Second battle for Zurich
| date | 25. bis 26. September 1799 |
|---|---|
| place | Zurich |
| output | French victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 75,000 | 60,000 |
| losses | |
|
3,000 dead or wounded |
7,000 dead or wounded |
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 Second Battle of Zurich took place on September 25 and 26, 1799 in Zurich during the Second Coalition War . It was able to break the deadlock that resulted from the First Battle of Zurich three months earlier in favor of the French .
prehistory
After the First Battle of Zurich, the Old Confederation was divided between the French and the Austrians . The fronts ran on a line under the Aare - Limmat - Albiskette - Urnersee . On August 14, 1799, a Russian army under General Alexander Rimski-Korsakow arrived in Schaffhausen . Archduke Karl , the brother of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Franz II , wanted to encircle the French under General André Masséna in central Switzerland with Rimsky-Korsakov . On the night of August 16-17, 20,000 infantrymen and 1,600 Cossacks under Rimsky-Korsakov were to meet with Archduke Karl's 23,000 infantrymen and 6,000 cavalrymen near Oberendingen.
Masséna prepared an attack on the Austrian positions in the Alps. The main attack was led by General Lecourbe , who captured the Gotthard and Oberalp passes on August 16 . As a distraction, the French attacked the hussar camp in Sihlfeld near Zurich on August 14 at 5 a.m.
On August 16, the attack by Archduke Karl and Rimski-Korsakow on the French failed because the pontoon bridges over the Aare near Döttingen could not be completed. Archduke Karl and Rimsky-Korsakov did not plan any further joint actions. The coalition threatened to break up. A political compromise consisted in transferring the fight in the Confederation to the Russian General Rimski-Korsakow and the Swiss in Austrian service, Field Marshal Friedrich von Hotze , and deploying Archduke Karl in southern Germany.
Starting position
On August 22, Rimski-Korsakow and Hotze agreed that Rimski-Korsakow should occupy the lower course of the Aare-Limmat-Zurich- Meilen line with 22,000 men and Hotze should occupy the Männedorf - Obersee - Linth - Glarnerland line with around 20,000 men . On August 28, most of Archduke Charles' troops left Switzerland and Rimsky-Korsakov came to Zurich.
Masséna wanted to take advantage of the regrouping between Austrians and Russians. At Vogelsang / Stilli he wanted to cross the Aare on August 30th, follow the enemy and lock him up in Zurich. The river crossing failed, and Masséna was now planning a river crossing at Dietikon with a subsequent attack on Rimsky-Korsakow in Zurich.
On August 25, the Russian field marshal Alexander Wassiljewitsch Suvorov received the order in northern Italy to strengthen the coalition troops in Switzerland. His troops did not leave until September 8th.
On September 19, Masséna announced the plan to his division commanders to cross the Limmat with the Lorge division near Dietikon and attack Rimsky-Korsakov in Zurich. At the same time, the Soult division was to attack between Obersee and Walensee via the Linth Hotze. The aim was to beat Rimsky-Korsakov and Hotze before the reinforcements from Suvorov could intervene. Brigade commander Dedon reported that the boats for the crossing were available except for the Rottenschwil war bridge, which had yet to be expanded .
After Suvorov's belated descent from the Gotthard Pass , the necessary reinforcements could no longer reach Zurich in time. The desired joint struggle by Rimsky-Korsakov, Hotze and Suworow was no longer possible, but led to Masséna near Zurich bringing the French attack forward from September 26th to 25th.
course
The prelude to the second battle of Zurich was the successful crossing of the river from Dietikon over the Limmat to Unterengstringen on September 25, 1799. Since June the French had brought boats from various waters. On the evening of September 24th, the infantrymen from Lorge's division quietly carried them near the river. On the night of September 23rd to 24th, the pontoons in Rottenschwil were removed from the Reuss and brought over the Mutschellen to Dietikon. Masséna's troop concentration around Dietikon, with more than 8,000 men from the Lorge division and an artillery with 26 guns, faced only 2,600 Russians under General Markow on the other side of the Limmat between Würenlos and Wipkingen , including 1,100 men under Markow himself in the Oetwil -Würlos area, 290 Man and 2 guns of the Misinow Cossack regiment between the hill near Fahr Monastery and the Hardwald, 220 men from the Treublut Grenadier Battalion on the western edge of the Hardwald and four squadrons of dragoons with 550 men under Major General Schepeleff near Wipkingen.
At 4:45 a.m. on September 25, the first battalion of the Gazan Brigade began the attack. Around 600 men crossed the Limmat in 37 boats and formed the bridgehead. The crossing of the boats alerted the weak Russian outpost chain near the Limmat. At that time the Limmat swung out in a wide arc to the south, which enabled the artillery Massénas to fire from both sides of the river arc at the landing site and into the depths of the later bridgehead. From 5 a.m., 25 bullets also hit various buildings in the Fahr Monastery.
The construction of the pontoon bridge was ordered to begin at 5 a.m. Meanwhile the French put a second battalion of the Gazan Brigade across the Limmat. Then the Bontemps brigade crossed the Limmat.
At 6 o'clock the French vanguard reached Fahr Monastery and looted it. At 7:30 a.m. the pontoon bridge was installed. The Quétard brigade, artillery and cavalry marched over it. At 9 o'clock the entire Lorge division with 8,000 men and 26 guns was on the right side of the Limmat. Further reinforcements crossed the pontoon bridge. The Russians, weakened by the artillery fire, fighting in the Hardwald, near Glanzenberg and above the Fahr Monastery, were defeated. Chief of Staff Oudinot was in command of the French troops on the right bank of the Limmat , who advanced with 15,000 men via Engstringen and Höngg towards Zurich. Masséna and the Klein Brigade carried out a successful counterattack on the Russians advancing from the Sihlfeld towards the Waldegg .
The river crossing was successful because the Russians were too weak on their section of the front and because they had been misled about the main thrust near Dietikon by mock attacks by the Ménard division near Vogelsang / Stilli and by the Mortier division near Wollishofen . The section commander of the Russians in the Oetwil-Würenlos area, Major General Markow, was wounded and captured right at the start of the attack. His superior, Lieutenant General Durassow, who was responsible for the lower reaches of the Aare and the Limmat, spent too long on the mock attacks at Vogelsang / Stilli and realized too late that the French had blocked the connecting roads to Zurich and Rimski-Korsakow. In this way Oudinot managed to advance quickly against Höngg and the Zürichberg . There were heavy fighting in the Milchbuck area.
The attack of the Soult division over the Linth between Obersee and Walensee led to the retreat of the Austrians over the Ricken . On September 26th, Rimsky-Korsakov received the news of the death of Hotze, who had been shot from his horse by French skirmishers during the morning reconnaissance at Schänis . Rimsky-Korsakov now threatened to be encircled in Zurich. He tried to clear the crossing over the Milchbuck towards Winterthur , with a desperate attack the Russians managed to free themselves from the encirclement. However, Rimsky-Korsakov lost a large part of his troops, equipment and supplies. The losses of the French in the second battle near Zurich were around 6,000 men, those of the coalition around 3,000 men and 8,000 prisoners.
consequences
The French had driven the remnants of the Second Coalition from the territory of the Confederation. The Russians had lost their aura of unbeatability. On September 25, Suworow found himself in front of the Schöllenen Gorge , in Altdorf Suworow realized that it was not possible to continue to Schwyz along Lake Lucerne. The news of Rimsky-Korsakov's defeat before Zurich and a concentration of French troops on Lake Uri forced the Russians to retreat over the Kinzig Pass through the Muotathal . On October 1st they broke through the Pragel Pass to Elm in Glarus . On October 6th and 7th, the Russians withdrew from Helvetia over the Panixer Pass through the Rhine Valley. Suworow was able to save around 15,000 men from his army to Austria via the St. Luzisteig . After the French victory, Russia withdrew from the Second Coalition. The territory of the Old Confederation was under French control.
The French had extended their apron to include the territory of the Confederation and created favorable conditions for the attack on Austria. Masséna requisitioned enormous amounts of food, cattle and fodder, as well as soldiers and money, under threat of clearance for looting. The areas affected by the war were poor and poor. The Second Coalition War had severely weakened the Helvetic Republic . The lost support in the population finally led to an act of mediation in 1803 .
On the Zürichberg, a short forest path and a memorial commemorate Masséna and the French. At the monument in the forest, both battles of Zurich are briefly described. The names of Dietikon and Muotathal are carved on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In the Schöllenen Gorge there is a monument to the Russians crossing the Alps under Suworow. On the plateau above the Fahr Monastery, a memorial stone commemorates the Cossacks who fell there. Every year the Fahr Monastery thanks with a mass that the nuns were spared life and limb. Between Burgwies and Balgrist in Zurich, the Russenweg recalls the escape of the Rimsky-Korsakov train.
literature
- Anton von Tillier: History of the Helvetic Republic , Chr.Fischer, Bern 1843
- Colonel Miliutin: History of the war between Russia and France under the government of Paul I in 1799 , Volume IV, Munich 1857.
- Alfred Ritter von Vivenot: Korsakow at the Battle of Zurich , Wilhelm Braumüller Verlag, Vienna 1869.
- General Henry Dufour: La Guerre en Suisse , Librairie Militaire, Bern 1881.
- Colonel Lt. i Gst F. Becker: The first battle near Zurich , Verlag F. Schulthess, Zurich 1899.
- Paul Rütsche: The canton of Zurich at the time of the Helvetic , Faesi + Beer, Zurich 1900.
- Conrad Escher, Rudolf Wachter: Chronicle of the community Wipkingen . Zurich 1910.
- Hans Nabholz: Switzerland under foreign rule , Swiss War History Book 8, Oberkriegskommissariat, Bern 1921.
- Robert Müller: The passage of the French over the Limmat on September 25, 1799 , New Year's newspaper of the Dietikon community in 1952.
- Walter Mathys: Construction of the fortifications for the battles for Zurich , Turicum, Zurich 1974.
- Max Trachsler: When the imperial family moved over the Glattbrücke , Heimatbuch Dübendorf 1981.
- Hans Glarner: Zollikon - a theater of war in the Second Coalition War , Zolliker Jahrheft, municipality of Zollikon 1988.
- Hans Rudolf Fuhrer: The two battles of Zurich 1799 . Au 1995.
- Hans Rudolf Fuhrer and Jacques Meier: The two battles of Zurich in 1799 in a European context / The bombardment and looting of the Fahr Monastery on September 25, 1799 , Unterengstringen municipality 1999.
Web links
- Map of the French fortifications in June 1799 ( Memento of April 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Hans Rudolf Fuhrer : Battles near Zurich. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Remarks
- ^ History of the war between Russia and France, Appendix 42