Battle of Höchstädt (1800)

Battle of Höchstädt
	Part of the War of the Second Coalition
	; Battle of Höchstädt by Hippolyte Lecomte, 1838
Date	19 June 1800
Location	Höchstädt, and surrounding villages of Blindheim, Dillingen, and Donauwörth, in present day Germany48°36′0″N 10°33′0″E / 48.60000°N 10.55000°E
Result	French victory
Belligerents
France	Austria
Commanders and leaders
Jean Victor Marie Moreau	Pál Kray
Strength
60,000	30,000
Casualties and losses
approximately 2,000	5,000 dead, wounded and captured

War of the Second Coalition:
Austria

200km
125miles

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The color black indicates the current battle.

The Battle of Höchstädt was fought on 19 June 1800 on the north bank of the

Pál Kray. The Austrians were subsequently forced back into the fortress town of Ulm. Instead of attacking the heavily fortified, walled city, which would result in massive losses of personnel and time, Moreau dislodged Kray's supporting forces defending the Danube passage further east. As a line of retreat eastward disappeared, Kray quickly abandoned Ulm, and withdrew into Bavaria. This opened the Danube pathway toward Vienna

.

The Danube passage connecting Ulm,

Second Battle of Höchstädt

had ensured the safety of Vienna and opened the pathway into France for the allied English and Austrian forces.

Background

Although the

Swiss Confederation after 18 months of civil war.^[2] By early 1799, the French Directory had become impatient with stalling tactics employed by Austria. An uprising in Naples raised further alarms, and recent gains in Switzerland suggested the timing was fortuitous for the French to venture on another campaign in northern Italy and southwestern Germany.^[3]

The Battles of Stockach and Engen in May 1800, followed by a larger battle at Meßkirch, followed the Hohentwiel capitulation to the French

At the beginning of 1800, the armies of France and Austria faced each other across the

Archbishopric of Mainz, and 7,000 militiamen from the County of Tyrol. Of these, 25,000 men were deployed east of Lake Constance (Bodensee) to protect the Vorarlberg. Kray posted his main body of 95,000 soldiers in the L-shaped angle where the Rhine changes direction from a westward flow along the northern border of Switzerland to a northward flow along the eastern border of France. Unwisely, Kray set up his main magazine at Stockach, near the northwestern end of Lake Constance, only a day's march from French-held Switzerland.^[4]

General of Division

Battles at Engen and Stockach were fought on 3 May 1800 between the Moreau's and Kray's armies. The fighting near Engen resulted in a stalemate with heavy losses on both sides. However, while the two main armies were engaged at Engen, Claude Lecourbe captured Stockach from its Austrian defenders under the Joseph, Prince of Lorraine-Vaudemont. The loss of this main supply base at Stockach compelled Kray to retreat north to Meßkirch, where his army enjoyed a more favorable defensive position. It also meant, however, that any retreat by Kray into Austria via Switzerland and the Vorarlberg was cut off.^[7]

On 4 and 5 May, the French launched repeated and fruitless assaults on the Meßkirch. At nearby Krumbach, where the Austrians also had the superiority of position and force, the 1st Demi-Brigade took the village and the heights around it, which gave them a commanding aspect over Meßkirch. Subsequently, Kray withdrew his forces to Sigmaringen, followed closely by the French. Fighting at nearby Biberach an der Ris ensued on 9 May; action principally consisted of the 25,000 man-strong French "Center", commanded by Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr against a Habsburg force of similar size.^[8] Again, on 10 May, the Austrians withdrew with heavy losses, this time to Ulm.^[9]

Order of battle

French

Sources are unclear which forces were present. Certainly, it was approximately 40,000 troops, and possibly 60,000, well above the 10,000–30,000 total Austrian and Württemberg numbers. Contemporary accounts place the 94th Demi-brigade at the center of action in Gremheim, a village between

French Minister of War, published in the London Chronicle, 10 June 1800. "The 6th chasseurs, 13th cavalry, 4th hussars and 11th chasseurs distinguished themselves in this affair. The rest of the division, and that of LeClere, passed rapidly the Danube... General Grenier was equally well prepared."^[12]^{[non-primary source needed]} In his Art of War, Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini also refers to General Dedon-Duclos as having a key role in the French success at Höchstädt.^[13]

Austrian

The Allied force included approximately 20,000 Habsburg regulars and Württemberg's contingent of troops raised for the war:^[14]

FZM Count Anton Sztáray, Commanding
- FML von Ferdinand August Freiherr von Hügel's Württemberg Contingent, including
  - General Beulwitz, Infantry Regiment Beulwitz, Seckendorf and Seeger (1 battalion each)
  - Füss-Jägers (three companies);
  - Garde du Corps (1 squadron)
  - 3 squadrons of Light Horse
  - Contingent regiments commanded by von Zobel, von Mylius, and von Oberniz (1 battalion each)
  - 20 guns
- Austrian Regulars
  - Royal Regiment Albert, Number 3 (6 squadrons)
  - Hohenzollern Number 8 (6 squadrons)
  - Hussar Regiment Vécsey Number 4 (8 squadron)
  - Blankenstein Number 6 (8 squadron)

Total Austrian/Württemberg force: 20,000 men.^[14]

Dispositions

Kray assumed that Moreau would follow him to the fortress at Ulm, on the Danube, where he arrayed most of the Austrian regulars and Württemberg contingent and supplies. This position gave him ready access to both shores of the river and effectively, he assumed, blocked Moreau's path into Bavaria. At several points east on the Danube, he posted modest forces to protect the river crossings there, and to dismantle, if necessary, the stone bridges across the river. Several bridges crossed the river between Ulm and Donauwörth, which lay downstream to the east, and each presented a strategic point at which to rupture Kray's potential line of march into Bavaria: Leipheim, Günzburg, Gundelfingen, Lauingen, Dillingen, Höchstädt, Gremheim, and Elchingen.^[15]

According to Moreau's narrative, he intended to force Kray to either come to battle outside Ulm, or to abandon the city. Ulm obstructed unfettered French access into Bavaria, and blocked the main force of the Army of the Rhine.^[15] To keep his forces secure, accepted military wisdom required that Moreau secure at least half of the crossings of the river, and that his troops follow a line of march perpendicular to the river. This would prevent them from having to fight a battle (or a skirmish) with their backs to the river. The more bridges his force could take, the more secure the approach on Ulm.^[16]

General engagement

Moreau appeared to march toward Ulm, which lay some twenty miles east of

Prince Reuss-Plauen, who remained in the Tyrol, guarding mountain access to Vienna. He then approached Dettingen, Blindheim (Blenheim) and Höchstädt. The Corps of General Grenier has been posted with their right flank to the Danube and Gunzburg, and their left flank at Kinsdorf. General Richepanse protected both shores of the Iller, covering the road from Ulm south to Memmingen, and secured communication with Switzerland; there, he withstood considerable skirmishing with the Austrians. Three divisions of reserve remained at the hamlets of Kamlack and Mindel, to support the attack made by General Lecourbe on Ulm, in a case it should succeed, or Grenier's attack upon Gunzburg, in case Lecourbe should not succeed.^[15]

Lecourbe made several feints on the bridge at Dillingheim, but his reconnaissance suggested instead that he focus on the bridges at Gremsheim, Blindheim and Höchstädt, which he did the next day.

carabiners, cuirassiers and hussars, who took about 2,000 of the Austrians and Würtembergers as prisoners, along with some cannons and standards.^[15]

Aftermath

Once the French had secured the downstream shores of the Danube, Kray had no choice but to evacuate his corps from Ulm, leaving only a small garrison behind. The French invested the fortress at Ulm immediately, and on the 20th, the 6th Chasseurs captured a

Chief of Staff.^[19]

The campaign culminating in Kray's evacuation of Ulm was one of Moreau's most resounding triumphs. Napoleon Bonaparte had given Moreau specific instructions about the conduct of the campaign, all of which Moreau had ignored. Regardless, their combined efforts damaged Habsburg military operations. In Spring 1800, while Moreau wrecked Austrian defenses in Germany,

Baden and Württemberg, and the Electorate of Bavaria.^[21]

Notes

^ Timothy Blanning, The French Revolutionary Wars, New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 41–59.
^ Blanning, pp. 200–280.
^ Blanning, p. 200.
^ James R. Arnold, Marengo and Hohenlinden: Napoleon's Rise to Power, Pen & Sword Military, 2005, pp. 197–199.
^ Arnold, 199–201
^ W.M. Sloane, Life of Napoleon. France, 1896, p. 109.
^ Sloane, 109
^ Sloane, pp. 109–110.
^ Digby Smith, Napoleonic Wars Databook. London: Greenhill Press, 1998, p. 178.
^ History, p. 183.
^ Smith, p. 177.
^ "Extract of a letter from Gen. Moreau to the Minister of War, Neresheim, June 20." The London Chronicle vol. 87., Found in Willem Lodewyk, Van-Es, The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte ...: With a Concise History of the Events W. Day, 1810 – France, pp. 31–35.^{[non-primary source needed]}
^ Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini, The Art of War, Wilder Publications, 2008, p. 173. Originally published in English in 1862.
^ ^a ^b Smith, 178.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Extract of a letter from Gen. Moreau...
^ Jomini, p. 173.
^ David Eggenberger, "Höchstädt II", An Encyclopedia of Battles, Dover Publications, 2014, p. 193.
^ "Höchstädt", History of the Wars of the French Revolution: Including Sketches of the Civil History of Great Britain and France, from the Revolutionary Movements, 1788, to the Restoration of a General Peace, 1815, Kuhl, France, 1820, p. 181.
^ Arnold, pp. 205, 213.
^ Gregory Fremont Barnes. Napoleon Bonaparte. Osprey Publishing, 2012, p. 73.
^ Rothenberg, pp. 43–44.