Order of battle at the Glorious First of June information
Details of naval fight in the French Revolution
The 'Brunswick' and the 'Vengeur du Peuple' at the Battle of the First of June, 1794, painted by Nicholas Pocock.
The Glorious First of June (known in France as Bataille du 13 prairial an 2 and sometimes called the Third Battle of Ushant) of 1794 was the first and largest naval action between the French and British fleets during the French Revolutionary Wars. The action was fought over 400 miles (640 km) west of Ushant, the most western point on Brittany in France, deep in the Atlantic Ocean. The British fleet under Lord Howe was attempting to defeat a French fleet under Villaret de Joyeuse which was in turn attempting to lure Howe away from a grain convoy destined for France from the United States.[1] The future of the French Revolution depended on this 117-strong convoy which would save France from famine if it arrived safely. Ultimately, both admirals were successful in their ambitions; Howe defeated Villaret in open battle and sunk or captured seven of his ships. Villaret managed to occupy Howe for long enough and inflict sufficient damage that the convoy escaped unscathed.[2]
Although the campaign was decided by a final major action, May 1794 saw both fleets at sea with several subordinate squadrons, both admirals conducting a complicated series of convoy, commerce raiding and fleet manoeuvre operations. Numerous merchant ships and small warships were taken or destroyed during the month-long campaign by both sides, and there were also two partial fleet engagements as Howe and Villaret made first contact.[3] Both admirals suffered from wilful disobedience by a number of their officers during the battle, as well as confusion in reading signals which caused an uneven series of melees to break out rather than the unified battleline Howe had envisaged when planning the action.[4] Nevertheless, both commanders were highly praised on their return to their home ports and the battle was considered a success by both sides, with only a few dissenters amongst the naval establishments of both nations.[5]
Historians have had great trouble determining the exact dispositions of the French fleet and even more trouble assessing the casualties it suffered in the battle. During The Terror then raging in France, bureaucracy broke down and consequently records were patchy or non-existent. The French Navy was no exception and few ship's logs have survived, making an accurate order of battle difficult to discern.[6] Those estimates which are available are often the work of British naval officers at the battle whose accounts frequently differ.[7] Casualties too are almost impossible to establish exactly. French sources published after the battle give a figure of 3,000, but this number does not include those captured, which amounted to 3,500 alone. British estimates aboard captured ships alone are of 1,500 casualties and most historians agree that total French losses during the month-long campaign were around 7,000, as opposed to the British losses estimated at between 1,100 and 1,500.[8]
The British and French fleets on the morning of 1 June 1794[9]
^Tracy, p. 89
^Padfield, p. 39
^Padfield, p. 16
^Gardiner, p. 39
^James, p. 175
^Cite error: The named reference WJ147 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Sources on the French order of battle are patchy and sometimes contradictory, the best for the entire campaign being in William James's The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume 1, 1793–1796. This source also provides the best available casualty data for both fleets and is the source on which this list is based. Other sources have backed up James in places but none are as complete. British dispositions, although taken from James, have been confirmed by several other sources
^French losses have been estimated by various commentators and historians with some variation: N.A.M. Rodger gives 4,200 casualties and 3,300 captured; (Rodger, p. 430) Digby Smith gives 4,270 casualties and 3,254 captured; (Smith, p. 83) Padfield lists 3,500 casualties; (Padfield, p. 39) Gardiner 3,500 casualties and the same number captured. (Gardiner, p. 38) Saint-André gave 3,000 killed and wounded in his official dispatch and James assesses total French killed, wounded and captured as not less than 7,000. (James, p. 153) British casualty returns are easier to establish due to surviving records although there are discrepancies here too. The official total was 287 killed and 811 wounded during the campaign, whilst the individual ship totals listed in James do not add up to his eventual total of 1,148. (James, p. 152) Most sources agree however that the total casualty figure is approximately 1,200.
^James p.147
and 27 Related for: Order of battle at the Glorious First of June information
TheBattleofthe Boyne (Irish: Cath na Bóinne IPA: [ˈkah n̪ˠə ˈbˠoːn̠ʲə]) took place in 1690 between the forces ofthe deposed King James II, and those...
TheBattlesof Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940, as a naval battle in Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north...
HMS Glorious was the second ofthe three Courageous-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy during theFirst World War. Designed to support the Baltic...
sovereign The Queen Empress of India and gloriously maintaining the reputation ofthe Sikhs for unflinching courage on the field ofbattle. The 21 Sikh...
TheBattleof Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place 4–7 June 1942, six months after the Empire of Japan's...
battle than I had been about the glorious air fight called the 'Battleof Britain'." On 5 March 1941, theFirst Lord ofthe Admiralty, A. V. Alexander, asked...
list of orders ofbattle, which list the known military units that were located within the field of operations for a battle or campaign. Thebattles are...
TheGlorious Revolution is the sequence of events that led to the deposition of James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary...
formed theorderofbattle for this campaign. On 1 March 1940, the German 21st Army Corps was renamed Group XXI and placed in charge ofthe invasion of Norway...
good order, was reinforced by Prussian troops who had not fought at Ligny, and played a role two days later attheBattleof Waterloo. TheBattleof Ligny...
TheBattleof Thermopylae (/θərˈmɒpɪliː/ thər-MOP-i-lee; Greek: Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν, Máchē tōn Thermopylōn) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid...
The naval Battleof Solebay took place on 28 May Old Style, 7 June New Style 1672 and was thefirst naval battleofthe Third Anglo-Dutch War. The battle...
15th day ofthe 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, Japan, atthe end ofthe Sengoku period. This battle was fought by the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu...
major choral work, A Great and Glorious Victory, to mark the bicentenary ofthebattle in October 2005. The BBC marked the bicentenary with Nelson's Trafalgar...
War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing theBattleof France on the Western Front, theBattleof Dunkirk was the defence and...
invasion of Manchuria in 1931. It is known in Japanese as Operation Nekka (熱河作戰, Nekka Sakusen) and in many English sources as theFirstBattleof Hopei...
TheBattleof Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in thefirst stage ofthe American Revolutionary War. Thebattle is named...
as the Battleofthe Diamond. In the aftermath ofthe "battle" which occurred on 21 September 1795 the Orange Society was founded, with thefirst Orange...
TheBattleof Monmouth, also known as theBattleof Monmouth Court House, was fought near Monmouth Court House in modern-day Freehold Borough, New Jersey...
TheBattleof Gettysburg (locally /ˈɡɛtɪsbɜːrɡ/ ) was a three-day battle in the American Civil War fought between Union and Confederate forces between...
TheBattleof Chaldiran (Persian: جنگ چالدران; Turkish: Çaldıran Savaşı) took place on 23 August 1514 and ended with a decisive victory for the Ottoman...
Global Information
