Battle of Neresheim

Battle of Neresheim

Part of: First Coalition War

date	August 11, 1796
place	Neresheim
output	French defensive success, Austrian retreat

Parties to the conflict
France	Austria
Commander
Jean-Victor Moreau	Archduke Karl of Austria
Troop strength
about 44,700	about 43,000
losses
about 2,400	about 1,600

The battle of Neresheim on August 11, 1796 was a conflict between the Austrian army under Archduke Karl and the French Rhine-Moselle army pursued by General Jean-Victor Moreau . While the Austrian left wing achieved success in the battle, the other section was in a stalemate , which caused the Archduke to break off the fight and withdraw to the southern bank of the Danube .

background

Archduke Karl

Archduke Karl evacuated the left bank of the Rhine from the French at the beginning of June and withdrew all garrisons from Mannheim , Philippsburg , Mainz and the Ehrenbreitstein fortress . The Austrians and Imperial troops withdrew to the Pforzheim area by the beginning of July . The French under Moreau planned to attack themselves after the Battle of Malsch on July 15, but the Archduke was already in retreat to Schwäbisch Gmünd at this point . On August 4th Moreau had a corps under General St. Cyr advance against Heidenheim . The following day he threw back the Austrian outposts over the Brenz and occupied positions at Giengen , Hermaringen , Staufen, Altenberg and Elchingen . An Austrian division under Feldmarschallleutnant ( FML ) Riese went back between Gundelfingen via Lauingen and Dillingen via the Danube, outposts remained on the Egau . The French also advanced towards Bopfingen , their cavalry had marched up on the slope of the mountain against Kirchheim and had been pushed out of Kirchheim by General Prince Liechtenstein and pushed back to Michelfeld and Aufhausen . The following Duhesme division advanced a few days later via Ballendorf against Gundelfingen and the Taponier division against Neresheim , the Austrians were repulsed at Ohmenheim and Dischingen up to Forheim . On August 6th and 7th, Feldzeugmeister (FZM) Wartensleben was attacked by the French at the Wiesent position and withdrew to Amberg to cover Bohemia .

On August 8 the Austrian positions were on the heights of Madingen. Troops under Prince Liechtenstein occupied Nördlingen , his outposts connected via the Eger along the Röhrbach to Hotze's troops, which were posted at Forheim. The division under FML Riese stood at Dillingen , troops under FML Fröhlich secured the Danube at Günzburg . In front of the entire extended position of the Austrian army, posts from Bopfingen via Nattheim and Giengen to the Danube were set up and awaited the enemy.

Deployment and introductory fighting on August 10th

Archduke Charles' strategy from the start of operations was aimed at preventing Moreau from uniting with Jourdan's army . At the beginning of August the Archduke had arrived near Nördlingen near Neresheim, and the right-wing avant-garde was Prince Johann Liechtenstein's corps , which was concentrated near Trochtelfingen and had outposts in Bopfingen and Michelfeld. The FML Hotze division was deployed between Gundelfingen and Dischingen, the FML Riese division was concentrated near Gundelfingen. The moment was propitious for an attack, for Moreau's army was not concentrated but stretched along a line of 30 kilometers. The FZM from Wartensleben , operating to the east, reported to the Archduke that he intended to withdraw his reserve corps against Amberg .

On the afternoon of August 10th, the corps under General Saint-Cyr and his Taponier division had pushed the enemy further back to Amerdingen and Aufhausen and took the village of Eglingen. The Lecourbe division secured the bridge over the Egau near Dischingen with a half-brigade . At the same time the French penetrated the forest between Schweindorf and Forheim. First a thunderstorm and the night ended the fight. General Duhesme and his division were further south near Madlingen and received orders to bring his troops closer to the center.

During the Austrian attack, Moreau had set up his army in such a way that his right wing was leaning against Dischingen and his center was at Dunstelkingen . The left wing followed behind Schweindorf , where the road from Neresheim to Nördlingen led. The reserve cavalry marched behind the left wing against Ohmenheim and Neresheim; the division under General Delmas remained behind Bopfingen, the Duhesme division near Obermedlingen before Gundelfingen. A mountain ridge separates the falling waters that poured from the Neckar into the Danube, it divides the valleys of the Brenz between Königsbronn and Oberkochen. The ridge that leans against the Wörnitz is limited on one side by the Danube, on the other by open land to Mädingen. The only road from Heidenheim to Neresheim that can be used by carts ran through forests. There was no other main road on the mountain stretch up to the Wörnitz , the archduke stood on this path, the right wing leaning against Nördlingen, the left wing reaching as far as Gundelfingen. Most of them concentrated first near Neresheim, then to the east near Nördlingen, only securing the mountains up to the Danube with a detached department. The Austrians kept the route to the Danube to Donauwörth and Neuburg open for the retreat .

Battle on August 11th

General Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr

Archduke Karl attacked on August 11, after the Austrian center had been reinforced by some of the troops from the Madingen camp on the evening of the previous day. The Austrian troops numbered about 43,000 men, while the French had about 44,700 men. Archduke Karl wanted to start the main attack against the center of the French army at Neresheim at the head of 19.5 battalions and 24 squadrons between Forheim and Amerdingen . He put his main force against the front of the French Taponier and Duhesme divisions of the Corps Saint-Cyr , which could deploy 22,160 soldiers for defense:

• Brigade Vandamme (5,270 men)
• Brigade Antoine Laroche (5,120 men)
• Brigade Claude-Jacques Lecourbe (5,870 men)
• Brigade Henri François Lambert (5,900 men)

On the far left there were troops under FML Fröhlich and Guylai , who were securing at Günzburg on the Danube and had orders to advance northward on the right bank of the Brenz with 6 battalions and 15 squadrons . The column of the FML Riese formed with 5,000 men and 1,500 riders near Dillingen and Aufhausen and tried to force the advance to Eglingen and via Weilerhof to Dunstelkingen in separate sections. As soon as the wing of the French gave way under Taponier, the division under FML Mercandin had to attack near Dischingen . FZM Baillet de Latour advanced with 5,500 men in two small columns from Amertingen to Dischingen in order to unite with Mercandin's troops. FML von Fürstenberg had the lead in the center, Archduke Karl accompanied the middle column to Dunstelkingen . The French Duhesme Division (7,000 men and 2,400 horsemen) had to endure the brunt of the Austrian attack. On the right wing, the FML Hotze division (7,500 men and 1,800 riders) formed near Forheim to advance to Schweindorf and Kösingen . Prince of Liechtenstein used the road from Nördlingen to Neresheim and led 4500 men and 4200 riders on the right wing, these advanced towards Bopfingen . FML Sztáray commanded the reserve behind.

Already at dawn the cavalry carried out a flank attack on the left Austrian wing against the Lambert Brigade, a French counter-attack of light cavalry under Nansouty was repulsed. The French were driven out of the forest of Aufhausen and Eglingen, Reistingen and Trugenhofen were taken by Latour's troops. General St. Cyr tried in vain to strengthen the brigades of Generals Lecourbe and Laroche in the positions on the heights of Dunstelkingen and near Dischingen. The Austrians under FML Riese captured two cannons and occupied Oggenhausen and Heidenheim almost without a fight . The retreating troops under Duhesme went back via Giengen through the Brenz valley to Böhmenkirchen, the French baggage, cash and ammunition wagons escaped to Aalen in time .

Archduke Karl, who wanted to wait for General Hotze to advance, only opened gunfire on Dunstelkingen until he penetrated the center. The advance of the column under FML Hotze via Kösingen encountered great difficulties, Kösingen fell after a hard fight, but not Bopfingen, where the French division of General Desaix recaptured the forest between Kösingen, Forheim and the Weilerhof in a counter-attack. On the right flank of Hotze, the French Gazan Brigade threw the Austrians back as far as Schweindorf. The advantages on the left wing at Giengen and Heidenheim were insufficient for the Archduke to initiate a new attack. Also, FML Riese did not penetrate into the back of the opponent in front of Dischingen in the direction of Burghagel or Zöschingen. After the stalemate, the Archduke gave the general order to withdraw. The right wing went back to Mädingen, the left to Dillingen, the center (16 battalions and 19 squadrons) initially remained on the battlefield under Hotze to cover the retreat from the Kesseltal. The retreated French General Duhesme did not cease to withdraw until a courier from Moreau gave him instructions to re-establish communication with St. Cyr.

The Austrians had 1,100 dead and wounded and lost another 500 prisoners, while the French complained of 1,200 dead and wounded and 1,200 prisoners.

Result

Archduke Charles hoped in vain that Moreau would surrender. On the morning of August 12th he found the French still in the position of the previous day and gave the order to retreat. The Austrian army withdrew across the Danube at Dillingen and Donauwörth and destroyed all bridges behind them. Moreau held his position all day and waited for news that the Austrians had withdrawn completely across the Danube. The Swabians and Bavaria began negotiations with the French to get out of the war. The Treaty of Pfaffenhofen followed on September 7th.

After Karl withdrew across the south bank of the Danube, Moreau was free to remain on the north bank and he could also seek his union with Jourdan. Finally, on August 18 and 19, he crossed the Danube southwards.

On August 17th, the Archduke took a decisive strategic step by leading his 28,000 men back to the north bank of the Danube, strengthening himself with the royalists under Prince Condé to 30,288 soldiers and aiming for reunification with the Reserve Corps under FZM Wartensleben. The next battle of Amberg on August 24th was finally won by the Austrians, in the subsequent counteroffensive the decisive battle for Würzburg (1796) followed , which forced the French to retreat across the Rhine.

literature

• Carl von Decker / Ludwig Blesson: Journal for Art, Science, and the History of War , 7th issue, Ernst Siegfried Mittler Verlag, Berlin 1827, pp. 5–15
• Archduke Carl of Austria : Principles of strategy, explained by the representation of the campaign of 1796 in Germany. Part II: History of the Campaign. Anton Strauss, Vienna 1819, Battle of Neresheim p. 251 f