Great Battles
With the embers of the revolution still hot, France’s key Mediterranean harbour was captured by royalist rebels, with British support. A Republican campaign to retake the port saw the rise of a young officer and another seismic shift in the nation’s history
For a short period, the revolutionary fervour that swept France from 1789 remained a largely internal political affair, punctured occasionally with civil unrest as politicians set about dismantling the old regime to make room for a new nation. This all changed in 1792 with a cascade of geopolitical and domestic events, mass dissention, counterrevolutions, and declarations of war.
From the perceived threat of revolution spreading from France to its neighbours, galvanised a coalition, led chiefly by Prussia, Austria, England and Spain. This left France assailed by both internal and external enemies. The onslaught soon had the nation on its heels.
In August 1793 coalition and royalist armies pushed into Republican France on multiple fronts, while its armies reeled from numerous defeats. These, along with strong anti-Jacobin (the ruling Republican party) uprisings throughout the country, meant that the fragile republic was on a knife’s edge. Matters became catastrophic with the raising of the royalist flag in Toulon on 27 August.
The revolt in Toulon was the result of heavy-handed leadership by Jacobin officials in their attempt to coerce the more moderate members of the city and the French Navy (as well as the over 6,000 dockyard workers at the naval arsenal) to their side. This alienation only served to infuriate and galvanise the moderates, who by 18 July had removed the Jacobins, formed a General Committee, before trying and publicly executing over 40 of them.
Toulon was a critical hub of France’s naval power in the Mediterranean, housing the bulk of its fleet as well as serving as a major weapons arsenal. The French Mediterranean Fleet at Toulon was a mixed bag at best. Led by interim commander, Rear-Admiral Jean Honoré Comte de Trogoff, he possessed 35 operational vessels that consisted of 19 ships-of-the-line, seven frigates and nine corvettes. The rest were not ready for action, which included four ships-of-the-line and one frigate that were being refitted, nine ships-of-the-line and nine frigates that were non-operational, and a ship-of-theline and a frigate that were under construction.
