An Epic History TV / History Marche collaboration, supported by our sponsor, Osprey Publishing.
In the summer of 1793, the French Revolution was entering its fourth year, and France was
on the verge of anarchy.
In Paris, political extremists had seized control of the Revolution.
They'd guillotined the king...
and imposed a Reign of Terror that dealt summary justice to all suspected enemies of the Revolution.
Hoping to unify the new republic, France' leaders had declared war on the Habsburg Empire.
But the conflict quickly widened, and soon France was facing the combined might of Europe's
leading powers, determined to stamp out her dangerous political experiment.
Meanwhile, whole regions of France had come out in open revolt, horrified by the new extremism
of the Revolution.
In August, the Republic suffered a further, potentially fatal, blow, when the city of
Toulon joined the revolt.
Toulon was France's largest and most important naval base in the south, home to a third of
the entire French navy.
But now rebels welcomed their old enemy, the British Royal Navy, into the port, led by
Admiral Lord Hood aboard HMS Victory.
It was an extraordinary coup – without a shot being fired, the Allies had crippled
French naval power in the Mediterranean, and gained a vital toehold on the French coast.
All French forces in the area were immediately diverted to face this new threat, and lay
siege to the rebel port...
19,000 troops in all - but since most French officers had been aristocrats, who were now
fleeing the Revolution in large numbers, they were seriously short of professional leadership.
Their commander, General Jean-Francois Carteaux, was a loyal Republican, but a court painter
by trade, with no military training.
To make matters worse, one of his few professional officers, his artillery commander Colonel
Donmartin, had been badly wounded on the approach to Toulon.
Antoine Saliceti, a Corsican deputy of the National Convention in Paris, recommended
as his replacement a fellow countryman... a 24-year-old artillery officer who was passing
Toulon en route to the front, named Napoleone Buonaparte, or Bonaparte.
Bonaparte was a professional soldier, but he'd seen almost no active service.
Nevertheless, Saliceti was impressed by his manner, and most of all, his politics – Bonaparte
had just written a political pamphlet: a short story about a young artillery officer, who
berates his fellow diners for their disloyalty to the Republic.
General Carteaux thought it wise to accept Deputy Saliceti's recommendation.
The great port of Toulon was well defended by city walls and a dozen outlying forts and
redoubts.
They were held by 2,000 British soldiers and sailors, 6,000 Spanish troops, 6,000 Neapolitans,
and 800 Sardinians.
Artillery would be the key to overcoming these formidable defences.
But when Bonaparte was put in command of the artillery on 16th September, he found himself
with few cannon, not enough trained gun-crews, and a shortage of gunpowder and shot.
With relentless energy and determination, Bonaparte transformed the situation, requisitioning
unused guns, training infantrymen to work them, setting up a new forge and workshop,
and arranging transport from Marseilles of 100,000 sandbags, for constructing new batteries.
Through hard work, he was ultimately able to build his force up to 64 officers and fifteen
hundred men, manning 100 cannon, howitzers and mortars.
Within days Bonaparte had established two new forward batteries, with good revolutionary
names – La Montagne and Sans-Culottes – which brought Toulon's inner harbour within range,
and forced Admiral Hood to move all his ships closer to the port.
Bonaparte also came up with a plan – one that would allow the French to bypass most
of Toulon's defences, and secure the rapid victory the Republic so desperately needed.
Bonaparte argued that if Fort L'Eguilette could be captured, which looked out across
the harbour, he could fill it with heavy guns, and shell the British and Spanish fleet at
anchor.
Admiral Hood would be forced to abandon the port, and take with him the Allied soldiers
that Toulon relied on for its defence.
General Carteaux saw the merits of Bonaparte's plan, and on 22nd September, French forces
attacked Mont Caire.
But to Bonaparte's exasperation, while he'd argued for an attack by 3,000 men, the indecisive
Carteux committed only 400.
Not only was the attack easily repulsed, but it alerted the Allies to the danger: within
48 hours, they'd reinforced Mont Caire with thousands more troops, and built a new fort,
named Fort Mulgrave, bristling with 20 cannon.
The position was now so strong the French nicknamed it, 'Little Gibraltar'.
Finally, in mid-November, an experienced, professional soldier arrived to take command
of French forces, General Dugommier.
He saw at once that Bonaparte's plan was the only way to take Toulon, and gave it his full
backing.
Bonaparte, promoted to Major, got to work, overseeing construction of several more batteries
in preparation for the decisive assault.
One forward battery was so exposed to enemy fire that men refused to be sent there.
So Bonaparte renamed it 'La Batterie des Hommes sans Peur' – the Battery of Men Without
Fear... and suddenly, there was no shortage of volunteers.
It was an early display of Napoleon's genius for inspiring his soldiers - one that would
serve him well in the years ahead.
On 30th November, the Allied land forces commander, British General Charles O'Hara, tried to seize
back the initiative, leading an assault on the new French batteries facing Fort Malbousquet.
At first, the attack was successful: the batteries were overrun and the French guns spiked, but
a counterattack, with much greater numbers, and led in person by General Dugommier and
Major Bonaparte, drove back the Allies.
General O'Hara himself was shot through the hand and captured.
Twelve years before, he'd surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown, during the American
War of Independence.
Now he got to surrender to Napoleon Bonaparte.
In the early hours of 18th December, in howling wind and driving rain, the French launched
a major assault on Fort Mulgrave.
The wet conditions made muskets useless, except as clubs, or with bayonets.
Bonaparte led the second wave in person.
Amid fierce hand-to-hand fighting, his horse was killed under him, and he was bayonetted
in the thigh by a British sergeant – a wound that came within inches of ending his life
and radically changing the course of history.
Finally the Allied garrison was overwhelmed, and Mulgrave fell to the French.
Fort L'Eguilette and Tour de la Balaquier were soon also in French hands...
By the following afternoon, the French had 10 heavy guns in L'Eguilette, placing the
Allied ships within range.
Admiral Hood could not expose his valuable ships-of-the-line to such a threat.
He had no option but to order an immediate evacuation of the fleet and garrison from
Toulon.
Small Spanish and British teams raced to destroy all the French ships and naval stores that
they couldn't take with them.
But amid the chaos of their departure, 18 ships-of-the line were allowed to fall back
into French hands – a badly missed opportunity.
Many French citizens of Toulon were desperate to escape aboard the Allied ships, knowing
that the Republicans would inflict terrible reprisals on the city.
British and Spanish ships took as many as they could, about 14,000 in all – but scores
were drowned amid chaotic and desperate scenes.
Others were left to face the wrath of the Revolution...
Republican troops entered the city the next morning, and executions and firing squads
began almost immediately.
For the next two weeks, about 200 were executed every day.
Allied propaganda later blamed Bonaparte for the atrocities, but there's no evidence he
was directly involved.
France's young republic was now fighting back on all fronts.
And with the fall of Toulon, the Allies had lost a golden opportunity – a chance to
stir up further revolt, deal a lasting blow to French naval power... perhaps even overturn
the Revolution.
But instead, the French Republic had weathered one of its greatest storms....
In no small part, thanks to the remarkable judgement, energy, and courage of one 24-year-old
artillery officer, now promoted Brigadier General in recognition of his extraordinary
service at Toulon.
Napoleon Bonaparte had taken his first step on the path to greatness.
And for Europe, 21 years of almost constant war awaited...
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