Battle of Villers - en - Cauchies In the Battle of Villers - en - Cauchies , fought on 24 April 1794 , a small Anglo - Austrian cavalry force routed a vastly more numerous French division during the Flanders Campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars . Villers - en - Cauchies is 15 km south of Valenciennes . Background . At the beginning of the 1794 campaign in Flanders , Allied forces led by the Prince of Saxe - Coburg advanced against the French Army of the North ( " Armée du Nord " ) under Charles Pichegru , and by mid April had begun investing the fortified town of Landrecies , while the army took position in a broad semi - circle to cover the operation . On 23 April a French force was mustered in an attempt to cut off the column of General Ludwig von Wurmb from the rest of the observation army ( the corps of Clerfayt and the Duke of York ) . Wurmb ' s command lay in a cordon of detachments between Denain and Hellesmes . All the available French troops from Cambrai and Bouchain were assembled under the command of René Chapuis , the commandant of Cambrai , and were reinforced by troops that had been dispatched from Caesar ' s Camp on 21 April by General de Division André Drut , comprising 5 , 000 infantry , commanded by General de Brigade Jean Proteau , and 1 , 500 cavalry with 4 light cannon under General de Brigade Jacques Bonnaud . The combined command was 15 , 000 Foot and 4 , 500 Horse ( Austrian reports estimate them as 30 , 000 ) . This command crossed the river Escaut on 23 April and advanced in four columns , the first from Bouchain towards Douchy , the second from Hordain on Noyelles ; the third from Iwuy on Avesnes - le - Sec , and the last from Cambrai against Iwuy . The French debouched onto the heights of Douchy and drove back Wurmb ' s Austrian outposts before crossing the river Écaillon , then sent detachments towards le Quesnoy and Valenciennes . This movement had the effect of cutting direct communication between Le Cateau and Denain , causing Clerfayt to dispatch reinforcements to Wurmb . However the French dared not push further ahead , fearing attacks on their flanks , so halted their advance and limited themselves to cannonades and skirmishing . On hearing reports of the combat the Duke of York at Le Cateau sent his deputy , the Austrian Lieutenant General ( " Feldmarschall - Leutnant " ) Rudolf Ritter von Otto in the direction of Villers - en - Cauchies to reconnoitre the enemy . Otto took two squadrons of the Austrian 17th " Archduke Leopold " Hussars and two squadrons of the British 15th Light Dragoons to scout the movement . Realising there was a substantial force before him Otto withdrew and called for reinforcements . During the evening 10 more squadrons were sent forward , consisting of a division of the Austrian Zeschwitz Cuirassiers , two squadrons of British light dragoons and a British heavy dragoon brigade of 6 squadrons commanded by John Mansel . As these were not able to join Otto before nightfall the attack was postponed until the next morning . Battle . On the morning of the 24th patrols informed Otto that the French were in the same position as the previous evening , and he immediately resolved to attack , deploying the four advanced squadrons with him . The two squadrons of Leopold Hussars ( 112 men ) on the right commanded by Colonel Szentkereszti , ; the 15th Light Dragoons ( 160 men ) drew up on the left under Major William Aylett . The Advance Guard was guided by Otto ' s aide - de - camp Captain Daniel Mécsery , who had an intimate knowledge of the terrain . Behind and in support lay Mansel ' s British heavy dragoon brigade ( two squadrons each of the Blues , the 1st and 3rd Dragoon Guards ) , and much further back in reserve lay the Zeschwitz Kurassiers and British Light Dragoons . At 7 . 00 am the Advance Guard rode from St . Pithon via the valley of the Selle towards Montrecourt to turn the French right . Near there Mecsery spotted in the underbrush 300 French chasseurs and 4 or 500 Hussars of the former Esterhazy Regiment ( i . e . the French 3rd Hussars ) . The Advance Guard was halted and Mecsery climbed a slight hill , from which he could see the bulk of the French cavalry ( Bonnaud ' s command ) hidden likewise in the underbrush , with a screen of scouts to their front . The Allied advance guard therefore moved towards their right , followed 600 paces behind by their support , obliging the French to mount the plateau and form up facing Otto at 400 paces . After observing for a moment , the French cavalry then retired and reformed near to and to the east of six battalions of infantry assembled between Viller - en - Cauchies and Avesnes - le - Sec . At this time , the Austrian leader heard that Emperor Francis II was nearby with a small retinue . Mecsery ' s Advance Guard , thinking they were supported by Mansel ' s brigade began to charge the left flank of Bonnaud ' s cavalry , but when they reached 60 paces the French cavalry made a half turn and galloped off , exposing the six battalions behind . Seeing themselves thus uncovered the French infantry formed square and opened fire on the advancing enemy Advance Guard . The Allied cavalry halted while Szentkereszti and Mecsery gave energetic speeches , then they charged straight onto the oblong square formed by the French battalions , rupturing one wall and seizing 4 cannons . A part of the infantry took to flight , the rest continued to fire , and were joined by flanking artillery support fire from supporting columns on each side , but Mecsery ' s Advance Guard charged again , the remainder of the infantry broke and ran in the direction of Caesar ' s Camp . These infantry units , who belonged to René Chapuis ' s command at Cambrai had been defeated some days earlier on the same plains while under General Declaye , so their discouragement can be understood . Otto attributed the success to Captain Mecsery , and noted that had they been supported by Mansel ' s brigade the French would have been utterly destroyed . But for some reason , later explained as a ' mixed - up of orders ' Mansel ' s command had halted , the entire attack was made by the vastly outnumbered members of the Advance Guard . The allied horse pursued the fleeing Frenchmen for 8 miles in the direction of Bouchain . Seeing the defeat , two French flank guards of 5 , 000 men each on each side of the defeated column hastily retired on Cambrai , covered by cavalry . Otto ' s men withdrew on Saint - Aubert to reform , but Bonnaud ' s cavalry had meanwhile recovered and counterattacked . Otto however , was now reinforced with 3 squadrons of Austrian Hussars ( one Archduke Ferdinand , two Karaczay ) and two pieces of horse artillery , which bombarded the French and menaced their flank , forcing them to retreat once more . Bonnaud blamed Chapuis ' infantry in his report , " . . . we were attacked on all sides and they threw a lot of cavalry on our right which , supported by nothing , was at first forced back . The infantry were placed in route , the cavalry , especially the Carabiniers , the 13th Dragoons , the 5th and 6th Hussars , did their duty well and had to repair the lack of energy displayed by the infantry " Results . That afternoon , as Otto re - established communications between the Duke of York and Denain , Clerfayt did the same thing on the side of Valenciennes . The Hanoverian General Maydel had been reinforced , giving him a total of 7 battalions , 2 companies and 13 squadrons . Leaving part of these at Douchy , with the rest he drove the French from Haspres , supported on the opposite side by Mansel ' s brigade which Otto had detached . This double movement against the French advanced on Douchy threatened to cut their retreat on Bouchain , causing them to hastily withdraw . The retreat became a rout when the French artillery drivers panicked and cut their traces , the whole column then took to flight . Pichegru made light of the French losses and exaggerated the bravery of the French troops , claiming among other things that " a single squadron of the 6th Hussars had sabred 600 Hungarian Hussars and made 60 prisoners " Chandler says the French admitted 1 , 200 killed , wounded and captured out of a force of 7 , 000 men . These figures are not backed up by other sources and may be totals for the whole operation . York ' s report states that at Villers - en - Cauchies the French lost 900 killed , 400 wounded and only 10 unwounded prisoners . They also lost 5 cannons . The Austrians lost 10 killed and wounded and 10 missing . British casualties were 58 killed and 17 wounded . Emperor Francis II awarded 8 British officers involved in this action with a special gold medal since at that time it wasn ' t possible to award the Military Order of Maria Theresia upon foreigners ; later , in 1801 , after a change in the order ' s statutes , these same officers were appointed Knights of the Military Order of Maria Theresia . The recipients were Major William Aylett ; Captain Robert Pocklington ; Captain Edward Michael Ryan ; Lieutenant Thomas Granby Calcraft ; Lieutenant William Keir ; Lieutenant Charles Burrell Blount ; Cornet Edward Gerald Butler and Cornet Robert Thomas Wilson . Of this medal only 9 pieces have been struck : 8 awarded and one preserved at the " Münzkabinett " in Vienna . Besides the mentioned piece preserved in Vienna , two original groups of medal and Maria Theresia ' s Cross appeared on the collecting market resp . in 1966 ( belonged to Cornet E . Butler ) and in 1967 ( Capt . R . Pocklington ) , both sold by Spink & Son , London ; the second , auctioned by Sotheby ' s in 1903 , later in the Whitaker collection , this dissolved from 1959 onwards . Commentary . During the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars , the French cavalry was particularly weak compared to the cavalry of their enemies . Historians blame this weakness on the loss of many aristocratic cavalry officers who fled France during the Revolution . In addition , the French infantry was filled with raw conscripts who were still learning their trade . Soon , the quality of the French cavalry and infantry would greatly improve as the officers and soldiers absorbed hard lessons at the hands of their enemies . Chapuis would suffer a further and even greater humiliation at Beaumont - en - Cambresis ( Troisvilles ) on the 26th . The next major engagement would be the Battle of Tourcoing on 17 – 18 May .