Battle of Valmy The Battle of Valmy was the first major victory by the army of France during the Revolutionary Wars that followed the French Revolution . The action took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops commanded by the Duke of Brunswick attempted to march on Paris . Generals François Kellermann and Charles Dumouriez stopped the advance near the northern village of Valmy in Champagne - Ardenne . In this early part of the Revolutionary Wars — known as the War of the First Coalition — the new French government was in most every way unproven , and thus the small , localized victory at Valmy became a huge psychological victory for the Revolution at large . The battle was considered a " miraculous " event and a " decisive defeat " for the vaunted Prussian army . After the battle , the newly assembled National Convention was emboldened enough to formally declare the end of monarchy in France and the establishment of the First French Republic . Valmy permitted the development of the Revolution and all its resultant ripple effects , and for that it is regarded as one of the most significant battles of all time . Background . In the war ' s early encounters , French troops did not distinguish themselves , and enemy forces advanced dangerously deep into France intending to pacify the country , restore the traditional monarchy , and end the Revolution . King Frederick William II of Prussia had the support of Great Britain and the Austrian Empire to send the Duke of Brunswick towards Paris with a large army . Brunswick ' s allied invasion force of veteran Prussian and Austrian troops was augmented by large complements of Hessians and the French royalist Army of Condé . The French commander Dumouriez , meanwhile , had been marching his army northeast to attack the Austrian Netherlands , but this plan was abandoned because of the more immediate threat to Paris . Just over half of the infantry of Dumouriez ' s army were regulars of the old Royal Army , as were nearly all of the cavalry and , most importantly , the artillery . These provided a professional core to steady the enthusiastic volunteer battalions raised in June and July 1791 . Battle . The invading army handily captured Longwy on 23 August and Verdun on 2 September , then moved on toward Paris through the defile s of the Forest of Argonne . In response , Dumouriez halted his advance to the Netherlands and reversed course , approaching the enemy army from its rear . From Metz , Kellermann moved to his assistance , joining him at the village of Sainte - Menehould on 19 September . The French forces were now east of the Prussians , behind their lines . Theoretically the Prussians could have marched straight towards Paris unopposed , but this course was never seriously considered : the threat to their lines of supply and communication was too great to be ignored . The unfavorable situation was compounded by bad weather and an alarming increase in sickness among the troops . With few other options available , Brunswick turned back and prepared to do battle . Brunswick headed through the northern woods believing he could cut off Dumouriez . At the moment when the Prussian manœuvre was nearly completed , Kellermann advanced his left wing and took up a position on the slopes between Sainte - Menehould and Valmy . His command centered around an old windmill , and his veteran artillerists were well - placed upon its accommodating rise to begin the " Cannonade of Valmy " . As the Prussians emerged from the woods , a long - range gunnery duel ensued and the French batteries proved superior . The Prussian infantry made a cautious , and fruitless , effort to advance under fire across the open ground . As the Prussians wavered , a pivotal moment was reached when Kellermann raised his hat and made his famous cry of " " Vive la Nation " . " The cry was repeated again and again by all the army , and had a crushing effect upon Prussian morale . To the surprise of nearly everyone , Brunswick broke off the action and retired from the field . The Prussians rounded the French positions at a great distance and commenced a rapid retreat eastward . The two forces had been essentially equal in size , Kellermann with approximately 36 , 000 troops and 40 cannon , and Brunswick with 34 , 000 and 54 cannon . Yet by the time Brunswick retreated , casualties had risen no higher than three hundred French and two hundred Prussians . Prussian retreat . The precipitous end to the action provoked elation among the French . The question of exactly why the Prussians withdrew has never been definitively answered . Most historians ascribe the retreat to some combination of the following factors : the highly defensible French position together with the rapidly growing numbers of reinforcements and citizen volunteers with their discouraging and thoroughly unexpected " élan " persuaded the cautious Brunswick to spare himself a dangerous loss of manpower , particularly when the Russian invasion of Poland had already raised concerns for Prussia ' s defensibility in the east . Others have put forward more shadowy motives for the decision , including a secret plea by Louis XVI to avoid an action which might cost him his life , and even bribery of the Prussians , allegedly paid for with the Bourbon crown jewels . Brunswick had actually been offered command of the French armies prior to the outbreak of war and emigre factions subsequently used this as a basis to allege treachery on his part . However no proof of this charge exists and the more likely explanation remains that , having initially adopted an aggressive strategy , he lacked the will to carry it through when confronted by an unexpectedly determined and disciplined opposition . In any case , the battle ended decisively , the French pursuit was not seriously pressed , and Brunswick ' s troops managed a safe if inglorious eastward retreat . Aftermath . This engagement was the turning point of the Prussians ' campaign . Beset with food shortages and dysentery , their retreat continued well past the Rhine river . French troops soon struck forward into Germany , taking Mainz in October . Dumouriez once again moved against the Austrian Netherlands and Kellermann ably secured the front at Metz . Dumouriez would bear a harsh change of fortune : after one more influential success in November 1792 at Jemappes , he was by the following year a broken man . His army had suffered such catastrophic losses that he defected to the royalist side for the rest of his life . Kellermann , however , continued in a long and distinguished military career . In 1808 he was ennobled by Napoleon and he took as his title the Duke of Valmy . Legacy . In the varied historiography of the French Revolution , the battle of Valmy is often portrayed as the first victory of a citizen army , inspired by liberty and nationalism . Many thousands of volunteers did indeed swell the ranks , but at least half of the French forces were professional regulars , particularly among Kellermann ' s critical artillery units which were widely regarded as the best in Europe at the time . The French artillery also held a tactical advantage in its modern Gribeauval gun system which proved highly successful on the battlefield . But in popular conception , Valmy was a victory of citizen - soldiers : the battle was emblemized by Kellermann ' s cry , augmented by the troops ' famed singing of the " Marseillaise " and the " Ça Ira " while under fire . On the very day of the battle , the Legislative Assembly had duly transferred its power to the National Convention . Over the next two days , flush with the news from Valmy , the new Convention deputies abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the French Republic . The Prussians themselves recognized the importance of the battle , not merely as a setback to one of the most effective armies in Europe but as a crucial buttress to the revolutionary French state . The famous German writer and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who was present at the battle with the Prussian army , later wrote that he was approached by some of his comrades in a state of dejection . He had previously cheered them up with memorable and clever quotes but his only consolation this time was , " From this place , and from this day forth begins a new era in the history of the world , and you can all say that you were present at its birth . "