Army of Mainz

Army of Mainz

A French fusilier carries his long muzzled musket. He wears a blue jacket and white shirt and trousers; his cartridge belt is strapped across his chest and he wears a tri-cornered hat with a red revolutionary cockade.

Fusilier of a French Revolutionary Army
Active December 1797 – February 1799
Country  France
Allegiance Republican France
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Jean-Baptiste Aubert du Bayet
Jacques Maurice Hatry
Barthélemy Catherine Joubert

The Army of Mainz (Armée de Mayence) was a French Revolutionary Army set up on 9 December 1797 by splitting the Armée d'Allemagne into the Armée de Mayence and the Armée du Rhin. Part of it split off on 4 February 1799 to form the armée d'Observation, though part of the armée d'Observation then re-merged into the Armée de Mayence on 28 March that year (with the remainder forming the Armée du Danube).

Army of Mayence 1793

Army of Mayence (or Mainz) was also the unofficial title of the 16,000-man garrison that surrendered on 23 July 1793 at the conclusion of the Siege of Mainz. They were paroled by the Prussian army on condition that they not fight against the First Coalition for one year. Army of the Rhine commander Alexandre de Beauharnais pointed out that the terms did not exclude them from fighting against French rebels inside France. Therefore, 14,000 troops from the garrison were sent to the War in the Vendée under Jean-Baptiste Annibal Aubert du Bayet where they proved to be better soldiers than the poorly-trained armies fighting there. The superiority of the Mainz corps was so evident that it provoked jealousy and in November 1793 the force was broken up.[1]

Notes

  1. Phipps 2011, pp. 20–21.

Sources

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