Michael DiRoccoDec 25, 2025, 01:15 PM ET Close Michael DiRocco is an NFL Nation reporter at ESPN and covers the Jacksonville Jaguars. He previously covered the University of Florida for over a decade for ESPN and the Florida Times-Union. DiRocco graduated from Jacksonville University and is a multiple APSE award winner. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jourdan Lewis will miss…

Smith's contested touchdown has become a huge talking point  Leer

Source: Archives Nationales, Régime constitutionnel. République française. (AE/II/1061-AE/II/1444). A French transcription can be found in E. Charavay's Correspondance générale de Carnot, tome III, p. 328-330.

Avesnes, the 6th day of the third decade of the 1st month of Year II of the Republic one and indivisible. Carnot, representative of the people to the Army of the North to the colleagues composing the Committee of Public Safety.

Triumph to liberty, glory to the armies of the Republic! The enemies are repelled, the siege of Maubeuge is lifted, here enclosed [is] the letter dated in Maubeuge through which we report the decisive success [of the battle] to the National Convention. I exhort you to declare again that the Army of the North was truly worthy of the patrie no other declaration would be more appropriate. AlsoI exhort you to approve the measures of temporary relief given to the unfortunate inhabitants of the countryside set ablaze by the Austrian brigands. Give notice to the Convention of the details that you received from us through our previous dispatches; nevertheless, it is important that you do not talk about our strength which is only of fifty thousand men, it is necessary for the success of other operations that the enemies believe us to be much stronger. We found the inhabitants of Maubeuge to be very cold and its garrison very weak; by making some perpetual sorties during the action, it could have harried the enemies in a way so that our victory would have been much more advantageous, as we would probably have captured all the enemy's artillery. The citizens of Maubeuge didn’t receive us with the enthusiasm that one should show towards liberators; we shall work towards galvanizing the town a bit and lifting the popular morale.

I still cannot tell you anything about our projects. The enemies, fearing a total defeat, retreated in a hurry. A rather thick fog, followed by rain, aided them in concealing their movements from us. Their retreat had been regular, and they have not dispersed; but we believe their army to be utterly demoralized. I believe that they have lost four thousand men almost. On our side, we had around two thousand casualties between killed and wounded men. The affair had been one of the most heated, there are not many examples of a  forty-eight hours long fight carried on with such relentlessness. The army truly deserves the greatest praises. Jourdan is worthy of the command which was assigned to him. However, being successful was necessary to him: he would have been lost had he failed; he had already been denounced as a traitor, so was I, for having withdrawn the garrisons from the towns to join him with the main body of the army. Jourdan is a brave and honest sans-culotte; general Duquesnoy is also very good; the others like Balland, Fromentin, Lemaire have a lot of goodwill, but they lack talent. Cordellier did not attend, I believe that the general-in-chief does not know yet where he resides, it does not seem to me to be of much importance. The army is all dispersed; success disorganizes them as much as defeat. Tomorrow the soldiers will rest, they will get rallied and ready to operate again. I will coordinate the next operations with Jourdan; after that, I will come back to you as soon as possible. If you want this memorable victory, which saved the Republic, to have a particular name, you can call it the Wattignies Affair, for it was in this village, which was the theatre of the battle, that the victory was secured; it was taken and retaken five times in a row, three times by us and two times by the enemy, but it is we, who, by remaining in control of this position, cornered the enemy so hard that they decided it was best to retreat as quickly as possible. We will try not to leave them at that, but I cannot tell you what we will do next, as the enemy, as I said, has retained its strength; I propose to bring you the resolutions that will be decreed myself. Our fatigue is excessive. Carnot

I exhort you to open the letter that we will send to the National Convention before giving it to the president. Although the account is very brief, It is good that you are aware of its contents. You will find details in the official letter that Jourdan is to address to the minister.

This letter is the third one that I have written to you today: one dated this morning at 6 in Avesnes when we did not know what the enemy had done yet; the second one, dated in Maubeuge and addressed to the National Convention, is enclosed here; and the third is this one, written in Avesnes, where we returned to allow the subsistence and other things to get to Maubeuge, which the city lacked. It was about time to resupply it.

First excerpt is from the chapter about Jourdan written by Michael Glover in Napoleon's Marshals.