Battle of Gosselies

The Battle of Gosselies or Battle of Charleroi saw a Republican French army co-commanded by Jacques Desjardin and Louis Charbonnier try to cross the Sambre River against a joint Dutch and Habsburg Austrian army under William, Hereditary Prince of Orange. The French defeat in the battle marked the third of five attempts by their armies to win a foothold on the north bank of the Sambre during the War of the First Coalition. In 1794, Gosselies was a separate village but is now part of the Charleroi municipality, about 7 kilometres north of the city center. Charleroi is located about 60 kilometres south of Brussels.

The spring of 1794 saw bitter fighting in the Austrian Netherlands as the numerically superior French armies mounted continual attacks against the forces of the First Coalition. In trying to cross the Sambre, the French were beaten at Grandreng on 13 May and Erquelinnes on 24 May. Nevertheless, the French recrossed the Sambre on the 26th and laid siege to Charleroi on 30 May. After their defeat and withdrawal on 3 June, the French would make one more failed attempt to cross the Sambre at Lambusart on 16 June before they triumphed in the Battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794.

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