National gazette. — Philadelphia [Pa.], 1793-07-20 00:00:00, page 2

Abbey of Vigogne, and from the different
entrenchments which they had in the wood
or' St. Amand. The general and our brave
brethren in arms presented themfelve*
with unex ltnpled courage and intrepidity
They overcame incredible ©bftacles, as ai
every step they found entrenchments, from
which they drove the enemy, who wer.
every where far superior in number, not
witliftanding batteries of 17 pounders which
they continually employed againtl us.
"Delpourches had taken pod on the plat
form of the Abbey of Vigogne, where he
cntrenched hiinfelf.and kept up a brilk fire
from a quarter pait 7 in the morning until
9 in the evening, I had fuccefsfuliy fen,
him a supply ofprovifions and ammunition,
winch he i ivain expeited from Valencien
res. This general oißcer used all his ef
fo -ts to have his right wing covered by the
left flank of general Hedon v lie, who at
tacked Rhemes at the fame time, but he
could never fticceed, except in regard tc
the few ch ifleurs. It appears, that the
enemy loft a great number of men, we ea
alfo forne bra'e soldiers killed.
•' This diyifiou lay on their ast al
night, in the wood of St. Amand Itaiii
ins; their pofidon, and will thi- norninj
vcoatinue their attack, which cannot be
made with advnntage unless they can unite
on . le rip;ht wing with divisions orderec
to dislodge the enemy from the wood oi
Rheme~.
•' At the moment when Defpourch-s at
tacked with my dvanced guard, 1 march
ed igtitift the enemy encamped near St.
A nand in two different points
"They m ide a more feeble defence thai
they did t e preceding evening, aid en
devoured to draw m-near the town 01
canfewav ; but having determined not u
take p )ii'jfin of it till th.y fh -uld bi
d veil from R 'ernes and Vigogne. I o 11-
pit'd til 'in in (iiffereut points a,,d al el.ffer
ent timet, to render my diversion inure
us "11 .
*• I direited several attacks on my left
b >th against Lecelles and against = mil
where the enemy were poited, andiron
•wlfch they were driven with loft. Mj
chafl.'iirs fired even under the camp a
Jvianldc, where they >vere entrenched
and having received intelligence that th<
Auftrians were join;; toeftaWilh themfelve
at Bauchain, I carried three battallion am
j : pieces of cannon to my polt of BelU
Porte.
•General Chaumont, who was ordere)
to kaep open mv communications fro>
l?eile Porte as far as Nache, several time
chefked the enemy, who endeavoured u
f urn my kfl flank, and to cat off my re
treat.
' General Dampierre had written to mi
to repair to h,m myfelf, or to fend to llin
a confidential person. I ch-irged with thi
mi lion adjutant general Dupont, and i
could not have chosen one more diftin
gu led in every refpeel, or who is m'rin
z-a us ill the lervice of the republic.
'• 1 cannot <o;> much praise the coura '<
o our brave defender . they difplayt-d re
publican valour, and observed a difeiplim
-which gives t ie greatcft hope - of the fuc
cess of our.a nis. I'liey are fatigued, bill
they never lose the cheerfulncfs which i
infepirable from a good cauie
'• My fm ill army 101 ..Is ot>roops frnrr
P may, the lan p near Lille & the advanc
ed 'lofts o" the latter.
«■ P. S. *t nine this morning the troop:
ai e under arms. They will keep the ene
my in cnec< while Defpourches i ; making
effoets to drive them from the abbey oi
Vigogne. I have no doubt of their fuccefi
it tiie'v can be joined byHedonville. I arr
gom to proceed to hi- polt when I have
viewed those which arc in front and on mj
left fl.ink. ' 'I forgot to mention that ot
tli evening of the Bth of May, as we were
returning to head quarters we observed the
Abbey of Vigog it in Amies. It was fe!
on tire by cur howitzers, and as the flunci
raged violently, I am induced to thinl<
that the magazines ot the enemy niuft be
consumed. Prifoflers taken at Vigogne
are continually coming in ; there are 2
great many Englishmen among them, anc
many wounded."
Abjlracl cf Intelligence by the laji
arrivals, (to May 24. J
Early in the morning of the Bth of May,
an army of the combined forces, headed by
the Duke of York, marched from Tour
nay to M m'de, which place they reached
abouc-8 A. Al. At nine the aftiou com
menced with the French army, under gen.
Dampierre, and continued with great vi
g tur on both fides till about five ill tile af
ternoon, when the Prulians began to live
vay. from the fe' ert fire of the French,
till the Duke of York came to their aflilt
ance. and with several regiments at tirft
repulsed the republican fori es, till assailed
by thr heavy ft e of a French battery,
which they intended to attack,but finding it
iiunolfible, made a retreat. Upwards of
70 o. the Britilh were kill d in this attack
The battle continued with this and the
other par;s of the two armies till nile in
tiie evening. L» this c ly's bulinefs the
An ftia.is by their own accounts loft 00
men and the- Feu'iians he i reiich
a.corung to aciounu by dtjertm, loft
-4500 men, killed and v.'Our.Jed. General
Dampierre, who commanded the French,
received a cannon ball, alraolt (pent, in his
thigh, and died in consequence os-it on the
morning ot' the 10th. General Lamorliere
Succeeded him ill the command* On the
)tii of May therq was some cannon.iding,
but early in the morning of the iiththfe
Auftrians and Prjiffians drove the French
from their batteries, and took pel'Vfiioil ol
eir polls in a wood. The French how
ever had previoufiy removed all their can
non. In this whole affair the French
hewed the greatest relu&ance 10 lire upon
he B'ritifh. avd in every initance ceased to
fire upon them the moment they began tu
retreat. Sacre Dien (said a French officer
to one of the Enjjlilh prisoners) why are
those free and gallant l?ritons come hither
todeflroy lis or be destroyed ! We have no
quarrel with them ; we are only contend
ing far that liberty which they enjoy, and
which they purchased at the expense of
the belt blood of their vceftors —When
the attack ceased. on the i;th. the Auf
trians fell back to their old ports; altho'
Hill in hopes to be able to drive the French
to their own fortified town, on the fron
tier: As to entering France, that was
another story. O'her accounts fay that
the united loss of tne Priillians and Airltri
ans was 2500 men; very few prisoners
were taken on either fide, and no cannon.
It was observed that the Pruflians had not
that stomach to figfct as formerly under the
great Frederick ; and had 110 artillery
with them except what is supplied by the
Auftrians. Want of provisions was again
becoming a serious evil among them, and
it was certain unless the campaign was
brought to a fpeeily conrlufion, the coc
plaint would become universal.
11 appears that the armies on the fron.
tiers have had several, less important, ac.
tio k ls th in the above, but none of them de
cifive. It is certain the war was not ac
tively pursued by any of the powers con
cerned in it, and one thing is remarkaole,
that the French troops are generally the
alfailants in every aftioa ; a proot that
they are not intimidated by the German
troops. The cou ltryi.i the vicinity oi the
armies in the Netherlands, isliteraliyeaten
up by the troops employed there. The
1 rench are wife enough to keep the war
beyond the limits of their own country.bj
which means they receive constant sup
plies, but famine fcegan i.eady to dare the
despotic forcej in the face so early as the
middle of May.
It is r.fl" rted that the division of Poland
by the Ruffian and Pruiuan trosps, wa-: i
le ret to t'ie Britilh court till t'-.e moment
it wa effefled. Prizes are rccip ocall)
taken at sea by the maritime powers a:
war, but such is the ast vity and enterprise
of the French, t.iat the ladance was uni
erfally allow ed to be in their favour. A
number of captures made from the French
are retaken by their cruisers A private
letter, and indeed aH the-letter from Fll
- '.represent the i npoffi ijlityof reducing,
or even penetrating France, unless there is
a riling 01 the people againlt their own go
vernment, of. \\ hich there was not, when
these accounts left Furope, thefhadow of 6
probability. It appeared that the ultimate
dependence of the combined powers wa
0-1 the internal diffeations 111 France; il
fhele did not fut-ceed very soon, so a, to
etfeft a counter-revolution, the republic
was forever eftabliflied.
In the Knglifh minillerial papers there arc
many reports of infurrre£tions in Brittany
and other parts of France, and in one of
those papers, of May 23d, there is an ac
count of Nantz Surrendering to the roval
ifts 011 the 21 it of April. It is certain the
royalilts were never more a£live than ;u
this time in France. Several engagement;
had taken place between the insurgent* and
the patriots, nearly 2000 of whom i©d beer
flaiii in the department of tne Loire. The
weltern departments were also more or lef
agitated by the emifiaries of treachery anc
counter revolution, and it was said thai
the territory of Indre and Loire wa, ac
tually in pofleilion of the rebels, with the
towns of Breliuire, Tours, and Loudon.
The great cause of their fucqefs was the
treason of general <Jtiiteneau. an ageni
of Dutnourier, who with an army of
made no refinance to the rebels, but sur
rendered. General Ligonier had succeed
ed him, and was making head with fuccef
againlt the rebels. The Convention de
creed 011 the 10th of May, that eijjht bat
talions (hould be immediately organized tc
march agaiklt the i.ifurgents. Paris hac
already supplied her quota of troops to
march againlt them.—Captain Clements,
commander of a Britilh fquadrom Wfore
Dunkirk, on the 24th of April, (Vnt a fum
1110ns to the French general, commanding
the army at that place, to surrender : and
offering the protection of hngland till the
Confutation co di be life Liijhed on aJhiic
basis. To tills inloleaceihe French com
mander iir.ined.a-ely reiu-ned a fpiiited
answer, declining all epi!tolar> corrdpon
r'ence ; inviting h.in to attack the place,
and he fliould then have fucti an answer as
>ught to terminate all dHluilions between
people of the military cloili.
I ne Auilrlans hadmade a requisition of
supplies from Great Britain, particularly
for 40,000 tons of hay, without v. hich,
they aflured the mi iift'trs. they could not
keep the £?id. The requisition tilled act
less than Sixteen (lieets of paper. All the
necciTaries of flour, oats, beer, pork, peas,
and in Ihort provisions of all kinds, clothes
of every kind were enumerated, without
the aid of which they could not go on—
These circumstances gave great cause of
murmur in England, and it was thought
the demand would go a great way towards
detaching England from the league ot
powers.
On the 28th of April a detachment of
French troops lauded at Gndavefberg, near
B rankfort, about one in the morning, and
advanced unperceived to a battery at which
a detachment ot Pca.fi 1a cannoneers had
been working all night, and where they
were then lying down to reft themselves.
The attack was so nnexpe£fed, that thole
who were not at firll killed or made pri
loners, endeavoured to save themselves in
the neighbouring batteries, but the French
pursued them so closely, that the Saxon
troops, charged with guarding the other
batteries, yielded also to the inipetuoli y
ot tile assailants- The French spiked up or
deltroyed all their artillery, killed a great
number of officers and niatroifes, and tarried
olt a considerable number of prisoners. The
t reach d.d not lose a (ingle man.
General Paoli, at Coriica, h»d refufed
to obey the detsree of tlie Convention to
deliver up the fortifications of that ifl.uid
to the Trench co nmilfioners; arid different
municipalities of the idand had offered to
aSift him, if neceifary, an army of
1 j, 000 men: Yet many 'of the ifiander
had receded from their zeal in protesting
their genera!, having delivered t.p feverai
forts into the hands of the trench.
Six regiments had embarked from Ire
land, joined by 700 enrgrants, to afiiiVrht
infurgenr royalilts on the banks «f t!ic
Loire. The tirtt obje£t of their attack
was to be Nantz, in Brittany. Lord Hoot
was to fail with lies fleet about the 25th o!
May, fdppofsd to favour a descent 011 the
weitern coast of France. The
manned their fleet with the iitmbil difii
cnlty, a.id at the molt extravagant rates.
Tlie Emperor of Germany had agreed t<
exchange general Bournonville, and the
other French comniiiSoners given hp tu
him by Duinoiirier, for Conn: Leniingei:
and others, now held at Paris as homages.
It the French did really lose 4cc? m.-r
(the French acc tint of the matt A' fays 11c
(iicti thing) on the Sth of May, they were
not much disturbed by the dreaqful wash
01 blood, for they not ori'-y kept the field,
lut fought agfein th next cay ; r>r;d on tin
loth it appears that they retired in peiTeci
good order, carried olf their cannon leav
ing the empty batteries in tlie j owi'r o
their cne.nic. , and u e.e neither purftied 01
annoyed by the greatand mighty combine,
armies.' TreaTon inde.d feetas much nior.
tu the relish of tilt u palates than fij h'.ing.
There appears a linking degree of i.nac
tion in the Britilli naval forces. This ex
cited surprize in some, while others ima
gined the ra;>!e to arise from some negoci
atious on ;oot for a ftp.irate peace \fit!
France. It was fur.her said that the Na
tional Convention had offered to refcini
the vefolution of :iie 19th of December lait
011 which the B'itiiti Iniaillfy founded hof
tilities, viz their determination of extend
ing the principles of -fraternity to anyothe
Hate- lii which cafe the Frer.ch might Lu
defiance to ail that Aultria and I'ruffia couii
bring against them.
'the head quarters of general Ctiftint
are at Weifl'enberg : the am y under hi
command is jo.cco strong, and in a uiof
d vantage ou position, being mcampcc
between Weifienberg and Lauterbarp
flron;-ly entrenched", and their works luai
be deemed a ui dier-piece of military ar
chiteiture. On one fide of the eainp is tin
Rhni£, ou the other a vast iiuf.iy heath
which reaches to the Vofgefian mountains.
As longai Cuftine can maintain thispofition
it was allow d to be impofiibie for the
Austrian and Pruifian armies to perforß:
ally important exploit.
Advices had be<?n received in England
'not official) that a Ruffian and Sweddl
leet were getting ready for an expeditioi;
:o the coalu < f Fiance; to be lurnilhev
* ith 40,000 seamen, and 14,000 marines,
iv«o uei e to attempt a landing famew hett
between Brest and in aid of the in
"urgent*, who mere expeflcd to join theft
foroign forces with jo, Or to 000 Nor
mans and Bretons, extlufive of the nume
rous concealcd mal-co,tents iiong tin
.oalt, and thus united, attempt a counter
revolution.
Fcr the National Gazette.
To X. Y. junior, a writer i 1 the Feierc..
Gazette, of Fridav, the 12th inltant.'
■SIR,
yHt plausible declaration prefacing ycu'
late production, will rail induce me to
iippofe, that yon have iominented autl t
frem motives purely patriot re, virti)ons
and dilinterelted. No iir : the wbjeit and
tendency of your Efi'ay prove the contr >r)
I apprehend you have embarked m ass an
ilaious a cause as evardifgracea the ill.no
or pen of a\y fcribler. However, you a, e
not accufad of being the origin : No: cir-
Lumft uii.es authorize a lieliei that you aie
the instrument only . How reputable, f.ou
d:g:i;liL-d the agency ! —to be a jackall, and
that to mi iniel'iwr -animal! Misery and
ought ever to be dteu.ed fit
ered. If impelled by tlie preflingnec flity of
either of these motives you have nn.
ken the bufmefj, you are in part excniable
To Tome inch cause mult be attributed
your interference, as I cannot suppose a \y
peiTon so toft to decency and truth, as u
volunteer in so base j cause.
You not only fath?r, and advocate the
obloquy and scurrility poured forth by
your namesake X. Y . in Mr. Brown's Fe
deral Giizeti e of the 10th inllant, agamlfc
Mr. Genet, the French mimlter, but sllfc
continue the fame strain of illiberal mouIV,
and that without a lhadow of provocation,
againlt the calm a id temperate remarks
of the writer who hinjfelf An Alop~
ted Citizen, whose sole oi 'k'cl appears ro
have been to prove, arguing from princi
ples of policy and common sense, that tlie
intereit of the Union collettively was pro
moted in proportion to the number of
persons who came from other countricv t&
elide among us, and that such ought m
be coufidered us objects rather of encou*
ragement than defamation. However, it
is but too rhanifeft, that ynti were not em
ployed lor the purpofo of overthrowing
irgnments. No : you have prosecuted a
aulinefs apparently more %>ngeniai to your
dwii mind, namely, scurrility and perfon
afabufe.
Your indignation, Sir, seems to know
no limits when you come to mention fo
reigners. In jotvr mind it is a crime to
be born out of the United States. Unfor
tunate aliens ! what will become of you,
asour author will, no doubt, ailert, when
he next refutne.vhis pen for the purpose of
informing the public mind, that Adam
was a V ai:kee, and New England the gar
de ■< of PsradiJe, that both himfeif and his
beloved cruntellor were siefcended in a
right line from Abel's brother, and that
from these confiderarions no emigrant or
foreigner ought to cope with them, or ha
zard even a remark where native and real
Americans are concerned. But, Mr. X.
Y. Junior, is not jour employer in this
dirty bu finds an emigrant i is he not a
turbulent enc, and on this account totally
unfit lor the business in which he is ergag-
Permit me. Sir, before I takd Ttiy leave
oifyou, to alit ho v yotj would like, circum
llanced as you arc in this city, to have
your mall: torn off, and be held up to pub
be view asthe ' ife inllriment of calum
ny and the aitallin of private character?
would not such an exhibition prove your
ruin? Hid you for a moment reflected
n the tit 1 iiery and breach of confidence
inanifelted 5y your employer in the hints
he gave you as the outlines of your efl'ay,
you would with indignation have spurned
..he dirty j b. fl<uvever, Sir, I leave you
for tire present to the uninterrupted en
joyment of the ui'ual confeejuences of limi
lar production . namely, vexation, dijap
■ o.utment, and nmcje.
PAULUS.
Jul> 16.
For tht National Gazette.
F EING afpeftatorat the late perform
ance of Mr. Rickets, which was intend
ed for thebenefitofthe poor,l was natural
ly led to fun ey the number and characters
us the company who had so eagerly em
braced an opportunity to second the liberal
designs of the performer; and I was hap
>y to disco: er that it was compofeii of the
jc-lt of our citizens j who, no doubt, walk
ed to the Cireus, not to gratify their eyes
ly viewing the exploits of a Hulled horfe
nan, or the conumptiblt scene of Johnny
3ilpin,of please theirhearing by the trifling
ivit of the Clown ; but, merely to erjay
'Jie Jatitfaltiou of contributing to alleviate
'he diflrejjes jgf the vjrttched. These pious
gentlemen, (who lately opposed a (imilar
iuiufeiueut,) through the exercise ol the
.veiling evidenced the fatisfa&ion they felt
from the abilities of the performers, and
he jollity of certain contingent circum
tanees. It aituaiiy appeared as if the huz
sa bad become aCuoihrute for amen.&ias
one hand met the other instead of the
breast.
1 am jaflihed in making these strictures
nn the appeal ance of such gentlemen " in
'uch a place." : 0111 the inconsistency it will
donbtlefs form in their characters, it is
certain that pcrfunj were prefenr ivho
: itely, in a violent manner, opposed the
legality of Theatres ; and who hav re
fined, or similar oe< alions, to cast in their
mite; all b cause the Theatre was made
the channel! \> lien a deltru£tive fire re
duced fevtral valuable citizens to great
exigencies, the Old American Company
ativcrciied anigbt for their relief, and in
.n.de having a crowded house, (as was
the cafe w nk the Circus) to their own tuk
pnze - lid regfel, ti'.cy found themle.vts
unable to grant more than 178 dollars.
Tins i fiance proves that the prejudices
of the fe' men are so implanted in them by
education, that in one instance they reject
the reafo 1, Jiitl in tlie other gladly vindi
cate it propriety by their own exampJe.
Let ludi men anf'.ver, whether there is
more criminality in attending the Theatre,
than ill placing ihemieUes in a barefaced
nianuer to vie u the more trifling and lejt
iujtrn.ii. at; iiii tne-i 1s? of the Circus.'' Let
th':",!i, 1 n bed iu their holy vestments, put
their hands 011 their 1:> .rts and declare luch
c:np.< v i.n'j.t t.eii'c tdtfying than lilleniuj