Hello fellow gamers!
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, the French Revolution! It shaped the world we live in today, but it was certainly not a ‘walk in the park’! It came at an enormous price: uprisings in the provinces, political infighting in the Convention and foreign invasion. Pressure from the sans culottes, intrigue from the Royalists…
1793: Patriots & Traitors let’s you relive this important historical event as no other game has done before. As a radical, a moderate or conservative, you’re going to attempt to lead the revolution…If you fail, Mme. guillotine awaits!
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Another great blog by the game Designer Jason St. Juste: The ‘Glorious’ First of June or the Combat de Prairial
Not many people know about the naval battle that has gone down in history as “The Glorious First of June”, therefore I am very delighted to be able to give it a small part in our game 1793: Patriots & Traitors.
The naval battle was the largest fleet action between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was not only the largest, it was, especially for Revolutionary France, one of vital importance.
The ‘red line’ when explaining the causes of almost all events of the Revolution lies with the recurrent economic hardships and food shortages. It is no different when explaining this naval engagement. By early 1794, the situation in France was once again dire. With famine looming after the failure of the harvest and the blockade of French ports and trade, the hungry masses of the French capital were once again showing signs of dissatisfaction as the grain rations grew slimmer and slimmer. Furthermore, grain that WAS available, was first sent to the armies in Belgium and Germany. With France surrounded by enemies, food to ease the famine and prop up the revolutionary government was available from only one source: the United States.
For the past year, French agents in America had been buying up grain with the Republic’s precious few reserves of gold. Over 100 merchantmen lay at anchor in Chesapeake Bay in the spring of 1794, eagerly awaiting the order to sail. Pierre Van Stabel, one of the French government’s newly appointed rear Admirals, had managed to slip passed the British blockade in the winter, sailing for America with 4 warships. The Committee of Public Safety had ordered him to lead the hundreds of merchant ships safely back.
The last hope of revolutionary France, 117 ships laden with food, left America on April 15, 1794.
When news of the daring French transatlantic operation reached England, the Admiralty considered the interception of the convoy as an “object of the most urgent importance”. In response, they ordered the admiral of the Channel Fleet, Richard Howe, to intercept Van Stabel’s ships.
On French side, keeping the Royal Navy away from the food convoy was entrusted to Rear Admiral Louis Villaret de Joyeuse in conjunction with Jeanbon Saint-André, member of the Committee of Public Safety in charge of French Naval affairs. For the past 6 months, safely behind the confines of the port of Brest, Saint-André had been pivotal in restoring the neglected French naval fleet. Every resource of the revolutionary government, all the enthusiasm of republican faith, was built into this reconstituted Navy, that hoped to overcome the season seamanship of the British. And indeed, the French fleet itself was impressive, but, as was the case in the army a year ago, it simply lacked the training and experience.
The orders for the expedition came directly from the Committee of Public Safety and was explicit: protecting the convoy was laid down as the sole rule of action. Admiral Villaret Joyeuse was to avoid battle unless he positively knew the convoy to be in danger.
On the 16th of May, 25 ships of the line sailed from Brest, led by the 120-gun Mountain, one of the most powerful war machines afloat. It was to meet up with the ships coming from America in order to escort them safely back to port.
When on the 28th of May, the British fleet under Lord Howe came into view, the French desperately attempted to avoid a decisive engagement while at the same time attempting to lure them away. For the next three days, the Royal Navy took the bait, remaining hot on their trail. Late on the 31st, the British were finally able to force a full-scale engagement.
The battle which followed, was a contest between experience and enthusiasm, since the physical forces were equal. French impulsiveness at sea was less successful against Howe than against Coburg on land. After some introductory broadsides, the British pierced the French line at six places. This meant that certain French ships were virtually surrounded, while others found temporarily little to shoot at. In any case, within an hour both lines were hopelessly confused. The entire struggle broke up into a series of simultaneous dogfights, with vessels of each side intermixed. Responsibility on both sides fell entirely upon the individual captains, as signals could not be read in the smoke, nor voices heard in the Interrupted and unorganized blast of guns. The French gunners quickly lost their heads (sorry for the pun), fired uncontrolled, hardly took aim and in the process wasted much of their ammunition. All along the line, the fighting was intense, and by the time the firing died away on the 1st of June, 11 British and 12 French ships were more or less dismasted, 4000 were killed or wounded on the French side, and 1200 killed or wounded on the British. Around 3000 French captured.
After five days of strenuous chase and a hard-fought battle, the British were too exhausted to mount a pursuit of the battered French fleet. Howe came to the conclusion that neither his men nor his ships were in a state to resume the search for the French convoy in the Bay of Biscay. On the 11th of June, he stumbled into port at Plymouth…the next day, the grain convoy from America anchored in France.
The British were happy with their victory in the sea battle: they had lost no ships and had captured six, that is why they called it the GLORIOUS First of June. But the entire campaign was in fact a strategic victory for France: as ordered, Admiral Villaret had successfully managed to keep the British away from the grain convoy, thereby easing the pressure on the French government, partly alleviating the hungry French citizens and strengthening the Revolution.
In France, the opinion on the battle’s outcome was overall less enthusiastic, simply because Villaret had not been able to destroy the cursed British fleet…that is why they simply called it the Combat de Pairial.
Take care and thanks for your interest in our games! See you in the next blog post,
your Uwe Walentin.
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