Battle of Messkirch
Tactical representation of the battle near Meßkirch
| date | May 5, 1800 |
|---|---|
| place | Messkirch |
| output | France defeats Austria |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 55,000 | 54,500 |
| losses | |
|
around 3,000 dead |
around 3,000 dead |
Ostrach - Feldkirch - Stockach I - Verona - Magnano - Cassano d'Adda - Frauenfeld - Winterthur - Zurich I - Trebbia - Mantua - Novi - Vlieter - Bergen - Zurich II - Muotatal - Egmont - Genola - Wiesloch - Genoa - Stockach II - Engen - Meßkirch - Biberach II - Montebello - Marengo - Höchstädt - Oberhausen - Hohenlinden - Walserfeld - Pozzolo - Copenhagen - Algeciras I - Algeciras II
The battle of Meßkirch , also: Battle of Mösskirch , on May 5th, 1800 was one of the bloodiest battles in the Second Coalition War .
The French Rhine Army sent by Napoleon under the command of General Moreau forced the Austrian army under Feldzeugmeister Baron von Kray to retreat and thus to evacuate southwest Germany. Messkirch thus became a landmark in the process of the downfall of the "old order" .
prehistory
After the resignation of Archduke Karl, Kray took over the supreme command in southern Germany. Kray arrived at Donaueschingen on March 17th . The main army was still 95,000 strong and was concentrated between Liptingen and Stockach. On May 3, the Austrian troops found it difficult to withstand the onslaught of the main French power under Moreau bei Engen . The defeat of the corps of the Prince of Vaudemont in the second battle of Stockach and the arrival of French reinforcements under General Saint-Cyr forced Kray to retreat to the Danube . Moreau's army remained inactive on May 4th near Stockach and Engen and ceased to pursue the enemy. In the evening Kray's troops had moved to new positions near Messkirch and Tuttlingen . The French corps under General Sainte-Suzanne had set out with 18 battalions and 33 squadrons in pursuit on the left bank of the Danube towards Geisingen .
The battle
On May 5th, the rest of the French troops began to move again. Moreau was superior in number of troops, but since both wing corps (St.-Cyr and Sainte-Suzanne) operated separately, the Austrians between Altheim and Meßkirch were roughly equal to the right wing corps under Lecourbe. The French advanced about three miles north, but the divisions had little communication with one another. The corps under General Lecourbe pursued with 31 battalions and 23 squadrons via Krumbach against Messkirch, followed by 12 squadrons of cavalry under Nansouty . To the right of this, another 32 battalions and 20 squadrons pushed east of Sauldorf northwards through the so-called Klosterwald belonging to Kloster Wald , with the Vandamme Division at the head . The corps under General Saint-Cyr advanced against Liptingen and Tuttlingen with 27 battalions and 28 squadrons .
Moreau believed the Austrians were already in full retreat at Geisingen , and was surprised to find Kray's troops still south of the Danube. The troops of Lecourbe and Saint-Cyr first encountered the enemy at Messkirch and Tuttlingen. Tuttlingen was taken by Saint-Cyr's troops without a fight, and a position was taken here, waiting for further orders. In the meantime, the Lecourbe corps fought at Messkirch with about 30,000 Austrians who had taken a very beneficial position under the Thalbach . The outer flanks reached from the places Althelm to Heudorf , several batteries controlled the accesses from Krumbach to Meßkirch. In the center on both sides of Heudorf, Lieutenant Field Marshal Nauendorf commanded . The Austrian divisions under Count Gyulay and Archduke Ferdinand formed the right wing between Worndorf and Neuhausen ob Eck. A Palatine-Bavarian brigade under General Wrede acted as a reserve and during the battle was brought forward to the front line of the attacked division of Archduke Ferdinand from the positions near Buchheim to Thalheim.
Lecourbe had set up Vandamme's division on the right, with the Molitor brigade at the head, through the monastery forest to encircle the Austrian position at Messkirch, and a brigade of these secured the open flank to the east. The divisions of Generals Montrichard and Lorge marched in the middle via Krumbach, from where the Lorge division turned left towards Altheim. On the left wing, the Bontemps brigade advanced via Schwandorf to Bietingen . The advance of the individual divisions took place without support, the first division of the reserve corps under General Delmas had not yet arrived, the rest could not be expected before evening. At this time, Moreau was still in Stockach, so that the highest-ranking General Lecourbe led the battle. The troops of the Prince of Vaudemont could not withstand the French attack on Messkirch and had to go back to the heights of Rohrdorf . General Lecourbe recognized the key point of the opposing position in the village of Heudorf and had General Lorge's troops storm the place several times. The Austrian intention to also encompass the enemy with the troops of Gyulay and Archduke Ferdinand on the right was only possible because the French Corps Gouvion St. Cyr had still not reached the heights of Emmingen-Liptingen. Messkirch was stormed by troops under Montrichard and Vandamme around 1 p.m., the Count of Nauendorf had to withdraw his troops from Heudorf at the same time. Kray left the Rohrdorfer Höhe and went to Thalheim, from there to lead his reserves against the flank of the Lorge division, which had penetrated into Heudorf. Kray's counterattack had not yet unfolded in front of Altheim , Hölzle and Bietingen when General Moreau arrived in Krumbach with two divisions and he took command himself. The battle was concentrated on this between Bietingen and Heudorf; the two armies were in a tie until evening. The arrival of the third division under Richepanse of the French reserve corps at Boll shook the Austrian position with a simultaneous frontal and flank attack. The falling darkness saved the Austrians from complete defeat and made it possible to retreat north.
consequences
On May 6th, Kray's troops returned to the left bank of the Danube near Sigmaringen. Moreau advanced on the right bank of the Danube. Oncoming reinforcements under FML Michael von Kienmayer and Anton Sztáray kept the Austrian army still fighting. Kray withdrew to Biberach , his left wing went through Riedlingen , the right back to Sigmaringen . On May 9, the Corps of Saint-Cyr encountered the rearguard of the enemy in the second battle near Biberach and threw the Austrians again. Feldzeugmeister Kray ordered the retreat to Ulm and was recalled by the high command on July 31 after his defeat in the battle of Höchstädt (June 19).
Artistic processing
The battle of Meßkirch forms the historical background for the votive picture in the Rohrdorf parish church . It was donated by the population of the village out of gratitude for the extensive sparing during the fighting. It is the only pictorial representation of the battle of Meßkirch.
Trivia
The battle of Meßkirch can be found immortalized as the name MOESKIRCH on the plaques of fame of the French army in the Arc de Triomphe in Paris .
See also
Web links
literature
- Heinrich Bücheler, Werner Fischer, Roland Kessinger: The Battle of Messkirch 5th May 1800: Commemorative ribbon for the 200th anniversary . Museum Society Meßkirch (ed.). 1st edition. Gmeiner Verlag, Meßkirch 2000, ISBN 3-926633-47-6 .
- Jens Florian Ebert: Supplements to the battle of Meßkirch on May 5, 1800, Meßkircher Heimathefte No. 16 (2008/2009), published by the Museumsgesellschaft Meßkirch eV pp. 54–96.
- Gustav Kempf: Our home in the Napoleonic Wars. In: Ders .: The Gögginger Dorfbuch . Municipality of Göggingen, Göggingen 1969, p. 365 ff.