Capture of Nice

Capture of Nice
	Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
Date	September 28, 1792
Location	Nice, County of Nice, Kingdom of Sardinia (now France)
Result	French victory
Belligerents
First French Republic	Kingdom of Sardinia
Commanders and leaders
Jacques Bernard d'Anselme	Eugene-Philippe de Courten
Strength
7,500	-

The Capture of Nice occurred on September 28, 1792, during the French Revolutionary Wars between the First French Republic and Kingdom of Sardinia. Part of the Italian Campaign during the French Revolution, the French were led by General Jacques Bernard d'Anselme tasked to occupy the County of Nice.^[1] The county was captured without a fight.^[2]

Before Capture

During the French Revolution, the French had made the other monarchs mad and the power balance is not gonna be equal anymore, so Austria and the Holy Roman Empire began to place troops in the border of France,^[3] now this Obviously led to war with France declaring war on Austria and Holy Roman Empire.

This was all happening during a revolution and in late September the Kingdom of Sardinia joined the war against France. General de Montesquiou was just a few miles north of Anselme ready to take the Duchy of Savoy whilst Anselme had to lead the Army of the Var which was to take Nice.

Capture

Sardinian spies provided good ground information about the situation and was rumored that they have 35,000 - 40,000 men that was about to attack. But their reports were mostly dismissed. The Sardinian HQ's even at Turin believed that the French were crossing with 35,000 - 40,000 men so a their General de Courten advised his colonel, Pinto, to leave and evacuate the county without a fight.

Moments later, ships from the French Navy began to be seen, de Courten, being aware and scared for French attacks from behind immediately ordered a retreat to his men and evacuated the city. There were even garrisons left in the fort Mont Alban and some in the commune of Villefranche, completely abandoned.

Anselme has now ordered his men to cross the Var, which was the river where the border of Nice, Sardinia and France met. His men has crossed the Var just moments after the Sardinians evacuated and left the city. It was necessary to Anselme to take Villefranche.

Seeing this the remaining Sardinian garrisons left behind in the forts of Mont Alban surrendered to the French. This gave access to Villefranche which he took 2 days later on September 30, 1792.^[2]

The county was taken by Anselme and general de Montesquiou took Savoy the same, without a fight. The Duchy of Savoy and County of Nice were given to France and annexed the states, not until 1814 when Bonaparte lost the 7th Coalition.

References

^ Houdaille, Jacques (1971-01-01). "La mortalité des généraux et amiraux de la Révolution et de l'Empire". Population. 26 (1): 142–146. doi:10.3917/popu.p1971.26n1.0146. ISSN 0032-4663.
^ ^a ^b "1792-1795: Operational Summary". Napoleon's 1796 Bloody Nose. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
^ Lecky, William Edward Hartpole (2011-02-17). A History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-02447-1.

[1] Houdaille, Jacques (1971-01-01). "La mortalité des généraux et amiraux de la Révolution et de l'Empire". Population. 26 (1): 142–146. doi:10.3917/popu.p1971.26n1.0146. ISSN 0032-4663.

[auto-2] "1792-1795: Operational Summary". Napoleon's 1796 Bloody Nose. Retrieved 2024-11-11.

[3] Lecky, William Edward Hartpole (2011-02-17). A History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-02447-1.

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