Battle of Sans Culottes Camp

Battle of Sans Culottes Camp
Part of War of the Pyrenees
Date 5 February 1794 Location Urrugne, France Result French victory
Belligerents
France	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Jean de Frégeville Augustin Lespinasse	Ventura Caro José de Urrutia
Units involved
Army of the Western Pyrenees	Army of Navarre and Guipuzcoa
Strength
unknown	13,000
Casualties and losses
235	335

The Battle of Sans Culottes Camp (5 February 1794) saw a Spanish army commanded by José de Urrutia y de las Casas attack part of the French Army of the Western Pyrenees under Jean-Henri-Guy-Nicolas de Frégeville. The Spanish assault seized two key positions behind the Bidasoa River but was unable to overrun the main position, called Sans Culottes Camp after an eight-hour contest. The War of the Pyrenees action was fought at a location described as being "in front" of (that is, west of) Saint-Jean-de-Luz near the modern France–Spain border.

Ventura Caro had 20,000 troops in the Spanish Army of the West Pyrenees. He ordered his left wing near Irun and center in the Baztan Valley to attack the French camps behind the Bidasoa. French army artillery chief Augustin de Lespinasse gave up the outlying fortifications in order to concentrate his strength in the main camp. By the time Frégeville arrived on the scene, the Spanish attack had lost its momentum. Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey, later a Marshal of France under Napoleon, was promoted to general of brigade for his distinguished actions during the battle.

References

• Cust, Edward (1859). "Annals of the Wars: 1783-1795". Retrieved 11 May 2015.
• Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011). The Armies of the First French Republic: Volume III The Armies in the West 1793 to 1797 And, The Armies In The South 1793 to March 1796. USA: Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908692-26-9.
• Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.