Siege of Antwerp (1814)
The siege of Antwerp took place during the War of the Sixth Coalition and lasted from 14 January 1814 to 4 May 1814.
After the German Campaign of 1813, Napoleon had to retreat back over the Rhine. Whereas the two armies of Blücher and Schwarzenberg invaded France and marched on Paris, a third allied army under Bernadotte entered the Low Countries.
In January 1814 Napoleon appointed the old republican Lazare Carnot as governor of Antwerp. The 10,000 men garrison was composed of troops from I Corps, and the Young Guard, including a 500 strong battalion of Irish troops. After the French defeat at Hoogstraten, Carnot retreated to the fortified city and the Antwerp Citadel, which was then besieged by Prussian, Russian, and British forces. The French garrison under Lazare Carnot, aided by a French naval flotilla under Missiessy, then resisted the Allied siege and only surrendered the city after Louis XVIII of France signed an armistice upon Napoleon’s abdication.
