Hohenlinden 1800:
The Forgotten Battle
Introduction
by Guenter Schneider, Germany
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French soldiers in camp on the river Isar near Ismaning." Aquarell (1804) by Wilhelm von Kobell (1766-1855)
Even the French border was threatened. 1799 was a disastrous year for the French armies: Archduke Charles of Austria beat General Jourdan at Stockach in March; General Schérer was beaten by Kray at Magnano in April. His successor in command General Moreau lost the battle of Cassano against Souvorov. In June General Macdonald was beaten on the Trebbia, and in August France did
not only lose its hope to stop the advance of the Second Coalition at Novi, it even lost its General Joubert. Only General Masséna was able to resist the allied forces in Switzerland at Zurich: first in June when he stopped Archduke Charles and later in September when he defeated the Russian General Korsakov.
Then the situation changed for France. In October General Brune could win the battle of Castricum in the Netherlands against the Duke of York. And finally in November Souvorov and the
Russian army left Italy and the Austrian ally because of irreconcilable differences.
The fall of 1799 showed a completly different military situation for France. It wasn´t any longer to be compared with the year of 1793, the nation was no more in danger. At that moment Bonaparte returned from Egypt and made his coup d´etat.
Hohenlinden 1800 The Forgotten Battle
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In 1800 the war of various European coalitions agains France
was going on for more than seven years. There was a short break of war on the continent in 1797 after the peace of Campo-Formio and people hoped that this could be the final end of the war. But when Bonaparte was in Egypt a new coalition rose against the French Republic. The allied Russians and Austrians under the leadership of the old Souvorov could recapture northern Italy and all of the French occupations got lost in the course of some months.