The Army of the Var (, ) was one of the
French Revolutionary armies
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 ...
. It was established along the
River Var
The Var (, ; ; ) 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 located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...]
and
Piedmont
Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
, charged with protecting
Provence
Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...
from invasion.
Origins
In reality, its name was not official. Its origins came about when General
Jacques Bernard d'Anselme
Jacques or Jacq are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over one hundred identified noble families related t ...
was charged with commanding a corps in the
Army of Midi, which had gathered at the
Var. 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 stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
and took
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million[Hundred days
The Hundred Days ( ), 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 of King Louis XVIII o ...]
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
Var