Battle of Hasselt

Battle of Hasselt
Part of the Ten Days' Campaign
The Dutch commander Prince William
Date 8 August 1831 Location Hasselt, Belgium Result Dutch victory
Belligerents
Netherlands	Belgian rebels
Commanders and leaders
Prince William	Nicolas Joseph Daine[1]
Casualties and losses
Low	High

The Battle of Hasselt was a battle of the Ten Days' Campaign. The battle took place on 8 August 1831. In the battle the Dutch army (36,000 strong) defeated the Meuse army (14,500 strong) of the Belgian rebels.

The Dutch planned to encircle the Belgians with three divisions with no option to retreat because doing so would leave the Dutch city Maastricht undefended for a possible Belgian counterattack.

The Belgians, outnumbered and with little to no artillery, mislead one of the Dutch divisions in spending too much time to attack the small town of Kuringen just outside Hasselt and left a small force behind in Hasselt to buy some time and cover their retreat to Tongeren. During this retreat they were under constant attack of the chasing Dutch cavalry. At Kortessem the Belgians finally managed to put op a few artillery guns and the Dutch ended the chase leaving the Meuse army in state of chaos, the remaining rebels fled to Liège escaping the pocket the Dutch tried to enforce.

The Dutch took about 400 prisoners. The Rebels suffered heavy casualties while the Dutch losses where said to be very small but numbers are unknown.

References

Sources

• Kolenbrander, H.T. (1936) De afscheiding van België, Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhoff.
• Nater, J.H. (1980), De tiendaagse veldtocht; de Belgische opstand 1830/1831, Bussum: Unieboek b.v.

Coordinates: 50°55′00″N 5°20′00″E / 50.9167°N 5.3333°E / 50.9167; 5.3333