On 26 June 1794, at Fleurus near Charleroi, General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's French army held off the attack of the Prince of Saxe-Coburg's allied army; when Coburg learned that Charleroi had surrendered the evening before, he retreated. A French observation balloon watched the battle. On 26 June 1917 the first American troops landed at Saint-Nazaire.
Two sieges of Charleroi
By June 1794 General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan commanded divisions of the armies of the North, the Ardennes and the Moselle, united on the Sambre, watched by representatives on mission, among them Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just. Jourdan knew, Phipps writes, that defeat "must cost him his life".1
Charleroi was besieged twice. Phipps writes that after a failed battle on 16 June General Hatry raised the first siege; the army crossed the Sambre again on 18 June, and the representatives write that the siege resumed "Le 30", on the 30th (our translation).2
On the 7th, the representatives wrote, the commandant asked to capitulate and sent an envoy, and "nous avons renvoyé la lettre sans l'ouvrir": we sent the letter back unopened (our translation). Later accounts give Saint-Just a sharper line: Witzleben has him say "die Festung will ich", it is the fortress I want, "und keinen Wisch Papier", and no scrap of paper, and Phipps "It is not paper I want... but the place" (our translation of Witzleben). Jourdan wrote on 7 messidor that the place "s'est rendue ce soir à discrétion", had surrendered this evening at discretion; Witzleben puts the surrender on the evening of 25 June (our translation). Jourdan and the representatives counted the garrison at three thousand men, the Austrian military journal at 1,800, Phipps at 2,800. Jourdan added that the surrender came all the more opportunely because "je pense que demain nous serons attaqués", I think that tomorrow we shall be attacked (our translation).3
Battle around Fleurus
Witzleben counts Coburg's army at "nur 45,775 Mann", only 45,775 men (our translation). Phipps, following Commandant Dupuis, writes that Coburg had to attack with 52,000 men and that Jourdan, allowing for the troops he sent into Charleroi, had 75,000 men in entrenched positions. Coburg's plan, printed by Witzleben, was to envelop the French semicircle in five columns; Jomini counts five corps divided into nine columns. Jourdan's report, Barère and Phipps have the attack begin at three in the morning.4
On the French left, Jomini and Phipps write, Montaigu's division was driven back to the Sambre at Marchienne-au-Pont and even over the river, but General Jean-Baptiste Kléber held his own along the Piéton. On the right General Beaulieu drove General François Marceau's divisions of the Army of the Ardennes back across the Sambre "dans une horrible confusion", in horrible confusion, as Jomini puts it (our translation). In the center Archduke Charles attacked three times without success, at the Campinaire farm in Witzleben's account, while Beaulieu took Lambusart. Witzleben and Phipps describe the French setting fire to the barns of Lambusart and holding on to the nearest houses. Soult, Lefebvre's chief of staff, and Phipps write that the allied columns broke for the fourth time against the entrenchments, and that Lefebvre then counterattacked.5
Then Coburg learned that Charleroi had fallen. The Austrian military journal writes that the relief of Charleroi, the main aim of the battle, could no longer be reached, so the field marshal decided to break off "das zweifelhafte Gefecht", the undecided fight; Witzleben and Jomini also tie the retreat to the news (our translation). The French did not pursue: Soult writes that the soldiers could hardly stand and were short of ammunition, and Jomini that the army stayed in its entrenchments for lack of it.6
"No retreat today"
Barère told the Convention that the cry "Point de retraite aujourd'hui!", no retreat today, ran along all the lines; Phipps puts "No retreat to-day!" in the mouths of Lefebvre's men (our translation). The representatives Guyton, Gillet, Laurent and Saint-Just wrote from the battlefield that the army had won "la plus brillante victoire dans les champs de Fleurus", the most brilliant victory on the fields of Fleurus, and that the enemy "est en déroute, après douze heures d'efforts et de combats", is in rout after twelve hours of efforts and fighting (our translation). Barère spoke of nine hours of fighting, Phipps of a battle from 3 a.m. till seven at night, and Soult of "Quinze heures de combat", fifteen hours of combat (our translation). Jourdan reported that victory was still undecided at six in the evening.7
Counting the cost
The Austrian military journal puts the allies' dead, wounded and missing at about 1,500 and reckons the French loss not much smaller. Phipps, after Dupuis, gives Coburg's loss excluding the Charleroi garrison as 2,286 men, and the French loss as about the same. Soult counts nearly five thousand French "hors de combat", out of action, and estimates the enemy's loss at more than seven thousand; Jomini estimates four or five thousand out of action on each side (our translation). Jourdan reported that his own loss was not considerable "parce que nous étions bien retranchés", because we were well entrenched (our translation).8
An eye in the sky
The balloon belonged to a company of aérostiers created by an arrêté of the Committee of Public Safety of 13 germinal an II, which, as Lacroix prints it, named "le citoyen Coutelle" captain; Tissandier also calls Coutelle its captain. It had already served at Maubeuge, where Tissandier dates the first ascent of l'Entreprenant to 2 June 1794.9
At Fleurus, Tissandier writes, Adjutant General Morlot, in the basket with Coutelle, sent reports "pendant neuf heures consécutives", for nine consecutive hours; Lacroix gives eight hours (our translation). Coutelle himself, quoted by Tissandier, says that after more than ten hours of fighting Jourdan ordered him up "une seconde fois", a second time (our translation). Soult writes that a general and an engineer officer went up and were to report by sending bulletins down the rope, and Phipps that General Morlot and an engineer slid bulletins down it. Coutelle remembered soldiers passing under his ropes who said they were being made to retreat, until one answered: "Si nous battions en retraite, le ballon ne serait pas là", if we were retreating, the balloon would not be here (our translation).10
Coutelle would not say "que l'aérostat a fait gagner la bataille de Fleurus", that the balloon won the battle of Fleurus (our translation). Soult called it "cette ridicule innovation", this ridiculous innovation, and Jomini wrote that the balloons served for nothing (our translation). According to Phipps, Jourdan, writing five years later, said its only essential service was to astonish the enemy.11
A new name
On 11 messidor, after Barère's report, the Convention decreed that the united armies would henceforth bear the name "armée de Sambre-et-Meuse", and that a concert would celebrate the victories that evening (our translation). Phipps dates the name to 13 June. Within about two weeks French troops were in Brussels: Jomini has patrols of the Army of the North entering on 9 July, Phipps has Ney there on the 10th. Jomini judged the battle less decisive than was spread in France, though it left the allies little hope of holding Belgium; Phipps calls it decisive of the campaign. The fields nearby saw Fleurus in 1622 and Ligny in 1815, and Jourdan appears again, at Vitoria, on our 21 June page.12
Also on 26 June: Saint-Nazaire, 1917
1917: the first troops of the American Expeditionary Forces' 1st Division landed at Saint-Nazaire. The Army War College's Order of Battle records that the first contingent sailed from New York and Hoboken on 14 June and arrived at St-Nazaire on 26 June. The division's history of 1922 writes that "here the 16th Infantry and the 28th Infantry landed on June 26th. Company K, 28th Infantry, had the distinction of being the first organization to set foot on French soil"; other units followed by 30 June. The American Battle Monuments Commission writes that most of the division's elements landed on 26 June 1917. The commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Forces, John J. Pershing, is the subject of our article on him.13
