Calvi, Siege of
1794 CE
The Siege of Calvi is a combined British and Corsican military operation during the Invasion of Corsica in the early stages of the French Revolutionary Wars.
The Corsican people had risen up against the French garrison of the island in 1793, and sought support from the British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet under Lord Hood.
Hood's fleet had been delayed by the Siege of Toulon, but in February 1794 supplied a small expeditionary force which successfully defeated the French garrison of San Fiorenzo, then a larger force that besieged the town of Bastia.
The British force, now led by General Charles Stuart, turn their attention to the fortress of Calvi, the only remaining French-held fortress in Corsica.
Calvi is a heavily fortified position, defended by two large modern artillery forts.
Stuart therefore prepares for a long siege, seizing the mountainous heights over the approaches to the town and opening a steady fire, which is vigorously returned.
Both sides take casualties; among the British wounded is Captain Horatio Nelson, who had been blinded in one eye.
After several weeks the French positions are sufficiently damaged and Stuart launches a major assault, driving the French out of the forts in turn and into the town.
Stuart and the French commander Raphaël de Casabianca now engage in extended negotiations that lead to first a truce, then, on 10 August, a capitulation.
The terms of the surrender are generous, and the French troops repatriate to France.
With the conclusion of the siege, the island of Corsica now becomes a British colony, and will remain a British base of operations for two years.
Subject
Related Events
Showing 4 events out of 4 total
The Siege of Bellegarde had concluded in June with the French surrender of the Fort de Bellegarde, which dominates the key Pass of Le Perthus through the Pyrenees.
However, Ricardos had been repelled in the Battle of Perpignan on July 17.
The French army had revived again under General of Division Eustache Charles d'Aoust to deal their enemies a sharp reverse at the Battle of Peyrestortes on September 17.
Five days later, Ricardos defeated the French at the Battle of Truillas.
Subsequently, the Spanish general had fallen back to the valley of the Tech River, where he repulsed a series of French attempts to drive him back into Spain.
D'Aoust had tried and failed to oust the Spanish from Le Boulou on October 3.
In the Battle of the Tech (or Pla del Rey) from October 13 to 15, Ricardos had bloodily repulsed the attacks of General of Division Louis Marie Turreau.
D'Aoust had been defeated again in his December 7 attack on Villelongue-dels-Monts.
The Spanish had seized Fort Saint-Elme through the treason of its commander and captured the port of Collioure on December 20, wiping out four thousand of its garrison of five thousand men.
D'Aoust, arrested soon afterward, will eventually be executed in July.
The Second Battle of Boulou, April 29 to May 1, 1794, sees the French Army of the eastern Pyrenees led by Dugommier attacking the joint Spanish-Portuguese Army of Catalonia under Luis Firmin de Carvajal, Conde de la Union.
Le Boulou is on the modern A9 highway, twenty kilometers (twelve miles) south of the department capital at Perpignan and seven kilometers (four miles) north of Le Perthus on the France-Spain border.
The Spanish right wing on the Mediterranean coast is separated from the center and left wing by a mountainous gap.
First, Jacques François Dugommier mounts a successful feint with his right wing that draws Spanish troops away from the center.
He now launches powerful French forces into the gap.
These forces circle behind the Spanish center and force their adversaries to retreat across a difficult mountain pass.
The Spanish suffer heavy losses of troops and abandon their wagon trains and all their artillery.
Dugommier's decisive victory results in the French regaining nearly all the land they had lost to the Kingdom of Spain in 1793.
Corsica is added (for a short time) to the dominions of King George III, chiefly by the exertions of Hood's fleet, and Paoli's cooperation, which results in the establishment of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom on June 17, 1794.