Siege of Maastricht (1793)

The Siege of Maastricht was a siege of the city of Maastricht in 1793, marking the final action of the 1793 campaign of the War of the First Coalition. The city was successfully taken from the French Republic by a French Royalist force.

Course
It was the last of several Republican sieges of the town during 1793. Charles-François Dumouriez was attempting to invade Holland and had put Francisco de Miranda in command of a Republican force sent to Maastricht. Miranda hoped to take the city in a few days with only 15,000 men and invested it from the Wyck suburb side. The city's governor was Jean Thérèse de Beaumont d'Autichamp, a former cavalry general in the French royal army and his forces were ready for the siege. Miranda wrote demanding that Autichamp surrender, adding that city would capitulate after the tenth bomb fired, despite Miranda only having four 16 pounders and ten mortars and shot which was of the wrong caliber for the mortars.

On 27 February 1793, the Republican lines were themselves besieged by 50,000 Austrians and 20,000 Prussians, whose arrival Miranda had not foreseen. He ordered a retreat.