Aldenhoven

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 24 July 1857


First published in The New American Cyclopaedia, Vol. I, 1858
Reproduced from The New American Cyclopaedia
Source : Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 18
Collection(s): New American Cyclopaedia

Aldenhoven, a small town in Rhenish Prussia, on the road from Jülich to Aix-la-Chapelle, has given its name to a victory of the Austrians, under Coburg, over a part of the French army of Dumouriez, March 1, 1793. After the conquest of Belgium, in 1792, Dumouriez, meditating an invasion of Holland, left 70,000 men between the Maes and the Roer, to besiege Maestricht and Venlob and to cover these sieges, while, with the remainder of the army, he advanced from Antwerp into Holland. The troops on the Maes were necessarily much dispersed; the divisions covering the sieges were cantoned near Aix-la-Chapelle, Aldenhoven, and Eschweiler. Coburg collected 40,000 men, and marched in 2 columns on the 2 latter places, turned the position of Eschweiler, took that of Aldenhoven by a front attack, and threw the French in disorder on Aix-la-Chapelle, which place was taken on the next day. Maestricht was delivered, and the Austrian advanced guard followed the French even across the Maes, and beat them at Tongres. The dispersed French divisions did not rally before arriving at Tirlemont, where they waited for Dumouriez. Thus the road into Belgium was open to the allies, and the conquest of the country completed, a few days afterward, by the further victory of Neerwinden.[1] The loss of the French during the battle of Aldenhoven, and the pursuit, cannot have been less than 10,000 in killed, wounded, and prisoners, besides 10,000 who deserted immediately afterward; a great amount of materiel, too, fell into the hands of the Austrians.[2]

  1. ↑ The battle of Neerwinden (Belgium) on March 18, 1793 was fought between the French army and an Austrian force advancing after the victory at Aldenhoven during the war of revolutionary France against the anti-French European coalition (Austria, Prussia, Britain and others). It ended in a victory for the Austrians.
  2. ↑ Engels' letter to Marx of May 28, 1857 shows that in this article he also intended to describe the battle of Aldenhoven of October 2, 1794, in which the French defeated the Austrians. Either Engels did not do so or the editors of the Cyclopaedia abridged the text.