Siege of Toulon
Part of the French Revolutionary War
Date 18 September to 18 December 1793 Location Toulon, France Result French Republican victory
Belligerents
French Republic	Great Britain Spain French Royalists Naples and Sicily Sardinia
Commanders
Jean François Carteaux Jacques François Dugommier Jean François Cornu de La Poype Napoleon Bonaparte	Samuel Hood Juan de Lángara Charles O'Hara
Strength
32,000 (at peak)	ca 22,000 12 ships of the line
Casualties and losses
2,000 dead or wounded, 14 French ships of the line sunk in harbour, 15 captured	ca 4,000 dead

The Siege of Toulon (18 September - 18 December 1793) was an early Republican victory over a Royalist rebellion in the Southern French city of Toulon. It is occasionally also known as the Fall of Toulon.

Toulon was occupied by British and Spanish forces assisting the Royalist French. Napoleon Bonaparte first made his name here as a young Major of Artillery, by spotting an ideal place for his guns to be set up in such a way that they dominated the city's harbour. Napoleon took part in the assault on the fort covering this position. Once this was done, the Royal Navy ships were compelled to withdraw, and the resistance crumbled. As a result, the 24-year old Napoleon was made a brigadier-general, and it brought him to the attention of elite political circles in Paris.

Context

Main article: Reign of Terror

After the arrest of the Girondist deputies on the 31 May 1793, there followed a series of insurrections within the French cities of Lyon, Avignon, Nimes and Marseille. In Toulon, the revolutionaries evicted the existing Jacobin faction but were soon supplanted by the more numerous royalists. Upon the announcement of the recapture of Marseille and of the reprisals which had taken place there at the hands of the revolutionaries, the royalist forces, directed by the Baron d'Imbert, called for aid from the Anglo-Spanish fleet. On August 28, admirals Hood and Langara committed a force of 13,000 British, Spanish, Neapolitan and Piedmontese troops to the French government's cause. On October 1, Baron d'Imbert proclaimed the young boy Louis XVII to be King of France, and hoisted the French royalist flag of the Fleur de Lys, delivering the town of Toulon to the British navy.

Siege

The troops of the National Convention, the army said to be of the "Carmagnoles", under the command of General Jean François Carteaux, after it had recovered Avignon and Marseille, and then Ollioules, on September 8, arrived at Toulon. It joined up with the 6,000 men of the Alpine Maritime Army, commanded by General Jean François Cornu de La Poype, who had just taken La Valette-du-Var, and sought to take the forts of Mount Faron, which dominated the city to the East. They were reinforced by 3,000 sailors under the orders of Admiral de Saint Julien, who refused to serve the British with his chief, Trogoff.

Admiral Sir Samuel Hood who commanded the British naval forces defending the city.

The Chief of Artillery for Carteaux, commander Elzear Auguste Donmartin, having been wounded at Ollioules, had the young captain Napoleon Bonaparte imposed upon him by the special representatives of the Convention and Napoleon's friends - Augustin Robespierre and Antoine Christophe Saliceti. Bonaparte had been present in the army since Avignon, and was imposed in this way despite the mutual antipathy between these two men.

After some reconnaissance, Bonaparte conceived a plan which envisaged the capture of the forts of l'Eguillette and Balaguier, on the hill of Cairo, which would then prevent passage between the small and large harbours of the port, cutting maritime resupplying, necessary for those under siege. Carteaux, reluctant, sent only a weak detachment under Major General Delaborde, which failed in its attempted conquest on September 22. The allies now alerted, built "Fort Mulgrave", so christened in honour of the British commander, on the summit of the hill. It was supported by three smaller ones, called Saint-Phillipe, Saint-Côme, and Saint-Charles. The apparently impregnable collection was nicknamed, by the French, "Little Gibraltar".

Bonaparte was dissatisfied by the sole battery - called the "Mountain", positioned on the height of Saint-Laurent since the 19 September. He established another, on the shore of Brégallion, called the "Sans Culottes". The admiral attempted to silence it, without success, but the British fleet was obliged to harden its resolve along the coast anew, because of the high seabed of Mourillon and la Tour Royale. On the first of October, after the failure of General La Poype against the "Eastern Fort" of Faron, Bonaparte was asked to bombard the large fort of Malbousquet, whose fall would be required to enable the capture of the city. He therefore requisitioned artillery from all of the surrounding countryside, holding the power of fifty batteries of six cannon apiece. Promoted to Chief of Battalion on October 19, he organised a grand battery, said to be "of the Convention", on the hill of Arènes and facing the fort, supported by those of the "Camp of the Republicans" on the hill of Dumonceau, by those of the "Farinière" on the hill of Gaux, and those of the "Poudrière" at Lagoubran.

On November 11, Carteaux was dismissed and replaced by Doppet, formerly a doctor, whose indecision would cause an attempted surprise against Fort Mulgrave to fail on the 16th. Aware of his own incompetence, he resigned. He was succeeded by a career soldier, Dugommier, who immediately recognised the virtue of Bonaparte's plan, and prepared for the capture of Little Gibraltar. On the 20th, as soon as he arrived, the battery "Jacobins" was established, on the ridge of l'Evescat. Then, on the left, on November 28, the battery of the "Men Without Fear", and then on December 14, the "Chasse Coquins" were constructed between the two. Two other batteries were organised to repel the eventual intervention of the allied ships, they were called "The Great Harbour" and the "Four Windmills".

Pressured by the bombardment, the Anglo-Neapolitans executed a sortie, and took hold of the battery of the "Convention". A counter-attack, headed by Dugommier and Bonaparte, pushed them back and the British general, O'Hara, was captured. He initiated surrender negotiations with Robespierre the Younger and Antoine Louis Albitte and the Federalist and Royalist battalions were disarmed.

Following O'Hara's capture, Dugommier, Lapoype, and Bonaparte (now a colonel) launched a general assault during the night of December 16. Around midnight, the assault began on Little Gibraltar and the fighting continued all night. Bonaparte was injured in the thigh by a British sergeant with a bayonet. However, in the morning, the position having been taken, Marmont was able to place artillery there, against l'Eguillette and Balaguier, which the British had evacuated without confrontation on the same day. During this time, Lapoype finally was able to take the forts of Faron and Malbousquet. The allies then decided to evacuate by their maritime route. Commodore Sydney Smith had the delivery fleet and the arsenal burnt.

Suppression

The troops of the Convention entered the city on December 19. The Suppression, directed by Paul Barras and Stanislas Fréron, was extremely bloody. It is estimated that between 800 and 2,000 prisoners were shot or slain by bayonet on the Champ de Mars. Bonaparte, treated for his injuries by Jean François Hernandez, was not present at the massacre. Promoted to Brigadier General on December 22, he was already on his way to his new post in Nice as the artillery commander for the Italian Army. A gate, which comprises part of the old walls of the city of Toulon, evokes his departure; a commemorative plaque has been affixed there. This gate is called the "Porte d'Italie".

References

Bibliography

• Smith, D. The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book. Greenhill Books, 1998.
• The Fall of Toulon: The Last Opportunity to Defeat the French Revolution; Ireland, B. (2005) Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-84612-4