacques Marie Gaston Onfrey de BREVILLE
Napoleon at the Tuileries on August 10, 1792
Nicolas-Toussaint CHARLET
Seeing the cruelty of the people, the heads of the defeated, put on spears, in particular, the Swiss officers who defended the palace and remained faithful to the oath, Napoleon, according to eyewitnesses, reacted in both cases in the same way: he called the rebels canals, vile rabble, 500-600 of which had to be swept away with cannons, and the rest would have fled by themselves! He was for revolution, transformation, a new order, but against the popular revolt, black and insane, against feudal barbarism.
Pasquale Paoli
Henry William BECKER Unknown artist
Napoleon Bonaparte in his youth was Corsican heart and soul, Corsican from head to toe... It is no wonder that from childhood his idol was General Pasquale Paoli, the leader of the independence movement for his island of freedom. But later, during Bonaparte's short visits to his homeland (1789-90, 1791-93), their relationship did not work out. The acquaintance with the hero of youthful dreams, who now represented mainly the interests of England, in which he had been in exile for a long time, deeply disappointed Bonaparte. And their plans were exactly the opposite. As a result, in June 1793, shortly before the capture of Corsica by the British, Napoleon, so as not to go to jail, secretly and not without incident, barely managed to get away from the island, taking his mother and the whole family with him. As soon as they disappeared, their house was ransacked by the followers of Paoli.
Bonaparte in 1792
Heinrich Felix Emmanuel FILIPPOTO
The need was not long in coming, despite receiving the long-awaited captain's rank. Napoleon had to support a large family (mother and seven brothers and sisters). First, he arranged them near Toulon, then he moved them to Marseille, but this did not make the hopeless, difficult and meager life any easier ..., month after month passed, without bringing any hopes for the best, and suddenly the service strap was interrupted in the most unexpected way .. ...
Napoleon in a restaurant in Paris, 1792
Illustration for the book by William Milligan Sloane The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1896
And then Toulon happened, under which, according to Bonaparte himself, he experienced first kiss of glory.
With the help of the Commissioner of the Convention in charge of events in Toulon, Christophe Salichetti, a Corsican who knew the Bonaparte family in Corsica, and with the support of his younger brother Maximilian Robespierre Augustin, Napoleon was appointed to the army of General Carteau, who besieged Toulon, a port city on the Mediterranean coast in the south of France. Even at the turn of the new era, there was a Roman fortress. And in the 17th century, the famous French engineer Sebastien Le Pretre de Vauban turned Toulon into a modern fortress. So impregnable that under Louis XIV, even the Austrian field marshal and generalissimo Prince Eugene of Savoy, one of the greatest generals of Western Europe, who led the army of the Holy Roman Empire, could not take this fortress.
The Anglo-Spanish fleet enters Toulon, 1793
And in July 1793, the French royalist counter-revolutionaries, in alliance with the British fleet, captured Toulon, expelling or killing representatives of the revolutionary government. The white flag of the Bourbons fluttered over the ancient French city - the flag of the executed king, so the battle for Toulon had not only military significance, but also political one. The Republic had no right to lose it. The revolutionary army laid siege to Toulon from land, but it acted sluggishly and uncertainly.
English and French armies. Siege of Toulon
Siege of Toulon (September-December 1793)
Siege of Toulon (September-December 1793), detail
Captain Bonaparte plans the battle of Toulon in 1793.
Illustration for the book by William Milligan Sloane The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1896
Jean Michel André CONSTAN
Having explored the area, Napoleon drew up a plan of action, taking into account the natural relief, different from the plan of Commander Karto, and began to seek its adoption. At first glance, the plan seemed too simple. But it was in this simplicity that his irresistible strength was. But the haughty General Karto thought his plan was perfect. Others, including the Commissioner of the Convention Gasparen, a career soldier, supported the young chief of artillery.
Napoleon Bonaparte lays out the plan of attack of Toulon
Napoleon during the siege of Toulon, 1793 Unknown artist
Napoleon during the siege of Toulon, 1793 Jean-Baptiste-Edouard DETAIL
Siege of Toulon, captured by counter-revolutionary troops
Siege of Toulon
Paul GREGULAR
Siege of Toulon
French school painter
At first, a fierce cannonade of fifteen mortars and thirty large-caliber cannons lasted for three days under the pouring rain and a squally wind. And on the night of December 17, the Republicans went to storm the fortifications, capturing little Gibraltar, which predetermined the outcome of the battle.
Siege of Toulon Battery of the Brave
Duval's engraving
Napoleon during the siege of Toulon in 1793
French school painter
Napoleon leading the attack on the British during the siege of Toulon in 1793
Jacques Marie Gaston Onfrey de BREVILLE
Napoleon first organized the actions of artillery, then he himself led a cavalry attack. The horse under him was killed, he was wounded in the leg with a bayonet, but he concealed the wound and continued to attack. Got a shell shock, but nothing could stop his offensive rush. He was the third in a row to burst into a hole in the wall of Toulon, capturing the commander of the Toulon garrison, the English General O "Hara.
Siege of Toulon by French troops on December 18, 1793
Carbide engraving on copper, etching
author Jacques François Svebash, engraver Pierre-Gabriel BERTO, draftsman Defontaine
Destruction of the fleet at Toulon, 18 December 1793
Engraver Thomas SUTHERLAND
Siege of Toulon. Flight of the British.
Unknown author, 1794
Allied evacuation from Toulon
Unknown author
Retreat of the Royalists from Toulon 1793
This decisive success predetermined the outcome of the battle. British and Spanish ships began to leave the Toulon raid. The enemy fled. Toulon fell. The Republican army entered the city victorious.
Napoleon Bonaparte after the siege of Toulon on December 19, 1793
Toulon was a major victory for the Republic. And Napoleon Bonaparte discovered here not only a military leader's talent, but also personal courage and courage that inspired the soldiers. Augustin Robespierre (who wrote to his brother that "this man is endowed with supernatural powers") and the Commissioner of the Convention Christophe Salichetti, delighted with his feat, suggested that the Convention make Napoleon from captain to general. A witness to the siege of Toulon, General Dugomier wrote:
- Great scientific knowledge, the same mind. And the courage is even excessive. Here is a faint outline of the merits of this rare officer. Promote him, otherwise he himself will be exalted ...
On December 22, 1793, Robespierre the Younger and Salichetti, by their power of commissars, conferred the military rank of brigadier general on Bonaparte; in February 1794, this decision was confirmed by the government. Bonaparte was twenty-four years old.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Jacques-Louis DAVID
This is how a person, starting practically from minus infinity, became a general by the age of 24.
pro100-mica.livejournal.com
The path to the empire Bonaparte Napoleon
Siege of Toulon (August - December 1793)
I. The squadron, arsenal and the city of Toulon are transferred to the British (August 27, 1793). - II. The imposition of French troops on Toulon. - III. Napoleon takes command of the siege artillery (12 September). - IV. First sortie of the garrison (October 14). - V. Council of War (October 15). - VI. Construction of a fortification against the fort of Murgrav, nicknamed Little Gibraltar. - VII. Commander-in-Chief O'Hara is captured (November 30). - VIII. The seizure of the Mürgrav fort (December 17). - IX. The entry of the French into Toulon (December 18).
On August 22, Toulon learned of Carto's entry into Aix. The news pissed off the sections. They arrested and imprisoned the national representatives of Beil and Beauvais, who were sent to the city, in the La Malgue fort. The people's representatives Freron, Barras and General Lapuap escaped to Nice, the headquarters of the Italian army. All Toulon authorities were compromised. The municipality, the Board of the Department, the port commandant, most of the arsenal officials, Vice Admiral Trogoff - the squadron leader, most of the officers - all felt equally guilty.
Realizing what kind of enemy they were dealing with, they found no other salvation but treason. They surrendered the squadron, port, arsenal, city, forts to the enemies of France. A squadron with a force of 18 ships of the line and several frigates anchored in the roads. Despite the betrayal of her admiral, she remained loyal to her fatherland and began to defend herself against the Anglo-Spanish fleet, but, deprived of support from land and under the threat of her own coastal batteries, obliged to help her, she was forced to surrender. Rear Admiral Saint-Julien and the few remaining loyal officers barely escaped.
The squadron, just like the 13 ships of the line docked, and the arsenal depots with large reserves, became the prey of the enemy.
The English and Spanish admirals occupied Toulon with 5,000 men who were detached from the ship's crews, raised the white banner and took possession of the city on behalf of the Bourbons. Then the Spaniards, Neapolitans, Piedmontese and troops from Gibraltar came to them. By the end of September, 14,000 men were garrisoned: 3,000 English, 4,000 Neapolitans, 2,000 Sardinians, and 5,000 Spaniards.
The Allies then disarmed the Toulon National Guard, which seemed unreliable to them, and dismissed the ship's crews of the French squadron. 5,000 sailors, Bretons and Normans, who were of particular concern to them, were embarked on four French ships of the line, converted into transports, and sent to Rochefort and Brest.
Admiral Hood felt the need to secure anchorage on roadsteads, to strengthen the heights of Cape Bren, which dominated the coastal battery of the same name, and the peaks of Cape Ker, dominating the batteries of Egillette and Balagier, from which large and small roadsteads were shot. The garrison was placed on one side up to Saint-Nazaire and the Oliul gorges, inclusive, on the other - to La Valletta and Hyeres. All coastal batteries, from Bandolskie to batteries of the Iersk raid, were destroyed. The Ierski Islands were occupied by the enemy.
Upon learning of the entry of the British into Toulon, General Carteau immediately moved his headquarters to Kuzh. The vanguard had advanced as far as Beausse, and forward outposts were stationed at the Toulon aisles. The population of both towns became armed and showed great zeal. The number of Karteau's division was 12,000 good and bad soldiers, of whom 4,000 had to be stationed in Marseille and at various points along the coast.
With 8,000 remaining with him, Karto did not dare to move through the mountain passes and limited himself to observing them. But the representatives of the people Freron and Barras, who arrived in Nice, demanded from General Brunet, the commander of the Italian army, 6,000 people to send against Toulon. General Lapuap, who was entrusted with command of them, located his headquarters in Sollier, and his forward posts in La Valletta.
There were no communications between the divisions of Karto and Lapuapa. They were separated by the Pharaun Mountains. Upon learning of Lapuap's approach, Karto attacked the Oliulian gorges, took possession of them on September 8 after a battle that lasted several hours, and advanced his headquarters in Bossa, and his forward posts beyond the Oliul gorges. In this battle, an outstanding officer, the chief of artillery, Major Dommarten, was seriously wounded. The Kartho and Lapuapa divisions were independent of each other.
They belonged to two different armies: the first to the Alpine army, the second to the Italian army. Lapuap's right flank overlooked the fort and Mount Faron, the center dominated the highway from La Valletta, and the left flank oversaw the heights of Cape Bren. Fort Bregancon and the batteries of the Jerei raid were again armed with Lapuap. Kartho surrounded Fort Pome with his left flank, the Rouge and Blanc redoubts in the center, and Fort Malboske on his right flank. Oliul occupied his reserve; one detachment was in Sifur. Karteau also rebuilt the Saint-Nazaire and Bandol batteries. The enemy still owned all of Mount Pharaun to Fort Malboske, the entire Sublette Peninsula and Cape Coeur to the village of Seine.
The treason that gave the British the Mediterranean fleet, the city of Toulon and its arsenal, shocked the Convention. He appointed General Kartho as commander-in-chief of the army of siege. The Public Safety Committee demanded that an artillery officer of the old service be named, capable of commanding siege artillery. Napoleon, at the time a major of artillery, was named as such an officer.
He received an order to urgently go to Toulon, to the main apartment of the army, to organize an artillery park and command them. On 12 September he arrived at Bossa, introduced himself to General Carto, and soon noticed his inability. From a colonel - the commander of a small column directed against the Federalists - this officer within three months managed to become a brigadier general, then a divisional general and, finally, a commander-in-chief. He did not understand anything about fortresses or siege business.
The army's artillery consisted of two field batteries under the command of Captain Xunyi, who had just arrived from the Italian army with General Lapuap, from three batteries of horse artillery under the command of Major Dommarten, who was absent after a wound received in the battle of Oliul (instead of him at that time everything was led by artillery sergeants of the old service), and from eight 24-pounders taken from the Marseille arsenal.
For 24 days - since Toulon was at the mercy of the enemy - nothing has yet been done to organize a siege park. At dawn on September 13, the commander-in-chief led Napoleon to the battery, which he had deployed in order to burn the English squadron. This battery was located at the exit from the Oluli gorges at a low altitude, slightly to the right of the highway, 2000 tuazes from the sea coast.
It had eight 24-pounder cannons, which, in his opinion, should have burned a squadron, anchored 400 toises from the coast, that is, a whole league from the battery. The grenadiers of Burgundy and the first battalion of Côte d'Or, dispersed to neighboring houses, were busy heating the kernels with the help of kitchen furs. It is difficult to imagine anything more funny.
Napoleon ordered these eight 24-pounders to be removed to the park. Every effort was made to organize the artillery, and in less than six weeks he had assembled 100 large-caliber guns - long-range mortars and 24-pounder cannons, amply supplied with shells. He organized workshops and invited several artillery officers who left her as a result of revolutionary events to serve.
Among them was Major Gassendi, whom Napoleon appointed chief of the Marseilles arsenal. On the very coast of the sea, Napoleon built two batteries, called the batteries of the Mountains and Sankyulotts, which, after a lively cannonade, forced the enemy ships to withdraw and clear the small roadstead. During this initial period, there was not a single engineer officer in the siege army. Napoleon was supposed to act for the chief of the engineering service, and for the chief of artillery, and for the commander of the park. Every day he went to the batteries.
On October 14, 4,000 people besieged made a sortie with the aim of taking possession of the Gory and Sankyulot batteries, which were harassing their squadrons. One column passed through Fort Malboske and took up a position halfway from Malboske to Oliul. Another went along the sea coast and headed for Cape Brega, where these batteries were located. When fire was opened, Napoleon hurried to the front lines with Almeiras, Carto's aide-de-camp, an excellent officer, later a divisional general.
He had already managed to instill such confidence in the troops that, as soon as they saw him, the soldiers began to unanimously and loudly demand orders from him. Thus, at the behest of the soldiers, he took command, although the generals were present. The results justified the confidence of the army. The enemy was first stopped and then driven back to the fortress. The batteries were saved. From that moment, Napoleon understood what the coalition forces were. The Neapolitans who formed part of these troops were bad and were always assigned to the vanguard.
On the eastern side, near Lapuap, there were daily skirmishes with enemy posts located on the slopes of the Pharaon facing him. On October 1, he pushed them back, climbed the mountain, but was stopped by the fort, and a few hours later he was thrown back and forced to return to the camp. On October 15, he turned out to be happier and, attacking the height of Cape Bren, after a fierce battle, captured it.
At the end of September, a council of war met in Oliule to decide which side to conduct the main attack - from the east or from the west? From the area occupied by the Lapuapa division, or from where the Kartho division is? It was unanimous that an attack should be made from the west and that the main siege park should be concentrated in Oliul. On the east side, Toulon was covered by the forts of Pharaun and La Malgue, on the west side there was only one fort, Malboske, which was only a simple field fortification.
The council met for the second time on October 15. It discussed the siege plan sent from Paris. It was drawn up by General D'Arson and approved by the engineering committee. The plan assumed an army of 60,000 men and had all the necessary materiel in abundance. It expressed the wish that the siege army first took possession of the mountain and Fort Faron, forts Rouge and Blanc, Fort Sainte-Catherine, and then laid trenches opposite the middle of the bypass of the Toulon fortress, neglecting both Fort La Malgue and Fort Malbosque.
But Fort Faron was heavily fortified by the enemy, and the surrounding terrain was such that it was not easy to build trenches here. However, with this method of action, the operations would have dragged on by themselves, giving the besieged time to bring up the reinforcements they only expected to force to lift the siege and capture Provence.
Napoleon proposed a completely different plan. He put forward the thesis that if you blockade Toulon from the sea in the same way as from land, the fortress will fall by itself, because it is more profitable for the enemy to burn down the warehouses, destroy the arsenal, blow up the dock and, taking 31 French warships, clear the city than lock it up in it. The 15,000-strong garrison, condemning it, sooner or later, to surrender, and in order to achieve an honorable surrender, this garrison will be forced to surrender the squadron, arsenal, warehouses and all fortifications unharmed.
Meanwhile, having forced the squadron to clear the large and small raids, blocking Toulon from the sea is easy. To do this, it would be enough to deploy two batteries: one battery of thirty 36- and 24-pound cannons, four 16-pound guns firing hot cannonballs, and ten Homer mortars at the tip of Cape Egillette, and the other, of the same strength, at Cape Balagye.
Both of these batteries will be no further than 700 tuaz from the big tower and will be able to fire bombs, grenades and cannonballs at the entire area of the large and small raids. General Marescot, at that time the captain of the engineering troops, who arrived to command this type of weapon, did not share such hopes, but he found the expulsion of the English fleet and the blockade of Toulon quite appropriate, seeing in this the necessary prerequisites for a quick and energetic attack.
But the importance of Cape Balagier and Cape Egillette was also understood by the enemy generals. For a month now, they had been working at the Mürgrav fort on the summit of Cape Ker; to make it impregnable, they used everything: the crews of the ships, the timber materials and the working hands of the Toulon arsenal; they used all these resources generously and continued to use them every day. This fort already justified the name of the Little Gibraltar given to it by the British.
On the third day after arriving in the army, Napoleon visited the Kers position, which had not yet been occupied by the enemy, and, having immediately drawn up his plan of action, went to the commander-in-chief and invited him to enter Toulon in a week. This required a firm position at Cape Ker so that the artillery could immediately deploy their batteries at the tips of the Eguillette and Balagier promontories.
General Karto was unable to understand or carry out this plan, nevertheless he instructed the brave assistant to General Laborde, later General of the Imperial Guard, to go there with 400 men. But a few days later the enemy landed on the shore in the number of 4,000 people, threw back General Labor and began to build Fort Mürgrav. During the first eight days, the chief of artillery did not stop asking for reinforcements for Laborde so that the enemy could be driven back from this point, but he got nothing.
Kartho did not consider himself strong enough to lengthen his right flank, or rather, he did not understand the importance of it. By the end of October, things had changed a lot. It was no longer possible to think about a direct attack on this position. It was necessary to set up good cannon and mortar batteries to sweep away the fortifications and silence the fort's artillery. All these considerations were accepted by the military council. The chief of artillery was ordered to take all the necessary measures regarding his type of weapon. He immediately set to work.
However, the ignorant staff put obstacles to Napoleon every day, trying in every possible way to distract him from the implementation of the plan adopted by the council and demanded either to direct the cannons in the completely opposite direction, then to fire aimlessly at the forts, then to make an attempt to throw several shells into the city in order to burn a couple of houses. One day, the commander-in-chief brought him to a height between Fort Malbosque and forts Rouge and Blanc, offering to place a battery here that would be able to fire at them at the same time.
The chief of artillery tried in vain to explain to him that the besieger would gain an advantage over the besieged if he placed three or four batteries against one fort and thus took it under the crossfire. He argued that hastily equipped batteries with simple earthen shelters could not fight against carefully constructed batteries with long-lasting shelters, and, finally, that this battery, located between the three forts, would be destroyed in a quarter of an hour and all the servants on it would be killed. Kartho, with all the arrogance of an ignoramus, insisted on his own; but, despite all the severity of military discipline, this order remained unfulfilled, since it was impracticable.
On another occasion, this general ordered to build a battery, again in the opposite direction to the general plan, moreover, on the site in front of the stone building, so that there was no space left for the guns to roll back, and the ruins of the house could collapse on the servants. Again I had to disobey.
The attention of the army and the entire south of France was focused on the batteries of the Mountains and Sankulottes. The fire from them was terrible. Several English sloops were sunk. The masts were shot down from several frigates. Four ships of the line were so badly damaged that they had to be docked for repair. The commander-in-chief, taking advantage of the moment when the chief of artillery was absent for 24 hours to visit the Marseille arsenal and to speed up the dispatch of some necessary items, ordered the evacuation of this battery under the pretext that many gunners were killed on it.
At 9 o'clock in the evening, when Napoleon returned, the evacuation of the battery had already begun. Again I had to disobey. In Marseille, there was an old coulevrina that had long been the subject of curiosity. The headquarters of the army decided that the surrender of Toulon depended only on this gun, that it possesses wonderful properties and shoots at least two leagues.
The chief of artillery was convinced that this gun, moreover extremely heavy, was all rusted and could not serve. However, a lot of effort and money had to be spent removing and installing this junk, from which only a few shots were fired.
Annoyed and tired of these conflicting orders, Napoleon asked the commander-in-chief to acquaint him in writing with the general plans, giving him their execution in detail according to the type of weapon entrusted to him. Kartho replied that according to the plan he had finally adopted, the chief of artillery was to fire at Toulon for three days, after which the commander-in-chief would attack the fortress in three columns.
Regarding this strange answer, Napoleon wrote a report to the people's representative Gasparin, setting out everything that should have been done to capture the city, that is, repeating what he said at the council of war. Gasparen was a smart man. Napoleon respected him greatly and was indebted to him during the siege. Gasparin sent the transmitted plan with a messenger to Paris, and from there, with the same courier, an order was brought that Kartho immediately left the siege army and went to the Alpine.
In his place was appointed General Doppé, in command of the army at Lyon, which had just been taken. General Lapuap entered the interim command as a senior. On November 15, he located his main apartment in Oliul and, within a few days of his command, gained the respect of the troops.
The chief of artillery fielded nine cannon and mortar batteries; two - the most powerful - on two parallel hills called Quatre-Moulin and Sablette, far from Fort Mürgrave, to support three batteries: "Fearless Men", "Patriots of the South" and "Brave", located 100 toises from the fort, but not at the dominant height. Brega's batteries fired at the Isthmus of Sublette and Lazaretnaya Bay.
The cannonade took place daily. Its purpose was to slow down the enemy's efforts to further strengthen Gibraltar Minor. The batteries of the besiegers soon gained the upper hand, and this prompted the besieged to make a sortie to destroy them. A sortie was made on 8 November against the Sublette and Quatre-Moulins batteries. They were pushed aside from the latter, but Sublette's battery was taken and the guns riveted on it.
Commander-in-Chief Doppé arrived at the siege army on 10 November. He was a Savoyard, a medic, smarter than Kartho, but just as ignorant of the art of war; he was one of the luminaries of the Jacobin society, the enemy of all people who showed any talent. A few days after his arrival, an English bomb set off a powder magazine fire at the Mountain battery. Napoleon, who was there, was in great danger. Several gunners were killed.
Appearing in the evening to the commander-in-chief to report on this case, the chief of artillery found him drawing up a protocol in order to prove that the cellar had been set on fire by the aristocrats. The next day, a Kotdor battalion, stationed in the trenches opposite Fort Mürgrave, took up arms and marched into the fort, outraged by the Spanish mistreatment of a captured French volunteer. The Burgundian regiment followed him.
The whole division of General Brлеlée was involved in the case. A terrifying cannonade and lively rifle fire began. Napoleon was in the main apartment; he went to the commander-in-chief, but he did not know the reason for everything that was happening. They hurried to the scene. It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon. According to the chief of artillery, since the wine was uncorked, it was necessary to drink it.
He believed that continuing the attack would cost less than stopping it. The general allowed him to take the attackers under his command. The entire promontory was covered by our riflemen who surrounded the fort, and the chief of artillery lined up two grenadier companies in a column in order to penetrate there through the gorge, when suddenly the commander-in-chief ordered a retreat due to the fact that close to him, but rather far from the line of fire, one was killed of his adjutants.
The shooters, noticing the retreat of their own and hearing the all-clear signal, were discouraged. The attack failed. Napoleon, with his face covered in blood from a minor wound in his forehead, drove up to the commander-in-chief and said to him: "... The one who ordered to play the retreat did not let us take Toulon." The soldiers, having lost many of their comrades during the retreat, expressed dissatisfaction.
They spoke loudly that it was time to put an end to the general. "When will they stop sending painters and doctors to command us?" Eight days later, Doppé was sent to the Iberian army. He marked his arrival there by guillotining a large number of generals.
He brought with him to command the siege artillery divisional general of the old service Duteuil, but Napoleon had special authority from the government, and the command was left to him. In the artillery there were two generals named Duteuil. The elder, long the head of the Oxon School, was an excellent artillery officer. His school was famous.
In 1788, he drew attention there to Napoleon, then an artillery lieutenant, anticipating his military talents. This general did not adhere to revolutionary views. He was already an elderly man, but refused to emigrate, remaining in his post. During the siege of Lyons by Kellerman, he commanded the artillery.
After the capture of the city, he did not manage to escape the Collot d'Herbois and Fouche Monitoring Committee. He was convicted by a revolutionary tribunal and sentenced to death. The verdict was motivated by the fact that he was late to send artillery to the Toulon siege army. In vain he showed the letters sent to him by Napoleon with gratitude for the reasonable orders and energy shown by him in sending these transports.
General Duteuil Jr., who did not understand anything about artillery, was a man of a completely opposite mentality. It was a "good guy." Upon arrival at Toulon, he was very happy to find a position occupied that he himself was not capable of fulfilling, especially since in these conditions it was a very risky business to fulfill it. He later died in Metz as chief of the fortress artillery.
The soldiers' voice was finally heard. On November 20, the valiant Dugommier assumed command of the army. He had 40 years of service behind him. He was a wealthy colonist from Martinique, a retired officer. At the beginning of the revolution, he became the head of the patriots and defended the city of Saint-Pierre. Expelled from the island when the British occupied it, he lost all his fortune.
He was appointed commander of a brigade in the Italian army at a time when the Piedmontese, wanting to take advantage of the diversion of forces to Toulon, decided to cross the Var and enter Provence. Dugommier defeated them at Gillette, which forced them to retreat to their previous line. He possessed all the qualities of an old warrior. Himself extremely brave, he loved the brave and was loved by them. He was kind, although ardent, very energetic, fair, had a faithful military eye, was cold-blooded and stubborn in battle.
The Lyon army was divided between the Alpine, Iberian and Toulon. The reinforcements were not as great as they could have been. Together with him in the siege army were only 30,000 people, including both bad and good troops. The Allied Commander-in-Chief, General O'Hara, awaited reinforcements of 12,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry.
He hoped to achieve the lifting of the siege, capture the Oliul park, bypass the French army in Italy, and then, having united with the Piedmontese, settle in winter quarters along Durance and take possession of all Provence. There was a shortage of food in this province. Several attempts by the merchants of Marseilles to deliver supplies were unsuccessful due to the enemy's occupation of Toulon and the presence of the English, Spanish and Neapolitan fleets in the Mediterranean.
This part of the republic pinned all its hopes on the imminent fall of Toulon, and yet, in the four months since the beginning of the siege, it was rumored that only one field fortification, located away from the forts, was shelled; the enemy calmly owned not only the city and the forts, but also the entire space between the city, Mount Pharaun and Fort Malboske. All the efforts of the besiegers were made in the direction opposite to the city, and this aroused general disapproval.
It was believed that the siege had not even begun, since trenches had not yet been laid against the forts and structures of long-term fortifications. The authorities, who were in Marseilles and knew about the siege plan only from rumors, fearing an ever-increasing famine, offered the Convention to lift the siege, clear Provence and retreat beyond Durance. “Now,” they said, “we can retreat in order, but later we will be forced to do it hastily and with losses.
The enemy, having occupied Provence, will be forced to feed him, and in the spring our army, well rested, will cross the Durance and rush to the enemy, as Francis I did with Charles V. " This letter arrived in Paris a few days before the news of the capture of Toulon, which shows how poorly understood the plan of siege actions - so simple and clear, judging by its results.
The batteries were built. Everything was ready for the attack on the Mürgrav fort. The chief of artillery considered it necessary to place one battery at the Arenskoy height, opposite the fort of Malboske, so that the next day after the capture of Little Gibraltar it would be possible to open fire from it; he hoped that the fire of this battery would have a great moral impact on the military council of the besieged, which would meet to make a decision.
In order to strike, one must act suddenly, and, therefore, the existence of the battery must be concealed from the enemy; to this end, she was successfully camouflaged with olive branches. On November 29, at 4 pm, representatives of the people visited her. The battery carried eight 24-pounder cannons and four mortars. It was called the Convention battery. Representatives asked the gunners what was stopping them from firing. The gunners replied that they had everything ready and that their weapons would be very effective.
The people's representatives allowed them to shoot. The chief of artillery, who was in the main apartment, was amazed to hear the firing, which was contrary to his intentions. He went to the commander-in-chief with a complaint. The evil has been done irreparably. The next day, at dawn, O'Hara, at the head of 7,000 men, made a sortie, crossed the Ace brook at Fort Saint-Antoine, overturned all the posts protecting the battery of the Convention, took possession of it and riveted its guns.
The alarm was sounded in Oliule. Great confusion arose. Dugommier drove in the direction of the attack, gathering troops on his way and sending orders to move the reserves. The chief of artillery deployed field guns in various positions in order to cover the retreat and contain the enemy movement that threatened the Oliul park. Having made these orders, he went to the height opposite the battery.
Through the small valley that separated them, from this height to the foot of the embankment, there was a communication route made by order of Napoleon to bring ammunition to the battery. Covered with olive branches, it was invisible. The enemy troops were in battle formation to the right and left of him, and a group of staff officers were on the battery platform. Napoleon ordered the battalion occupying the hill to go down with him in this communication passage.
Approaching the foot of the embankment, unnoticed by the enemy, he ordered a volley to be fired at the troops standing to the right of it, and then at those standing to the left. On one side were the Neapolitans, on the other the British. The Neapolitans thought that the British were firing at them, and they also opened fire, not seeing the enemy. At the same moment, an officer in a red uniform, walking calmly along the platform, climbed the embankment in order to find out what had happened.
A rifle shot from the passage of the message struck him in the arm, and he fell to the foot of the outer slope. The soldiers lifted him up and brought messages into the course. It turned out to be Commander-in-Chief O'Hara. Thus, being among his troops, he disappeared, and no one noticed it. He gave his sword and told the chief of artillery who he was. Napoleon assured him that he would not be insulted. Just at that moment, Dugommier with the assembled troops bypassed the enemy's right flank and threatened to interrupt his communications with the city, which led to a retreat. It soon turned into a flight.
The enemy was pursued on the heels as far as Toulon and on the way to Fort Malbosque. Dugommier received two minor wounds that day. Napoleon was promoted to colonel. General Muret had a rather unfortunate desire, taking advantage of the impulse of the troops, to storm the fort of Malboske, which turned out to be impracticable. Here Suchet distinguished himself, later a Marshal of France, then the commander of a battalion of Ardesh volunteers.
A select group of 2,500 rangers and grenadiers, requested by Dugommier from the Italian army, arrived. Everything spoke in favor of not delaying another minute with the capture of Cape Ker, and it was decided to storm Little Gibraltar. The members of the Convention, who were in Provence, arrived at Olioule. On December 14, French batteries opened rapid fire with bombs and cannonballs from fifteen mortars and thirty large-caliber cannons. The cannonade lasted day and night from the 15th to the 17th, until the moment of the assault.
The artillery worked very well. The enemy had to replace the damaged guns several times with new ones. Palisades and embankments were torn up. A significant number of bombs that flew into the redoubt forced the garrison to abandon it and take a position behind. The commander-in-chief ordered an attack at one o'clock in the morning, hoping to arrive in time to the redoubt either before the garrison, warned of the attack, had time to return there, or at least simultaneously with it.
It was pouring rain all day on the 16th, and this could delay the movement of some of the columns. Dugommier, not expecting anything good from this, wanted to postpone the attack until the next day, but prompted, on the one hand, by the deputies who formed a committee and filled with revolutionary impatience, and on the other, by the advice of Napoleon, who believed that bad weather was not an unfavorable circumstance. , continued preparations for the assault.
At midnight, concentrating all his forces in the village of Seine, he built four columns. Two, weak ones, took up positions along the edges of the promontory to observe two redoubts - Balagier and Eguillette. The third, composed of a select force under Laborde's command, marched straight for Little Gibraltar. The fourth served as a reserve. Dugommier himself became the head of the attackers. Approaching the foot of the cape, the arrows opened fire.
The enemy prudently set up obstacles on the roads, so that the garrison had enough time to disassemble the guns in the bivouac, return to the fort and stand behind the parapet. He had more shooters than expected. To push them back, part of the French column crumbled. The night was very dark. The movement slowed down, and the column got upset, but nevertheless reached the fort and lay down in several flushes.
Thirty or forty grenadiers even penetrated the fort, but were driven back from the log shelter by fire and forced to return. Dugommier desperately went to the fourth column - the reserve. It was led by Napoleon. At his order, a battalion marched in front, which was entrusted by him to Muiron, the captain of the artillery, who knew the area perfectly.
At 3 o'clock in the morning Muiron entered the fort through the embrasure; Dugommier and Napoleon followed him. Laborde and Guillon entered from the other side. The gunners were killed at the guns. The garrison withdrew to its reserve on the hill, within the range of a rifle shot from the fort. Here the enemy rebuilt and made three attacks in order to reclaim the fort.
At about 5 o'clock in the morning, two field guns were brought up to the enemy, but, by order of the chief of artillery, his gunners had already arrived, and the guns of the fort turned against the enemy. In the dark, in the rain, in the terrible wind, among the bodies lying in disorder, under the groans of the wounded and dying, it took a lot of work to prepare six guns for firing.
As soon as they opened fire, the enemy refused to continue attacks and turned back. A little later it began to dawn. Those three hours were hours of excruciating anticipation and anxiety. Only in the afternoon, long after the capture of the fort, the representatives of the Convention entered it - with a confident, valiant gait, with drawn sabers - and thanked the soldiers. At dawn, several British battalions were seen in the hills that dominated Egillette and Balagier.
From Gibraltar, which, being located at the top of the promontory, dominates them, the British were at gunpoint. The victorious army spent the first two hours after dawn collecting parts. Several field batteries arrived, and at 10 o'clock in the morning, an offensive began on the enemy, hastily withdrawing from the coast under the cover of warships. By noon, he was completely driven from the cape, and the French became masters here.
Both occupied forts were only simple batteries, made of bricks on the seashore, with a large tower on the hill, which served as both a barracks and a shelter. Above the tower, 20 toises from it, towered the hills of the cape. These batteries were not at all intended for defense against an enemy advancing from land and having guns.
Our sixty 24-pounder cannons and 20 mortars were wheeled and propelled by the village of the Seine, within cannon-shot range, since it was important to start firing them without the slightest delay. However, the chief of artillery abandoned the firing positions of both batteries, whose parapets were made of stone, and the tower was so close that ricochet shells and debris could hit the gunners.
He mapped out the firing positions for the batteries at the heights. The rest of the day had to be spent on their equipment. Several 12-pounder cannons and howitzers began to fire at the enemy sloops as they intended to switch from a small roadstead to a large one. The greatest confusion reigned in the roadstead. The ships weighed anchor. It was cloudy weather, and a gusty south-westerly wind threatened to rise, blowing for three days in a row and capable of preventing the coalition squadron from leaving the raids all this time, dooming it to a complete defeat.
The assault cost the Republican army 1,000 killed and wounded. Under Napoleon, a horse was killed - by a shot from the battery of Little Gibraltar. On the eve of the attack, he was thrown to the ground and hurt himself. In the morning he received a minor stab wound in the calf from the English gunner. General Laborde and Captain Muiron were badly wounded. The losses of the enemy in killed and wounded reached 2500 people.
Having marked out the firing positions for the batteries and given all the orders necessary for the park, Napoleon went to the battery of the Convention with the aim of attacking Fort Malboske. He told the generals: "Tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest, you will dine in Toulon." This immediately became the subject of discussion. Some hoped that it would be so, most did not count on it, although everyone was proud of the victory they had won.
The English admiral, having learned about the capture of Little Gibraltar, immediately sent an order to hold the forts of Egillette and Balagier in order to enable the reinforcements, which he would immediately send out of the city, to land and recapture Little Gibraltar, since the safety of its anchor depends on this. parking. To this end, the admiral went to Toulon and demanded that 6,000 people be landed to take this fort.
Should they fail to recapture it, they must dig in on both hills above Balagier and Egillette to win 8-10 days, after which reinforcements were expected. But when at noon he was given to know by signals that the tricolor banner was already flying on the batteries and the Allied forces again embarked on ships, the admiral was seized by the fear of being locked up in the raids.
He ordered the squadron to anchor, raise sails, leave the roadsteads and cruise out of the reach of cannon shots from the shore. In the meantime, a council of war was called. His protocols fell into the hands of Dugommier, who compared them with the protocols of the French military council at Oliul on 15 October. Dugommier found that Napoleon had foreseen everything in advance. The old and brave general talked about it with pleasure.
In fact, these protocols stated that “the council asked the artillery and engineer officers if there was such a point on the big and small roadsteads where the squadron could stand without being endangered by bombs and hot cannonballs from the batteries of Egillette and Balagier; officers of both types of weapons replied that they were not. If the squadron leaves Toulon, how much garrison should it leave in it? How long can he hold on?
Answer: 18,000 people are needed; they can hold out for at most 40 days, if there is food. The third question is, is it not in the interests of the Allies to immediately cleanse the city by setting fire to everything that cannot be taken with them? The council of war unanimously insists on the abandonment of the city: the garrison, which can be left in Toulon, will not have the opportunity to retreat and it will no longer be possible for it to send reinforcements, it will feel a lack of the necessary supplies.
Moreover, two weeks earlier or later, he will be forced to surrender, and then he will be forced to surrender unharmed and the arsenal, and the fleet, and all structures. "
In Toulon, word spread that the council of war had decided to purge the city. Perplexity and anxiety have reached extreme limits. The inhabitants did not notice the capture of Little Gibraltar at all. They knew that an attack was being waged against him at night, but did not attach any importance to it. While they were waiting for deliverance, lulling themselves with the hope of an early arrival of reinforcements, they had to start thinking about leaving their homes, their homeland - the military council ordered to blow up the forts of Pome and La Malgue.
Fort Pome was blown up on the night of the 17th to 18th. The cleansing of the forts Faron, Malboske, Rouge and Blanc and Sainte-Catherine redoubts took place on the same night. On the 18th all these forts were occupied by the French.
On the 17th, before dawn, while the assault on Little Gibraltar was under way, Lapuap captured Mount Pharaun after a rather heated battle and surrounded the fort. In this case, Laharpe distinguished himself - a colonel of the Auverne regiment, later a divisional general, who was killed in an Italian campaign.
The state of affairs was so unclear that when the troops learned about the explosion of Fort Pome, word spread that it was due to an accidental fire in the powder magazine. Possessing Malboske and other forts that surrounded Toulon, besides the fort of La Malgue, where the enemy was still located, the army advanced to the ramparts of the fortress on the day of the 18th. All day the city was shelled from several mortars.
The Anglo-Spanish squadron, which managed to leave the raids, cruised outside them. The sea was covered with boats and small ships of the enemy, heading for the squadron. They had to move past the French batteries; several ships and a significant number of boats were sunk.
On the evening of the 18th, after a terrible explosion, they learned about the destruction of the main powder magazine. At the same instant, fire appeared in the arsenal in four or five places, and half an hour later the entire raid was engulfed in flames. Nine French ships of the line and four frigates were set on fire.
For several leagues around the horizon was as if on fire; could be seen as during the day. The sight was magnificent, but terrible. Every second they expected the explosion of Fort La Malgue, but its garrison, fearing to be cut off from the city, did not manage to lay mines. On the same night, French riflemen entered the fort. Toulon was seized with terror. Most of the residents hastily left the city. Those who remained barricaded themselves in their homes, fearing looters. The besieging army was in battle formation on glacis.
On the 18th at 10 o'clock in the evening, Colonel Chervoni broke down the gates and entered the city with a patrol of 200 people. The whole of Toulon was bypassed by him. The greatest silence reigned everywhere. The port was littered with piles of baggage, which the fleeing residents did not have enough time to load. A rumor spread that fuses were placed to explode the powder magazines. Cannoneers sent out patrols to check it out. Then the troops, assigned to guard it, entered the city.
The naval arsenal was in extreme disarray. 800-900 galley convicts with the greatest zeal were extinguishing the fire. An enormous service was rendered by them; they opposed the English officer Sidney Smith, who was charged with setting fire to ships and arsenal. This officer performed his duty very poorly, and the republic should be grateful to him for those very valuable items that have been preserved in the arsenal. Napoleon went there with the gunners and the workers who were available.
Within a few days, he managed to extinguish the fire and save the arsenal. The losses suffered by the fleet were significant, but there were still huge reserves. All the powder magazines were saved, except for the main one. At the time of the treasonous surrender of Toulon, there were 31 warships there. Four of them were used to transport 5,000 sailors to Brest and Rochefort, nine were burned by the allies in the roadstead, and thirteen were left disarmed at the docks. The allies took four with them, of which one burned down in Livorno.
They feared that the allies would blow up the dock and its dams, but they did not have enough time for that. Thirteen ships and frigates that burned down in the roadstead formed a series of barriers. For eight or ten years, attempts were made to remove them, and finally the Neapolitan divers succeeded in doing this by sawing the skeletons, removing them piece by piece. The army entered the city on the 19th. For seventy-two hours she was under gun, in the rain and slush.
In the city, she made many riots, as if with the permission of the authorities, who made promises to the soldiers during the siege. The commander-in-chief restored order, declaring all property of Toulon the property of the army, and ordered everything to be demolished to central warehouses, both from private warehouses and from abandoned houses. Subsequently, the republic confiscated all this, giving out an annual salary as a reward to each officer and soldier.
Emigration from Toulon was significant. The Neapolitan, English and Spanish ships were overcrowded. This forced them to drop anchor in the Iersk roadstead and bivouac the fugitives on the islands of Porquerolles and Levant. They are said to have numbered about 14,000.
Dugommier gave the order not to remove the white banner from the forts and bastions of the raid, which misled many warships and commercial ships that brought supplies for the enemy. Within a month after the capture of the city, not a single day passed without the heavily laden ships being captured. One English frigate had already moored at the Great Tower. He was carrying several million dollars.
He was considered already captured, and two naval officers on a boat swam up to him, went on deck and announced to the captain that the frigate was in their power as a prize. The captain put both daredevils in the hold, cut the mooring ropes and managed to get out without much damage.
At the end of December, in the evening, at about 8 o'clock, the chief of artillery, being on the embankment, noticed an approaching English boat. The officer dismounted and asked where Admiral Lord Hood's apartment was. He turned out to be the captain of a beautiful brig that had come with dispatches and news of the arrival of reinforcements. The ship was taken and the dispatches read.
The representatives of the people, according to the laws of the time, established a revolutionary tribunal; but all the guilty fled with the enemy; those who decided to stay felt innocent. However, the tribunal arrested several people who accidentally did not have time to leave with the enemy, and executed them as punishment for their atrocities. But eight or ten victims were not enough.
They resorted to a terrible means characterizing the spirit of that era: it was announced that everyone who worked in the arsenal under the British should gather on the Champ de Mars to write down their names. They made it clear that this was being done in order to take them back to the service. Nearly 200 senior workers, clerks and other small employees believed this and showed up; their surnames were written down, and so it was certified that they retained their places under the British.
Immediately, in the same field, a revolutionary tribunal sentenced all of them to death. A battalion of sans-culottes and Marseilles, summoned there, shot them. This action needs no comment. But this was the only mass execution. It is not true that anyone was shot with buckshot. The chief of artillery and gunners of the regular army would not participate in this.
In Lyon, these horrors were perpetrated by the gunners of the revolutionary army. By decree of the Convention, the port of Toulon was given a new name - "Port of Horus" - and it was ordered to destroy all public buildings, except those deemed necessary for the navy and civil administration. This extravagant decree began to be carried out, but with great slowness. Only five or six houses were destroyed, after a while they were rebuilt again.
The English squadron stood on the Iersk roadstead for a month or a month and a half. In Toulon, there was not a single mortar that could fire more than 1,500 toises, and the squadron was anchored 2,400 toises from the coast. If at that time in Toulon there were several mortars of the Vilantrois system or such that they began to use later, the squadron would not have been able to stand in the roadstead. In the end, having blown up the forts of Porquerolles and Portroles, the enemy left for the Porto Ferraio raid, where he landed a significant part of the Toulon emigrants.
From the book Ki-43 "Hayabusa" Part 1 author Ivanov S.V.Chapter 5. Siege of Zadar (October – November 1202) Ships and transports were distributed among the barons. Oh God, what splendid horses were brought there! When the ships were loaded with weapons and food supplies and knights and squires climbed on them, then along the sides and at
From the book Sixty Battles of Napoleon the author Beshanov Vladimir VasilievichChapter 9. The first siege of Constantinople (5-17 July 1203) And then came the appointed day. All the knights with their war horses climbed aboard the transports, all were in full armor, with the visors of their helmets lowered, and the horses under saddles and in saddles. The warriors of the lower
From the book Military intelligence. History beyond ideology and politics the author Sokolov VladimirChapter 12. Second Siege of Constantinople (February – April 1204) And now I will leave the army camped at Constantinople to tell about those who went to other harbors, and about the Flemish fleet that wintered in Marseilles. As soon as the weather is warm
From the book Captured in Battle. Trophies of the Russian army in the First World War the author Oleinikov Alexey VladimirovichChapter 16. Siege of Adrianople (March – April 1205) And now from Rainier of Trita let us return to the emperor Baldwin, whom we left in Constantinople very alarmed and worried. Only a small number of people were with him. He was expecting an arrival from the other side
August 1920 On August 1, 1920, Soviet troops under the command of 27-year-old Mikhail Tukhachevsky captured the Polish city of Brest. After the capture of Bialystok, the Red Army was on the territory of the neighboring state since July 26. Bolshevik commissars instilled in the consciousness
From the author's bookAugust 1921 On August 8, 1921, a meeting of representatives of the Intelligence Agency, the Cheka and the Comintern took place. It adopted a draft regulation "Branches of the Comintern abroad and representatives of the Intelligence Agency and the Cheka" in the following wording: "1. The representative of the Comintern cannot at one and the same time
From the author's bookAugust 1922 The first cooperation agreement between the Red Army and the Reichswehr is signed. The Versailles Treaty deprived the defeated Germany of the right to create modern weapons. The Politburo gave the German army the opportunity to build military facilities on the territory
From the author's bookAugust 1924 On August 19, 1924, Stalin made an ultimatum to the plenum of the RCP (b) with a request to release him from the post of general secretary due to the "impossibility of honest and sincere political work" with Zinoviev and Kamenev. His petition was
From the author's bookAugust 1925 On August 14, 1925, on behalf of the Collegium of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, S. Aralov (member of the Collegium) convened a meeting of representatives of the Intelligence Agency, the INO OGPU, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and the Comintern. The reason for this was a letter to the leadership of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs from the plenipotentiary (and at the same time the representative of the Comintern) in
From the author's bookAppendix No. 1. BATTLE TROOPIES OF SOME PARTS OF THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL ARMY FOR THE PERIOD AUGUST 1914 - DECEMBER 1915 Part Captured prisoners Material trophies 1st Infantry Nevsky Regiment 1 machine gun 1st Chita Cossack Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Army 337 2
In September 1793 c. The Commissioner of the Convention Salichetti appoints Captain Napoleon Bonaparte as the commander of the artillery of the Carto army, which besieged Toulon, which was occupied by the troops of England and Spain. Bonaparte drew up a plan for the capture of Toulon and achieved its acceptance. On December 14, French batteries opened fire on enemy fortifications. The cannonade lasted on the 15th and 16th.
On December 17, the assault on Toulon began. The initial goal of the attackers was the capture of the heavily fortified fort of Mürgrave, called Little Gibraltar. The offensive, carried out in three columns, was led by General Dugommier. The attack began in pitch darkness and was repulsed by the enemy. Then the fourth column entered the battle, commanded by Bonaparte. At three o'clock in the morning the French managed to penetrate the enemy fort through the embrasure; by five o'clock in the morning "Little Gibraltar" was in the hands of the Republicans, who then seized the Egillette hill dominating over the city, forced the British and Spanish ships to leave the Toulon raid. After the explosion of the powder magazine, the French broke into the city after breaking open the gates. Toulon fell.
Victory was achieved largely thanks to the bold plan of operation proposed by Bonaparte. Near Toulon, the young commander of the artillery displayed not only a military talent, but also personal courage - he was wounded and wounded with a bayonet in the leg.
“From this siege, Napoleon’s reputation was established,” Napoleon writes about himself. - All the generals, representatives of the people and soldiers who knew about the opinions that he expressed at various councils three months before the capture of the city, all those who witnessed his activities, predicted for him the military career that he later made. From that moment on, he secured the trust of the soldiers of the Italian army. Dugommier, introducing him to the rank of brigadier general, wrote literally the following to the Committee of Public Safety: "Reward and nominate this young man, because if they are ungrateful towards him, he will be nominated by himself."
Napoleon undoubtedly somewhat exaggerated his role in the capture of Toulon. In the reports of Dugommier, he is mentioned only once (the report of December 1: "Among the most distinguished and who provided me the greatest assistance ... are the citizens of Buonaparte, the commander of the artillery, and the senior adjutants Joseph Arena and Cervoni"), and in the report of the commander of the army to the Convention he is not mentioned at all about the capture of Toulon on December 19.
On December 22, 1793, Bonaparte was awarded the rank of brigadier general by representatives of the Convention, Robespierre the Younger and Salichetti (approved by the Convention on February 6, 1794). It should be noted that Bonaparte did not "jump" from captains to brigadier generals, as many authors write (although there were such cases in the revolutionary army). On October 19, 1793, he was promoted to battalion commander (chef de bataillon). In the Siege of Toulon, Napoleon writes about himself that on November 30, 1793, "was promoted to colonel." But there was no such rank in the revolutionary army. Obviously, we are talking about the rank of brigadier commander (chef de brigade).