The Army of the Var (''Armée du Var'') was one of the

French Revolutionary armies The French Revolutionary Army (french: Armée révolutionnaire française) was the French land force that fought the French Revolutionary Wars from 1792 to 1804. These armies were characterised by their revolutionary fervour, their poor equipment ...

. It was established along the

River Var The Var (, ; it, Varo; la, Varus) is a river located in the southeast of France. It is long. Its drainage basin is .France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, charged with protecting

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

from invasion.

Origins

In reality, its name was not official. Its origins came about when General

Jacques Bernard d'Anselme Jacques Bernard Modeste d'Anselme (22 July 1740, Apt – 17 September 1814, Paris) was a French general of the French Revolutionary Army, notable as the first commander of the ''Army of the Var'' which soon became the '' Army of Italy''. He fell ...

was charged with commanding a corps in the Army of Midi, which had gathered at the

Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

. Seeking independence from General de Montesquiou, his superior and commander of the Army of Midi, d'Anselme purposely named his corps the Army of the Var on 29 September 1792, trying to break free from authority. But in reality, it was still only the right wing of the armée du Midi, and only became the Army of Italy on 7 November 1792 by a decree of the Convention.

Operations

At the end of 1792, the Army of the Var crossed the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

and took

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

without a battle. The county would be taken as a base of operation for the Army of the Var. The army was shortly absorbed into the Army of Italy and d’Anselme was relieved of command. The army was revived during the

Hundred days The Hundred Days (french: les Cent-Jours ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration ...

under the command of Marshal Brune, seeing independent action against the Austrians until Napoleon's defeat. The Army would never be reformed since 1815.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Army of the Var