Siege of San Fiorenzo

Siege of San Fiorenzo
Part of the Invasion of Corsica
San Fiorenzo. anonymous, c.1790s. NMM.
Date 7 – 20 February 1794 Location San Fiorenzo, Corsica, France 42°40′55″N 9°18′08″E / 42.6819°N 9.3021°E / 42.6819; 9.3021 Result Anglo-Corsican victory
Belligerents
Great Britain Corsica	France
Commanders and leaders
David Dundas Robert Linzee Pasquale Paoli	Antoine Gentili
Strength
1,400 Mediterranean Fleet	700 2 frigates
Casualties and losses
104 killed and wounded	102 killed and wounded 101 captured 2 frigates sunk

The siege of San Fiorenzo (or siege of Saint-Florent ^[Note]) was a British military operation, supported by Corsican partisans early in the French Revolutionary Wars against the French-held town of San Fiorenzo on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. The Corsican people had risen up against the French Republican garrison in 1793 after an attempt to arrest the Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli during the Reign of Terror. The French had then been driven into three fortified towns on the northern coast; San Fiorenzo, Calvi, and Bastia and Paoli appealed to the British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, commanded by Lord Hood, for assistance against the French garrison.

In the autumn of 1793 Hood was distracted by the siege of Toulon, but did send a squadron with orders to attack San Fiorenzo. The attack achieved initial success but was driven off by the fortifications at the Torra di Fornali. After the fall of Toulon in December 1793, Hood turned his main attention to Corsica and ordered a joint operation against the town, attacking from the sea and with amphibious landings. Over two weeks the main defences of the town were defeated by a series of artillery operations which drove the French out of their defences one by one and destroyed the French shipping in the harbour. On 18 February the French garrison withdrew across the island to Bastia, which was attacked in turn later in the spring. By August 1794, the French had been driven from Corsica, which had become a self-governing part of the British Empire.