The national conscript armies raised by the revolutionary republic begin to succeed militarily in December.

Dugommier, while a Deputy of the French Convention, succeeds General Jean François Carteaux as commander of the army besieging Toulon.

Without the Austrian reinforcements the defenders of Toulon are outnumbered and outflanked, coming under sustained attack by French troops directed by twenty-four-year-old artillery officer Captain Napoleon Bonaparte.

The assault on the position, during which Bonaparte is wounded in the thigh, leads to the capture of the city and his promotion to brigadier general at the age of twenty-four.

On December 17, French troops seize the high ground over the city and the allies are forced into a chaotic withdrawal.

As Hood's ships remove the garrison and more than fourteen thousand refugees from the city, boat parties led by Sir Sidney Smith attempt to destroy the French fleet and dockyards with fireships.

These efforts are only partially successful: fifteen ships of the line and five frigates survive the conflagration to form the nucleus of the French Mediterranean Fleet in the war to come.

By the evening of December 18, Toulon is firmly in Republican hands.