Meeting on the Ochsenfelde
| date | October 15, 1638 |
|---|---|
| place | Battle between Thann and Sennen in Alsace |
| output | Victory of the Weimar troops, French (Protestant) side |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
France , Sweden , Protestants |
|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| ? | 4000 men |
| losses | |
|
? |
600 prisoners |
Wallerfangen - Dömitz - Haselünne - Wittstock - Rheinfelden siege - Rheinfelden battle - Breisach Siege - Witten Weiher - Vlotho - Ochsenfeld - Chemnitz - Bautzen siege - Freiberg sieges - Riebel Dorfer Mountain - Dorsten - Preßnitz - La Marfée - Wolfenbüttel siege - Kempen Heath - Swidnica - Breitenfeld - Klingenthal - Tuttlingen - Freiburg - Jüterbog - Jankau - Herbsthausen - Alerheim - Korneuburg - Totenhöhe - Hohentübingen - Triebl - Zusmarshausen - Wevelinghoven - Dachau - Prague siege
The meeting on the Ochsenfelde was a battle in the Thirty Years' War on October 15, 1638. The battle took place in the phase of the war from 1635 to 1648, which is known as the Swedish-French War. The occasion of the battle was an Imperial Lorraine army under the command of Duke Charles of Lorraine , who wanted to bring supplies to the besieged fortress fortress Breisach . The army was defeated by the Franco-German-Swedish army, which besieged Breisach under the orders of Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar . The site of the battle is in Alsace between the towns of Thann and Sennen, today's Cernay .
prehistory
The army of the Protestant Duke Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar , financed by France, had already occupied parts of Baden in the course of 1638 and defeated armies of the Habsburg Emperor and his allies in several battles. Since May 1638, the Weimaraner army besieged the imperial fortress Breisach , the most important and strongest fortress in the south-west of the empire, which could not be defeated militarily but only due to a lack of supplies. On August 9, an attempt to relieve and supply the fortress by an imperial Bavarian army with 18,000 men under Savelli and Götz in the battle of Wittenweiher had completely failed. In October, after a 5-month siege, the supply situation of the besieged fortress had become very precarious and Duke Charles of Lorraine wanted to try again to get a supply train through to the fortress.
Approach
When the advancing army of Karl von Lothringen and the associated supply train with 4,000 men and many supply wagons moved into the city of Thann, the news of the arrival of this army soon reached Colonel Reinhold von Rosen , who, as the commander of a Weimaraner part army, was besieging the approx. Landskron Fortress, 50 km from Thann . General Rosen immediately sent the message to the Commander-in-Chief Bernhard von Weimar in Colmar, asking for reinforcements . Although he had a fever, Bernhard von Weimar immediately moved from Colmar to La Croix , about 70 km south , where reserve troops were stationed under the orders of Wilhelm Otto von Nassau-Siegen . With these troops and a few hundred musketeers, reinforced with French mercenaries and eight regimental guns, both generals moved north again to Ensisheim , about 60 km away , 20 km east of the town of Thann, where the Lorraine relief army with Duke Karl von Lorraine was reported with the supply train , but then moved on. Since a sent out scouting group got lost in the search for the enemy army, Bernhard von Weimar's troops had to wait in a forest. The Lorraine relief army of Duke Karl was then discovered with the supply train on October 15, 1638 on the Ochsenfeld between the towns of Thann and Cernay, and there both armies unexpectedly collided.
course
The left wing of Karl's troops was sharply attacked by Bernhard's cavalry and threatened to be completely disbanded if the right Lorraine wing had not successfully defeated the left wing of Bernhard's troops and even captured its guns at the same time. It was only through his personal commitment that Bernhard was able to regroup the troops of the left wing and lead them to counterattack. The counterattack was so successful that the Weimaraner troops were not only able to recapture their own artillery, but also the Lorraine artillery. The Lorraine's cavalry and Duke Karl himself then turned to flee. The infantry held out for two hours, but after the explosion of two powder wagons, they also turned to flee. Duke Karl - who had lost his horse - barely escaped to Thann on foot.
The loot of the Duke of Weimar included the entire artillery, luggage, 44 flags and above all all the grain destined for Breisach. In addition, there were numerous captured officers and soldiers. The fleeing Lorraine troops were not pursued further, as another attempt at relief from the Breisach fortress by a Bavarian army under Johann von Götzen had already been reported and Bernhard had to rush back to Breisach with the troops.
On the Lorraine side, Feldzeugmeister Bassompier (a cousin of the Duke), Colonel Vernier and Lieutenant Colonel Fleckenstein were taken prisoner. The Weimaraners had lost Colonel Ludwig von Wietersheim ; the Count of Nassau and the Count of Wittgenstein were wounded.
literature
- Friedrich Rudolf von Rothenburg, battles, sieges and skirmishes in Germany and neighboring countries , digitized version
- Theatrum Europaeum, volume. 3, pp. 935-936 digitized
Individual evidence
- ^ Siegfried Joost: History of the von Wietersheim family . Self-published, Diesdorf 1937, p. 79 .