French Revolution first combat - April 28th 1792

French Revolution: First combat between the French Revolutionary Army and the Austrians in the northern French frontier.

[@joshuagrover795]

Battle of Quiévrain (1792) from April 28th to 30th was actual two battles or skirmishes with the Austrians. The French actually won the first skirmish, and General Biron (later guillotined) planned to advance on Mons and eventually Brussels. However, he judged his forces and wasn't strong enough and decided to retreat. On the 30th of April, While retreating pass Quiévrain the French encountered the Austrians again, and this time fled to Valenciennes in disorder as depicted in the scene. The French General, who was mentioned as killed by his own troops (next scene) in Lille, was Théobald Dillon after the French loss at the Battle of Marquain on April 29th. You got to remember this was the French revolutionary army's baptism of fire in these early battles, where they lacked competent professional officers, equipment, and trained troops (trained on the march or in battle). As of later, France's enemies started to respect this rag-tag army, and eventually, the French and Bony were the ones giving the lessons to the Coalition. 😂

[@RaiderLeo69]

The worse thing for any army to do is to show your back to the enemy! They lost more soldiers during the retreat than they would have if they stood and fight!

[@potato23116]

Anyone would be scared and run for their lives it works as a shock troop images being regular soldier standings in lines with your comrades then suddenly a cavalry company charge at you You look at your comrades all of them are running you can't just stay there and fight alone us humans have this thing in mind that we say away from anything that's dangerous all of them runs away because of the shock And if you think loosely lines can hold off cavalry charge you are wrong horses can easily break the formation and slaughter the infantry who are not tightly formed within the line or square

[@RaiderLeo69]

@@potato23116 I understand what you’re saying but still, it is a fact that most slaughtered armies met their demised while in a panic run.

[@potato23116]

@@RaiderLeo69 it happens a lot of time it depends on the type of Soldiers obviously this men are not trained very well I am very sure they aren't even trained to form square or tide formation like the Austrians

[@florjanbrudar692]

@@potato23116 Weren't

[@kalliaslands9938]

@@potato23116of course it is human nature to run. That is why armies of the era spent hundred of hours practicing tedious drills. I believe the French army had been disrupted by the revolution and fought with poor disciples in the early battles

[@adrir.6679]

Why do the the Austrians seem to be doing the rebel yell?

[@d.s.archer5903]

Magnificent! However, what movie is this from?

[@lioalvarez717]

La Revolution Francaise 1989

It's not maginificent, it's a pile of nonsense.

[@HansWurst1569]

@ why ? :)

@@HansWurst1569 Both the French and Austrian army never looked and fought like this. This scene is just a mish-mash fabulation by movie makers.

[@andybrace9225]

French at this date still had a mix of white Royal uniforms it was usual for a regiment to have 2 levee en mass who were poorly trained and could only form columns and 1 ex-Royal who were better trained and could fight in line.

[@cedricgrabowski5849]

Ich find ja geil, dass die Östereichische Kavallerie die klassischen Indianergeräusche macht bei 1:05

[@AbrahamLincoln4]

Haben die Österreicher tatsächlich so gejohlt und geschrien? Ich dachte, das sei nur Amerikanern zugeneigt.

[@mhoadievdelapaz3703]

I used Revolutionary France Army and Navy in European War 4 and won vs British and Spanish Empires😂

[@DUKEOFWELLINGTON325]

didn't form square but theres still time💀

[@carlostintaya8229]

didnt they know the square formation?

[@akshaykumarjha9136]

Freshly raised conscripts who could barely march in columns, I guess.

[@joshuagrover795]

This French revolutionary army wasn't Marshal Davout's III Corps of the Grande Armée of 1805/06. The French troops in this scene were lacking everything in each department at this point in time, manpower, training, professional officers and equipment. These early battles against the Coalition were their Baptism of fire.

[@kalliaslands9938]

Seeing the route kind of makes me think the best idea would be just to lie down, probably what a lot of soldiers actually did. You might get trampled but horses are very averse to stepping on bodies.

[@AlexanderCruise]

Drum name?

[@herrgross]

I think it's "Le Pas Cadence de Sans Cullotes", i think, i'm not really sure

[@zyzor]

The Austrians whipped the French that day.

[@florjanbrudar692]

"whipped"? They used sabres.

[@zyzor]

@@florjanbrudar692 figure of speech.

[@danielmassey4428]

You form square against cavery

[@realbloody8458]

they didnt have the training for it im pretty sure or they just didnt have time

[@potato23116]

@@realbloody8458 exactly most of the soldiers were ill trained mostly civilians who were conscripted into the army they were not given proper training because of the lack of time and money during the great terror

[@daringdare5078]

You spell properly when typing.

[@realbloody8458]

@@daringdare5078 does it really matter? its just youtube and im not bothered to type perfectly when im not needed to

[@dolsopolar]

@@realbloody8458 i think he was just being sarcastic to the orignal comment

[@chrisleach8009]

You have to give it to the French. They run almost as fast as the horses

[@deepyamandas1192]

They can make the austrians run as well lol

[@rookiedetective569]

Lol

[@dyutimandas9772]

Oh don't worry when they fight properly the Austrians don't even run they straight up surrender or retreat so much that even if you force march you can't see them

[@chrisleach8009]

@@dyutimandas9772 You don’t have much bad history do you Mate, Or is it just that your French

[@dyutimandas9772]

@@chrisleach8009 don't worry I am not even from Europe but I can say the Austrians always lost their battles against the French during the 17 and 1800s