Siege of Ypres (1794)

Siege of Ypres (1794)
Part of War of the First Coalition
Capture of Ypres, 17 June 1794 by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux (Musée de la Révolution française)
Date 1–18 June 1794 Location Ypres, Belgium Result French victory
Belligerents
Republican France	Habsburg Austria  Great Britain Hesse-Kassel Hanover
Commanders and leaders
Charles Pichegru Joseph Souham Jean Moreau Éloi Despeaux Jacques MacDonald Jean-Baptiste Salme Jan de Winter	Count of Clerfayt Anton Sztáray Paul von Salis Wilhelm von Kerpen Heinrich Borcke Georg Lengerke Rudolf Hammerstein
Units involved
Army of the North	Clerfayt's Corps
Strength
Total: 50,000 Roeselare: 20,000 Hooglede: 24,000	Ypres: 7,000 Roeselare: 20,000 Hooglede: 19,000
Casualties and losses
Ypres: unknown Roeselare: 1,000 Hooglede: 1,300, 1 gun	Ypres: 7,000, 12 guns Roeselare: 1,000 Hooglede: 900

The siege of Ypres (1–18 June 1794) saw a Republican French army commanded by Jean-Charles Pichegru invest the fortress of Ypres and its 7,000-man garrison composed of Habsburg Austrians under Paul von Salis and Hessians led by Heinrich von Borcke and Georg von Lengerke. French troops under Joseph Souham fended off three relief attempts by the corps of François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt. Meanwhile, the French besiegers led by Jean Victor Marie Moreau compelled the Coalition defenders to surrender the city. The fighting occurred during the War of the First Coalition, part of the Wars of the French Revolution. In 1794 Ypres was part of the Austrian Netherlands, but today it is a municipality in Belgium, located about 120 kilometres (75 mi) west of Brussels.

In the Flanders Campaign of 1794, the Coalition army made its main drive against the French center while the French attacked on the two flanks. The Coalition was successful at first but the French soon seized the initiative with persistent attacks. When the Coalition forces shifted east to defend the line of the Sambre River at the end of May, the left wing of Pichegru's Army of the North laid siege to Ypres. Clerfayt's outnumbered corps found itself unable to defend the western flank. A week after Ypres fell, the French won a critical victory on the eastern flank at the Battle of Fleurus.