Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder

The capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder by the 8th Hussar and the 15th Line Infantry Regiment of the French Revolutionary Army occurred during the night of the 23 January 1795, during the French Revolutionary Wars.

General Pichegru was commanding the autumn 1794 campaign during which the conquest of Netherlands occurred. The French Army entered Amsterdam on the 19 January 1795 to stay there over winter.

Strategy
Well informed, the general found out that a Dutch fleet was anchored at Den Helder, approximately eighty kilometers north from Amsterdam. The ongoing winter was extremely cold, so much so that the rivers and seashores were frozen solid. Brigadier general Jean-Guillaume de Winter was ordered by Pichegru to take the head of a squadron of the 8th Hussar. This Dutchman was fighting along with the French since 1787, and would later command the Dutch fleet in the Battle of Camperdown. He arrived at Den Helder with his troops during the night of the 23 January 1795. The Dutch fleet was there as planned, trapped by ice. Each Hussar had brought on his an infantryman of the 15th Line Infantry Regiment.

After a very careful approach to avoid awakening the Dutch sailors, lieutenant-colonel Louis Joseph Lahure launched the assault. The ice did not break up, and the Dutch ship were boarded by the cavalry that managed to get on the decks.

Result
The French Army captured 14 ships of the line and 850 guns. It is the only time in known military history to have seen a fleet captured by a cavalry charge.