Battle of Mainz

The Battle of Mainz (29 October 1795) saw a Habsburg army led by François Sebastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt launch a surprise assault against four divisions of the French Army of Rhin-et-Moselle directed by François Ignace Schaal.[1][2] The right-hand French division fled the battlefield, compelling the other three divisions to retreat with the loss of their siege artillery and many casualties. The War of the First Coalition action was fought near the city of Mainz in the today state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany.

Battle of Mainz
Part of the French Revolutionary War

Reconnaissance during the French siege of Mainz, 1795
Date29 October 1795
Location
Mainz, present-day Germany
Result Austrian victory
Belligerents
First French Republic Habsburg Monarchy
Commanders and leaders
François Schaal Count of Clerfayt
Strength
33,000 27,000
Casualties and losses
3,000 killed or wounded,
1,800 captured,
138 cannons lost		 1,400 killed or wounded,
200 captured

French troops had ineffectively besieged the western side of Mainz Fortress since December 1794. However, in early September 1795 the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse crossed the lower Rhine River and advanced south to the Main River. For the first time Mainz was besieged on the east side of the river, but this state of affairs did not last very long. In the Battle of Höchst, Clerfayt outmaneuvered Jourdan, forcing his army to retire to the west bank of the Rhine. With Jourdan temporarily out of the picture, Clerfayt fell on Schaal's somewhat isolated corps and drove it away to the south. During this time the commander of the Army of Rhin-et-Moselle, Jean-Charles Pichegru was in treasonous contact with France's enemies, perhaps accounting for Austria's success. The next clash was the Battle of Pfeddersheim on 10 November.

The siege was the second time balloon reconnaissance had been used, after the Battle of Fleurus (1794).

People involved
Strategic Situation of Europe 1796

Military units
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References
  • Smith, D. The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book. Greenhill Books, 1998.
  1. Tony Jaques, Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: F-O Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 618, 2007
  2. Spencer C. Tucker, Wars That Changed History: 50 of the World's Greatest Conflicts, ABC-CLIO, p. 265, 2015
  3. Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich: Enthaltend die Lebensskizzen der denkwürdigen Personen, welche seit 1750 in den österreichischen Kronländern geboren wurden oder darin gelebt und gewirkt haben, Band 11, Constant von Wurzbach, K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Wien 1864.
  4. Geschichte des 1. Grossherzoglich hessischen Infanterie- (Leibgarde-) Regiments, Ausgabe 115 der Ausgaben 1621-1899, Carl Christian Röder von Diersburg (Freiherr.), E. S. Mittler 1899.
  5. Die reiter-regimenter der k.k.österreichischen armee, Andreas Thürheim (Graf.), F.B. Geitler, 1862.

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