Siege of Mainz, 19-21 October 1792

The siege of Mainz of 19-21 October 1792 was the first of three sieges of the city in as many years, and saw the French win an easy victory during their first Rhineland

War of the First Coalition -
Rhine Front 1792

campaign in 1792. At the start of the War of the First Coalition a French army under General Adam Philippe Custine invaded the Rhineland, with orders to secure the 'natural' frontier of France along the Rhine. In mid October Custine discovered that the garrison of Mainz had been weakened, and believing that there was a pro-French element in the city decided to attack the city. His efforts were justified, when on 21 October, after only three days, the city surrendered.

Mainz remained in French hands for less than a year. On 14 April the Prussians besieged the city, and on 23 July, after a siege of four months, the garrison surrendered with honours of war. A second French siege in 1794-95 ended in failure, but the city was reoccupied at the end of December 1797, after the peace of Campo Formio, and ceded to France in the peace of Luneville.

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