Battle of Tourcoing 1794
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 18 May 1794 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1794 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | War of the First Coalition | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Kingdom of Great Britain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 50.7323, 3.1548 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Tourcoing (17–18 May 1794) saw a Republican French army directed by General of Division Joseph Souham defend against an attack by a Coalition army led by Emperor Francis II and Austrian Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The French army was temporarily led by Souham in the absence of its normal commander Jean-Charles Pichegru. Threatened with encirclement, Souham and division commanders Jean Victor Marie Moreau and Jacques Philippe Bonnaud improvised a counterattack which defeated the Coalition's widely separated and poorly coordinated columns. The War of the First Coalition action was fought near the town of Tourcoing, north of Lille in northeastern France.
The Coalition battle plan drawn up by Karl Mack von Leiberich launched six columns that attempted to envelop part of the French army holding an awkward bulge at Menen (Menin) and Kortrijk (Courtrai). On 17 May, the French defeated Georg Wilhelm von dem Bussche's small column while the columns of Count François of Clerfayt, Count Franz Joseph of Kinsky, and Archduke Charles made slow progress.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Tourcoing (revision 1370275695), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Mouscron 1794 · 4 km
- Battle of Menin (1793) 1793 · 7 km
- Siege of Menin (1706) · 8 km
- Siege of Lille (1708) 1708 · 13 km
- Siege of Lille (1792) 1792 · 13 km
- Siege of Lille (1940) 1940 · 13 km
Other battles of the War of the First Coalition
- Siege of Le Quesnoy (1793) 1793
- Siege of Maastricht (1793) 1793
- Siege of Mainz (1793) 1793
- Siege of Toulon (1793) 1793
- Siege of Valenciennes (1793) 1793
- Battle of Aldenhoven (1794) 1794
- Battle of Courtrai (1794) 1794
- Battle of Erquelinnes 1794
- Battle of Fleurus (1794) 1794
- Battle of Gosselies 1794
All 84 battles of the War of the First Coalition →
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