Battle at Lambsheim
The battle at Lambsheim was a military conflict between the German Imperial Army and French revolutionary troops with around 250 dead. It took place on November 14, 1795 in Lambsheim , a formerly fortified town in the Rhine valley between Worms and Speyer .
Historical background
The young French republic spread its ideas of " freedom, equality, fraternity " with great missionary zeal . As early as the First Coalition War (1792–97), their desire to expand fell victim to the German areas on the left of the Rhine, which turned that region into a theater of war with all its terrible consequences. After changing fortunes in war, the part of the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine finally remained in French hands from 1797, and in 1801 it was incorporated into France under constitutional law, which lasted until 1815. In the period between 1792 and 1796 there were a number of large and small battles against the French conquerors in the Palatinate, which are now often completely forgotten after around 200 years. The learned historian, Cathedral Chapter Franz Xaver Remling from Speyer, complained about this as early as 1865 , when he wrote very aptly in this regard:
“Only a few of the present day in the blessed districts of the Rhine know what victims the French revolution also claimed in our country, what countless troop trains and troublesome billeting took place over a number of years, how many seed fields were trampled, vineyards devastated and how many cities, villages, castles and courtyards plundered and exposed to the flames. "
prehistory
Fighting broke out in Lambsheim as early as 1794. In the Leininger Geschichtsbl Blätter from 1910, the magazine of the Altertumsverein Grünstadt , the diary of the landowner Köster from Friedelsheim is printed, which describes the local war events in detail. For example, under April 26, 1794, it is noted:
“On the 26th, the Franks [French] advanced with the entire avant-garde and explored the area around Frankenthal and Grünstadt . The people of Lambsheim and Freinsheim refused to open their gates and wanted to defend themselves. So the French shot down the gates with cannons and broke all the windows. The cattle that the French took away from Lambsheim and Freinsheim were about 200 head. Most of them had fled from the neighboring towns behind the fortress walls there. "
But there are also 2 diary entries for the year 1795:
“(November 12th, 1795) 4 o'clock, a strong cannon and small gun fire has just started near Lambsheim and Frankenthal. The French want to drive the imperial from Frankenthal. 7 o'clock, everything is quiet again. "
"The 14th; strong cannonade near Lambsheim ... You can see it burning in Lambsheim ... All houses tremble at the cannon fire. "
The Battle of Lambsheim, 1795
In Lambsheim, resident Karl Geib (1777–1852), who was just 18 years old, experienced the fighting first hand. Later he became a cavalry officer himself under Napoleon, and finally became a well-known writer and was married to Karolina vom Stein, a relative of the famous Prussian statesman of the same name. In 1801 he gave a detailed report on the French battle at Lambsheim in Johann Wilhelm Aschenberg's Niederrheinischen Blätter for instruction and entertainment . The description in this journal would probably have been completely forgotten today if Geib had had in his later work a travel guide through all parts of the Königl. Bavarian Rhine Palatinate in local and historical relationships did not itself refer to the description published 40 years earlier. This travel handbook has recently been published as a reprint and is therefore an easily accessible source, in stark contrast to the “Niederrheinischen Blätter”, which are extremely rare as periodicals over 200 years old. In the travel guide, Karl Geib describes his hometown Lambsheim as it was around 1841. This description of the location appears to be very helpful in understanding the fighting:
“Lambsheim is a cheerful, well-built town ... Lambsheim still has two city moats and a rampart, on which vineyards and other plantings are now laid out. One of the double gates still exists and at the entrances one can still see some ruins of the destroyed wall. Traces of the former fortifications can also be seen in front of the village. The locked gates and the trenches were used on November 14, 1795 by a small group of French troops to defend against a strong Austrian corps, which, after suffering considerable losses in a heated battle outside the village, conquered it with storming force. "
According to the eyewitness report by Karl Geib, the French retreated to the Frankenthaler Bach with their disorganized army after the Mainz lines were blown up. The line stretched from the Rhine to the Vosges. The French generals Desaix and Boulan were in command and positioned their corps behind the stream, directly in front of Lambsheim, which was held by a few hundred infantry soldiers.
Then the attack by the Austrian Field Marshal Clairfait began . Tyrolean riflemen and a few battalions from Austrian Bohemia and Walloons stormed the place. The French there were pushed back further and further, and the situation became hopeless for them when the Austrians circumvented the place and also invaded from the south. The French leader surrendered to the Austrian commander in the cemetery, but was shot from behind by a Walloon rifleman while he was handing over the saber.
Meanwhile, a second Austrian attack on the French troops entrenched behind the brook was under way, with 150 men and 11 officers killed or wounded in a battalion of the Walloon Regiment Beaulieu alone. When the French saw themselves exposed to the use of artillery, their situation deteriorated increasingly. According to Geib, the Austrian artillery therefore hunted through the place, which was already burning at one point, with highly explosive ammunition wagons. General Desaix was seriously injured in the course of the battle. The French associations had to withdraw; The battle was not over until after dark.
The Austrian Military Journal contains excerpts from the diary of General Baron Gabriel von Geringer of the 11th Szekler Hussar Regiment . There he also writes further details about the fighting near Lambsheim, including that the fleeing French were pursued by the Szekler hussars across the stream after being driven out of the village and that they had about 150 dead and 65 prisoners to mourn.
The Military Conversations Lexicon states that the Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal Joseph Staader Freiherr v. Adelsheim commanded the middle wing during the attack on Lambsheim, but Field Marshal Lieutenant Latour-Merlemont and Franz von Werneck commanded the eastern and western wings. A battalion of Staader's soldiers built a gangway over the narrow Fuchsbach (Kesserbach) and bypassed the town to the west in order to be able to penetrate from the south.
The London Gazette , Extraordinary (extra sheet), dated December 11, 1795 brought, among other things, an (English-language) report from the war reporter Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Craufurd to the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Lord Greenville, on the battle at Lambsheim. The report was drawn up in Frankenthal at the Austrian headquarters on the day after the battle.
losses
According to the list of losses for the affair at Frankenthaler Bach on November 14, 1795 in the Austrian war archive in Vienna, 5 officers died in the Lambsheim battle on the Austrian side, namely Lieutenant Klesius (also Clesius) and the Lieutenant De la Coste, which is also mentioned by Geib and Duhotoy, all from the Beaulieu regiment, Lieutenant Knielitzka from the Weidenfeld regiment and, as the highest charge, Captain Wostzcyeball from the artillery reserve. A total of 96 Austrians died near Lambsheim, who are also buried there (5 officers known by name, 3 NCOs and 88 soldiers), as well as 84 horses. 632 soldiers (22 officers, 41 NCOs and 569 soldiers, and 54 horses) were wounded; In addition, 1 NCO, 58 soldiers and 2 horses (including possibly some deserters) are registered as missing. According to General Geringer, about 150 soldiers fell on the French side.
Famous participants in the battle
The presence of famous people in Lambsheim on the occasion of the battle between the Austrians and the French on November 14, 1795 is clearly documented. In his report, Karl Geib expressly mentions the presence of the Austrian field marshal Charles Joseph Graf von Clerfayt (1733–1798), who was “many Danger ”, as well as that of the French general Louis Charles Antoine Desaix (1768–1800), who was shot through his hat near Lambsheim and died in 1800 in the battle of Marengo . Emanuel Dietrich (1772–1857), later knighted under the name of Dietrich von Hermannsberg as Field Marshal Lieutenant and Knight of the Military Maria Theresa Order , Austria's highest honor, fought at Lambsheim on November 14, 1795. In the biography of the famous artillery officer, who served 5 emperors in 64 years of service, participated in 58 battles, suffered 35 wounds and received his baptism of fire during the Turkish Wars, it says:
“Sub-Lieutenant Emanuel Dietrich was now fighting with his battery in General Wurmser's Army Corps. At Lambsheim, a village near Mannheim, the sub-lieutenant and his men were able to stand out again when he managed to stop a French attack with just his guns. "
This description coincides with that of the eyewitness Geib, who also reports that the "reserve artillery" was called in to finally break the French resistance. It was Emanuel Dietrich, alias Dietrich von Hermannsberg - one of the most legendary figures in Austrian army history - who chased through Lambsheim with his artillery battery, with their highly explosive ammunition wagons additionally endangering the place, which was already burning at one point. Last but not least, Lühes Military Conversations Lexicon and Baron Geringer's records mention the well-known Austrian field marshal lieutenants, Franz von Werneck (1748–1806), Ludwig Wilhelm Anton Graf Baillet de Latour-Merlemont (1737–1806), wounded at Lambsheim's foot and Joseph Staader von Adelsheim (1738–1809), who personally led the troops there. Latour-Merlemont is also mentioned by Geib because of its “boldness”. The diary chronicler Major General Gabriel Geringer von Ödenberg (1758–1825) - himself an important figure in Austrian military history - fought as colonel of the Transylvanian Szekler Hussars in front of Lambsheim, as did General Ernst Graf von Blankenstein (1733–1816), the commander of the cavalry regiment of the same name.
Legend and tradition
The so-called cross on the heath near the Isenach (= Frankenthaler Bach), formerly Lambsheimer Feldmarkung, today lying in the Maxdorfer Gewanne Pfingstberg is legendary and associated with the aforementioned battle . It was declared a cultural monument in 1995 by the Ludwigshafen am Rhein district administration and an additional plaque indicates: "Grave cross for a Hungarian captain, fallen on November 14, 1795 in a battle between the Imperial Austrian troops and the French revolutionary troops". In recent years, friends of Hungary from the region have decorated it every autumn with a wreath and bows in the Hungarian national colors. The cross itself is medieval, with no corpus or inscription. It is possible that an Austrian officer was actually buried there after the battle. According to local tradition, the fallen man is said to have been a hussar officer of General Blankenstein's regiment, who is also associated with the laying of the grave. The Lambsheim local poet Valentin Reudelhuber wrote a long poem about 100 years ago. General Blankenstein was present in Lambsheim and his hussars fought on the Isenach; just like the Hungarian Szekler hussars. According to the official Austrian list of casualties for the "Affair at the Frankenthaler Bach on November 14, 1795", no cavalry officer was killed, neither a Blankensteiner nor another. This tradition should therefore be referred to the area of legend. According to the official list at Lambsheim, only one soldier fell from the Blankenstein Hussar Regiment ; 2 NCOs of the regiment were wounded and 5 horses were killed. Nobody died in the Szekler hussars - but the regiment had 8 dead horses and 4 wounded soldiers to complain about. Nevertheless, there seems to be a real core to the folk tradition. In the journal of the Frankenthaler Altertumsverein, 2nd year, 1894, page 27, a letter to the editor from a Lambsheimer sender from March 1890 is printed. He reports on the cross on the heather that 50 years ago (around 1840) he asked the landowner at the time whether there was a grave under the cross. He had confirmed that he had dug, but only found pebbles and sand. Then the history lover continues with a very important piece of information, which supports the version of the officer who was subsequently buried near the already existing cross. It literally means:
“Later, the local citizen Anton Petry told me that he had found the scelet of a person on his property, while driving the sand, about 25 meters away from this cross, and that he had to judge by the skull and bones a big, strong man have been."
What happened to the skeleton is unfortunately not disclosed, but Anton Petry probably buried it there again and the deceased is still resting near the cross on the heather. The secret of his identity can clearly never be clarified.
literature
- Joachim Specht: The affair at the Frankendahler Bach and the cross on the heath . In: Heimatjahrbuch Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis 2009 .
Web links
- Site about the cross on the heather , with photo
- English website about the fighting at Frankenthal and Lambsheim
- Website about Field Marshal von Clerfayt, the Austrian commanding officer at Lambsheim
- Website about General Ludwig Wilhelm Anton Graf Baillet de Latour-Merlemont, who was praised for his boldness at Lambsheim and wounded in the foot there
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Geib: Niederrheinische Blätter for instruction and entertainment . tape 1 . Arnold Mallinckrodt, Dortmund 1801.
- ↑ Karl Geib: travel manual through all parts of the royal. Bavarian Rhine Palatinate in a local and historical relationship . Zweibrücken 1841, p. 158 .
- ^ The meeting at Frankenthal on November 14, 1795 . In: Austrian military magazine . tape 4 . Vienna 1847 ( Google Book Search [accessed May 5, 2009]).
- ^ Hans Eggert von der Lühe: Lambsheim (battle 1795) . In: Military Conversations Lexicon . IV. Volume. Leipzig 1834 ( Google Book Search [accessed May 5, 2009]).
- ^ Extraordinary . In: London Gazette . December 11, 1795 ( Google Book Search [accessed May 5, 2009]).