Sit of Toulon

The seat of Toulon took place from September in December 1793, after the royalists had seized the city and had delivered it to the British.

Context: the Terror

Following the committal for trial of the Appointed S Of Gironde S, the May 31st 1793, bursts a series of insurrections to Lyon, Avignon, Nimes and Marseilles. With Toulon, the federalistic S, drives out the Jacobin S, but is soon supplanted by the royalist S, still many in the fleet of war. With the advertisement of the resumption of Marseilles and reprisals which took place there, the insurrectionists, directed by the baron of Imbert call upon the fleet britanno - Spanish, hitherto with the broad one. The August 28th, the admirals Hood and Langara make unload 13.000 British, Spaniards, Napolitains and Piémontais. October 1st, of Imbert makes proclaim the child of the Temple, Louis XVII, king de France and to hoist the white flag with flower of lily, the admiral de Trogoff then delivers the fleet to the Royal Navy.

Unfolding

Meanwhile, troops of Convention, the Army known as of the " Carmagnoles " , under the command of the General Carteaux, after its reconquests of Avignon and Marseilles, then of Ollioules, the September 8th, arrived in front of Toulon and joined by the 6000 men of the Armée with Italy, stationed in the maritime Alps, ordered by general Lapoype, who had just seized Valetta, and sought to seize the forts of the Mont Faron, dominating the city in the east. They are reinforced by 3000 sailors under the orders of the admiral Of Saint Julien, who refuses to be used the British with his chief as Trogoff. The whole forms provisional the army known as camp in front of Toulon .

The chief of artillery of Carteaux, the commander Elzear Auguste Donmartin, having been wounded with Ollioules, the special representatives of Convention Robespierre the Young person and Antoine Christophe Saliceti, impose to him the young person Capitaine Napoleon Bonaparte, present at the army since Avignon, in spite of the reciprocal antipathy between the two men.

After a recognition, Napoleon Bonaparte conceives a plan which envisages to take the forts of Eguillette and Balaguier, on the hill of Cairo, for then prohibiting the master key between the small one and the large roads of the port, which would cut the maritime supply, necessary to besieged. Carteaux, reticent, sends only one weak detachment under the general adjudant Delaborde, who fails in his attempt at conquest of the September 22nd. The allies prevented by alarm, build large then fears ground, at the top of the hill, baptized " Strong Mulgrave" , in the honor of the British commander. It is supported by three smaller, named: Saint-Philippe, Saint-Like and Saint-Charles. The apparently impregnable unit is called by the British, " small the Gibraltar ".

Bonaparte, dissatisfied of its only battery, known as of the " Montagne" , positioned on the height of the St. Lawrence since 19, one, the 21 establishes some, on the shore of Brégaillon, said " Without Breeches ". The admiral tries to make it reduce to silence by the Powerful one, without success, and the British fleet must then be solved to skirt the coast on the level of the shallow waters of Mourillon and the Royal Tower. October 1st, after the failure of the Lapoype general, against the " Strong Est" of Faron, one asks Bonaparte to extremely bombard the large one of Malbousquet, whose catch conditions that of the city. It then makes requisition artillery, in all the surrounding countryside, carrying manpower with fifty batteries of six guns. Promoted Major the October 19th, it then organizes a large battery known as of the " Convention" , vis-a-vis the fort, on the hill of the Arenas, supported by that of the " Camp of Républicains" on the Dumonceau hill, that of the " Farinière" on the hillock of Gaux and that of the " Poudrière" in Lagoubran.

The November 11th, Carteaux dismissed is replaced by Doppet, former doctor, whose indecision ruins an attempt by surprised against the " Strong Mulgrave" , the 16; conscious of its incompetence, he resigns. He succeed, a true soldier of trade, Dugommier, which at once recognizes the value of the plan of Bonaparte, and prepares the catch of small Gibraltar. The 20, as of its arrival is established the battery of the " Jacobins" , on the peak of Evescat, then on the left, the November 28th, that of the " Men Without Peur" , then the December 14th, that of the " Drive out Coquins" , intercalates itself between the two. Two other batteries are organized to push back the possible intervention of the ships allied as well of the roads as of the free sea, they are known as " Large Rade" and of the " Four Moulins".

Pressed by the bombardment, theNeapolitan ones carry out an exit, the November 30th, and seize the battery of the " Convention". A counter-attack, carried out by Dugommier and Bonaparte, pushes back them and the British general O' Hara is captured, it starts negociations with Robespierre the Young person and Antoine Louis Albitte, for a honourable rendering. The federalistic and royalist battalions are then disarmed.

Dugommier, Lapoype and Bonaparte, now colonel, following the capture of O' Hara, agree to launch a general attack in the night of the 16 to the December 17th. The 16, about midnight the attack are given on the " Small Gibraltar" , the body with body lasts all during the night, Bonaparte is wounded there of a blow of Esponton to the thigh by a British Sergent, but in the morning, the position taken, Marmont can place there artillery against Eguillette and Balaguier, that the British evacuate without combat, the very same day. During this time, Lapoype takes finally, the forts of Faron and that of Malbousquet. The allies then decide to evacuate by the sea route, the commodore Sydney Smith makes burn the delivered fleet and the arsenal, and the troops embark.

Repression

The troops of the Convention enter the city delivered to itself the December 19th. Approximately 15.000 residents of Toulon take refuge on the English ships and are unloaded with Valetta or Gibraltar. In a city reduced to 7.000 inhabitants, repression, directed by Paul Barred and Stanislas Fréron, is bloody: one estimates that 7 to 800 people, stopped on the indications of the released prisoners of the Thémistocle , are shot summarily, on the field of Mars, until the December 31st. Thereafter, the revolutionary commission pronounces 290 other judgments. Bonaparte, looked after by Jean François Hernandez after his wound, does not attend the quarry: promoted Brigadier general, the December 22nd, it is already on the way for its new assignment with Nice, as commander of artillery of the Armée with Italy. A door belonging to the old wall of the town of Toulon evokes this departure; a commemorative plaque is affixed there. This door is named “Door of Italy”.

External bond

Naval history off Great Britain, p. 63-81

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