Battle of Grand-Reng
The Battle of Grand-Reng or Battle of Rouvroi saw a Republican French army jointly commanded by Louis Charbonnier and Jacques Desjardin attempt to advance across the Sambre River against a combined Habsburg Austrian and Dutch army under Franz Wenzel, Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg. After winning crossings over the Sambre at Thuin and Lobbes on the 10th and Merbes-le-Château on the 12th, the French were defeated on 13 May at Grand-Reng and forced to retreat. The War of the First Coalition engagement marked the first of five attempts by the French armies to establish themselves on the north bank of the Sambre. Grand-Reng is now part of the village of Erquelinnes, Belgium, lying close to the border with France. Rouveroy is situated north. Grand-Reng is located about southwest of Charleroi.
The spring of 1794 saw intense and continual fighting in the Austrian Netherlands between the French and First Coalition armies. While the Coalition army concentrated their main effort in the center against Landrecies, the French directed their efforts against the flanks. On the eastern flank, the small Army of the Ardennes under Charbonnier joined with three Army of the North divisions led by Desjardin to threaten Mons.
The two French forces failed to cooperate effectively; Desjardin's troops did all the fighting while Charbonnier's soldiers sat idle nearby. After the defeat at Grand-Reng, the French unsuccessfully tried to breach the Coalition defenses at Erquelinnes between 20 and 24 May. The French would make three additional attempts to cross the Sambre at Gosselies on 3 June and Lambusart on 16 June before emerging victorious in the pivotal Battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794.
Background
Strategy
After the Coalition success in the Siege of Landrecies in April 1794, French strategy changed. On the left wing of the Army of the North, Jean-Charles Pichegru with 70,000 troops would capture Ypres and Tournai. Meanwhile, Jacques Ferrand with 24,000 men would hold the center of the line near Maubeuge, Avesnes-sur-Helpe and Guise. The right wing of the Army of the North under Jacques Desjardin and the Army of the Ardennes under Louis Charbonnier with a total of 60,000 men were directed to assemble at Philippeville. From that town their combined forces would cross the Sambre River near Thuin and move northwest toward Mons. Pichegru, who commanded the Army of the North, did not assign a single commander to direct the right wing. Historian Ramsey Weston Phipps noted that Pichegru's failure to ensure unity of command was in "defiance of common sense", all the more so because his own success depended on cooperation between the different wings of his army. In fact, Pichegru usually allowed Joseph Souham and Jean Victor Marie Moreau to direct the activities of his left wing.On 4 May 1794 the Coalition forces were distributed as follows. Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany and François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt commanded 30,000 troops of the right wing, spread from Nieuport to Denain. Overall commander Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld led the 65,000-strong center with headquarters at Le Cateau-Cambrésis. Franz Wenzel, Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg directed the 27,000-strong left wing. The extreme left was formed by Johann Peter Beaulieu's 8,000 men at Arlon and Ernst Paul Christian von Blankenstein's 9,000 soldiers at Trier. From his headquarters at Rouveroy, Kaunitz controlled 34 battalions, 20 companies and 39 squadrons. The bulk of the left wing was near Bettignies with a 2,000-man garrison in Charleroi and an observation force of 5,000 men under Karl von Riese watching the crossings of the Sambre and Meuse Rivers.
To the Sambre
Charbonnier had been appointed army commander on 5 February 1794. When Charbonnier received Pichegru's new instructions on 6 May, he held a conference at Silenrieux with his chief of staff Jean Victor Tharreau, Desjardin and his chief of staff Henri François Marie Charpentier, Jean Baptiste Augier and François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers. The group planned to start the offensive on 10 May with Desjardin's corps crossing the Sambre to the west of Thuin. Leaving 5,000 troops to guard the Philippeville to Beaumont road, Charbonnier's army was to march via Thuillies and cross the Sambre to the east of Thuin. Once across the river, the Army of the North divisions would move through Mont-Sainte-Geneviève toward Mons. Meanwhile, the Army of Ardennes would march via Leval while posting a flank guard to the east at Fontaine-l'Évêque. Nevertheless, Charbonnier was hesitant about carrying out the plan and Desjardin had to remind his colleague that Pichegru's orders did not leave them any room to back out.In the Army of Ardennes, Marceau was given tactical control over his own and Philippe Joseph Jacob's divisions. The two divisions would carry out the main thrust led by an advance guard under Jean Hardy. A detachment under Claude Vezú was directed farther east to observe the Le Tombe entrenched camp southwest of Charleroi. The commandant of Maubeuge, Jean Dominique Favereau met with Desjardin on 6 May and the two arranged for Éloi Laurent Despeaux's division to be shifted to a position between Cerfontaine and Colleret. While François Muller's division remained at Maubeuge, Muller himself took command of Desjardin's division. Jacques Fromentin's division marched from Avesnes-sur-Helpe to Jeumont, leaving one brigade under Anne Charles Basset Montaigu at Avesnes. At the end of these movements, three Army of the North divisions under Desjardin were massed between Maubeuge and Beaumont. On 9 May an advance guard of one cavalry regiment, five infantry battalions and a half company of light artillery was formed and assigned to Guillaume Philibert Duhesme.
With everything in readiness, the representatives on mission Louis Antoine de Saint-Just and Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas decided that Pichegru had been too hasty in ordering the offensive. They wanted to pause several days in order to improve unit organizations and select commanders that had the confidence of the soldiers. In a conference at La Capelle on 9 May, Desjardin convinced the two representatives that the army was ready to attack and that it was too late to cancel the orders. The officials reluctantly gave their assent to the military plan and wrote a letter to the Committee of Public Safety explaining the decision.
Forces
French order of battle
The 17,000-strong field force of the Army of Ardennes had formerly consisted of Jacob's division and Hardy's advance guard. Charbonnier left Jacob's division intact and expanded the advance guard into a division, assigning it to Marceau. In addition a reserve detachment under Claude Vezú was created. The regular elements of Jacob's division were made up of the 26th Light and 172nd Line Infantry Demi Brigades, 2nd and 10th Hussar and 11th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments. The volunteers were the 1st Sarthe, 2nd, 3rd and 8th Nord, 2nd Finistère, 2nd National and 8th Pas-de-Calais Battalions.The regulars in Marceau's division were the 1st Battalion of the 13th Line and the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Light, 16th Light Infantry Battalion, four companies of combined line grenadiers from Vezú's reserve, 5th and 10th Dragoons, 10th Chasseurs à Cheval and three companies of the 23rd Cavalry. The volunteers were the 4th Manche and 9th Seine-et-Oise Battalions. Marceau's second-in-command was Jean-Louis Dessaubaz.
Vezú's detachment was subdivided into three units. Formerly under Dessaubaz, the first unit included the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 9th Line and the 12th Battalion of Fédérés. Formerly under Jean Thomas Guillaume Lorge, the second unit comprised the 1st Vendée, 4th Aisne and 19th National Volunteer Battalions. The third unit consisted of three companies each of the 23rd Cavalry and 10th Dragoons plus four 8-pound cannons and one 6-inch howitzer.
In a 4 May 1794 return, the 31,736-man force led by Desjardin was organized into three divisions under Generals of Division Muller, Fromentin and Despeaux. Muller's 14,075-strong division was led by brigadiers André Poncet and Joseph Léonard Richard and included the 10th Light Infantry Battalion, 1st Battalions of the 18th Line, 49th Line, 68th Line and 89th Line Infantry Demi Brigades, 2nd Battalions of the 68th Line, Calvados, Haut-Rhin, Mayenne-et-Loire and Nièvre, 3rd Battalions of the Eure and Haute-Marne, 4th Chasseurs Francs, 5th Somme and 6th Oise Battalions, 6th Cavalry, 7th Dragoon and 16th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments, 3rd Artillery Regiment detachment and 15th Light Artillery Company.
Fromentin's 10,619-man division was led by brigadiers Duhesme and Guillaume Soland and consisted of the 32nd Light Infantry Battalion, 1st Battalions of the 47th Line, 56th Line, Orne and Saint-Denis, 2nd Battalions of the Vienne and Meurthe, 5th Vosges Battalion, 10th Battalions of the Seine-et-Oise and Paris, Gendarmerie, 22nd Cavalry, 4th Hussar and 12th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments, 1st Light Artillery Company and an artillery park.
Despeaux's 7,042-strong division had Jean-Pierre de Ransonnet as brigadier and was made up of the 1st Battalions of the 17th Line, 25th Line, Chasseurs de Hainaut and Loiret, 3rd Meurthe, 4th Nord, 6th Pas-de-Calais and 9th Nord Battalions, 1st Squadron of the 6th Cavalry Regiment and detachments from the 3rd and 6th Light Artillery Regiments.
Duhesme's vanguard consisted of the 12th Chasseurs à Cheval, 10th and 32nd Light Infantry, 1st Hainaut Chasseur, 2nd Grenadiers and 5th Vosges Battalions and a half company of light artillery. Montaigu's 4,741-man brigade from Fromentin's division, which was not engaged, comprised the 1st Battalions of the 19th Line and 45th Line, 2nd Battalion of the 74th Line, 5th Oise and 6th Paris Battalions and 34th Gendarmes.