Battle of Lambusart

The Battle of Lambusart (12–16 June 1794) saw a Republican French army led by Jean Baptiste Jourdan try to cross the Sambre River against a combined Dutch and Habsburg Austrian army under William V, Prince of Orange. The French were repulsed in the fourth of five attempts to consolidate a foothold on the north side of the Sambre. The clash occurred during the War of the First Coalition, part of a wider struggle known as the Wars of the French Revolution. In 1794 Lambusart was an independent village, but it is now part of the Fleurus municipality. Lambusart is located about 10 km northeast of Charleroi.

Almost daily battles were fought in the Austrian Netherlands during the spring of 1794 as the French armies, filled up with conscripts, mounted assaults against the First Coalition forces. Three times the French were turned back at Grandreng on 13 May, Erquelinnes on 24 May and Gosselies on 3 June. After arriving with large reinforcements on 4 June, Jourdan assumed control of the French effort. On 12 June, the French crossed the Sambre and laid siege to Charleroi for the second time. On the 16th, the Prince of Orange attacked, forcing the French to lift the siege and withdraw south of the Sambre. The final showdown along the Sambre would come at the Battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794.