Army of the Var

The Army of the Var (Armée du Var) was one of the French Revolutionary armies. It was established along the River Var, the frontier between France and Piedmont, and charged with protecting Provence from invasion.

In reality its name was not official. It came about when general Jacques Bernard d'Anselme, was charged with commanding a corps from the armée du Midi which had gathered at the Var. Seeking independence from general de Montesquiou, to whom he had been subordinated, d'Anselme unilaterally named his corps the Armée du Var on 29 September 1792. Despite this, it was really only the right wing of the armée du Midi, and only became the armée d'Italie on 7 November 1792 by a decree of the Conseil exécutif dated the 1st. His name nevertheless figures on the Arc de triomphe.

At the end of 1792 d'Anselme crossed the river and took Nice practically without a battle, and so the armée du Var annexed the county of Nice to France and took this as its base.