Battle of Feldkirch

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Battle of Feldkirch
Battle of Feldkirch Woerl.jpg
date March 22nd and 23rd, 1799
place Feldkirch
output Austrian victory
consequences Retreat of the French
Parties to the conflict

France 1804First French Republic France

Habsburg MonarchyHabsburg Monarchy Austria

Commander

France 1804First French Republic André Masséna

Habsburg MonarchyHabsburg Monarchy Franz Jelačić

Troop strength
12,000 men 7,000 men
losses

3000 dead and wounded

800 men, 96 dead and 590 wounded

Second coalition war (1799–1802)

The Battle of Feldkirch took place from March 22 to 23, 1799 as part of the Second Coalition War near Feldkirch between French and Austrian troops. It ended with a victory for the Austrians.

prehistory

At the beginning of the second coalition war, the French Danube Army under General Jourdan penetrated into southern Germany with 45,000 men, 77,000 Austrians under their commander Archduke Karl opposed the enemy. The French troops were thrown at Ostrach on March 21 and retreated to Stockach .

Further French troops under General André Masséna advanced simultaneously through Swiss soil to the Rhine . With 12,000 men, the French planned to penetrate into the Montafon and pushed back the Austrians in Graubünden . On March 6, Masséna tried to force the crossing over the Rhine between Bregenz and Maienfeld at several points. His goal was to take Bregenz, Feldkirch and Chur. On March 7, the Austrians under Field Marshal Lieutenant Baron Hotze tried to throw back the French division under Charles Nicolas Oudinot , which was threatening Feldkirch . Hotze lost almost 1,000 men (including 863 prisoners and 59 missing), but was still able to hold Feldkirch.

At the same time, however, the Austrians still in Graubünden were pushed to Chur . Their commander, Major General von Auffenberg, had to clear the fortified Luziensteig pass at an altitude of 713 meters and was taken prisoner by the French when they retreated to Chur. After taking the Engadine and the Vinschgau , the French vanguard appeared in front of Nauders in mid-March . The entire upper Inn Valley was in danger. After the loss of Planken, General Hotze withdrew with his troops to the position on the Sarojasattel and built further entrenchments on the Letzebühel. He clearly recognized that Oudinot intended to proceed on both of his flanks before Feldkirch via Triesen , Triesenberg and the Saminatal over the right bank of the Rhine. On March 19, Hotze withdrew with his troops to Lindenau before the French overwhelming force and tried to cover the left wing of the Austrian main force under Archduke Karl, which was advancing from the Lech .

Course of the battle

On March 22nd, the Austrian general Franz Jelačić von Bužim faced the French near Feldkirch with around 4,500 soldiers and 2,500 men from the Landsturm . On the first day, the Austrian defensive victory cost 53 dead and 283 wounded.

On March 23, Massena, who had set up his headquarters in Nendeln , renewed the attack on the Austrian positions. At about half past nine in the morning, a French detachment, which had made themselves available in the woods of Nofels, tried to wade across the Ill not far from the destroyed bridge at Nofels in order to get the Austrians on the flank. A second column under General Oudinot crossed the Nofler forest on the left bank of the Ill and attacked the Margaretenkapf, the Illsberg and the bladder mountain. The most dangerous attack by the French was directed under Masséna on the road from Nendeln to Tisis . The Austrians were able to repel the French attacks this time too, so that Masséna had to withdraw to Chur with the loss of almost 3,000 men .

consequences

On March 25, 1799, the battle of Stockach broke out , and again the main Austrian power was able to push back the French. The isolated French division Saint Cyr managed to cross the Danube near Laiz and thus to avoid being cut off from its own main army. The defeated Jourdan's troops withdrew to the Black Forest the following day . Massena's troops had to stop their attacks and withdraw from Vorarlberg.

On May 14th, the Imperial troops advanced into the Swiss Confederation in two army groups, and on the same day they succeeded in recapturing the Luzisteiges. General Hotze advanced from Vorarlberg towards Winterthur , Archduke Karl from the Singen-Engen area. On May 22nd and 23rd, most of the Austrian troops crossed the Rhine at Schaaren between Schaffhausen and Diessenhofen.

On August 14, 1799, a Russian auxiliary corps under General Korsakov arrived in Schaffhausen to reinforce the Austrians . Archduke Karl then tried to encircle the French in central Switzerland. In the second half of September, a French corps under Soult attacked Hotze's troops between Lake Zurich and Lake Walen. Hotze fell on September 25, 1799 together with Colonel von Plunkett while exploring. His successor was General Franz Freiherr von Petrasch . The French under Massena won the second battle of Zurich on September 26 and drove the remains of the coalition troops from the territory of the Confederation.

From mid-February 1800 the French tried again to cross the Rhine and threatened Vorarlberg again. On July 14, 1800, the French again occupied Chur and all of Graubünden. After the Austrian defeat at Hohenlinden on December 3, 1800, the peace treaty followed on February 9, and in mid-April the imperial troops were able to move back into Vorarlberg in accordance with the status quo .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hillbrand: The battles near Feldkirch 1799, p. 11
  2. ^ Hillbrand: The battles near Feldkirch 1799, p. 17
  3. ^ Hillbrand: The battles near Feldkirch 1799, p. 17
  4. ^ Hillbrand: The battles near Feldkirch 1799, pp. 20 and 21

Web links

Report of the battle from Streffleur's military magazine Volume 1, printed by B. v. Waldheim, Vienna 1872, pp. 105–113