Battle of Grandreng

The Battle of Grandreng or Battle of Rouvroi (12–13 May 1794) saw a Republican French army commanded by Louis Charbonnier attempt to advance across the Sambre River against a joint Habsburg Austrian and Dutch army under Franz Wenzel, Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg. After winning a crossing over the Sambre at Merbes-le-Château on the 12th, the French were defeated the next day at Grand-Reng and forced to retreat. The battle marked the first of five attempts by the French armies to establish themselves on the north bank of the Sambre. The action happened during the War of the First Coalition, part of the Wars of the French Revolution. Grand-Reng is part of the village of Erquelinnes, Belgium, lying close to the border with France. Rouveroy (Rouvroi) is situated 3.8 km north. Grand-Reng is located about 33 km southwest of Charleroi.

The spring of 1794 saw intense and continual fighting in the Austrian Netherlands between the French and First Coalition armies. Swollen by masses of conscripts, the French armies launched repeated offensives against their adversaries. After his defeat at Grand-Reng, Charbonnier tried one more time to breach the Coalition defenses at Erquelinnes on 20–24 May. The French would make three additional attempts to cross the Sambre at Gosselies on June 3 and Lambusart on 16 June before emerging victorious in the pivotal Battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794.