1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
War of the Second Coalition
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The War of the Second Coalition was the second war on revolutionary France by the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and Naples. Their goal was to contain the spread of chaos from France and they failed to overthrow the revolutionary regime and French territorial gains since 1793 were confirmed. The Allies formed a new alliance and attempted to roll back Frances previous military conquests, the Coalition did very well in 1799, but Russia pulled out. Napoleon took charge in France in late 1799, and he, in the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801, France held all of its previous gains and obtained new lands in Tuscany, Italy, while Austria was granted Venetia and the Dalmatian coast. Britain and France signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, by May 1803 Britain and France were again at war and in 1805 Britain assembled the Third Coalition to resume the war against France. On 20 April 1792, the French Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria, in this War of the First Coalition, France ranged itself against most of the European states sharing land or water borders with her, plus Portugal and the Ottoman Empire. In the summer of 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte led an expedition to Egypt, where his army was trapped, meanwhile, during his absence from Europe, the outbreak of violence in Switzerland drew French support against the old Swiss Confederation. When revolutionaries overthrew the government in Bern, the French Army of the Alps invaded. In northern Italy, Russian general Aleksandr Suvorov won a string of victories, driving the French under Moreau out of the Po Valley, forcing them back on the French Alps and the coast around Genoa. However, the Russian armies in the Helvetic Republic were defeated by French commander André Masséna, ultimately the Russians left the Coalition when Great Britain insisted on the right to search all vessels it stopped at sea. In Germany, Archduke Charles of Austria drove the French under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan back across the Rhine, Jourdan was replaced by Massena, who then combined the Armies of the Danube and Helvetia. From October 1797 until March 1799, the signatories of the Treaty of Campo Formio avoided armed conflict, despite their agreement at Campo Formio, two primary combatants, France and Austria, remained suspicious of each other and several diplomatic incidents undermined the agreement. The French demanded additional territory not mentioned in the Treaty, the Habsburgs were reluctant to hand over designated territories, much less additional ones. The Congress at Rastatt proved inept at orchestrating the transfer of territories to compensate the German princes for their losses, Ferdinand of Naples refused to pay tribute to France, followed by the Neapolitan rebellion and the subsequent establishment of the Parthenopaean Republic. Republicans in the Swiss cantons, supported by the French army, overthrew the government in Bern. Other factors contributed to the rising tensions, on his way to Egypt, Napoleon had stopped at the heavily fortified port city of Valletta. Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim, who ruled the island, the French Knights of the order deserted, and the remaining Knights failed to mount a successful resistance. Bonaparte forcibly removed the other Knights from their possessions, angering Paul, Tsar of Russia, the French Directory, furthermore, was convinced that the Austrians were conniving to start another war
3.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
4.
French First Republic
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In the history of France, the First Republic, officially the French Republic, was founded on 21 September 1792 during the French Revolution. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First Empire in 1804 under Napoleon, under the Legislative Assembly, which was in power before the proclamation of the First Republic, France was engaged in war with Prussia and Austria. The foreign threat exacerbated Frances political turmoil amid the French Revolution and deepened the passion, in the violence of 10 August 1792, citizens stormed the Tuileries Palace, killing six hundred of the Kings Swiss guards and insisting on the removal of the king. A renewed fear of action prompted further violence, and in the first week of September 1792, mobs of Parisians broke into the citys prisons. This included nobles, clergymen, and political prisoners, but also numerous common criminals, such as prostitutes and petty thieves, many murdered in their cells—raped, stabbed and this became known as the September Massacres. The resulting Convention was founded with the purpose of abolishing the monarchy. The Conventions first act, on 10 August 1792, was to establish the French First Republic, the King, by then a private citizen bearing his family name of Capet, was subsequently put on trial for crimes of high treason starting in December 1792. On 16 January 1793 he was convicted, and on 21 January, throughout the winter of 1792 and spring of 1793, Paris was plagued by food riots and mass hunger. The new Convention did little to remedy the problem until late spring of 1793, despite growing discontent with the National Convention as a ruling body, in June the Convention drafted the Constitution of 1793, which was ratified by popular vote in early August. The Committees laws and policies took the revolution to unprecedented heights, after the arrest and execution of Robespierre in July 1794, the Jacobin club was closed, and the surviving Girondins were reinstated. A year later, the National Convention adopted the Constitution of the Year III and they reestablished freedom of worship, began releasing large numbers of prisoners, and most importantly, initiated elections for a new legislative body. On 3 November 1795, the Directory was established, the period known as the French Consulate began with the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799. Members of the Directory itself planned the coup, indicating clearly the failing power of the Directory, Napoleon Bonaparte was a co-conspirator in the coup, and became head of the government as the First Consul. He would later proclaim himself Emperor of the French, ending the First French Republic and ushering in the French First Empire
5.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
6.
Habsburg Monarchy
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen
7.
Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze
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He was killed at the Second Battle of Zürich. Hotze was born on 20 April 1739 in Richterswil in the Canton of Zürich, as a boy, he graduated at the Carolinum in Zürich and pursued studies at the University of Tübingen. In 1758, he entered the service of the Duke of Württemberg, and was promoted to captain of cavalry, he campaigned in the Seven Years War. Later, he served in the Russian army in Russias War with Turkey and his persistent attentiveness to Joseph II garnered for him a commission in the Austrian imperial army, and he served in the brief War of Bavarian Succession. A diligent and creative commander, he rose quickly through the ranks and his campaigning in the War of the First Coalition, particularly at the Battle of Würzburg, earned him the Knights Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa and, in 1798, the Commanders Cross. Archduke Charles placed him in command of the center of the Austrian line at the First Battle of Zürich in 1799. He was killed by French musket fire in the morning mist near Schänis, Friedrich Hotze was the second son of Johannes Hotze, a doctor and surgeon in Hessian military service and his Zürich-born wife, Juditha Gessner. Hotze came from an old Swiss family, and was a cousin of Heinrich Pestalozzi, as a young man, Hotze studied at the renowned Gymnasium Carolinum. Later he attended the University of Tübingen, in October 1758, Hotze entered the military service of the Duke of Württemberg, in a Hussar regiment as an officer cadet. By 1759, he had promoted to lieutenant, and in 1761. After service in Prussia, he took a vacation in Switzerland. Suvarov praised him for his bravery and promoted him to major, the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire ended with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, signed on 21 July 1775. In 1776, Hotze returned to his home near Zürich, on the return journey, he stopped in Vienna, to present himself to the Emperor, Joseph II, and to seek an appointment as a major in the imperial Austrian army. His regiment served in the field during the brief War of Bavarian Succession and he served for a short time with the cuirassiers regiment Marquis de Voghera in Hungary, and returned with this regiment to Vienna in 1783. In 1784, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given command of the 1, galican Lancers, which, in 1795, became the foundation of the 1. Hotzes experience with military preparedness and organization gave him an advantage in establishing the lancers as a new combat arm, recognizing the importance of lancers as part of the Austrian armed force, he embarked on an organizational and training program. The Emperor named him as commander of corps, with the rank of a full colonel. In 1787, he returned temporarily to Russia, this time to establish a force in Catherine the Greats army
8.
French Revolutionary Wars
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The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of sweeping military conflicts, lasting from 1792 until 1802, resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted the French First Republic against Britain, Austria and several other monarchies and they are divided in two periods, the War of the First Coalition and the War of the Second Coalition. Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed a global dimension as the political ambitions of the Revolution expanded, French success in these conflicts ensured the spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe. The Revolutionary Wars began from increasing political pressure on King Louis XVI of France to prove his loyalty to the new direction France was taking. In the spring of 1792, France declared war on Prussia and Austria, the victory rejuvenated the French nation and emboldened the National Convention to abolish the monarchy. A series of victories by the new French armies abruptly ended with defeat at Neerwinden in the spring of 1793, by 1795, the French had captured the Austrian Netherlands and knocked Spain and Prussia out of the war with the Peace of Basel. A hitherto unknown general called Napoleon Bonaparte began his first campaign in Italy in April 1796, in less than a year, French armies under Napoleon decimated the Habsburg forces and evicted them from the Italian peninsula, winning almost every battle and capturing 150,000 prisoners. With French forces marching towards Vienna, the Austrians sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Campo Formio, the War of the Second Coalition began with the French invasion of Egypt, headed by Napoleon, in 1798. The Allies took the opportunity presented by the French strategic effort in the Middle East to regain territories lost from the First Coalition. The war began well for the Allies in Europe, where they pushed the French out of Italy and invaded Switzerland—racking up victories at Magnano, Cassano. However, their efforts largely unraveled with the French victory at Zurich in September 1799, meanwhile, Napoleons forces annihilated a series of Egyptian and Ottoman armies at the battles of the Pyramids, Mount Tabor, and Abukir. These victories and the conquest of Egypt further enhanced Napoleons popularity back in France, however, the Royal Navy had managed to inflict a humiliating defeat on the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, further strengthening British control of the Mediterranean. Napoleons arrival from Egypt led to the fall of the Directory in the Coup of 18 Brumaire, Napoleon then reorganized the French army and launched a new assault against the Austrians in Italy during the spring of 1800. This latest effort culminated in a decisive French victory at the Battle of Marengo in June 1800, another crushing French triumph at Hohenlinden in Bavaria forced the Austrians to seek peace for a second time, leading to the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801. With Austria and Russia out of the war, the United Kingdom found itself increasingly isolated and agreed to the Treaty of Amiens with Napoleons government in 1802, concluding the Revolutionary Wars. The lingering tensions proved too difficult to contain, however, in 1789–1792, the entire governmental structure of France was transformed to fall into line with the Revolutionary principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. As a result, one of the first major elements of the French state to be restructured was the army, the transformation of the army was best seen in the officer corps. Before the revolution 90% had been nobility, compared to only 3% in 1794, Revolutionary fervour was high, and was closely monitored by the Committee of Public Safety, which assigned Representatives on Mission to keep watch on generals
9.
Switzerland in the Napoleonic era
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During the French Revolutionary Wars, the revolutionary armies marched eastward, enveloping Switzerland in their battles against Austria. In 1798, Switzerland was completely overrun by the French and was renamed the Helvetic Republic, the Helvetic Republic encountered severe economic and political problems. In 1798 the country became a battlefield of the Revolutionary Wars, Gallen, Vaud and Ticino became cantons with equal rights. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise Swiss neutrality, at this time, the territory of Switzerland was increased for the last time, by the new cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva. During the last years of the Ancien Régime the growing conflicts throughout the Confederation had weakened and distracted the Diet, during the next eight years revolts sprang up across the Confederation and unlike earlier many were successful. In 1790 the Lower Valais rose against the upper districts, in 1791 Porrentruy rebelled against the Bishop of Basel and became the Rauracian republic in November 1792 and in 1793 the French department of the Mont Terrible. In 1795 St Gallen successfully revolted against the prince-abbot and these revolts were supported or encouraged by France, but the French army didnt directly attack the Confederation. In 1797 the districts of Chiavenna, Valtellina and Bormio, dependencies of the Three Leagues and they were quickly invaded and annexed to the Cisalpine Republic on 10 October 1797. In December of the year the Bishopric of Basel was occupied and annexed. On 9 December 1797 Frédéric-César de La Harpe, a member of the Helvetian Club from Vaud, seeing a chance to remove a feudal neighbor and gain Berns wealth, France agreed. By February 1798 French troops occupied Mulhouse and Biel/Bienne, meanwhile, another army entered Vaud, when the Lemanic republic was proclaimed, and the Diet broke up in dismay without taking any steps to avert the coming storm. On 5 March troops entered Bern, deserted by her allies, with Bern, the stronghold of the aristocratic party, in revolutionary hands, the old Confederation collapsed. Within a month, the Confederation was under French control and all the members of the Confederation were gone. On 12 April 1798121 cantonal deputies proclaimed the Helvetic Republic, One, the new régime abolished cantonal sovereignty and feudal rights. The occupying forces established a state based on the ideas of the French Revolution. Before the Helvetic Republic, each canton had exercised complete sovereignty over its own territory or territories. Little central authority had existed, with matters concerning the country as a whole confined mainly to the Diet, the constitution of the Helvetic Republic came mainly from the design of Peter Ochs, a magistrate from Basel. It established a central two-chamber legislature which included the Grand Council, the executive, known as the Directory, comprised 5 members
10.
Battle of Grauholz
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The Battle of Grauholz on 5 March 1798 was a battle between a Bernese army under Karl Ludwig von Erlach against the French Revolutionary Army under Balthazar Alexis Henri Schauenburg. The battle took place at Grauholz, a hill in what is now the municipalities of Urtenen-Schönbühl. The government of Bern had already surrendered the day and the Bernese defeat at Grauholz ended their resistance to the French in the north of the canton. Attempting to gain control of key alpine passes and establish a buffer against the monarchies of Europe. Part of the bishopric of Basel was absorbed into France in 1793, in 1797 Napoleon annexed the Valtellina on the border with Graubünden into the new Cisalpine Republic in northern Italy and invaded the southern remainder of the bishopric of Basel. In 1798, the confederacy was invaded by the French Revolutionary Army, at the invitation of the Republican faction in Vaud, Vaud was under Bernese control, but chafed under a government that often spoke a different language and came from a different culture. The ideals of the French Revolution had found an audience in Vaud. So when Vaud revolted and declared a republic, the French had a pretext to invade the entire Confederation, the French army entered the Lemanic Republic on 24 January 1798 and Bernese troops retreated peacefully to Murten and Fribourg. French General Balthazar Alexis Henri Schauenburg deployed troops in two wings and prepared to attack from the north and south, Bern raised about 20,000 troops while the rest of the Confederation provided 4,100 support troops. The two wings of the French army had about 35,000 troops, berns refusal to accept a government led by the French supported Reform or Peace Party provided a pretext for an invasion. On 1 March 1798 French troops invaded Bern and the Canton of Solothurn, on the following day, the Battles of Lengnau, Twann and Grenchen and Bellach ended in French victories and the capitulation of Solothurn. On 4 March 1798, the government of Bern surrendered to the French, the Bernese army of about 6,400 men first met a French army of about 18,000 men at the Battle of Fraubrunnen but were driven back to Grauholz, a wooded hill near Bern. By this time General Erlach only had two battalions of soldiers. Many women, old men, and sometimes even children of the population joined the fighting Bernese troops. An eyewitness describes many residents of the village of Bollingen joining the Bernese army. The Bernese army held out for two and a half hours against the larger French army before it finally broke. Most of the Bernese army left the woods in small groups or individually, of the farmers from Bollingen village, a total of 27 men died in the battle. One report from 1804 stated that the Swiss had 2,000 casualties while the French suffered about 1,600 killed, a later estimate was that Bern lost a total of about 700 men in the battles between 2–5 March 1798 but French losses in the campaign are unknown
11.
Battle of Feldkirch
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The Battle of Feldkirch saw a Republican French corps led by André Masséna attack a weaker Habsburg Austrian force under Franz Jellacic. Defending fortified positions, the Austrians repulsed all of the French columns and 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, on a flimsy pretext, a Republican French army invaded Switzerland in January 1798 and forced the country into an uneasy alliance marked by occasional revolts. By the start of hostilities with Austria in early 1799, Masséna was in command of the Army of Helvetia, going on the offensive, the French inflicted defeats on the Austrians at Maienfeld, Chur and Feldkirch on 6 and 7 March. Ordered to attack Feldkirch in late March by his superior Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, Jourdans defeats at Ostrach and Stockach soon forced the French to recoil. The ostensible reason for the French Directory to order the invasion of Switzerland was that the Confederation was maltreating the people of the Canton of Vaud, however, the real reason was most likely the desire for the French government to get its hands on the Swiss treasury at Bern. Named to command the Army of Helvetia, Guillaume Brune with a division from the Army of Italy started marching north on 1 January 1798. Meanwhile, Balthazar Alexis Henri Schauenburgs 15, 000-man division was detached from the Army of the Rhine, during this time bogus negotiations were carried on to mislead the Swiss. On 5 February 1798, Brune officially took command of the divisions of Schauenburg and his former unit. Converging on Bern, both entered the city on 5 March after scattered fighting. On 8 March 1798 Brune was appointed to lead the Army of Italy and he left for his new command on 29 March and Schauenburg was named the new army commander. Meanwhile, cash and gold worth 10 million francs were seized of which three million helped finance Napoleon Bonapartes French campaign in Egypt and Syria, in addition,293 cannons,38 howitzers and 32 mortars were taken to Huningue and Carouge. Though the two became allies on 19 August 1798, many Swiss were not happy with their new French overlords. The French soldiers were kept busy suppressing revolts in Valais and other cantons, during his tenure, Schauenburg got Nicolas Oudinot transferred to his army. Schauenburg was an excellent organizer but not a general like his successor. On 11 December, he relinquished command to André Masséna and assumed the role of Inspector General of Infantry, at this time the Army of Helvetia counted 24,000 veteran troops, including 1,600 cavalry. By invading Switzerland, the French government had opened up a new avenue for the Coalition forces to invade France. Along its borders with Belgium and Germany, France was well-protected by a belt of fortresses, but in the Jura Mountains on the Swiss frontier, there were only a few places like Fort de Joux and Salins-les-Bains guarding the region of Franche-Comté
12.
Battle of Winterthur
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The small town of Winterthur lies 18 kilometers northeast of Zürich, in Switzerland. Because of its position at the junction of seven cross-roads, the army held the town controlled access to most of Switzerland. By mid-May 1799, the Austrians had wrested control of parts of Switzerland from the French as forces under the command of Hotze, the French Army of Switzerland and the Army of the Danube, now both under the command of André Masséna, sought to prevent this merger. Masséna sent Michel Ney and a mixed cavalry and infantry force from Zürich to stop Hotzes force at Winterthur. Despite a sharp contest, the Austrians succeeded in pushing the French out of the Winterthur highlands, once the union of the Habsburg armies took place in early June, Archduke Charles attacked French positions at Zürich and forced the French to withdraw beyond the Limmat. Initially, the rulers of Europe viewed the revolution in France as an event between the French king and his subjects, and not something in which they should interfere, the French position became increasingly difficult. Compounding problems in relations, French émigrés continued to agitate for support of a counter-revolution. On 20 April 1792, the French National Convention declared war on Austria, in this War of the First Coalition, France ranged itself against most of the European states sharing land or water borders with her, plus Portugal and the Ottoman Empire. The treaty called for meetings between the parties to work out the exact territorial and remunerative details. Convened at a town in the mid-Rhineland, Rastatt, the Congress quickly derailed in a mire of intrigue. The Austrians were reluctant to cede the designated territories, compounding the Congresss problems, tensions grew between France and most of the First Coalition allies. Ferdinand of Naples refused to pay tribute to France. The French invaded Naples and established the Parthenopaean Republic, encouraged by the French Republic, a republican uprising in the Swiss cantons led to the overthrow of the Swiss Confederation and the establishment of the Helvetic Republic. The French Directory was convinced that the Austrians were planning to start another war, indeed, the weaker France seemed, the more seriously the Austrians, the Neapolitans, the Russians, and the English discussed this possibility. In mid-spring, the Austrians reached an agreement with Tsar Paul of Russia by which the legendary Alexander Suvorov would come out of retirement to assist Austria in Italy with another 60,000 troops. The French Directorys military strategy in 1799 called for offensive campaigns on all fronts, central Italy, northern Italy, the Swiss cantons, the upper Rhineland, and Holland. Theoretically, the French had a force of 250,000 troops. As winter broke in 1799, General Jean Baptiste Jourdan and the Army of the Danube, at a strength of 50,000
13.
Battle of Oberwald
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Battle of Oberwald occurred on 13–14 August 1799 between French forces commanded by General of Division Jean Victor Tharreau and elements of Prince Rohans corps in southern Switzerland. The Austrian regiment was commanded by Colonel Gottfried von Strauch, both sides engaged approximately 6,000 men. The French lost 500 killed, wounded or missing, and the Austrians lost 3,000 men, Oberwald is a village in Canton Valais, at the source of the Rhône River, between Grimsel and Furka passes. Within six months of signing the Treaty of Campo Formio, the French Directory had established a new modus operandi to expand its area of influence, the Republic sought a contiguous territory between France and the Holy Roman Empire. To accomplish this, France subverted Austrian and Imperial influence by exporting its own brand of revolution to former Austrian territories in the Lowlands, by lending French military muscle, local collaborators seized power and established other satellite republics. In 1798, Switzerland was restructured into the Helvetic Republic, modeled on revolutionary France, the French, under command of Charles Antoine Xaintrailles, beat them off and they withdrew to their own entrenchments. Before daybreak on the morning, Xaintrailles attacked in two columns. The first, Column Barbier, drove the insurgents out of the woods, Xaintrailles sent two flanking detachments to the crest of the mountains, well out of artillery range, while the main body in the valley attacked the position in front of them. The men in the gorge redoubled their efforts and entered the Valais entrenchments, the survivors fled to Raron, abandoning their guns and magazines. On 26 May, Xaintrailles right column crossed the Saltina river via a ford and marched to Brig and these abandoned the town and fled into the mountains behind it. While he was reforming his troops, he offered the insurgents an olive branch, if they would lay down their arms and return to their homes and those who persisted in revolt would face summary execution. Xaintrailles pushed on with the grenadiers of the 100th and sent several companies of the 100th to St. Bernard and his Swiss allies guarded the gorges and defiles behind him. He established his headquarters at Brig, from which he could control the passes at Great St. Bernard and Simplon and access to northern Italy, in March 1799, war had again broken out between the Austrians and its coalition allies against the French. Massena, who commanded the French army in Switzerland, surprised the Austrian division stationed in the Grisons, though, to the north, after victories at Ostrach and Stockach, and later at Feldkirch, the Archduke Charles pushed the French out. The Swiss general Hotze, in Austrian service, approached through the Grisons, the Austrians, following up on their success, over ran most of eastern Switzerland. Massena left Zurich and fell back to the River Reuss, the smaller cantons took this opportunity to extract themselves from the French alliances, Uri took possession of the pass at St. Gothard, and the people of Upper Valais occupied the Simplon pass. Schwyz, one of the original medieval establishments, also rebelled, although Russian and Austrians occupied Zurich, the headquarters of the Allies, the French evacuated Schwyz and assumed positions on the frontiers of Zug by Arth. The Austrians entered Schwyz, where the inhabitants welcomed them joyously, on 3 July, the French attacked the whole Austrian line there, but the Austrians, with strong support of the Schwyz people, repulsed them again
14.
Second Battle of Zurich
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The Second Battle of Zurich was a key victory by the Republican French army in Switzerland led by André Masséna over an Austrian and Russian force commanded by Alexander Korsakov near Zurich. It broke the stalemate that had resulted from the First Battle of Zurich three months earlier and led to the withdrawal of Russia from the Second Coalition. Most of the fighting took place on both banks of the river Limmat up to the gates of Zurich, and within the city itself, after the First Battle of Zurich Masséna had consolidated to a defensive line behind the lower reaches of the Aare River. At this time his army in Switzerland consisted of around 77,000 combatants, positioned as, 1st Division in the Upper Valais. 2nd Division in the St Gotthard and the valley of the Reuss, 3rd Division Right wing near Glarus, centre on the left bank of the Linth, the left near Adliswil on the Sihl. 5th Division on the bank of the Limmat between Altstetten and Baden. 6th Division from Baden to the confluence of the Aare with the Rhine, 7th Division formed the Reserve in the Frick-thal. Masséna meanwhile was preparing an offensive on his right flank against the Austrian positions in the Alps. On 15 and 16 August General Claude Lecourbe with 12,000 men drove the forces of Strauch and Simbschen from the St. Gotthard, Furka, as a distraction, on 14 August French forces under Soult made demonstrations across the Sihl below Zurich. Reluctantly following these instructions, he left behind a column of 29,000 men under Friedrich von Hotze, and Korsakovs command with the Swiss in the Austrian service. The plan for these two commands was to wait for the arrival of the Russian column of Suvorov penetrating north from Italy over the Alpine passes, on 28 August the bulk of the troops of Archduke Charles departed Switzerland. - A company, you mean, said Korsakoff - No, replied the Archduke, - I understand you, rejoined the other, an Austrian battalion, or a Russian company At the end of August the Allied army stood as follows. Korsakov with 33,000 men around Zurich and the Lower Limmat, distributed as, Division Lieutenant-General Gorchakov, Brigades of General-Major Tuchkov, along the right banks of the Limmat from Baden to the Rhine. The cavalry and cossacks under Major-General Gudovich were distributed on the Rhine along the line of the road from Zurich to Baden, Reserve Division Lieutenant-General Sacken,5,700 men initially in a camp at Regensdorf, then along the north bank of Lake Zurich connecting to Hotze. Nauendorf, with 5,400 Austrians, on the bank of the Rhine between Waldshut and Basel. Hotze with 25,000 Austrians, including 3,000 Swiss, Suvorov with 28,000 Russians on the march from Italy through the Alps. The departure of Archduke Charles gave the French a momentary superiority in numbers, Masséna was determined to exploit this and his aim was to beat Korsakov and Hotze before any intervention by Suvorov. On 30 August he attempted to cross the Aare and push back the enemy before Zurich and this river crossing was unsuccessful, and Masséna now planned a crossing near Dietikon with a subsequent attack on Korsakov in Zurich
15.
Preveza
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Preveza is a town in the region of Epirus, northwestern Greece, located at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf. It is the capital of the unit of Preveza, which is part of the region of Epirus. The Aktio-Preveza Immersed Tunnel, the first and so far only undersea tunnel in Greece, was completed in 2002, the ruins of the ancient city of Nicopolis lie 7 kilometres north of the city. Different theories have suggested by scholars as to the origin of the name Preveza. In 1857, Panagiotis Aravantinos, one of the earliest historians of modern Epirus, suggested an Italian origin of the name, relating it to the word prevesione, supply. Most of the scholars who have dealt with the origin of the name after Aravantinos and this view has also been shared by the byzantinists Fyodor Uspensky and Konstantinos Amantos.541 km2, the municipal unit 66.835 km2. In antiquity, the part of Epirus was inhabited by the Greek tribe of Cassopeans, part of a larger tribe. At the southernmost part of Epirus, king Pyrrhus founded, in 290 BC, today, it is believed that Berenikea lies on the hills near the village of Michalitsi, following the excavations by Sotirios Dakaris in 1965. The Ionian Sea, near Berenikea, was the site of the naval Battle of Actium, on 2 September 31 BC, in which Octavians forces defeated those of Mark Antony, the ancient city of Nicopolis was built, nearby, by Augustus to commemorate his victory. The city is believed to have, at its peak, a population of 150,000, in AD90, Epictetus arrived at Nicopolis, after been banished by the Roman emperor Domitian, and established a school of philosophy. One of his students, Arrian, became a famous historian, Nicopolis continued under Roman and later Byzantine rule, experiencing brief periods of Bulgarian rule in the 10th century. According to one theory, modern Preveza grew around a military outpost built in the 9th century by the Bulgarians, the city was first attested in the Chronicle of the Morea. However, Hammond places the foundation of Preveza much later, at the end of the 14th century, after 1204, it came under the Despotate of Epirus, the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Empire, and the Despotate of Arta. It then came under Venetian rule until captured by the Ottomans, the Ottomans refounded Preveza probably in 1477, with a subsequent strengthening of the fortifications in 1495. This day is a Turkish Navy National Holiday, and some of today Turkish submarines called Preveze, Preveza was hotly contested in several Ottoman-Venetian Wars. However, at the end of the war in 1699 Preveza was handed back to Ottoman rule, Venetian rule would persist until the very end of the Venetian Republic itself in 1797. During this period, in 1779, the Orthodox missionary Kosmas visited Preveza where it is said he founded a Greek school, which would be the only school of the city during the 18th century. At the end of the 18th century, Preveza became a center of trade with western Europe
16.
Battle of Ostrach
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The Battle of Ostrach, also called the Battle by Ostrach, occurred on 20–21 March 1799. It was the first battle of the War of the Second Coalition, the battle resulted in the victory of the Austrian forces, under the command of Archduke Charles, over the French forces, commanded by Jean Baptiste Jourdan. The battle occurred during Holy Week,1799, amid rain, initially, the French were able to take, and hold, Ostrach and the nearby hamlet of Hoßkirch plus several strategic points on the Ostrach marsh. As the engagement began, Habsburg numerical superiority overwhelmed French defenses, by evening, the French left wing was flanked and Jourdans men retreated from Ostrach to the Pfullendorf heights. On the next morning, as Jourdan considered a counter-attack, the weather broke, the numbers and dispositions of the Austrians convinced him that any attack would be useless, and that he could not hope to maintain his position in the heights. As he withdrew, a portion of his flank was cut off from the main force. Although casualties appeared even on both sides, the Austrians had a larger fighting force, both on the field at Ostrach, and stretched along a line between Lake Constance and Ulm. French casualties amounted to eight percent of the force and Austrian, the French withdrew to Engen and Stockach, where a few days later the armies engaged again, this time with greater losses on both sides, and an Austrian victory. As the rhetoric grew more strident, however, the monarchies started to view events with alarm. In 1790, Leopold succeeded his brother Joseph as emperor and by 1791, he considered the situation surrounding his sister, Marie Antoinette and they threatened ambiguous, but quite serious, consequences if anything should happen to the royal family. The French Republican position became increasingly difficult, compounding problems in international relations, French émigrés continued to agitate for support of a counter-revolution abroad. Chief among them were the Prince Condé, his son, the Duke de Bourbon, and his grandson, from their base in Koblenz, immediately over the French border, they sought direct support for military intervention from the royal houses of Europe, and raised an army. On 20 April 1792, the French National Convention declared war on Austria, in this War of the First Coalition, France ranged itself against most of the European states sharing land or water borders with her, plus Portugal and the Ottoman Empire. The treaty called for meetings between the parties to work out the exact territorial and remunerative details, to be convened at Rastatt. The French demand for more territory than originally agreed upon stalled negotiations, despite their agreement at Campo Formio and the ongoing meetings at Rastatt, the two primary combatants of the First Coalition, France and Austria, were highly suspicious of the others motives. Several diplomatic incidents undermined the agreement, ferdinand of Naples refused to pay tribute to France, followed by the Neapolitan rebellion, invasion by France, and the subsequent establishment of the Parthenopaean Republic. Republican uprising in the Swiss cantons, encouraged by the French Republic with military support, other factors contributed to the rising tensions as well. On his way to Egypt in 1798, Napoleon had stopped on the Island of Malta and this angered Paul, Tsar of Russia, who was the honorary head of the Order
17.
Battle of Stockach (1799)
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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 context, this battle constitutes a keystone in the first campaign in southwestern Germany during the Wars of the Second Coalition. The Austrian Armys superior strength, almost three-to-one, forced the French to withdraw, when a small French force commanded by Dominique Vandamme nearly flanked the Austrian Army, Charless personal intervention was crucial for the Austrians, buying time for reinforcements to arrive. General Jourdan, while trying to rally his men, was trampled to death. Ultimately, the French were driven back upon the Rhine River and this treaty proved difficult to administer. Austria was slow to give up some of the Venetian territories, supported by French republican forces, Swiss insurgents staged several uprisings, ultimately causing the overthrow of the Swiss Confederation after 18 months of civil war. By early 1799, the French Directory had become impatient with stalling tactics employed by Austria, the uprising in Naples raised further alarms, and recent gains in Switzerland suggested the timing was fortuitous to venture on another campaign in northern Italy and southwestern Germany. As winter broke in 1799, on 1 March, General Jean Baptiste Jourdan and his army of 25,000 and this crossing officially violated the Treaty of Campo Formio. On 2 March, the Army was renamed Army of the Danube, the Austrians had already reached an agreement with Tsar Paul of Russia by which the legendary Alexander Suvorov would leave retirement to assist Austria in Italy with another 60,000 troops. Ostrach itself lies almost at the end of this plain. By 7 March, the first French forces arrived there, over the following week, additional forces for both sides arrived, and the two armies faced each other across this valley. The French army extended in a line from the Danube to Lake Constance. François Joseph Lefebvre commanded the Advance Guard, positioned on the slope below Pfullendorf, pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferinos First Division held the southern-most flank, to defend against any encirclement by Charles force. Jourdan set up command at Pfullendorf, and the Cavalry Reeserve, commanded by Jean-Joseph Ange dHautpoul, stood slightly to the north, by late on the 19th, Austrian and French soldiers had been skirmishing at outposts for more than 30 hours, with the action growing increasingly intense. In the early hours of the 21st, General Lefebvre informed Jourdan that the Austrians were attacking all his positions, after 24 hours of fighting, Austrian forces pushed Lefebvre and Saint Cyrs troops back to the Pfullendorf heights. Although sappers blew up the bridge over the Ostrach river. They nearly outflanked General Saint Cyrs forces on the flank, did outflank Lefebvres forces in the center. Saint Cyrs troops barely managed to pull back before being cut off
18.
Battle of Verona (1799)
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Battle of Verona on 26 March 1799 saw a Habsburg Austrian army under Pál Kray fight a First French Republic army led by Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer. The battle encompassed three separate combats on the same day, at Verona, the two sides battled to a bloody draw. At Pastrengo to the west of Verona, French forces prevailed over their Austrian opponents, at Legnago to the southeast of Verona, the Austrians defeated their French adversaries. The battle was fought during the War of the Second Coalition, Verona is a city on the Adige River in northern Italy. At Pastrengo, the French lost 1,000 killed, wounded, in addition, the French captured 1,500 men,12 guns, two pontoon bridges, and two colors. The Schröder Infantry Regiment Nr.27 lost particularly serious casualties, at Verona, French losses numbered 1,500 killed and wounded plus 300 men and three guns captured out of a total of 14,500 men. The Austrians counted 1,600 killed and wounded and 1,100 captured out of 16,400 troops, Generals Konrad Valentin von Kaim, Ferdinand Minkwitz, and Anton Lipthay de Kisfalud were wounded. The contest at Legnago cost the French 2,000 killed and wounded and 600 men and 14 guns captured out of 9,500 men, General of Brigade François Felix Vignes was killed. The Austrians lost 700 killed and wounded and 100 captured out of 14,000 soldiers, Lipthay never recovered from his wounds and died on 17 February 1800 at Padua. The 1799 Campaign in Italy, The Left Wing - led directly by General Schérer, the 1799 Campaign in Italy, Austrian defence of Verona - March 24th 1799. The 1799 Campaign in Italy, Battle of Verona - March 26,1799, the 1799 Campaign in Italy, Verona Defense March 26,1799. The 1799 Campaign in Italy, Austrian Deployment Approaching the Legnago Battle, biographical Dictionary of All Austrian Generals during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815
19.
Battle of Cassano (1799)
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The Battle of Cassano dAdda was fought on 27 April 1799 near Cassano dAdda, about 28 km ENE of Milan. It resulted in a victory for the Austrians and Russians under Alexander Suvorov over Jean Moreaus French army, the action took place during the War of the Second Coalition during the larger conflict known as the French Revolutionary Wars. While General Napoleon Bonaparte campaigned in Egypt, the Second Coalition launched an invasion of French-occupied Italy, General of Division Barthélemy Schérer fought inconclusive actions the Austrians at Pastrengo, Verona, and Legnago on 26 March 1799. Feldmarschal-Leutnant Pál Kray and his Austrians then defeated Schérer at the Battle of Magnano on April 4th and this defeat forced the French army into a long retreat. Attempts by Schérer to hold the lines of the Mincio and Oglio rivers failed when an Austrian force led by FML Josef Vukassovich turned his northern flank, Schérer, completely out of his depth, handed over army command to the more capable MG Moreau. Austrias Russian allies, led by Suvorov, soon began appearing at the front, when Field Marshal Suvorov joined the allied army, he took over the top command from Kray, though the latter had just been promoted to Feldzeugmeister. The arrival of General of Cavalry Michael von Melas displaced Kray the top Austrian field command, therefore, Kray was assigned to capture the fortress of Mantua, while Melas and Suvorov pursued the French. The Siege of Mantua lasted from April until the garrison surrendered on 28 July, Moreau deployed the divisions of MGs Paul Grenier, Claude Victor, Jean Sérurier, and Pierre de Laboissière to defend the line of the Adda River. The Austrians still made up the bulk of the allied army, the Austrian division commanders were FML Peter Ott, FML Johann Zoph, General-Major Franz de Lusignan, and FML Konrad Valentin von Kaim. Even before the battle, a Russian force under Petr Bagration outflanked the French position by seizing a bridge over the Adda at Lecco on 26 April and this put Séruriers division in an awkward position. On 27 April, General of Cavalry Michael von Melas with the divisions of Fröhlich and Kaim stormed the French positions at Cassano, while Ott, suvarovs assault forced Moreau to retreat. The French suffered 2,500 killed and wounded, plus 5,000 soldiers,27 cannon, the Austro-Russians lost 2,000 killed and wounded. Moreau retreated, leaving a 2, 400-man garrison in Milans citadel, on 28 April, Vukassovich trapped Seruriers division at Verderio and the French lost another 300 killed and wounded, plus 2,700 captured. Greniers division withdrew to Novara while Victor and Laboissière pulled back to Valenza, another authority gives allied losses as 6,000 and French prisoners as 7,000, without listing French killed and wounded. Kaim pressed on to capture Turin on 20 June, Milans citadel capitulated on 24 May. The next major action was the Battle of Trebbia on 17–20 June, ISBN 1-85367-276-9 The Austrians Advance by Enrico Acerbi
20.
Battle of Trebbia (1799)
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The War of the Second Coalition engagement occurred west of Piacenza, a city located 70 kilometres southeast of Milan. In the spring of 1799 the Austrian and Russian armies ousted the French from much of northern Italy after the battles of Magnano and Cassano, assembling the French occupation forces of southern and central Italy into an army, MacDonald moved north to challenge his enemies. Rather than playing safe by moving along the west coast road, MacDonald boldly chose to move east of the Apennine Mountains, after brushing aside a much smaller Austrian force at Modena, MacDonalds army swept west along the south bank of the Po River. Suvorov swiftly concentrated his Russians and the allied Austrians of Michael von Melas to block the French move, on 17 July, the leading French divisions bumped into a holding force led by Peter Karl Ott von Bátorkéz along the Tidone River. Ott was rapidly reinforced by the bulk of the Austro-Russian army, Suvorov attacked on the 18th but the outnumbered French managed to hold off the Allied drive. On 19 June MacDonalds entire army was concentrated and he ordered an attack which was coordinated and repulsed at all points. Realizing that assistance from Moreau was not forthcoming, that night MacDonald ordered the beaten French army to slip away to the south, on the 20th the Allies overran a French demi brigade acting as rear guard. Instead of bringing a powerful reinforcement to the hard-pressed French in northwest Italy, only the remains of MacDonalds army arrived. Due to participation of some 3,000 soldiers of the Polish Legions, the defeat was a crushing blow to French morale and prompted Schérer to plead with the French Directory to be relieved of command. Two days later, Alexander Suvorov arrived at Vicenza with a Imperial Russian army, on 27 April, the Coalition allies led by Suvorov were victorious over Jean Victor Marie Moreaus French army at the Battle of Cassano along the Adda River. The next day at Verderio, Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Séruriers division was surrounded, the defeats caused Moreau to fall back, leaving 2,400 men to hold the Milan citadel. On 6 May the garrison of Peschiera capitulated to Kray while on 11 May Pizzighettone and 1,500 French soldiers surrendered to Konrad Valentin von Kaim, on 12 May, Suvorovs subordinate Andrei Grigorevich Rosenberg suffered a minor setback in the Battle of Bassignana. Ferrara, Ravenna and Milan all capitulated to Austrian besieging forces on 24 May, meanwhile,30,000 Allies under Suvorov moved up the north bank of the Po River toward Turin. On the morning of 26 May, Josef Philipp Vukassovichs advance guard seized Turin with its arsenal, pascal Antoine Fiorella and his 3, 400-man French garrison withdrew to the citadel where they were besieged. Early June found the Allied main body of 47,087 troops under Suvorov, Rosenberg, Karl Joseph Hadik von Futak with 9,900 Austrians watched the Swiss mountain passes. Krays 19, 760-man corps was engaged in the Siege of Mantua, finally, Suvorov summoned the 19, 458-strong corps of Count Heinrich von Bellegarde from Switzerland to Milan where they arrived on 5 June. But the Allies were aware that Jacques MacDonald had a strong French occupation force in southern, on 14 April 1799, the French Directory ordered MacDonald to help the French forces in northern Italy. Accordingly, he assembled the Army of Naples and moved north, MacDonald reached Rome on 16 May and Florence ten days later
21.
Battle of Novi (1799)
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The Battle of Novi saw a combined army of Habsburg Austrians and Imperial Russians under Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov attack a Republican French army under General Barthélemy Catherine Joubert. After a prolonged and bloody struggle, the Austro-Russians broke through the French defenses, Joubert was killed while French division commanders Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon and Emmanuel Grouchy were captured. Novi Ligure is located in the province of Piedmont in Italy a distance of 58 kilometres north of Genoa, the battle occurred during the War of the Second Coalition which was part of the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1799, Russian and Austrian forces swept across the Po River valley, the French troops in Italy were badly defeated at the major battles of Magnano, Cassano and the Trebbia. Subsequently, French and Cisalpine Italian troops retreated into Genoa and the Ligurian Republic, a new French government placed Joubert in command of the reformed Army of Italy and ordered him to take the offensive. Accordingly, the French army moved north across the mountain crests, to Jouberts dismay, it was clear that large Coalition forces were nearby. The next morning Paul Krays Austrian corps assaulted the French left flank, after a delay, Suvorov committed a Russian corps to attack the center and Michael von Melas Austrian corps to attack the French right flank. Krays troops suffered losses but by evening the French army was badly beaten. However, the Coalition planners proceeded to throw away their advantage by sending Suvorovs Russians to Switzerland, the 1799 campaign in Italy began with the Battle of Verona, a series of costly but indecisive clashes around Verona on 26 March. At the Battle of Magnano on 5 April, the Habsburg Austrian army of Paul Kray triumphed over the Republican French army of Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer, two days later, a distraught Schérer begged to be relieved of command. Michael von Melas arrived to command of the Austrian army from Kray on 9 April. Hearing that 12,000 Austrians were approaching from the Tyrol to the north, leaving 12,000 troops in the fortress of Mantua and 1,600 more in Peschiera del Garda, the demoralized French commander ordered his crippled army to withdraw. As the soldiers back, the skies opened up and turned the retreat into a sodden nightmare. On 15 April 1799, the veteran Russian field marshal Alexander Suvorov formally took command of the combined Austro-Russian army in Italy, on 27 April Suvorov defeated the French, now under Jean Victor Marie Moreau, at the Battle of Cassano. The Allies suffered 2,000 casualties while the French sustained losses of 2,500 killed and wounded plus 5,000 soldiers,27 guns, the next day a 3, 000-man French division was trapped and surrendered at Verderio Superiore. The next major action was the Battle of Trebbia from 17 to 20 June where Suvorovs 37, 000-strong Austro-Russian army mauled Jacques MacDonalds 33, the Allies suffered 5,500 casualties while inflicting 16,500 on the French including the taking of 7,000 prisoners. Meanwhile, Coalition forces successfully besieged a number of key fortresses, Peschiera fell on 6 May, Milan was captured on 24 May and Turin fell on 20 June after a nine-day siege. Suvorov and his Austrian allies had evicted the French from almost all of Italy, while Archduke Charles, a day after defeating MacDonald at the Trebbia, the Allies captured the 17th Light Demi Brigade,1,099 men, six guns and three colors
22.
Battle of Callantsoog
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Despite strong opposition by troops of the Batavian Republic under Lieutenant-General Herman Willem Daendels the British troops established a bridgehead and the Dutch were forced to retreat. The British government had long deliberated about the best place for the landing of the Anglo-Russian expedition on the Dutch coast, also, the British planners thought that the great city of Amsterdam could easily be approached and captured from this direction. The project of the expedition was of course known to the Batavian and French governments and military commanders and this compelled them to spread their forces thinly over a large area, from the Scheldt in the South to Groningen. One of the two divisions of the new Batavian army, under Daendels, was indeed positioned in North Holland and this implied that Dumonceau was several day marches away and could in the event not reach Daendels in time to support him. The same applied to the French forces under the command of General Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, the division was accompanied by companies from the 3rd and 4th battalions Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. Second-in-command and Chief-of-Staff was Lieutenant-General Sir James Pulteney, the invasion fleet of about 200 vessels in total was commanded by Vice-Admiral Mitchell. By then, Admiral Duncan had joined the fleet, the next few days the British invasion fleet was again buffeted by inclement weather, but by the evening of the 26th this had sufficiently died down to consider starting the landing the next day. Meanwhile, the Batavian forces had had time to make their preparations for the coming event, to understand these, it is useful to consider the terrain at the proposed landing site, as it was in 1799. Den Helder then was just a hamlet with two batteries, called Unie and Revolutie, nearby. It was located at the northern point of a spit of sand that jutted out from the North-Holland peninsula. The spit consisted of three rows of dunes behind the North Sea beach, with a road, bordered by a canal, behind the canal was a marsh, called the Koegras. The sand spit was bordered in the north by the Marsdiep and it was no more than half a mile wide. Daendels figured that it would be impossible to deploy his division in such a narrow space while fronting the shore. He himself took up position near Callantsoog with the remainder of the 1st Batavian Division and this command consisted of the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th Demi-brigades, the 1st Jagers and the 1st Grenadiers. Of course, the implication was that he violated the taboo against dividing his forces, at 3 AM on the morning of August 23, the British vanguard under Gen. Pulteney embarked in the boats of the British invasion fleet. There were not enough boats to accommodate all troops at once and these 2500 men of the 3rd Brigade and Reserve landed without mishap, the first to put foot ashore was Lt. Macdonald of the Grenadier company of the 25th. The fleet had meanwhile swept the beach clear with a vigorous cannonade that displaced a lot of sand, the British had landed at the location that was locally known as Kleine Keeten. On top of the dune near this location stood a semaphore station, the Batavian jagers tried to prevent its capture but were driven back on Kleine Keeten, as had been anticipated since they were just a skirmishing line
23.
Vlieter Incident
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In the Vlieter incident on 30 August 1799, a squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic, commanded by Rear-Admiral Samuel Story, surrendered to the British navy. The incident occurred during the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland and it took place on a sandbank near the channel between Texel and the mainland that was known as De Vlieter, near Wieringen. This Republic now changed sides in the war, entering into an offensive and defensive alliance with France and it was hoped that this invasion would cause a popular uprising of the Dutch population against their republic. The former Stadtholder and his eldest son the Prince of Orange tried to support the expedition by propaganda-efforts, the loyalty of the Batavian navy was especially in doubt, as this was a hotbed of Orangist sentiment. However, it is not clear whether the two officers indeed made an organizational effort before the fatal day. The invasion fleet of about 200 warships and transports left England on 13 August 1799, inclement weather at first prevented it from approaching the Dutch coast. However, on 22 August, British Vice-Admiral Mitchell was able to approach the roadstead of Den Helder where the squadron of Admiral Story lay at anchor, Mitchell sent over parlimentaires demanding that Story defect to the Prince with his fleet, but Story refused indignantly. He replied further that he would ask for instructions from the Batavian government. The British ships then withdrew and the weather turned bad for a few days. On 26 August 1799 an Anglo-Russian invasion fleet of eleven ships-of-the-line and seven frigates arrived at the roadstead of Texel and they started to disembark troops on the 27th, without opposition from the Batavian fleet, that had withdrawn into the Zuider Zee. General Herman Willem Daendels, the commander of the Batavian landforces, on 28 August, Admiral Story returned with his squadron to the Vlieter roadstead, where he anchored, because adverse winds made it impossible to attack the British. Enervated by the sight of the Orangist flags on the forts and church steeples of Den Helder, Van Braams ship Leyden was one of those. He later admitted that it would have been easy for him to quell the revolt, instead, he informed his commanding officer, Admiral Story of the precarious situation aboard the other ships of the fleet. Story now sent his captain, Van Capellen, and the captain of the Cerberus, De Jong, under a flag of truce to the commander of the British squadron, Admiral Mitchell. He asked for a truce to avoid unnecessary bloodshed - Story later averred that this was a ruse on his part to gain time to restore discipline on his ships. Mitchell did not fall for this ruse, probably because the two Dutch negotiators were actually the ringleaders of the mutiny and he issued an ultimatum giving Story one hour to defect and join the invasion force with his ships, or face the consequences. Faced with this ultimatum, Story convened a council of war aboard his flagship with all his captains, before this council started, the crew of the Washington had already begun a full mutiny, refusing to man the guns, and throwing munitions into the sea. Attempts of Story himself, and Van Braam to reason with the mutineers had been of no avail, when asked during the council of war to describe the situation aboard their ships all, except Captain Van Senden of Batavier, had similar stories
24.
Battle of Krabbendam
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The British division had established a bridgehead in the extreme north of the North-Holland peninsula after the Battle of Callantsoog. Brune tried to dislodge them before they could be reinforced by further Anglo-Russian forces and this enabled the British and their Russian allies to land their expeditionary force and to break out of the bridgehead during the Battle of Bergen. This left the Zijpe polder open to the British, the Zijpe polder formed a natural redoubt, because of its high southern dike which had a deep circular drainage canal running along it, which acted as a kind of moat. The dike was high enough to afford a view a way across all avenues of approach. Abercromby took advantage from these properties of the terrain, by erecting artillery positions. His dispositions were anchored on the right on the dike which runs parallel with the sea dike at Petten. Then they ran east along the dike of the Zijpe polder, with reinforcements at the villages of Krabbendam, Eenigenburg, and Sint Maarten, the villages in front of this line, like Schagen were occupied as outposts. Meanwhile, the French and Batavians had frantically been bringing up reinforcements, a French division under General Dominique Vandamme was brought up via Haarlem and occupied a line between Alkmaar and the sea. Brune directed Daendels to come forward to Oudkarspel and Sint Pancras and he was then reinforced with the 7th Demi-brigade of Daendels division. By September 9 the forces under General Brune had therefore reached a numerical superiority of about 25,000 troops over about 23,000 for General Abercromby. As it was known that soon strong Russian and British reinforcements would be landed, Brune decided to attack on the 10th, while he still had this advantage. The main role would be performed by the French division of Vandamme, the plan can therefore be characterised as an attempt at single envelopment. Because of the haste to get the attack underway, the preparations were apparently sloppy on the part of Brunes staff and this could only have happened because a proper reconnaissance apparently had not been performed. As a consequence, Daendels was forced to take a more easterly route and concentrate on the objective of the village of Sint Maarten. Dumonceaus right-hand column, under General Bonhomme, then attacked Daendels original objective, the attempt to storm the British defenses at this point was, however, frustrated by the circular canal in front of the dike and the well-aimed fire of the defenders. A second attempt failed and Bonhomme remained in his position until both he and Daendels retreated that evening after the retreat of the Franco-Batavian left wing at the same time. However, Bonhommes attack should have supported the column under Colonel Bruce that had Krabbendam as its objective. Bruce was supposed to advance from Alkmaar, but was delayed appreciably because a number of farmers carts going to market blocked the city gate he was trying to use to march his column out
25.
Battle of Mannheim (1799)
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The Battle of Mannheim was fought between a Habsburg Austrian army commanded by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen and a Republican French army under Jacques Léonard Muller. Most of the French Army of the Rhine had retreated to the west bank of the Rhine River, despite assistance by Michel Ney, Laroches division was beaten and driven out of the city when attacked by Charles and a much superior force. The War of the Second Coalition action occurred in the city of Mannheim, in the summer of 1799, Mullers 18, 000-man army had the mission of drawing Charles Austrian army away from Switzerland, the central and western portions of which were held by André Massénas army. Moving south from Mannheim, the Army of the Rhine laid siege to Philippsburg, provoked by this threat to his strategic rear, Charles and 30,000 troops moved north against Muller, who quickly withdrew. On 4 June 1799, the First Battle of Zurich was fought between André Massénas 45, 000-strong Army of the Danube and a 53, 000-man Austrian army led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. Austrian casualties numbered 2,400 and eight guns while the French lost 4,400 men and 28 guns, though the French held their ground, Masséna evacuated Zürich the next day and withdrew to a strong position overlooking the city. The 6th and 7th Divisions were supervised by Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino while Lecourbe controlled the 1st, included in Massénas command were Claude Juste Alexandre Legrand with 6,186 men and Claude-Sylvestre Colaud with 5,106 men watching the Rhine north of Strasbourg. The Army of the Rhine was formed on 5 July 1799 by Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, the French reported the strength of the army as 40,000 to 60,000 men, but this was a ruse to trick the Austrians. In fact, much of the strength was tied up in garrisons. The purpose of the Army of the Rhine was to lure the Austrian army away from Masséna and this could be achieved by menacing Archduke Charles supply line, which ran northeast from Switzerland to Ulm on the Danube River. The army was too weak to fight the Austrians in a pitched battle, meanwhile, an Austro-Russian army under Alexander Suvorov had cleared most of Italy of its French occupiers. In the Battle of Novi on 15 August 1799, the Allies suffered 8,200 casualties, mostly Austrian, during this time, the Austrians were very successful in reducing the French-held fortresses in Italy. By 11 September, the only Piedmont fortress that remained in French hands was Cuneo, at this time there was a major change in Allied strategy which apparently originated with William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, the British foreign minister. According to the plan, Suvorov was to march north into Switzerland with 20,000 Russians to join 45,000 newly arrived Russians under Alexander Korsakov near Zürich and these soldiers would be assisted by 18,000 Austrians led by Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze. Meanwhile, the British agent William Wickham would raise an army of 20,000 Swiss, the mostly-Russian force was supposed to invade France across the Jura Mountains. As soon as Korsakovs army was situated, Charles was to move north into southern Germany with 60,000 Austrians, tsar Paul I of Russia and Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor approved this plan and issued the necessary orders which arrived at Charles headquarters on 7 August. In fact, the archduke was reluctant to carry out the plan, in the end, bad timing ruined the new scheme, Charles would leave Switzerland too early and Suvorov would arrive in Switzerland too late. However, Archduke Charles was not quite finished with Switzerland, the Austrian general tried to gain a bridgehead across the Aare River at Döttingen
26.
Battle of Bergen (1799)
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The battlefield is marked by the Russisch Monument. The Duke of York landed on 15 September, and assumed the command of the army, on 19 September the forces, under the Duke of York, formed in four columns, moved forward from Schagerbrug. At this period the Allies possessed a superiority of force with which it was decided to strike a blow as early as possible. Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany The British and Russian commanders noticed that the Republicans had left their right uncovered, and this would have been difficult to correct if the attack on that flank had been vigorously carried out. They had also left Amsterdam undefended on the side by which it was accessible. The enemy’s left was advantageously posted on the sand hills which extend from the sea, in front of Petten. The ground over which the columns had to move was intersected every three or four hundred yards by broad, deep, wet ditches and canals. The bridges across the few roads leading to the points of attack were destroyed, the battle was commenced by Russian forces, which had by 8 am, September 19, obtained possession of Bergen. In vain did they expect support from their British allies, which had not even lined up for the battle, because the British and Russian commanders had neglected to synchronize their clocks. The column under Lieutenant-General Dundas attacked the village of Warmenhuizen at dawn and they held it under artillery fire until the conclusion of the action. However, in consequence of the failure on the right, it was considered necessary to recall all the troops. The strength of the column which attacked Bergen would have more than sufficient if it had been employed correctly. 1,225, including 49 officers, wounded. Republicans,3,000 prisoners, the space between Alkmaar and the Zuiderzee was thus rendered defensible by small numbers, and Amsterdam was secured on the land side. The remainder of the army, which had been reinforced, was concentrated between the Langedijk and the sea, and the post of Oudkarspel was strengthened by additional works, schoorldam and Koedijk were also fortified. The next major engagement took place at Castricum on 6 October, the above text is an extract from an article compiled by the British Armys Intelligence branch of the Quartermaster-Generals department in 1884. Flash-map of the Battle of Bergen-Binnen, history of the War of 1799
27.
Battle of Alkmaar (1799)
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For the 16th century siege, see Siege of Alkmaar. Though the battle ended in a draw, the Anglo-Russians were in a position at the end of the battle that favored them slightly in a strategic sense. This prompted Brune to order a strategic withdrawal the next day to a line between Monnickendam in the East and Castricum in the West, there the final battle of the campaign would take place on 6 October. Torrential rains made the roads impassable, the defenders profited from this lull in the campaign by completing their inundations in the low-lying eastern part of the North-Holland peninsula. These soon made their defenses in that part of the country impregnable, as a consequence a repeat of the thrusts by Sir Ralph Abercromby toward Hoorn, and general Pulteney toward Oudkarspel along the Langedijk had become pointless. The Langedijk was now an island in a big lake that could easily be defended by the 1st Batavian Division of General Herman Willem Daendels. The delay had the advantage for the force, however. The Duke of York, aware that French reinforcements from Belgium were on the way, the attack was to be made on 30 September, but it turned out that the roads were still very bad, the soldiers sunk to their knees into the mud. The attack was then advanced to 1 October, but again had to be postponed, Coote and Chatham were to support the Russians in their attack on Bergen and to maintain contact with Abercromby. These dispositions make clear that the main thrust of the attack again was towards the village of Bergen, other than the first battle of Bergen this time the attack would be concentrated on a much narrower front, between Schoorl and the North Sea. As Abercromby was supposed to advance along the beach to a point beyond the left flank of the French, the first stages of the battle went according to the British plan. To allow all columns to advance at the time the start time had to be delayed till low tide to allow general Abercrombys column to make use of the beach. Soon Coote and Chatham drove the French outposts from the villages of Camp and Groet, essens central column then advanced cautiously. Meanwhile, Burrard and Sedmoratzky drove the French and Batavian troops out of the villages of Schoorl, here the Russians halted and limited themselves to shelling Koedijk and Bergen with their artillery for the remainder of the day. Meanwhile, the French left wing had fallen back on the village of Bergen and this was a strong position and York realized they had to be removed from it to secure success. He therefore ordered Chatham to bring up his brigade from the plain and they managed to push the French back and forced them to give up their position in the heights near Bergen. The French noted the Russian hesitation and at this time launched a counterattack from Bergen in two columns under generals Gouvion and Boudet. These attacks were countered by the British Reserve in cooperation with Cootes brigade
28.
Battle of Castricum
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The Battle of Castricum saw a Franco-Dutch force defeat an Anglo-Russian force near Castricum, Netherlands. An Anglo-Russian force of 32,000 men landed in North Holland on August 27,1799, captured the Dutch fleet at Den Helder on August 30 and the city of Alkmaar on October 3. Following a series of battles at Bergen on September 19 and Alkmaar on October 2, the town of Castricum passed from British-Russian to Batavian-French hands several times until the former finally fled, losing 2536 men and 11 guns, the Batavian-French losses stood at 1382. The defeat persuaded the Duke that his position was untenable, after a chaotic retreat, the parties signed the Convention of Alkmaar on October 10. The British and Russians were allowed to withdraw, without paying reparations, as a sign of gratitude for enabling him honourably to emerge from the inglorious Dutch imbroglio, Brune received a number of horses from the Duke. By 19 November all the British and Russian troops had been embarked, in the years following the 1799 invasion, defensive lines were constructed in Holland to protect Amsterdam from future invasions from the north. In the Huis met de Kogel in Castricum, a cannonball that got stuck in the wall during the battle can still be seen, a plaque beneath the cannonball commemorates the battle. Various locality names in Castricum also provide a reminder of the battle, like the Russenbergen dunes, the Russisch Monument in Bergen marks the fighting there. The French victory was commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as Alkmaer. Anglo-Russian invasion of North Holland Noord-Holland 1799 De Engels-Russische inval
29.
Johann von Klenau
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Johann von Klenau, also called Johann Josef Cajetan von Klenau und Janowitz was a field marshal in the Habsburg army. In the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, Klenau distinguished himself at the Wissembourg lines, afterward, Klenau became the youngest lieutenant field marshal in the history of the Habsburg military. As a corps commander, Klenau led key elements of the Austrian army in its victory at Aspern-Esslingen and its defeat at Wagram, after the Battle of Nations, Klenau organized and implemented the successful Dresden blockade and negotiated the French capitulation there. In the 1814–15 campaign, he commanded the Corps Klenau of the Army of Italy, after the war in 1815, Klenau was appointed commanding general in Moravia and Silesia. Johann von Klenau was born into an old Bohemian nobility family at Benatek Castle in the Austrian province of Bohemia on 13 April 1758, the family of Klenau dates to the fifteenth century, and the family of Janowitz to the fourteenth. The family name of Klenau regularly appears in records after the sixteenth century, the Klenau family was one of the oldest dynasties in Bohemia, and many of the noble families of Bohemia have sprung from marriages into the Klenau line. The original name of the family was Przibik, with the predicate von Klenowa, the family was raised to the baronetcy in 1623 with the certificate granted to one Johann von Klenowa and, in 1629, to his son, Wilhelm. The Imperial councilor and judge in Regensburg, Wilhelm von Klenau, was raised to comital status in 1630, Johann Klenau entered the 47th Infantry Regiment Ellrichshausen in 1774, at the age of 17, and became a second lieutenant in 1775. After transferring to a Chevauleger regiment as a Rittmeister, or captain of cavalry, Klenau fought in the short War of the Bavarian Succession, most of this conflict occurred in Bohemia from 1778 to 1779, between the Habsburg Monarchy, Saxony, Bavaria and Prussia. The war had no battles, but was instead a series of skirmishes and raids, in their raids, forces from both sides sought to confiscate or destroy the others provisions, fodder, and materiel. His regiment repulsed an attack of superior numbers of Ottoman forces on 28 September 1788, at Zemun, near Belgrade, for which he received a personal commendation and earned his promotion to major. Initially, the rulers of Europe considered the 1789 revolution in France as an affair between the French king and his subjects, and not a matter in which they should interfere. However, as the rhetoric grew more strident after 1790, the European monarchs began to view the French upheavals with alarm. Among the concerned monarchs were the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, who feared for the life and well-being of his sister and they threatened ambiguous, but quite serious, consequences if anything should happen to the royal family. The French Republican position became increasingly difficult, compounding problems in international relations, French émigrés agitated for support of a counter-revolution. From their base in Koblenz, adjacent to the French–German border, they sought direct support for intervention from the royal houses of Europe. On 20 April 1792, the French National Convention declared war on Austria, in this War of the First Coalition, France ranged itself against most of the European states sharing land or water borders with her. Portugal and the Ottoman Empire also joined the alliance against France, by the terms of the Peace of Basel, the Prussian army was to leave the Rhine and Main river valleys, as it did so, the French quickly overran these territories
30.
Battle of Messkirch
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The Battle of Messkirch was fought on 4 and 5 May 1800 and resulted the victory of French army against the Austrians. See the Messkirch 1800 Order of Battle for details of the French, on 25 April 1800 the French Armée dAllemagne, under Jean Victor Marie Moreau, crossed the Rhine River at Kehl and Schaffhausen. The 1st Demi-Brigade, of the Corps led by Laurent de Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, conquered St. Georgen, the French repeatedly assaulted the town on 4 and 5 May always in vain. The 1st Demi-Brigade, despite the Austrian superiority there, was able to conquer Krumbach and the heights surrounding it, therefore, the Austrian moved back to Sigmaringen, followed by the French. The Battle of Biberach ensued on 9 May, French Revolutionary Wars, Campaigns of 1800 Heinrich Bücheler, Werner Fischer, Roland Kessinger, Die Schlacht bei Meßkirch 5ter Mai 1800, Gedenkband zum 200. ISBN 3-926633-47-6 Kempf, Unsere Heimat in den Napoleonischen Kriegen
31.
Battle of Biberach (1800)
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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, the combat occurred during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. Biberach an der Riss is located 35 kilometres southwest of Ulm, in late April 1800, a French army under the command of Jean Victor Marie Moreau crossed the Rhine river near Basel. At Stockach and Engen on 3 May, Moreau captured Krays base of supplies, two days later, Kray confronted his pursuers at Battle of Messkirch but was beaten again. On the 9th, the corps of Gouvion Saint-Cyr caught up with a part of Krays army and this treaty proved difficult to administer. Austria was slow to give up some of the Venetian territories, supported by French republican forces, Swiss insurgents staged several uprisings, ultimately causing the overthrow of the Swiss Confederation after 18 months of civil war. By early 1799, the French Directory had become impatient with stalling tactics employed by Austria, the uprising in Naples raised further alarms, and recent gains in Switzerland suggested the timing was fortuitous to venture on another campaign in northern Italy and southwestern Germany. At the beginning of 1800, the armies of France and Austria faced each other across the Rhine, feldzeugmeister Pál Kray led approximately 120,000 troops. Of these,25,000 men were deployed east of Lake Constance to protect the Vorarlberg, unwisely, Kray set up his main magazine at Stockach, near the northwestern end of Lake Constance, only a days march from French-held Switzerland. General of Division Jean Victor Marie Moreau commanded an army of 137,000 French troops. Of these,108,000 troops were available for operations while the other 29,000 watched the Swiss border. First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte offered a plan of operations based on outflanking the Austrians by a push from Switzerland, rather, Moreau planned to cross the Rhine near Basel where the river swung to the north. A French column would distract Kray from Moreaus true intentions by crossing the Rhine from the west, Bonaparte wanted Claude Lecourbes corps to be detached to Italy after the initial battles, but Moreau had other plans. Battles at Engen and Stockach were fought on 3 May 1800 between the army of the French First Republic under Jean Victor Marie Moreau and the army of Habsburg Austria led by Pál Kray, the fighting near Engen resulted in a stalemate with heavy losses on both sides. However, while the two armies were engaged at Engen, Claude Lecourbe captured Stockach from its Austrian defenders under the Joseph. The loss of this main supply base at Stockach compelled Kray to order a retreat to Messkirch and it also meant, however, that any retreat by Kray into Austria via Switzerland and the Vorarlberg was cut off. On 4 and 5 May, the French launched repeated and fruitless assaults on the Messkirch, subsequently, Kray withdrew his forces to Sigmaringen, followed closely by the French. At the beginning of March, Bonaparte ordered Moreau to form his army into several all-arms army corps, by 20 March 1800, Moreau organized four corps, with the last one serving as an army reserve
France
Austria
