17 to 18 December 1793
The storming of Fort Mulgrave
During the night of 17 to 18 December, in heavy rain, Dugommier launches the general assault. The main column attacks Fort Mulgrave while La Poype strikes the eastern defences on Mont Faron. The rain spoils the muskets, and much of the fighting is with bayonets. The first Republican troops to enter the works are thrown back before reinforcements overwhelm the garrison, and Bonaparte receives a bayonet wound in the thigh.
The recapture of Toulon by the French on 18 December 1793, engraving by Pierre-Gabriel Berthault after Swebach-Desfontaines, about 1798Wikimedia Commons, Pierre-Gabriel Berthault after Jacques François Swebach-Desfontaines, CC0 (Reprise de Toulon par les troupes françaises. Le 18 Décembre 1793 ou 28 Frimaire An 2e de la République. G.28933.jpg)
The French then occupy l’Éguillette and Balaguier and bring up guns that can fire into both roadsteads. La Poype’s troops take key positions on Mont Faron. At a council on board Hood’s flagship Victory on 18 December, the Allied commanders decide that the fleet can no longer stay in the harbour and that the garrison cannot hold the city without it.
Sources
- Robert Forczyk, Toulon 1793: Napoleon’s First Great Victory (2005).
- Bernard Ireland, The Fall of Toulon (2005).
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