National Gazette

Heads of Intelligence by the last arrivals.

Certain accounts are now received of the affair of March 18, between the French and Austrians. On that day Dumourier was every where victorious, and the enemy left in possessed of the field. His right wing was commanded by Gen. Valence, his centre by Egalite, and his left by Miranda and Champmorin—the two former were successful, but the latter, in part, deserted their posts, losing near 2000 men; and out of 200, twenty or thirty pieces of cannon. The infantry of gen. Valence was twice repulsed; he then led on the cavalry and broke thro' the enemy, receiving three wounds from a sabre on his head, and a violent blow on his right arm; one of the sabre wounds laid the skin of his forehead over his eyes; but none of his wounds were reckoned mortal. Dumourier had taken a strong position near Louvain, 15 miles N. E. of Brussels, waiting for a reinforcement of 72,000 men, expected daily from Paris, to prosecute the war in Belgium and Holland. Gen. Custine had gained great advantages over the Prussians, and repulsed them in every quarter where they had attacked him. The French appear to have been no more than equal losers in the battle of March 18th; the enemy having lost from 1400 to 1800 men; a considerable part of Valence's troops are said to be new recruits, in a great degree strangers to discipline, and consequently easily panic struck by the veterans of Austria, educated in the trade of blood and military ferocity.

—London accounts mention the evacuation of Ostend and Brussels, and the capitulation of Gertruydenberg and Breda on the part of the French, the garrison being allowed the honors of war. Great numbers of prizes had been carried into different parts of France by privateers, while in England scarcely any privateers were fitted out; every thing being left to the king's vessels. The loss of the Austrian forces since the commencement of war against France under the duke of Brunswick, had been stated from authority at sixty six thousand men, and the loss of horses ten thousand. Insurrections of particular bodies of people had happened in several towns thro' aristocratic finesse, particularly at Nantes, where a number of persons lost their lives: the insurgents had been defeated and dispersed.

Brussels March 22. The French armies are disposed in the following manner:— General Dumourier marches at the head of 50,000 well disciplined men to Liege, to force the enemy to abandon their present position, and drive them if possible on the other side of the Rhine: and in case of a check, and to facilitate his retreat, another corps of the same number of well equipped troops are entrenched on the mountain of Fer, on this side of Louvain. The expedition against Holland is pursued in another quarter by an army under general d'Argon, which presses vigorously against Williamstadt, which has a garrison of 2000 men, whose obstinate defence is attributed to their being in possession of the passes of l'Escaut. General d'Harville has made a movement on this side of Namur, which has forced general Beaulieu, who had approached there to retire into the Ardennes.