Siege of Antwerp (1832)

This article is about the battle in 1832 following the Belgian Revolution. For other battles of the same name, see Siege of Antwerp.
Siege of Antwerp
Part of the aftermath of the Belgian Revolution

Siege of the citadel of Antwerp, December 22, 1832
Date15 November – 23 December 1832
Location
Antwerp, Belgium
Result French victory[1]
Belligerents

France France
Supported by:

 Belgium		 United Kingdom of the Netherlands United Netherlands
Commanders and leaders
France Étienne Gérard
France François Haxo		 United Kingdom of the Netherlands David Chassé Surrendered
Units involved
Armée du Nord
Strength
50,000-60,000[2] 4,500[1]
Casualties and losses
608 dead
1800 wounded[3][4]		 90 dead
349 wounded[3][4]
French Engineer Corps during the Siege of Antwerp
The citadel of Antwerp after its capture by the French Army

The siege of Antwerp took place after fighting in the Belgian Revolution ended. On 15 November 1832, the French Armée du Nord under Marshal Gérard began to lay siege to the Dutch troops there under David Chassé. The siege ended on 23 December 1832. The French had agreed with the Belgian rebels that the latter would not participate in the battle.[1]

Following the French army's first intervention in 1831, the Dutch withdrew from Belgium but left a garrison in Antwerp Citadel, from which they bombarded the town. The Armée du Nord and its siege specialist François, Baron Haxo took 24 days to take this citadel and return it to Belgium. Leopold I of Belgium gave France several cannons of different calibres as thanks for this action and the French Chamber of Peers offered Gérard an épée d'honneur ("sword of honour"). A monument to the French dead in the siege was sculpted in 1897, but the town of Antwerp refused to take it and it is now in Tournai.

  1. ^ a b c "Het beleg van de Citadel van Antwerpen in 1832" [The siege of the Citadel of Antwerp in 1832] (PDF) (in Dutch). Legermuseum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-24.
  2. ^ Van der Aa 1858.
  3. ^ a b Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th E-book ed.). McFarland. p. 174. ISBN 9781476625850.
  4. ^ a b Alison, Archibald (1858). History of Europe From the Fall of Napoleon, in MDCCCXV to the Accession of Louis Napoleon in MDCCCLII · Volume 3. Harper & Brothers. p. 86.