However, the coup failed and Dumouriez defected to Habsburg Austria on 5 April along with several generals including Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres and Jean-Baptiste Cyrus de Valence.

After Dumouriez's treason, French generals in the field were regarded with suspicion and were often denounced by the all-powerful Representatives on Mission or agents of the War Office.

[3] When Dampierre was the commandant of Le Quesnoy, he refused to go along with Dumouriez's plot, so the French government selected him to lead the armies facing Flanders.

While visiting the Kingdom of Prussia before the war, Dampierre became so enamored of its military system that he effected Prussian manners and dress.

[5] By mid-May, Coburg expected to employ 92,000 Coalition troops, while an additional 5,000 Austrian and 8,000 Hessian reinforcements would arrive in June.

When complete, Coburg's army would number 105,200 soldiers, including 55,000 Austrians, 15,000 Dutch, 8,000 Prussians, 12,000 Hanoverians, 8,000 Hessians, and 7,200 British.

While blockading Condé, Coburg planned to lay siege to Valenciennes with 52,000 men, leaving 40,000 to cover the frontier between Maubeuge and Ostend.

They accused him of being insufficiently zealous for the revolution, and Dampierre complained to Louis Lahure, "Ah, I wish I might have an arm or a leg carried away, to be able to retire honorably.

François de Croix, Count of Clerfayt with 12,000 men was at Vicoigne and Raismes and covered the blockade of Condé on the south.

Maximilian Anton Karl, Count Baillet de Latour lay to the east with 6,000 men at Bettignies, observing Maubeuge, with a detachment at Bavay.

An Austrian general, Friedrich Wilhelm, Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Kirchberg led a 30,000-strong Imperial army covering Namur, Luxembourg City, and Trier, but this last force was not a factor in the campaign.

[12] To add weight to the attack, Dampierre employed some of La Marlière's soldiers on the left and a part of Lamarche's Army of the Ardennes on his right.

Joseph de Ferraris appeared with Austrian reinforcements, halted the advance and drove the French back into Valenciennes.

A second French column under Lamarche set out from Curgies but the soldiers panicked after seeing a large force of Austrian cavalry under Wenzel Joseph von Colloredo approaching.

[13] On the west bank of the Scheldt, Clerfayt easily repulsed Charles Edward Jennings de Kilmaine's French column from Anzin.

On the left flank, La Marlière's column, which included 3,000 soldiers brought from Lille, was able to seize Saint-Amand and drive its 4,000 Prussian defenders back to Maulde.

This time, Dampierre limited attacks east of the Scheldt to minor demonstrations, while concentrating his main assault against Clerfayt at Raismes and the Duke of York at Maulde and Saint-Amand.

[15] Joseph de Hédouville's men seized part of Raismes, but Clerfayt brought up reserves under Franz Xaver von Wenckheim and the French were driven out.

Earlier, the Duke of York shifted the British Guards brigade to Nivelle, just north of Saint-Amand, and promised to support Knobelsdorff.

Lieutenant-Colonel Lowther Pennington commanding the 2nd Guards launched his men into the woods and expelled the French back to their entrenchments.

The duke wrote, "Colonel Pennington without any order whatever chose to attack the battery, and when he came close to it, he received the discharge of three nine Pounders loaded with grape, which mowed down my poor brave fellows most shockingly".