War and Subsistence

The Sambre and Meuse Army was formed in the spring of 1794, when enemy forces occupied parts of France's northern border districts. Soon afterwards its role changed to one of conquest and occupation; along with the Northern Army on its left flank, the Sambre and Meuse Army overran most of Belgium in July 1794, and in the follow- ing autumn conquered the lands between the Meuse and the Rhine north of the Moselle. The purpose of this study is to describe and evaluate the efforts to provision the army during the first year of its existence--a time of dramatic change in the character of the war and of the revolutionary government, and a time when direct requisitioning and an elaborate system of price controls were relied on within France and at the fronts. Provisioning difficulties were serious enough to occasion a struggle over resources between France and the two northern-front armies, between the latter and the population of the occupied lands, and between the armies themselves. Under such conditions actual practices fell short of proclaimed humanitarian ideals.