1792 Battle of Valmy

The battle of Valmy is a the first major victory of the French Revolutionary armies after suffering six months of defeats by the Austrian and German coalition.

But Valmy is also a great military mystery: the circumstances should have led to a victory of the Austrian and German troops, yet they retreated after a few skirmishes and left the battlefield occupied by the French troops thus claiming a victory.

To this day, historians debate about the possibility of this victory having been "bought" by Danton, the minister of war. How could he have paid for that? With France's crown jewels that had just disappeared from Paris...

As per the legend has it, years later, Napoleon having read the accounts of that battle, commented that it did not make any sense. If the greatest military genius who had come up with the most amazing strategies could not decipher Valmy, we shall never know!