Siege of Toulon

In the summer of 1793 the naval port of Toulon rose against the Republic and admitted an Anglo-Spanish fleet, handing the French Mediterranean navy's best harbour to the First Coalition. A republican army gathered around the city from late August, and among its young artillery officers was Napoleon Bonaparte. He argued that the roadstead could only be dominated from the surrounding hills, and batteries were pushed forward through the autumn to shell the anchorage and drive the fleet out. Repeated assaults captured the key redoubts around the harbour, and on 18th December the allied commanders decided to evacuate. British and Spanish parties burned stores and ships as they left, and republican troops entered Toulon the next day. The recapture restored the Republic's hold on its Mediterranean coast and made the twenty-four-year-old Bonaparte famous; within days he was promoted to brigadier general. The ammunition, logistics and gunnery that Bonaparte assembled there would be studied by artillerymen ever after.