page_title: Mediterranean campaign of 1793–1796
section_title: Corsica
hierarchical_section_title: Mediterranean campaign of 1793–1796 / Corsica
caption_attribution_description: English: Print depicting the wounding of Horatio Nelson at the Siege of Calvi, 1794
context_page_description: The Mediterranean campaign of 1793–1796 was a major theater of conflict in the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars. Fought during the War of the First Coalition, the campaign was primarily contested in the Western Mediterranean between the French Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, based at Toulon in Southern France, and the British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, supported by the Spanish Navy and the smaller navies of several Italian states. Major fighting was concentrated in the Ligurian Sea, and focused on British maintenance of and French resistance to a British close blockade of the French Mediterranean coast. Additional conflict spread along Mediterranean trade routes, contested by individual warships and small squadrons.
  The campaign began early in the War of the First Coalition, with an unsuccessful French attack on the neutral island of Sardinia in December 1792. In February 1793, France declared war on Great Britain, and Britain dispatched a fleet to the Mediterranean under Admiral Lord Hood to protect its trade routes in the region.
context_section_description: At the start of 1794 Hood's fleet was anchored off the Îles d'Hyères. Hood gave orders for landings to be made on Corsica in preparation for seizing the island from the French and making use of the Bay of San Fiorenzo as a fleet anchorage; Corsica had been in open rebellion against France since July 1793, under the command of Pasquale Paoli. Landings were made at San Fiorenzo in early February, and despite effective resistance British land forces, working in conjunction with Corsican irregulars, had seized the town's main defences by 18 February, forcing the French garrison to abandon the two frigates in the bay and retreat across the Serra Mountains to Bastia.
  Bastia was a much larger town with a significant garrison, and a bitter argument between Hood and army commander David Dundas delayed operations, until Dundas resigned. The attack was led by Nelson and Colonel William Villettes, who staged landings near Bastia on 4 April. An attack from the sea was driven off by heated shot, and the strength of the town's gun batteries resulted in a lengthy siege through May.  Bastia surrendered on 22 May when food supplies ran out. Cheered by successive British victories, Paoli staged elections among the Corsican population on 1 June, and by 16 June had ratified a new constitution that confirmed the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom as a self-governing part of the British Empire.
  The final operation was at Calvi, where two large forts blocked the approaches to the town. Substantial British reinforcements had arrived from Gibraltar, led by Charles Stuart, and he and Nelson landed an expeditionary force near Calvi on 17 June. After British batteries were established on commanding positions, the French forts came under attack. Fort Mollinochesco was abandoned by 6 July, while Fort Mozello was stormed and captured on 18 July by forces under John Moore. British casualties were significant; Nelson lost an eye during the fighting, and more than a thousand British soldiers were reported sick with dysentery and malaria. Over several weeks the town was battered into surrender, taking heavy damage and capitulating following extended negotiations on 10 August.
  The British sent their prisoners to Toulon on seven cartel ships, including Sovereign. The French initially detained the vessels there, but later released them.
  Hood and his fleet were absent for the siege of Calvi as the French fleet, following extensive repairs, had finally emerged from Toulon under Contre-amiral Pierre Martin on 5 June. On 11 June the fleets were within sight of one another, the French retreating into Gourjean Bay. Hood planned an attack, but the operation was deemed too dangerous. Hood withdrew, leaving a large squadron under Vice-Admiral William Hotham to blockade the bay, although Hotham's force was driven off by a storm and Martin succeeded in returning to Toulon in November.
  Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, the ship of the line HMS Ardent disappeared on patrol off Villefranche-sur-Mer in April, presumed lost in an explosion with all hands. On convoy protection in the Eastern Mediterranean, Romney encountered the French frigate Sibylle in Mykonos harbour. Captain William Paget attacked the frigate and in the ensuing Battle of Mykonos forced the French captain to surrender. In the early autumn the 70-year old Hood was recalled to Britain in Victory, Hotham taking command of the fleet and blockade. In December there was a minor mutiny at San Fiorenzo on HMS Windsor Castle that Hotham resolved peacefully. In the last weeks of the year, Martin sent a frigate squadron on a raiding cruise in the Mediterranean under Commodore Jean-Baptiste Perrée, capturing 25 merchant vessels and 600 prisoners before returning on 7 January 1795.
caption: Loss of his Eye Before Calvi, 1808. Print depicting the wounding of Nelson during the siege. NMM.
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