Battles of Stockach and Engen

Last updated
Battles of Stockach and Engen
Part of the campaigns of 1800 in the War of the Second Coalition
Combat de Stockach, 3 mai 1800.jpg
Combat of Stockach, 3 May 1800
by Félix Philippoteaux, 1838
Date3 May 1800
Location 47°51′10″N08°46′17″E / 47.85278°N 8.77139°E / 47.85278; 8.77139
Result

French victory

  • Engen: Draw
  • Stockach: French victory
Belligerents
Flag of France (1794-1815, 1830-1958).svg France Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor without haloes (1400-1806).svg Austria
Commanders and leaders
Engen:
Flag of France (1794-1815, 1830-1958).svg Jean Victor Moreau
Stockach:
Flag of France (1794-1815, 1830-1958).svg Claude Lecourbe
Engen:
Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor without haloes (1400-1806).svg Paul Kray
Stockach:
Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor without haloes (1400-1806).svg Joseph, Prince of Lorraine-Vaudemont
Strength
84,000 [1] [2] 72,000 [1] [2]
Casualties and losses
Total per Smith: [1]
3,000 killed, wounded
and missing

Total per Bodart: [2]
3,000 casualties
Total per Smith: [1]
397 killed
718 captured

Total per Le Spectateur militaire: [3]
1,147 killed
1,884 wounded
3,862 captured

Total per Bodart: [2]
3,000 killed or wounded
4,000 captured
Battles of Stockach and Engen
The color black indicates the current battle.
Battles of Engen and Stockach (Ch. L. F. Panckoucke, 1819) Battles of Engen and Stockach (Ch. L. F. Panckoucke, 1819).png
Battles of Engen and Stockach (Ch. L. F. Panckoucke, 1819)

The Battles of Stockach and Engen were fought on 3 May 1800 between the army of the First French Republic under Jean Victor Marie Moreau and the army of the Habsburg monarchy led by Paul Kray. The fighting near Engen resulted in a stalemate. However, while the two main armies were engaged at Engen, Claude Lecourbe captured Stockach from its Austrian defenders (the latter commanded by Joseph, Prince of Lorraine-Vaudemont). The loss of his main supply base at Stockach compelled Kray to order a retreat. Stockach is located near the northwestern end of Lake Constance while Engen is 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of Stockach. The action occurred during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars.

Contents

Background

See the Messkirch 1800 Order of Battle for details of the French and Austrian armies in the campaign.

Plans

At the beginning of 1800 the armies of France and the Habsburgs faced each other across the Rhine. Feldzeugmeister Paul Kray led approximately 120,000 troops. Beside his regular Austrian soldiers he led 12,000 men from the Electorate of Bavaria, 6,000 troops from the Duchy of Württemberg, 5,000 soldiers of low quality from the Archbishopric of Mainz and 7,000 militiamen from the County of Tyrol. Of these 25,000 men were deployed east of Lake Constance (Bodensee) to protect the Vorarlberg. Kray posted his main body of 95,000 soldiers in the L-shaped angle, where the Rhine changes direction from a westward flow along the northern border of Switzerland to a northward flow along the eastern border of France. Unwisely, Kray set up his main magazine at Stockach, only a day's march from French-held Switzerland. [4]

Feldmarschall-Leutnant Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen commanded the 25,000 troops in the Vorarlberg which included the Tyrolese. The 40,000-man center led by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Friedrich Joseph, Count of Nauendorf was posted from Lake Constance on the east to Villingen on the west, with its forward elements along the Rhine between the lake and Basel. The right wing consisted of the 15,000 troops of Feldmarschall-Leutnant Michael von Kienmayer [5] guarding the passes through the Black Forest, 16,000 soldiers under Feldmarschall-Leutnant Anton Sztáray behind the Rhine from the Rench River north to the Main River and 8,000 men defending Frankfurt. Finally, a 20,000-strong reserve hovered near Stockach. There were garrisons in all the major fortresses and a small naval squadron on Lake Constance. In total, Kray disposed of 110,000 infantry, 25,000 cavalry, 4,000 gunners and 500 artillery pieces. In his rear was a major supply base and an entrenched camp at Ulm. The Habsburg general was able to trace one line of supply through Munich to Austria and a second one through Regensburg to Bohemia. [6]

General of Division Jean Victor Marie Moreau commanded a well-equipped army of 137,000 French troops. Of these, 108,000 troops were available for field operations while the other 29,000 watched the Swiss border and held the Rhine fortresses. First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte offered a bold plan of operations based on outflanking the Austrians by a push from Switzerland, but Moreau declined to follow it. Rather, Moreau planned to cross the Rhine near Basel where the river swung to the north. A French column would distract Kray from Moreau's true intentions by crossing the Rhine from the west. Bonaparte wanted General of Division Claude Lecourbe's corps to be detached to Italy after the initial battles, but Moreau had other plans. [7]

French Army

At the beginning of March, Bonaparte ordered Moreau to form his army into all-arms army corps. Accordingly, by 20 March 1800, there were four corps, with the last one serving as an army reserve. [7] The Right Wing was led by Lecourbe and included four divisions led by Generals of Division Dominique Vandamme, Joseph Hélie Désiré Perruquet de Montrichard, Jean Thomas Guillaume Lorge and Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty. Vandamme commanded 9,632 infantry and 540 cavalry, Montrichard supervised 6,998 infantry, Lorge had 8,238 infantry and 464 cavalry and Nansouty directed 1,500 grenadiers and 1,280 cavalry. [8] The Center was led by General of Division Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr and comprised four divisions under Generals of Division Michel Ney, Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers and Jean Victor Tharreau and General of Brigade Nicolas Ernault des Bruslys. Ney had 7,270 infantry and 569 cavalry, d'Hilliers counted 8,340 infantry and 542 cavalry, Tharreau led 8,326 infantry and 611 cavalry and Bruslys directed 2,474 light infantry and 1,616 cavalry. [9]

The Left Wing was commanded by General of Division Gilles Joseph Martin Brunteau Saint-Suzanne and consisted of four divisions under Generals of Division Claude Sylvestre Colaud, Joseph Souham, Claude Juste Alexandre Legrand and Henri François Delaborde. Colaud led 2,740 infantry and 981 cavalry, Souham had 4,687 infantry and 1,394 cavalry, Legrand counted 5,286 infantry and 1,094 cavalry and Delaborde supervised 2,573 infantry and 286 cavalry. Moreau personally directed the Reserve which was made up of three infantry and one cavalry divisions led by Generals of Division Antoine Guillaume Delmas, Antoine Richepanse, Charles Leclerc and Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul. Delmas had 8,635 infantry and 1,031 cavalry, Richepanse directed 6,848 infantry and 1,187 cavalry, Leclerc commanded 6,035 infantry and 963 cavalry and d'Hautpoul counted 1,504 heavy cavalry. [9]

There were additional detached troops under Moreau's overall leadership. These included General of Division Louis-Antoine-Choin de Montchoisy's 7,715 infantry and 519 cavalry, detached to hold Switzerland. Fortresses in Alsace and along the Rhine were defended by forces under Generals of Division François Xavier Jacob Freytag, 2,935 infantry, Joseph Gilot, 750 cavalry, Alexandre Paul Guérin de Joyeuse de Chateauneuf-Randon, 3,430 infantry and 485 cavalry, Antoine Laroche Dubouscat, 3,001 infantry and 91 cavalry and Jean François Leval, 5,640 infantry and 426 cavalry. [9]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Smith (1998), p. 181.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Bodart 1908, p. 352.
  3. Le Spectateur militaire (1836), p. 571.
  4. Arnold (2005), pp. 197–199.
  5. Dodge (2011), p. 218.
  6. Dodge (2011), p. 219
  7. 1 2 Arnold (2005), pp. 199–201.
  8. Smith (1998), p. 177
  9. 1 2 3 Smith (1998), p. 178

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Höchstädt (1800)</span> Battle of the War of the Second Coalition

The Battle of Höchstädt was fought on 19 June 1800 on the north bank of the Danube near Höchstädt, and resulted in a French victory under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau against the Austrians under Baron Pál Kray. The Austrians were subsequently forced back into the fortress town of Ulm. Instead of attacking the heavily fortified, walled city, which would result in massive losses of personnel and time, Moreau dislodged Kray's supporting forces defending the Danube passage further east. As a line of retreat eastward disappeared, Kray quickly abandoned Ulm, and withdrew into Bavaria. This opened the Danube pathway toward Vienna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Hohenlinden</span> 1800 battle during the War of the Second Coalition

The Battle of Hohenlinden was fought on 3 December 1800 during the French Revolutionary Wars. A French army under Jean Victor Marie Moreau won a decisive victory over an Austrian and Bavarian force led by 18-year-old Archduke John of Austria. The allies were forced into a disastrous retreat that compelled them to request an armistice, effectively ending the War of the Second Coalition. Hohenlinden is 33 km east of Munich in modern Germany.

The Napoleonic Wars continued from 1799 with the French fighting the forces of the Second Coalition. Napoleon Bonaparte had returned from Egypt and taken control of the French government, marking the end of the French Revolution. He prepared a new campaign, sending Moreau to the Rhine frontier and personally going to take command in the Alps, where French forces had been driven almost out of Italy in 1799.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Elchingen</span> 1805 battle during the War of the Third Coalition

The Battle of Elchingen, fought on 14 October 1805, saw French forces under Michel Ney rout an Austrian corps led by Johann Sigismund Riesch. This defeat led to a large part of the Austrian army being invested in the fortress of Ulm by the army of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France while other formations fled to the east. Soon afterward, the Austrians trapped in Ulm surrendered and the French mopped up most of the remaining Austrian forces, bringing the Ulm Campaign to a close.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Stockach (1799)</span> 1799 Battle during the War of the Second Coalition

The Battle of Stockach occurred on 25 March 1799, when French and Austrian armies fought for control of the geographically strategic Hegau region in present-day Baden-Württemberg. In the broader military context, this battle constitutes a keystone in the first campaign in southwestern Germany during the Wars of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Würzburg</span> 1796 battle during the War of the First Coalition

The Battle of Würzburg was fought on 3 September 1796 between an army of the Habsburg monarchy led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen and an army of the First French Republic led by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan. The French attacked the archduke's forces, but they were resisted until the arrival of reinforcements decided the engagement in favor of the Austrians. The French retreated west toward the Rhine River. The action occurred during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. Würzburg is 95 kilometres (59 mi) southeast of Frankfurt.

In the Battle of Magnano on 5 April 1799, an Austrian army commanded by Pál Kray defeated a French army led by Barthélemy Schérer. In subsequent battles, the Austrians and their Russian allies drove the French out of nearly all of Italy. This action was fought during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg</span> Habsburg military commander (1760–1799)

Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg was an Austrian military commander. He achieved the rank of Field Marshal and died at the Battle of Stockach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino</span> French general (1747–1816)

Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino,, was a general and politician of France. Born in the Savoy, he was the son of a low-ranking officer in the Habsburg military. In 1789, during the French Revolution, he went to France, where he received a commission in the French Army. In 1793, his troops deposed him, for his strict discipline, but he was immediately reinstated and rose rapidly through the ranks of the general staff. He helped to push the Austrians back to Bavaria in the 1796 summer campaign, and then covered Moreau's retreat to France later that year, defending the Rhine bridge at Hüningen until the last units had crossed to safety.

Johann Sigismund Graf von Riesch joined the army of Habsburg Austria as a cavalry officer and, during his career, fought against the Kingdom of Prussia, Ottoman Turkey, Revolutionary France, and Napoleon's French Empire. He became a general officer during the French Revolutionary Wars and held important commands during the War of the Second Coalition. He displayed a talent for leading cavalry formations, but proved less capable when given corps-sized commands. During the 1805 Ulm Campaign in the Napoleonic Wars, the French badly defeated his corps and forced it to surrender soon afterward. From 1806 to his death in 1821, he was the Proprietor (Inhaber) of an Austrian cavalry regiment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ettlingen</span> Battle of the French Revolutionary Wars

The Battle of Ettlingen or Battle of Malsch was fought during the French Revolutionary Wars between the armies of the First French Republic and Habsburg Austria near the town of Malsch, 9 kilometres (6 mi) southwest of Ettlingen. The Austrians under Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen tried to halt the northward advance of Jean Victor Marie Moreau's French Army of Rhin-et-Moselle along the east bank of the Rhine River. After a tough fight, the Austrian commander found that his left flank was turned. He conceded victory to the French and retreated east toward Stuttgart. Ettlingen is located 10 kilometres (6 mi) south of Karlsruhe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ampfing (1800)</span> A battle during the french revolutionary wars

At the Battle of Ampfing on 1 December 1800, Paul Grenier's two divisions of the First French Republic opposed the Austrian army southwest of the town of Ampfing during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Austrians, under the leadership of Archduke John of Austria, forced their enemies to retreat, though they sustained greater losses than the French. Ampfing is located 63 kilometers east of Munich and 8 km (5.0 mi) west of Mühldorf am Inn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Verona (1805)</span> 1805 Battle during the War of the Third Coalition

The Battle of Verona was fought on 18 October 1805 between the French Army of Italy under the command of André Masséna and an Austrian army led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. By the end of the day, Massena seized a bridgehead on the east bank of the Adige River, driving back the defending troops under Josef Philipp Vukassovich. The action took place near the city of Verona in northern Italy during the War of the Third Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Biberach (1800)</span> 1800 battle during the War of the Second Coalition

The Battle of Biberach on 9 May 1800 saw a French First Republic corps under Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr engage part of a Habsburg Austrian army led by Pál Kray. After an engagement in which the Austrians suffered twice as many casualties as the French, Kray withdrew to the east. The combat occurred during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. Biberach an der Riss is located 35 kilometres (22 mi) southwest of Ulm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Tarvis (1797)</span> Battle of the War of the First Coalition

The Battle of Tarvis was fought during 21–23 March 1797 near present-day Tarvisio in far northeast Italy, about 12 kilometres (7 mi) west-by-southwest of the three-border conjunction with Austria and Slovenia, and was the final battle before the end of the War of the First Coalition. In the battle, three divisions of a First French Republic army commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte attacked several columns of the retreating Habsburg Austrian army led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. In three days of confused fighting, French divisions directed by André Masséna, Jean Joseph Guieu, and Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier succeeded in blocking the Tarvis Pass and capturing 3,500 Austrians led by Adam Bajalics von Bajahaza. The engagement occurred during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Neuburg (1800)</span> Battle of the War of the Second Coalition

The Battle of Neuburg occurred on 27 June 1800 in the south German state of Bavaria, on the southern bank of the Danube river. Neuburg is located on the Danube between Ingolstadt and Donauwörth. This battle occurred late in the War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802), the second war between Revolutionary France and the conservative European monarchies, which included at one time or another Britain, Habsburg Austria, Russia, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), Portugal and Naples. After a series of reverses, several of the allies withdrew from the Coalition. By 1800, Napoleon's military victories in northern Italy challenged Habsburg supremacy there. French victories in the upper Danubian territories opened a route along that river to Vienna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messkirch 1800 order of battle</span>

The Battle of Messkirch on 5 May 1800 was the major engagement in the War of the Second Coalition. It followed the Battle of Stockach on 3 May. The campaign began on 25 April when a French force emerged from the Kehl bridgehead. This marked the start of the offensive of Jean Victor Marie Moreau's Army of the Rhine against Paul Kray's army of Habsburg Austria and its Bavarian, Württemberg and other German allies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antoine Digonet</span>

Antoine Digonet commanded a French brigade during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. He joined the French Royal Army and fought in the American Revolutionary War as a foot soldier. In 1792 he was appointed officer of a volunteer battalion. He fought the Spanish in the War of the Pyrenees and was promoted to general officer. Later he was transferred to fight French royalists in the War in the Vendée. In 1800 he was assigned to the Army of the Rhine and led a brigade at Stockach, Messkirch and Biberach. Shortly after, he was transferred to Italy. In 1805 he fought under André Masséna at Caldiero. He participated in the 1806 Invasion of Naples and led his troops against the British at Maida where his brigade put up a sturdy resistance. After briefly serving in the 1809 war, he took command of Modena and died there of illness in 1811. He never married.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Feldkirch</span> 1799 battle of the War of the Second Coalition

The Battle of Feldkirch saw some French corps led by André Masséna attack a weaker Austrian force under Franz Jellacic. Defending fortified positions, the Austrians repulsed all of the French columns, though the struggle lasted until nightfall. This and other French setbacks in southern Germany soon caused Masséna to go on the defensive. The War of the Second Coalition combat occurred at the Austrian town of Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, located 158 kilometres (98 mi) west of Innsbruck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Linth River</span>

The Battle of (the) Linth River saw a French division under General of Division Jean-de-Dieu Soult face a force of Austrian, Imperial Russian, and Swiss rebel soldiers led by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze in Switzerland. Soult carefully planned and his troops carried out a successful assault crossing of the Linth River between Lake Zurich and the Walensee. Hotze's death early in the action disorganized the Allied defenders who were defeated and forced to retreat, abandoning supplies accumulated for Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov's approaching army. On the same day, General of Division André Masséna's French Army of Helvetia defeated Lieutenant General Alexander Korsakov's Russian army in the Second Battle of Zurich and a French brigade turned back another Austrian force near Mollis. Both Korsakov's Russians and Hotze's survivors, led by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz Petrasch withdrew north of the Rhine River.

References

General references

Preceded by
Battle of Genola
French Revolution: Revolutionary campaigns
Battles of Stockach and Engen
Succeeded by
Battle of Biberach (1800)