Battle of Wetzlar (1796)

The Battle of Wetzlar (15 June 1796) saw a Habsburg Austrian army led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen launch an attack on a Republican French army under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in its defenses on the Lahn River. The War of the First Coalition action ended in an Austrian victory when most of the French army began retreating to the west bank of the Rhine River. On the 19th the combat of Uckerath was fought as the Austrians pursued the French left wing. Wetzlar is located in the state of Hesse in Germany a distance of 66 kilometres (41 mi) north of Frankfurt.

Battle of Wetzlar (1796)
Part of War of the First Coalition
Date15 June 1796
Location
Wetzlar, Germany
Result Austrian victory
Belligerents
Republican France Habsburg Austria
Commanders and leaders
General Jourdan Archduke Charles
Units involved
Army of Sambre-et-Meuse Army of the Lower Rhine
Strength
48,000 64,000
Casualties and losses
Wetzlar: 500, 7 guns
Uckerath: 3,000		 Wetzlar: 400
Uckerath: 600

In the Rhine Campaign of 1796, Jourdan's Army of Sambre-et-Meuse won a foothold on the east bank of the Rhine after defeating its opponents at Altenkirchen on 4 June. This was part of a plan to lure Archduke Charles to the north so that the Army of Rhin-et-Moselle under Jean Victor Marie Moreau could breach the Rhine defenses in the south. The strategy worked as designed. When Charles came north with heavy forces to drive back Jourdan, Moreau successfully mounted an assault crossing of the Rhine at Kehl near Strasbourg.

References
  • Dodge, Theodore Ayrault (2011). Warfare in the Age of Napoleon: The Revolutionary Wars Against the First Coalition in Northern Europe and the Italian Campaign, 1789-1797. USA: Leonaur Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85706-598-8.
  • Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011). The Armies of the First French Republic: Volume II The Armées du Moselle, du Rhin, de Sambre-et-Meuse, de Rhin-et-Moselle. USA: Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908692-25-2.
  • Rickard, J. (2009). "Battle of Wetzlar, 15-16 June 1796". historyofwar.org. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  • Rickard, J. (2009). "Combat of Uckerath, 19 June 1796". historyofwar.org. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  • Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.

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