The Battle of Mouscron (28–29 April 1794) was a series of clashes that occurred when the Republican French Army of the North under Jean-Charles Pichegru moved northeast to attack Menin (now Menen) and was opposed by Coalition forces under the overall leadership of François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt.

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.

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.

Completely isolated by Clerfayt's defeat, the largely Hanoverian garrison of Menin under Rudolf von Hammerstein broke out of the fortress and escaped on the 30th.

Against them the Coalition used approximately 150,000 soldiers from Habsburg Austria, the Dutch Republic and various contingents paid for by the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Coalition strategy called for their armies to exert pressure the north and northeastern frontiers of France to open a path to Paris.

[1] Jean-Charles Pichegru had control over the two French armies whose lines stretched from Dunkirk on the North Sea west through Lille, Douai and Cambrai to Maubeuge.

According to the plan drawn up by Minister of War Lazare Carnot, the French were to turn both Coalition flanks.

[2] On 26 April one of the columns commanded by René-Bernard Chapuy was crushed at the Battle of Beaumont-en-Cambresis by the Duke of York.

Austrian General François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt with 28,000 troops was responsible for covering the Coalition right wing.

[6] On 23 April a French force advanced from Cambrai toward Denain, menacing Coalition troops led by Hessian General Ludwig von Wurmb.

In response, Clerfayt was directed by Coburg's chief of staff, General Karl Mack, to move his forces south from his base at Tournai toward Denain.

Moreau moved down the north bank of the Lys River and began firing his cannon on Menen on the 28th.

Sending Jacques MacDonald with 15,000 troops to take and hold Mouscron to protect his right flank (facing the Austrians at Tournai) while he took Courtrai with the brigades of Desenfans and Herman Willem Daendels, Souham's division seized Courtrai[6] on 26 April after a skirmish, during which the French forced the 1,500 Coalition troops protecting the city under Hanoverian General Georg Wilhelm von dem Bussche to abandon it.

The remainder of the garrison consisted of 282 soldiers from the Hesse-Kassel Erbprinz Infantry Regiment, the French Royalist Loyal Emigrant Battalion and 17 Austrian gunners.

[8]: 313  Clerfayt's Austrian generals were Johann Rudolf von Sporck and Adam Boros de Rákos.

[11] In the event, Souham acted with initiative, ordering Jacques MacDonald to march his brigade east to Aalbeke (probably from around Halluin, where he probably helped with the siege of Menin from the south in conjunction with Moreau's division from the north)[12] and take command of his, Jardon's and Bertin's brigades, a total of 16,000 troops.

While his three-brigade main force attacked frontally, Bertin's brigade turned Clerfayt's left and rear.

[9] Clerfayt ordered a withdrawal, which rapidly turned into a rout that was only arrested by the arrival of the first six battalions of Erskine's twelve at Dottignies, in time to serve as their rearguard and stabilise the line.

It was alleged that the escape was partly due to the carelessness of Moreau's brigade commander Dominique Vandamme.

[5] One source stated that the Austrians lost 3,000 prisoners, 33 artillery pieces and four colors in the Battle of Mouscron.

The next day there was an indecisive skirmish at Harelbeke in which Hesse-Darmstadt troops sustained losses of three killed and 18 wounded.