The Army of

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

or Army of Mayence (''Armée de Mayence'') was a

French Revolutionary Army The French Revolutionary Army () was the French land force that fought the French Revolutionary Wars from 1792 to 1802. In the beginning, the French armies were characterised by their revolutionary fervour, their poor equipment and their great nu ...

set up on 9 December 1797 by splitting the Army of Germany into the Army of Mayence and the

Army of the Rhine An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

. Part of it split off on 4 February 1799 to form the Army of Observation, though part of that army then re-merged as the Army of Mayence on 28 March that year. The remainder formed the Army of the Danube. In 1793, the French soldiers captured in the Siege of Mainz were paroled by the Prussians with the promise not to fight against the First Coalition for one year. As their parole conditions did not prohibit them from fighting French rebels in the interior, the troops were sent to fight in the

War in the Vendée The War in the Vendée () was a counter-revolutionary insurrection that took place in the Vendée region of French First Republic, France from 1793 to 1796, during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately so ...

under the unofficial name "Army of Mayence". This body was absorbed into the Army of the West on 6 October 1793.

Army of Mayence 1793

Army of Mayence (or Mainz) was also the unofficial title of the 16,000-man garrison that surrendered on 23 July 1793 at the conclusion of the Siege of Mainz. They were paroled by the Prussian army on condition that they not fight against the First Coalition for one year.

commander

Alexandre de Beauharnais Alexandre François Marie, Viscount of Beauharnais (; 28 May 1760 – 23 July 1794) was a French politician and general of the French Revolution. He was the first husband of Joséphine Tascher de La Pagerie, who later married Napoleon Bonaparte ...

pointed out that the terms did not exclude them from fighting against French rebels inside France. Therefore, 14,000 troops from the garrison were sent to the

under

Jean-Baptiste Annibal Aubert du Bayet Jean-Baptiste Annibal Aubert du Bayet (19 August 1759 – 17 December 1797) was a French Army officer, politician and diplomat active during the French Revolution. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1759, he fought in the American Revolutionary Wa ...

where they proved to be better soldiers than the poorly-trained armies fighting there. The superiority of the Mainz corps was so evident that it provoked jealousy and in November 1793 the force was broken up.

Notes

Sources

* * {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 1797 establishments in France

Military units and formations established in 1797 Military history of Mainz