Battle of Sasbach

Battle of Sasbach

Part of: Dutch War

With Turenne the kingdom of France lost one of its most capable military leaders

date	July 27, 1675 to July 28, 1675
place	at Sasbach
output	Imperial victory
consequences	Retreat of the French across the Rhine

Parties to the conflict
Holy Roman Empire Brandenburg-Prussia Lorraine	France
Commander
Raimondo Montecuccoli	Turenne ⚔

There were artillery duels, a battle never took place

The battle of Sasbach , fought in the course of the Dutch War , went down in history because it was there that the French Marshal Turenne , one of the most capable military leaders in France, was killed. After that, the French withdrew and were placed again by the imperial family at Altenheim , where a fierce battle broke out. The French then managed to cross the Rhine, albeit with some losses.

prehistory

After the battle of Türkheim in January, Raimondo Montecuccoli had to withdraw further and further from Alsace across the Rhine. After the transition of the French army consisting of 12,000 infantry and 13,000 cavalry under Marshal Turenne , he succeeded in pushing back the imperial field marshal Count Montecuccoli of Strasbourg . This withdrew in the direction of the small town of Sasbach, which was on the road from Offenburg to Rastatt . In order to force him to retreat further, Turenne repeatedly carried out movements that threatened his opponent on the left flank and presented the imperial army with supply problems.

course

For some time both armies faced each other on the Rench . The French took control of the towns of Renchen , Wagshurst (now part of Achern) and Gamshurst (now part of Achern) through a series of small skirmishes , which prompted Montecuccoli to march into the area of ​​Sasbach on July 26th. The day before, General Caprara had arrived with his corps from Offenburg . The strength of the army commanded by Montecuccoli was then 30,000 men, but half of them consisted of cavalry. The army took up position behind a stream that flowed from Sasbach to Nieder-Sasbach into a ditch that was difficult to cross and that was also very swollen from persistent rain. Montecuccoli chose this place because Turenne had occupied the town of Achern . The latter took a position with his 25,000 strong army against his opponents . The gun was deployed on the edge of the trench and the infantry was placed in the first and the cavalry in the second meeting . An artillery battle broke out on both sides, during which Turenne investigated the position of his opponents, whom he found very strong everywhere in the front.

An attack from Nieder-Sasbach was unsuccessful because this point was enclosed by a brick cemetery surrounded by a swampy ditch. A long train of wagons moving towards the mountains in the morning hours suggested to Turenne that Montecuccoli intended to leave during the night. So Turenne sent a messenger to the general in command in Ober-Sasbach to observe the enemy's movements and to report them to the marshal.

Turenne, who wanted to ride to Ober-Sasbach himself, was killed by a cannonball around 2 p.m. in the presence of the Lieutenant-General of the Artillery Saint Hilaire. Saint Hilaire had wanted to explain the position of a French battery to Turenne and thereby stopped him; he lost his left arm to the same bullet. Turenne herself was hit in the chest by the bullet, but initially left no visible wound. The horse Turenne walked a few more steps before its rider slipped from the saddle and died. The battery that fired this shot is said to have been commanded by Margrave Hermann von Baden .

consequences

No sooner had Montecuccoli received news of this accident than he immediately stopped moving. Instead of taking the offensive, however, he remained in his position and contented himself with keeping the French in suspense during July 28th with artillery. Since there was no clear arrangement on the French side for the succession in the event of the Marshal's death, Vaubrun and Lorges argued about how to proceed. The French moved to Rheinbischofsheim on the night of July 29th and 30th, and from there to the old people's home . Montecuccoli, who followed them, achieved his operational purpose in a few days and again put the retreating French in a battle near Altenheim on August 1, 1675.

literature

• EO Schmidt: Germany's battlefields containing historical truth and reports on those battles that took place on German soil from 1620 to 1813, processed with the help of the best German and French sources. Fest'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1842, pp. 76-78, ( digitized version ).
• Carl du Jarrys de La Roche : The German Upper Rhine during the wars from the Peace of Westphalia to 1801. Cotta, Stuttgart et al. 1842, p. 23 ff., ( Digitized ).
• Martial show place / Des lusty / and at the same time bloody Rhein-Strohms. Johann Hofmann, Nuremberg 1690, pp. 102-103, ( digitized version ).

Remarks

1. ↑ Pierre de Mormez de Saint Hilaire died on January 21, 1680, at the age of 70, of the late effects of the wound. His son, Armand (1652? -1740), was present at the event. He later rose to lieutenant-général and commander of the artillery. (based on: Dictionnaire généalogique, héraldique, historique et chronologique ; 2nd supplement; Paris 1761; p. 625 )