Battle of Wattignies The Battle of Wattignies was fought at the village of Wattignies - la - Victoire , France , on 15 and 16 October 1793 during the French Revolutionary Wars . The French army commanded by Jean - Baptiste Jourdan and Lazare Carnot defeated the army of Habsburg Austria led by Prince Josias of Coburg . This French victory of the War of the First Coalition forced Coburg to lift the siege of Maubeuge and retreat eastward . Wattignies is located nine km south - southeast of Maubeuge . Description . Plans . On 13 September , Feldmarschall Coburg ' s army accepted the surrender of the fortress of Le Quesnoy from its 4 , 000 surviving French defenders . The Austrian army moved 24 km east and laid siege to Maubeuge and its 20 , 000 - man garrison under General of Division ( MG ) Jacques Ferrand on 30 September . Coburg assigned an Austrian - Dutch corps of 20 , 000 men led by General William V , Prince of Orange to prosecute the siege , while Feldzeugmeister François Clerfayt de Croix ' s corps covered the operation . Coburg disposed Clerfayt ' s covering force of 21 , 000 astride the Avesnes - Maubeuge road , facing south . The 5 , 000 troops on the right rested their flank on the Sambre . The 9 , 000 soldiers of the centre deployed on a ridge in an amphitheatre of woods . The remaining 7 , 000 men defended the plateau of Wattignies on the left flank . The French revolutionary army gathered at Avesnes - sur - Helpe , 18 km to the south of Maubeuge . The French Committee of Public Safety considered the situation of such critical importance that it sent Carnot to personally order MG Jourdan to the immediate relief of Ferrand ' s garrison . The long line of woods enabled the Army of the North to deploy unseen . MG Jacques Pierre Fromentin ' s 14 , 000 men of the left flank moved to attack the western end of the Austrian line . The 16 , 000 - strong right wing under MG Florent Joseph Duquesnoy advanced towards Wattignies on the east . MG Antoine Balland and 13 , 000 troops demonstrated in the centre until the other columns had succeeded in their mission . At that time , Balland was to attack . Meanwhile , the Maubeuge garrison was to sally out . However , this part of the programme miscarried . Even without the Maubeuge garrison Jourdan had a two - to - one superiority . But the French were still the undisciplined enthusiasts of the Battle of Hondschoote . Historian Michael Glover presents Carnot as a meddler . He writes of the politically powerful Committee of Public Safety member , Carnot ' s talents as ' the organizer of victory ' are beyond dispute , but his tactical skills were minimal , a defect he concealed by a careful rewriting of history . To drive away a poorly led covering force of 20 , 000 with the 45 , 000 available to the Army of the North should have posed no great problem , but the business was sadly bungled . Carnot insisted that there should be a double encircling movement , a favorite maneuver of his , combined with a frontal attack , thus carefully dispersing the French numerical superiority . 15 October . The French left attack progressed as long as it could use dead ground in the valleys . But , when the Republicans reached the gentler slopes above , the volleys of the Austrian regulars crushed their skirmisher swarms , and the Austrian cavalry , striking them in flank , rode over them . The centre attack , ordered by Carnot on the assumption that all was well on the flanks , was premature . Like the advance on the left , it progressed while the slopes were sharp . But , when the Republicans arrived on the crest they found a gentle reverse slope before them , at the foot of which were Coburg ' s best troops . Again , disciplined volleys and a well - timed cavalry charge swept back the assailants . The French right reached , but could not hold , Wattignies . 16 October . The first day ' s reverses were , in the eyes of Carnot and Jourdan , mere mishaps . According to one account , Jourdan wished to renew the left attack , but Carnot , the engineer , considered the Wattignies plateau the key of the position and his opinion prevailed . Glover ' s narrative differs from the official view , . . . so on the following day , that on which Marie Antoinette was executed , Jourdan followed his own judgment , concentrated overwhelming strength on his right , and , not without difficulty , turned the Battle of Wattignies . . . into a victory , relieving Maubeuge . Carnot returned to Paris with his own version of events and no love for General Jourdan . In the night the nearly equal partition of force , which was largely responsible for the failure , was modified , and the strength of the attack massed opposite Wattignies . Coburg meanwhile strengthened his wings . He had heard , wrongly , that Jourdan had been reinforced up to 100 , 000 . But , he called up few fresh battalions , and put into line only 23 , 000 men . In reality Jourdan had not received reinforcements , and the effects of the first day ' s failure almost neutralized the French superiority of numbers and enthusiasm over the Austrians ' discipline and confidence . On 16 October after a long fight , the French army managed to win the plateau and forced Coburg to lift the siege of Maubeuge and retire to the east . French losses numbered 5 , 000 killed , wounded , and missing , plus 27 artillery pieces captured . The Austrians suffered 2 , 500 killed and wounded , while an additional 500 men were captured .