Siege of Toulon

“ The general attack of the besiegers was made upon Toulon, from the land side, on the 16th of December; when neither the severity of the season, nor the unceasing wetness of the weather, could damp the impetuosity of the French troops; those exhausted by fatigue being continually supplied by fresh reinforcements, during this protracted assault, which continued the major part of the siege. The principal redoubt, defended by two thousand men, was carried on the 17th, though protected by a double row of palisadoes, an intrenched camp, and a cross fire from three batteries. ”

“ The streets of Paris were streaming with innocent blood; Robespierre was glutting himself with murder; fear and rage were the passions that divided mankind, and their struggles produced on either side the likeness of some epidemic frenzy. Whatever else the government wanted, vigour to repel aggressions from without was displayed in abundance. Two armies immediately marched upon Toulon; and after a series of actions, in which the passes in the hills behind the town were forced, the place was at last invested, and a memorable siege commenced. ”

“ Famine began to be felt, and courage forsook them. The royalist leaders, convinced of the inutility of longer resistance, left the town, and the republican army entered the walls [October 9] , where they awaited the orders of the convention. A few months after, Toulon itself [in the siege of which Napoleon Bonaparte commanded the artillery] , defended by veteran troops and formidable fortifications, fell into the power of the republicans. The battalions of the army of Italy, reinforced by those which the taking of Lyons left disposable, pressed the place closely. ”

“ The lines of Stolhofen, which had been so long held against the French, were taken and destroyed. Nor was the advance of the allied army of Italy into the south of France more successful. Eugene and the Duke of Savoy reached Toulon and besieged it. But sickness had much decreased the number of the allies; a considerable detachment had been sent to complete Toulon. Aug. 20. the conquest of Naples, and the appearance of Marshal Tessé with a large army, and the threat of an assault upon their rear, induced them to raise the siege and retire beyond the Alps. ”

“ From these they began to cannonade and bombard the city, while the fleet attacked and reduced two forts at the entrance of the Mole, and co-operated in the siege with their great guns and bomb-ketches. The garrison was numerous, and defended the place with great vigour. They sunk ships in the entrance to the Mole: they kept up a prodigious fire from the ramparts: they made desperate sallies, and even drove the besiegers from one of their posts with great slaughter. The French king, alarmed at this design of his enemies, ordered troops to march towards Toulon from all parts of his dominions. ”

“ As he himself said: "The beginning of a revolution was a fine time for an enterprising young man!"
His first actual taste of warfare occurred at Toulon, where his regiment was now stationed. Many of the inhabitants of this Southern port were royalists, and they sought to hold the city for the King. The republican troops were ordered to capture the town, which they did after a lively siege and assault. The commander of artillery having been wounded, Napoleon was ordered to take his place. His skill, coolness, and bravery during this engagement are well attested. ”

“ At this epoch the Castle of Toulon was a place of great strength, and its ramparts mounted a considerable number of guns of large size. Notwithstanding this, the combined attack by land and sea was successful, and on the fourth day from the commencement of the siege, Del Vasto became master of the fortress. Irritated by the obstinate defence he had encountered, and the heavy losses he had sustained, the young Spanish general put the garrison to the sword. ”

“ During the whole of April, the French government pursued its preparations at Toulon, Brest, Havre, and Cherbourg, and by the beginning of May all the fleet was assembled at Toulon and ready for sea. The land forces comprised 37,500 men, 3,000 horses, and 180 pieces of artillery, mostly heavy guns for the reduction of Algiers, in case a siege should be found necessary. ”

“ It was feared also, that the Toulon fleet might come out and burn the transports at their anchorage during the siege, and thus Wellington’s battering train and even the safety of the army would be involved in an enterprize promising little success. A full council of war was unanimous not to land, and the reluctance of the people to rise, attributed by captain Codrington to the machinations of traitors, was visible ”

“ The French forces and the Corsicans in their interest were shipped off to Toulon, after the signing of the capitulation on the 21st; and now General D'Aubant, who had succeeded General Dundas, but who had continued lying at San Fiorenzo instead of assisting at the siege, came up with his troops and took possession of Bastia. The whole loss of the British in this brilliant affair was only fourteen men killed and thirty-four wounded. ”

“ History of the Siege of Toulon, translated from the French, 1708, 12mo; Brun's Guerres Maritimes de la France: Port de Toulon; J. H. Cooke's Shipwreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovell in the Scilly Islands (Gloucester, 1883) ; Commission and Warrant Books in Public Record Office; Sussex Archæol. Coll. xiv. 109; Notes and Queries, passim, but especially 6th ser. x. 518, and 8th ser. vii. 41. The mystery which has so long clouded the family history of Shovell has been cleared away only within the last few years by the researches among the Norfolk registers of the Hon. ”

“ He sent some ships to convey them, but an answer was returned that they could not be spared; and the Republican army having increased rapidly in numbers and gained several posts, a council of war was held to deliberate as to the advisability of longer holding the place. The result was that Toulon must be abandoned. It was the death-knell to thousands of the inhabitants. ”

“ In October, 1793, a disorderly mob of soldiers and revolutionary cut-throats, under the command of the painter Carteaux, after having dyed their hands in the blood of six thousand of their countrymen, whom they had massacred at Lyons, invested Toulon, which had shut its gates against the revolutionary army, and had thrown open its port to the English. The town was crowded with refugees from Marseilles, and its bastions were occupied by a mixed multitude of defenders, Sardinians, Spaniards, French, and English, united in nothing save in common hatred of the monsters who were embrued in blood. ”

“ The soil of the Republic has long been violated; she is enraged to think that the insult still remains unavenged: she asks, why is Toulon not yet retaken? Why is the English fleet not yet destroyed? In her indignation, she has appealed to her brave sons; we have obeyed her summons, and burn with impatience to fulfil her expectation. We are volunteer gunners from Paris: furnish us with arms, to-morrow we will march upon the enemy.” The General, disconcerted at this address, turned to the commandant of artillery, who promised, in a whisper, to rid him of these heroes next morning. ”

“ Louis XIV. confided to Colbert the reorganisation of the fleet; and for the purpose dockyards, workshops of all descriptions, were needed. The basins were enlarged and deepened, and Vauban received instructions to extend the quays, construct fortifications, surround the city with a series of star forts, according to the system that has immortalised his name, and, in a word, make of Toulon the first arsenal of France. It was due to this that the place was able to withstand the sieges of 1707 and 1793. Toulon was, moreover, made the largest convict establishment of France ”

“ Although the King of France was beheaded, and the republicans maintained their authority by the terrors of the guillotine, yet many patriots stood forward in the cause of royalty, and the inhabitants of the celebrated port of Toulon,—the principal station of the French navy, delivered up their port and city to Admiral Lord Hood, who took possession in August, 1793, in the name of Louis XVII. A French army advanced against Toulon, which was defended by a few British, Spanish, Neapolitan, and Sardinian troops ”

“ Europe, moreover, might have escaped the military tyranny of Napoleon, with all its accompanying evils. Toulon, the principal station for the French Navy on the shores of the Mediterranean, possessed of large arsenals and extensive dockyards, and strongly fortified—its citizens had hitherto regarded with aversion the excesses of blood and rapine in which the Revolutionists had indulged, and fully sensible of the evils which must arise from the rule of the democracy, resolved to declare for the restoration of the old monarchy. ”

“ LETTER FROM BONAPARTE, COMMANDANT OF ARTILLERY, TO GENERAL CARTEAUX.
81 Assaults on other points in the line of defence had also been made, and had succeeded; and Toulon was at the mercy of Napoleon’s batteries. The night that followed was one of the most frightful in the annals of war. The English fleet was no longer safe in the harbor, and was preparing to sail away. Toulon was frantic with terror. The royalists, the Girondins, the refugees from Lyons and Marseilles, rushed from their homes, crowded the quays, making every effort to reach the English ships. ”

“ The news from Toulon (if true) is very bad. The French beat the allies in a sortie, killed many English, and made prisoners of General O’Hara [115] and the Spanish Lieut.-Colonel. Poor O’Hara will end his merry life under the guillotine, as the savages [109] will retaliate upon him the murder of one of the deputies from the Convention or army commissioner taken in Toulon. Ld. Moira and the emigrants are waiting at Jersey. It is yet a secret where the descent is to be made in France. People are grumbling at Ld. ”

“ As a point upon which insurrection could repose, by which it could be supported from without, Toulon was invaluable; but with rebellion put down, surrounded by a hostile army and shut up to itself, the city would become a useless burden, unbearable from the demands for men which its extended lines would make. Had La Vendée rested upon a Toulon, the task of the republic would have been well-nigh hopeless. ”

“ Much difficulty was experienced in defending Toulon with twelve thousand men, of five different nations, against thirty to forty thousand French troops; a circumference of fifteen miles having to be occupied by a number of posts which required nine thousand men for their protection, so that three-fourths of the men were constantly on duty. On the 17th of December, the French attacked the British quarter under Captain William Conolly of the EIGHTEENTH, who defended his post with great gallantry until the enemy had forced the Spanish side, when he fell back fighting to another position. ”

“ EXECUTION IN LA VENDÉE.
While matters were in this condition, the inhabitants of Marseilles, Lyons, and Toulon rose, overpowered the Jacobins, and, raising the banner of the Bourbons, invited the approach of the Allies. Toulon was the naval arsenal of France, a large French fleet crowded its port, and its warehouses were filled with naval stores. Lord Hood, with an English squadron, was cruising off the coast. The Royalists, Admiral Troyoff at their head, gave the signal to the English, and basely surrendered to them the forts, shipping, and stores. It was a fearful loss to the Revolutionists. ”

“ Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 222.—The insurrection of Toulon, Girondist at the start, dates July 1st.—Letter of the new administrators of Toulon to the Convention. "W desire the Republic, one and indivisible; there is no sign of rebellion with us... Representatives Barras and Fréron lie shamefully in depicting us as anti-revolutionaries, on good terms with the English and the families of Vendée."—The Toulon administrators continue furnishing the Italian army with supplies. ”

“ The spirit of insurrection against the government began to manifest itself very strongly in several important cities. Toulon, on the shores of the Mediterranean, was the great naval dépôt and arsenal of France. It contained a population of about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. More than fifty ships-of-the-line and frigates were riding at anchor in its harbor, and an immense quantity of military and naval stores, of every description, was collected in its spacious magazines. ”

“ The rebels are conquered; but are they all exterminated? No weakness. No mercy. Let every one be smitten. Two words will suffice to tell the whole. Lyons made war on liberty; Lyons is no more.” When Toulon was taken Barère came forward to announce the event.
“The conquest,” said the apostate Brissotine, “won by the Mountain over the Brissotines must be commemorated by a mark set on the place where Toulon once stood. The national thunder must crush the house of every trader in the town.” ”

“ Toulon gave itself up to the combined fleet of England and Spain. Marseilles, Lyons, and Nismes, contracted an alliance together, and declared their independence of the Convention and of the terrorists. Everywhere in all the cities and communities of the south the people rose up, and seditions and rebellions took place. ”

“ From Vienne we descended the Rhône to Avignon, and thence proceeded by way of Aix to Toulon. The country was filled with soldiers, and the townspeople were breaking out into riots by reason of the heavy taxes and the high price of 95bread. We were detained at Toulon several days waiting for a French felucca from Antibes, as there was a nest of Barbary corsairs among the Iles d’Hyères which rendered Italian vessels unsafe. ”