General Jourdan arrived in Metz on 19 March 1794 to take command of the Army of the Moselle in place of Hoche. The first orders he received from the Committee of Public Safety were to take 20,000 men in front of Longwy as far as Bouillon to intercept enemy movements from Namur and Liège towards Luxembourg, and at the same time to detach 20,000 others under general Hatry to make an incursion into Luxembourg and take Arlon. During these days these positions were the theatre of bloody fights that had no decisive result for either side, which both returned to their original positions afterward.