Battle of Mouscron

The Battle of Mouscron was a series of clashes that occurred when the Republican French Army of the North under Jean-Charles Pichegru moved northeast to attack Menen and was opposed by Coalition forces under the overall leadership of François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt. In their initial advance, the French began the Siege of Menin and captured Kortrijk . With Habsburg Austrian reinforcements, Clerfayt counterattacked on the 28th but Joseph Souham soon massed superior French forces and drove the Coalition troops out of the area. This Flanders Campaign action happened during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The battle occurred near Mouscron, Belgium, located at the French border 9 kilometres south of Kortrijk and at Menen, located 11 kilometres west of Kortrijk.

Because most of the Coalition army was covering the Siege of Landrecies, the early French advance was largely successful in driving back a weak screen of Hanoverian troops. On the north bank of the Lys River, a division under Jean Victor Marie Moreau besieged Menen, while Souham's division operated on the south bank. Clerfayt's foray enjoyed initial success at Mouscron, but Souham on his own initiative concentrated superior forces against the Coalition. Completely isolated by Clerfayt's defeat, the largely Hanoverian garrison of Menen under Rudolf von Hammerstein broke out of the fortress and escaped on the 30th. The next action occurred at the Battle of Courtrai on 10 May.

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