Key Facts
- Duration
- 28 August – 13 September 1793
- Length of siege
- ~2.5 weeks
- Distance from Maubeuge
- 27 km (17 mi) west
- Relief attempts repelled
- 2 (from Cambrai and Maubeuge)
- Conflict
- War of the First Coalition
Strategic Narrative Overview
Count Clerfayt's Habsburg Austrian and French Royalist army invested Le Quesnoy on 28 August 1793. The Republican garrison under François Goullus held out while France dispatched two relief columns. The western column from Cambrai was defeated at the Battle of Avesnes-le-Sec on 11 September, and the eastern column from Maubeuge was similarly repulsed. With no relief forthcoming and heavy losses sustained, the garrison's position became untenable.
01 / The Origins
Following the execution of Louis XVI and France's declaration of war against Austria and Prussia, the First Coalition formed to contain Revolutionary France. By mid-1793, Austrian and allied forces pressed into France's northern borderlands, exploiting French Republican military disorganisation. After taking Condé and Valenciennes, the Coalition split its forces, directing an Austrian contingent to besiege Le Quesnoy while a British-led force moved against Dunkirk on the coast.
03 / The Outcome
The Le Quesnoy garrison capitulated on 13 September 1793 after suffering heavy losses. Meanwhile, the Coalition's simultaneous siege of Dunkirk ended in failure. Undeterred, Austrian forces then turned east to besiege Maubeuge, which provoked the Battle of Wattignies in mid-October 1793, where French Republican forces halted the Austrian advance.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt.
Side B
1 belligerent
François Goullus.
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.