At the end of August, 1792, General Dumouriez--in face of the rapid
advance of the Prussians, who were besieging Verdun, and of the
Austrians, who were drawing near Stenay--was forced to abandon his
proposed offensive in Belgium, and continue on the defensive. Divining
the intentions of the enemy to reach first the Aisne and then Châlons,
in order to march on Paris, he decided to block the roads from Lorraine
into Champagne by a defence of the Argonne. On September 1, he marched
from Sedan on Grandpré, whence on the 3rd he despatched a detachment
against St. Juvin. With his right resting on the Plateau de Marcq, his
left on Grandpré, and his artillery parked at Senuc, he took up his
headquarters at the Château of Grandpré, the property of one of his
friends, Semonville. His lieutenant, Dillon, occupied Les Islettes and
the course of the Biesme as far as Passavant-en-Argonne, with
headquarters at Grange-aux-Bois. General Kellermann was marching to join
Dumouriez, and arrived by the Toul-Bar road. At the call of Dumouriez,
the inhabitants of the districts of Clermont and Bar retired to the
forests of the Argonne with all the provisions and supplies which they
could carry with them.
On September 7, the Duke of Brunswick and the King of Prussia viewed the
Pass of Les Islettes and the high ground of the Biesme from the summit
of Clermont Hill. Judging their capture impossible, or too costly, they
preferred to turn the position by forcing one of the three other passes
held by Dumouriez: Grandpré, Croix-aux-Bois, or Chesne Populeux. Their
choice fell on the Croix-aux-Bois defile, whose capture was entrusted to
the Austrian General Clerfayt. Meanwhile feint attacks were made on
Briquenay and Marcq, before Les Islettes and Grandpré, in order to
deceive Dumouriez. On the 12th, Clerfayt took the Croix-aux-Bois pass.
One of Dumouriez’s lieutenants, Chazot, recaptured it on the 14th, but
lost it again on the same day, and was obliged to retire. Threatened
with having his position turned and his army surrounded, Dumouriez
decided to retreat immediately, and occupied Termes, Olizy, and
Beaurepaire, in order to protect himself against a possible advance by
Clerfayt. Brunswick sent a messenger with a flag of truce to propose a
parley. Whilst the bearer was vainly waiting in the French outposts at
Marcq for permission to proceed to Dumouriez’s headquarters, the latter,
who had waited till nightfall in order to conceal his movements from the
enemy, struck his camp. At 8 a.m. on the 15th he crossed the Aisne over
the bridges of Senuc and Grand-Ham and marched towards Cernay, thus
saving his army. Chazot’s Division alone, which had received orders to
proceed from Vouziers to join the army at Montcheutin, arrived too late.
Attacked by the Prussian Hussars in the Plain of Montcheutin, it
retreated in confusion, the panic spreading to the rest of the army,
with the exception of the vanguard which held the Prussian Hussars’
advance. Dumouriez, without resorting to extreme measures, endeavoured
to restore the morale of his troops: a few deserters, after having their
heads shaved and having been deprived of their uniforms as unworthy to
wear them, were publicly dismissed the service. The army quickly pulled
itself together, and hastened to make good its previous weakness.
Contrary to the opinion of many, who believed he would retire on Châlons
in order more easily to effect a junction with Kellermann, Dumouriez
decided not to abandon the Sainte-Menehould position. Leaving Dillon’s
advance guard at Chalade, in Les Islettes, and in the south of the
Argonne, he established himself in front of Sainte-Menehould, on the
plateau where Maffrecourt, Chaudefontaine, and Braux-Sainte-Cohière
stand. Thus, while no longer covering the Paris road, he threatened the
rear of the Allies.
Brunswick, who had left Grandpré and was already on the Châlons road,
was forced to stop and face Dumouriez. Fearing that Dumouriez, by
retreating, would once more escape, the King of Prussia, acting hastily
and in opposition to the plans of Brunswick, ordered the march which
brought his army to Valmy. On September 20, his army established itself
opposite Valmy, five miles west of St. Menehould, on the Lune plateau
which crosses the Sainte-Menehould-Châlons road through Auve.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF VALMY (1792)]
The Lune Inn, which then stood by the side of the road near the Lune
crossroads, formed by the junction of the Somme-Bionne and Gizeaucourt
roads, was pulled down about 1854 and the materials used for building
one of the Maigneux farms.
Thanks to the clever dispositions of Dumouriez, who directed General
Stengel to occupy Mont-Yvon (in order to cover Valmy on the right), and
General Chazot to march on the Lune heights (to protect Kellermann’s
left), the latter was able to withstand the enemy assault.
The Prussians decided to attack Valmy, and towards noon their infantry
crossed the valley which lies between the two armies. But the French,
drawn up on the ridge between Moulin and Valmy, under the command of
Kellermann, hurled themselves on the Prussians and drove them back
amidst cries of “Vive la Nation.” Brunswick, disconcerted, stopped the
attack. Kellermann pressed on, while General Stengel held the Austrians
on the right. About 4 o’clock, General Beurnonville came up with
reinforcements, and the battle was won.
On the evening of September 20, Dumouriez and Kellermann, agreeing that
the position was dangerous, decided to evacuate Yvron and Valmy during
the night, to cross the Auve and deploy between Dampierre and Voilemont.
On the 21st, Kellermann, in his new position covered by the Auve and the
Yevre confidently awaited a fresh Prussian attack, which, however, was
never delivered. Discouraged, and anxious as to the health of his
troops, the Duke of Brunswick, after ten days of vacillation, decided to
retreat. Thanks to his clever negotiations, which misled Dumouriez, he
succeeded in saving his army and in regaining the frontier without being
pursued; but fatigue, hunger, and dysentery had decimated his forces. Of
the 42,000 Prussians who invaded France in the previous August, barely
20,000 recrossed the frontier.
The moral effect of the victory of Valmy was considerable. It was the
first victory won by the Armies of the Revolution over the Allies. It
humbled the pride of the Prussians and gave the French unshakable faith
in the future of their arms.
The German poet, Goethe, who followed the operations, said, in speaking
of Valmy: “On that day and at that place began a new era in the history
of the world.”
[Illustration: THE FIRING-LINE IN ARGONNE DURING THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE
MARNE (1914)]
In 1814 Blucher went round the Argonne. In 1870 the Third Prussian Army
(the Army of the Meuse) crossed it without much difficulty.