Second Battle of Kehl (1796)
48°34′N 7°49′E / 48.567°N 7.817°E
Second Battle of Kehl | |||||||
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Part of the War of the First Coalition | |||||||
The Austrians initially pushed out the French defenders, but a strong counter-attack forced them to retreat, leaving the French in possession of the village and the important bridgeheads crossing the Rhine River. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Republican France |
Habsburg Austria | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Balthazar Alexis Henri Schauenburg | Franz Petrasch | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
7,000[1] | 5,000[1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,200 killed and wounded, 800 captured[1] | 2,000 killed, wounded and missing[1][2] | ||||||
The Second Battle of Kehl occurred on 18 September 1796, when General
In the 1790s, the Rhine was wild, unpredictable, and difficult to cross. Its channels and tributaries created islands of trees and vegetation that were alternately submerged by floods or exposed during the dry seasons. A complex of bridges, gates, fortifications and
In late summer of 1796, the Austrian force reacquired most of the territory lost to the French earlier in the summer. On 18 September 1796, the Austrians temporarily acquired control of the tête-du-ponts (bridgeheads) joining Kehl and Strasbourg until a strong French counter-attack forced them to retreat, leaving the French in control of the bridges but the Austrians in control of the territory surrounding them. The situation remained in status quo until late October. Control of the surrounding territory there prevented the French from crossing to safety in Strasbourg, and required the French commander, Jean Victor Marie Moreau, to withdraw toward Basel. Immediately after the Battle of Schliengen (24 October 1796), while most of Moreau's army retreated south to cross the Rhine at Hüningen, Count Baillet Latour moved his Austrian force to Kehl to begin a 100-day siege.
Background: general campaign of 1796
The campaign of 1796 was part of the larger, broader
The Austrian Coalition's Army of the Lower Rhine included 90,000 troops. The 20,000-man right wing, first under
On the French side, the 80,000-man Army of Sambre-et-Meuse held the west bank of the Rhine down to the Nahe and then southwest to
The French plan called for a springtime (April–May–June) offensive during which the two armies would press against the flanks of the northern Coalition armies in the German states while a third army approached Vienna through Italy. Specifically, Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's army would push south from Düsseldorf, hopefully drawing troops and attention toward themselves, while Moreau's army massed on the east side of the Rhine by Mannheim. According to plan, Jourdan's army feinted toward Mannheim, and Charles repositioned his troops. Once this occurred, Moreau's army endured a forced march south and attacked the bridgehead at Kehl, which was guarded by 7,000 imperial troops—troops recruited that spring from the Swabian Circle polities, inexperienced and untrained—which held the bridgehead for several hours, but then retreated toward Rastatt. Moreau reinforced the bridgehead with his forward guard, and his troops poured into Baden unhindered. In the south, by Basel, Ferino's column moved quickly across the river and advanced up the Rhine along the Swiss and German shoreline toward Lake Constance, spreading into the southern end of the Black Forest. Worried that his supply lines would be overextended or his army would be flanked, Charles began a retreat to the east.[6]
At this point, in July, the jealousies and competition between the French generals came into play. Moreau could have joined up with Jourdan's army in the north, but did not; he proceeded eastward, pushing Charles into Bavaria, while Jourdan pushed eastward, pushing Wartensleben's autonomous corps into the Ernestine duchies.[7] On either side, the union of two armies—Wartensleben's with Charles' or Jourdan's with Moreau's—could have crushed their opposition.[8]
In August, Wartensleben's autonomous corps
Preliminary action at Bruchsal: September 1796
While Charles and Moreau jockeyed for position on the eastern slope of the Black Forest, Franz Petrasch engaged the French at Bruchsal. The troops there, commanded by Marc Amand Élisée Scherb, included the 68th Demi-brigade and two squadrons of the 19th Dragoons; they had remained behind after the Battle of Ettlingen to observe the garrisons of Mannheim and Philippsburg. Realizing that his command was too small to withstand a concerted attack by the stronger Austrians, Scherb withdrew toward Kehl to secure the Rhine crossing to Strasburg, since Moreau, now well into a retreat across the mountains, would need the crossing for a safe passage to France.[10]
An initial Austrian attack on the French position at Bruchsal favored the French, who charged the Austrians with bayonets. Again, on 5 and 6 September, the Austrians spent most of the day skirmishing with the French at their advanced posts, masking their intention of circling around Bruchsal and marching south to secure the crossing to Strasbourg. General Scherb received intelligence of a contingent of infantry and cavalry marching against him and retired south. Scherb found the Austrians already in possession of Untergrombach, a village south of Bruchsal. After he tried to force his way through, the Austrians fell back to
Kehl garrison status 16–17 September
The Kehl garrison consisted of one battalion of the 24th Demi-brigade and some detachments of the 104th under command of Balthazar Alexis Henri Schauenburg. This was too weak a force to defend a position of such importance, or to develop additional extensive works. Moreau reported that some of Scherb's troops had arrived, but it is unclear which ones. Furthermore, the lack of cooperation from local peasant workers and the exhaustion of troops prevented the enhancements of the fortifications from proceeding with any speed.[13] On the evening of 16 September, Petrasch and most of his column had arrived at Bischofsheim, immediately by Kehl, with three battalions and two squadrons; more troops were not far behind.[14] By 17 September, a small corps of Austrians approached the outskirts of Kehl and vigorously attacked the French sentries there; this was merely a prelude to the more significant action the following day.[13]
Action of 18 September
Before the break of dawn on 18 September (03:45), three Austrian columns attacked Kehl, while another kept Scherb pinned down by the Kinzig. The Austrian principal column, comprising the 38th Regiment, crossed the Kinzig river above the French position and proceeded toward the dykes of the Rhine above (south of) Kehl.
Quickly, the Austrians acquired control of all the earthworks of the town, the village itself, and the fortress; their skirmishers reached one side of the abutment of an old bridge of palisades, and advanced to the other side, across the islands formed by branches of the Kinzig and the Rhine. There, almost within eye-shot of the French sentinels, they halted; there is some confusion about why they stopped. Possibly they mistook the abutment for the bridge itself, as Moreau seemed to think.[15] Regardless, the troops there did not burn the bridge, but started plundering and drinking.[18] The French cavalry tried to retire into Kehl via the Kinzig bridge, but the heavy Austrians fire destroyed most of them.[15]
The French executed several attempts to retake the bridges. The 68th, under command of general Jean-Baptiste de Sisce, was repulsed three times by the superior numbers of Austrians and the fearsome fire of case shot from four cannons that lined the principal road. Not until 19:00 did fortune favor the French, when Colonel d'Aspré[Note 3] and two hundred men of the Regiment Ferdinand were captured within the fort itself. The next in command, a Major Delas, was badly wounded, leaving no one in overall command of the 38th Regiment. The French general Schauenburg, who had gone to Strasbourg for troops, returned with some reinforcements, including part of the Strasbourg national guard, and led these troops over the pontoon bridges.[14] They met at once an impetuous Austrian attack,[19] but were sufficiently strong to recover. At 22:00, the Austrians still held the redoubt and the houses at the edge of the village; the arrival of a fresh battalion of the 12th Regiment led to a new attack, but it was repulsed. Ultimately, though, the Austrians had insufficient reserves to meet the fresh troops from Strasbourg. By 23:00, the French had recovered all of the Strasbourg suburbs, the village of Kehl and all of the French earthen works.[20]
According to Digby Smith and his sources, the Austrians lost 2,000 men killed, missing and wounded, and the French: 1,200 missing and captured.[21] German sources report, though, that the Austrians lost 1,500 men and 300 prisoners, and the French had 300 dead and 800 wounded.[14]
Impact of September action
Despite the limited success of Petrasch's action, the action had a broad impact on the movements of the main armies of Moreau and Archduke Charles, which still maneuvered to the east. Moreau's army would debouch through the Black Forest mountains, which lay to the east. By controlling the eastern access to the Kehl/Strasbourg crossing, Petrasch forced Moreau to march south; any retreat into France would have to occur via the bridges at Hüningen, a longer march, not at Kehl and Strasbourg. The next contact between the main armies occurred on 19 October at Emmendingen in the Elz valley, which winds through the Black Forest. The section of the valley involved in the battle runs south-west through the mountains from Elzach, through Bleibach and Waldkirch. Just to the south-west of Waldkirch, the river emerges from the mountains and flows north-west towards the Rhine, with the Black Forest to its right. This section of the river passes through Emmendingen before it reaches Riegel. Riegel sits in a narrow gap between the Black Forest and an isolated outcropping of volcanic hills known as the Kaiserstuhl.[9]
The Austrian and French armies met again at Schliengen on 24 October. Moreau had arrayed his force in a semi-circle on the heights, offering him a tactically superior position. Charles threw his army against both flanks; the French left flank fought stubbornly, but gave way under the pressure of Condé's emigre corps; the right flank withstood a day-long battering by Latour and Nauendorf, but eventually had to withdraw. The loss of access to the crossing at Kehl forced Moreau to withdraw south to Hüningen.[22]
With a strong rear guard provided by Generals
Orders of battle
The following troops participated in the action at Kehl.[24]
French
- 24th Demi-brigade de Ligne (one battalion)[Note 4]
- 68th Demi-brigade de Ligne (three battalions)
- 104th Demi-brigade de Ligne (remnants)
- 19th Dragoon Regiment (two squadrons)
Austrian
- Infantry Regiment Nr. 12 (three battalions)
- Infantry Regiment Nr. 15 (three battalions)
- Infantry Regiment Nr. 38 (elements)[Note 5]
Notes, citations and references
Notes
- ^ An autonomous corps, in the Austrian or Imperial armies, was an armed force under command of an experienced field commander. They usually included two divisions, but probably not more than three, and functioned with high maneuverability and independent action, hence the name "autonomous corps." Some, called the Frei-Corps, or independent corps, were used as light infantry before the official formation of light infantry in the Habsburg Army in 1798. They provided the Army's skirmishing and scouting function; Frei-Corps were usually raised from the provinces. See Philip Haythornthwaite, Austrian Army of the Napoleonic Wars (1): Infantry. Osprey Publishing, 2012, p. 24. Military historians usually maintain that Napoleon solidified the use of the autonomous corps, armies that could function without a great deal of direction, scatter about the countryside, but reform again quickly for battle; this was actually a development that first emerged first in the French and Indian War in the Thirteen British Colonies and later in the American Revolutionary War, and became widely used in the European military as the size of armies grew in the 1790s and during the Napoleonic Wars. See David Gates, The Napoleonic Wars 1803–1815, New York, Random House, 2011, Chapter 6.
- ^ Philippart uses both the regimental number and the name of its proprietor (38th and Ferdinand). His identification of the 12th Regiment (Manfredini) coincides with other sources: Lieutenant Field Marshal Federigo Manfredini was indeed colonel in chief (Proprietor) of the 12th line infantry regiment from 1792–1809. However, the 15th regiment's proprietor was Prince of Orange. Stephen Millar Austrian infantry organization. Napoleon Series.org, April 2005. Accessed 21 Jan 2015.
- ^ Luhe identifies the commander as Ocskay, but other sources place d'Aspré at the scene.
- ^ The French Army designated two kinds of infantry: d'infanterie légère, or light infantry, to provide skirmishing cover for the troops that followed, principally d’infanterie de ligne, which fought in tight formations. Smith, p. 15.
- ^ Philippart identifies the 38th Regiment as an active participant in this action, and later in the fighting at Kehl; Digby Smith identifies the participants as Regiment Nr. 12 and Regiment Nr. 15.
Citations
- ^ a b c d Digby Smith. Napoleonic Wars Data Book, NY: Greenhill Press, 1996, p. 125.
- ^ See also John Philippart, Memoires etc. of General Moreau, London, A.J. Valpy, 1814, p. 279.
- ^ ISBN 0-340-56911-5, pp. 41–59.
- ^ Ramsay Weston Phipps,The Armies of the First French Republic: Volume II The Armées du Moselle, du Rhin, de Sambre-et-Meuse, de Rhin-et-Moselle Pickle Partners Publishing, 2011 reprint (original publication 1923–1933), p. 278.
- ^ Digby Smith, Napoleonic Wars Data Book, Connecticut: Greenhill Press, 1996, p. 111.
- ^ Dodge, p. 290. (in German) Charles, Archduke of Austria. Ausgewählte Schriften weiland seiner Kaiserlichen Hoheit des Erzherzogs Carl von Österreich, Vienna: Braumüller, 1893–94, v. 2, pp. 72, 153–154.
- ^ Dodge, pp. 292–293.
- ^ Dodge, pp. 297.
- ^ a b J. Rickard, Battle of Emmendingen, History of war. 17 February 2009, Accessed 18 November 2014.
- ^ Philippart, pp. 66–68 and (in German) Hans Eggert Willibald von der Lühe, Militair-Conversations-Lexikon:Kehl (Belagerung des Bruckenkopfes von 1796–1797), Volume 4. C. Brüggemann, 1834, pp. 259–260.
- ^ Philippart, p. 66 and Charles, Feldzug 1796, Paris, 1796, p. 360.
- ^ Lühe, p. 259.
- ^ a b Philippart, p. 69.
- ^ a b c Lühe, p. 260.
- ^ a b c Philippart, p. 73.
- ^ Philippart, p. 71.
- ^ Philippart, p. 72.
- ^ Phipps,II:368 and Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, Grundsätze der Strategie: Erläutert durch die Darstellung des Feldzugs von 1796 in Deutschland, [Vienna], Strauss, 1819, p. 200.
- ^ Philippart, pp. 73–74.
- ^ Philippart, p. 75.
- ^ Smith, p. 125.
- ^ a b Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch. The History of the Campaign of 1796 in Germany and Italy. London, (np) 1797, 18–22, 126.
- ^ Philippart, p. 100; Smith, pp. 125, 131–133.
- ^ Smith, 125.
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