page_title: Siege of Ragusa
section_title: Siege
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Ragusa / Siege
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Captain Hoste of H.M.S. Amphion, his sword in his left hand, standing on the foreshore by an anchor signed and dated 'H. Edridge 1811.' (lower left) pencil and grey wash with touches of pink wash, on paper 42.6 x 30.5 cm.
context_page_description: The Siege of Ragusa or Siege of Dubrovnik was fought between local Ragusan insurgents, as well as Austrian Croat troops and the British Royal Navy under Captain William Hoste against a French garrison under Joseph de Montrichard between 19 and 27 January 1814 during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. The siege was fought on the coast of the Adriatic Sea for possession of the strategically important fortified town of Ragusa.
context_section_description: When Bacchante arrived at Ragusa on 19 January Hoste landed and visited Milutinovitch to see the situation. He had with him two Croat battalions of 400 men but they were without artillery, so Hoste improvised. On the morning of the 22nd Hoste immediately went into action and four mortars and two guns were landed and opened fire on San Lorenzo fort and the defences of the town. The French answered with a heavy fire from all batteries and Hoste soon knew that Ragusa would not be easy to take. Hoping to use the same successful tactics that won him Kotor, Hoste set about the task of seeking strategic positions. He soon eyed the forts and positions on the hill of Srđ overlooking the town and the nearby Lokrum island east of the town. By taking these positions he knew Ragusa would not last long under siege; Milutinović agreed with him.
  To secure the approaches to the town on 24 January a third of Bacchante's crew (around 100 men) under Lieutenant Milbourne and his men rounded Srđ hill at the back of Ragusa with two eighteen-pounder guns, a distance of some 6 miles. They soon bombarded the small French garrison on Lokrum, Royal Marines landed and then took the island after a small fight which yielded eleven guns. On the road to Brgat the Royal Marines cut off the French water supply and also took the Monastery of St. Jacob east of the City.
  At the same time Hoste asked Milutinović to attack the Imperial Fortress on top of the hill of Srđ, Milutinović agreed as long as Hoste supported him with artillery fire. This was agreed and by the end of the day, and despite some losses, the Croats were on top of Srđ forcing the seventy French gunners either to surrender or flee; this yielded twenty one guns. Hoste then ordered artillery to be ferried ashore and from the northern part of Gruž then taken up to the slopes of Srđ. Hoste, who had refused to supply cannon to the Ragusans on earlier occasions, did so now by supplying Milutinovitch with one large and two smaller cannons, and permitted them to stand by the batteries under British command.
  Now the full complement of the siege guns were brought to bear: two mortars, two 16-pounders, and six 18-pounders as well as the guns on Bacchante and Saracaen and the captured French guns both on top of Srd and on Lokrum island. Hoste ordered the bombardment which continued on to next day without ceasing. He targeted the main towers of the Ragusa fortress; the Minčeta Tower, Fort Bokar and the Revelin Fortress. Then on the 2nd day being the 26th the Royal navy ships opened up a bombardment from the sea concentrating their fire on the ports St. John Fortress.
  This was all too much for Montrichard: cut off for four months, losing many of his troops though defection, suffering a revolt in the surrounding region three months earlier and riots inside the town having flared up, he decided the only option was to surrender. He sent out a truce on the morning of the 27th and to request the British batteries to cease fire. Hoste agreed and the siege of Ragusa had ended.
caption: Captain William Hoste
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.11", "Image DateTime": "2010:11:14 08:58:44", "Image ExifOffset": "146", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "282", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5577", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "886", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1240"}