Charles François Dumouriez in the context of "Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine"

The Battle of Valmy, also known as the Cannonade of Valmy, was the first major victory by the army of France during the Revolutionary Wars that followed the French Revolution. The battle took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops commanded by the Duke of Brunswick attempted to march on Paris. Generals François Kellermann and Charles Dumouriez stopped the advance near the northern village of Valmy in Champagne-Ardenne.

In this early part of the Revolutionary Wars—known as the War of the First Coalition—the new French government was in almost every way unproven, and thus the small, localized victory at Valmy became a huge psychological victory for the Revolution at large. The outcome was thoroughly unexpected by contemporary observers—a vindication for the French revolutionaries and a stunning defeat for the vaunted Prussian army. The victory emboldened the newly assembled National Convention to formally declare the end of monarchy in France and to establish the French Republic. Valmy permitted the development of the Revolution and all its resultant ripple effects, and for that it is regarded by historians as one of the most significant battles in history.

The Battle of Neerwinden (18 March 1793) saw a Republican French army led by Charles François Dumouriez attack a Coalition army commanded by Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The Coalition army of the Habsburg monarchy together with a small contingent of allied Dutch Republic troops repulsed all French assaults after bitter fighting and Dumouriez conceded defeat, withdrawing from the field. The French position in the Austrian Netherlands swiftly collapsed, ending the threat to the Dutch Republic and allowing Austria to regain control of its lost province. The War of the First Coalition engagement was fought at Neerwinden, located 57 kilometres (35 mi) east of Brussels in present-day Belgium.

After Dumouriez's victory at Jemappes in November 1792, the French armies rapidly overran most of the Austrian Netherlands. Rather than driving the Austrians to the west bank of the Rhine River, Dumouriez and the French government became preoccupied with a war with the Dutch Republic. During the breathing space offered by her enemy, Austria assembled an army under the Prince of Coburg and struck back. After a French covering force was routed by Coburg at Aldenhoven, Dumouriez began gathering his army for a counterstroke.

The first encounter at the site of the events, – the field combat of Lanckorona, – then the storming of the Lanckorona Castle (Polish: Obrona Lanckorony, lit. 'Defense of Lanckorona') and finally the second field engagement – namely the battle of Lanckorona (Russian: Лянцкоронское сражение; Polish: Bitwa pod Lanckoroną) – were three distinct clashes of the Bar Confederation that took place at Lanckorona Castle, on the plains before Lanckorona, and in the town ifself, a small settlement 27 km (17 mi) southwest of the de jure Polish capital Kraków (de facto capital was Warsaw). The first two engagements took place on 20 February 1771, and the third on 21 May of the same year. The clashes involved a detachment of the Russian army of Ivan Weymarn (ru) led by Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov and Polish force with other European troops under the command of the French envoy Charles François Dumouriez. The field encounters where Dumouriez was attacked ended successfully for Suvorov, but the Russian commander failed to take the castle by assault.

Alexander Suvorov had already fought the Confederates in a substantial battle the year before last — he gave a heavy defeat to Casimir Pulaski at Orzechowo. Here, in the battle of Orzechowo, possessing a detachment not reaching 400 men, Suvorov won against 2,000 Polish Confederates.