Hohenlinden 1800:
The Forgotten Battle
The Campaign in South Germany
by Guenter Schneider, Germany
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The battle of Hohenlinden. by Henry Frédéric Schopin (1804-1880) At the end of April Moreau started crossing the Rhine at four points: The 4th corps under Sainte-Suzanne cross ed the river at Kehl near Strassbourg, the 3rd corps under Gouvion-St. Cyr at Breisach near Freiburg. Moreau and the 2nd corps invaded Germany at Basle and Lecourbe with the 1st corps between Schaffhausen and the Lake Constance. The Austrian commander in chief Generalfeldzeugmeister von Kray stayed in a defensive position. With out an advance of the army of Italy under Melas he saw no possibility to cross the Rhine and to invade France. Therefore he waited for the French attack without knowing exactly where it would take place. Moreau concentrated his army near the Lake Constance and on 3 May he defeated the Austrians at Engen and Stockach. Two days later it was at Messkirch where Kray had to retreat again. Finally the Army of the Rhine forced back the Austrians at Biberach and Memmi ngen on 9 and 10 May. After this successful opening of the campaign Moreau followed the Austrians to the Danube, where Kray moved into a fortified position at Ulm.
Austro-Hungarian infantry with the sutler (1800) by Kobell (1766-1855) On 19 June Moreau succeded in crossing the Danube at Höchstädt which forced Kray to leave his position at Ulm and to draw back to Landshut where he crossed the Isar. The Austrians continued their retreat and on 10 July they even crossed the Inn. In the meanwhile the French had already occupied Munich. Bavaria lay open to the Army of the Rhine. Influenced by peace negotiations, which had been started after the battle of Marengo, the Austrians asked for an armistice which was finally signed on 15 July at Parsdorf, a small village near Munich. The line of demarcation between the two armies led through another village some miles east wards: its name was Hohenlinden. At the end of August Moreau canceled the armistice and the hostilities seemed to reopen.
Jumbo Map: extremely slow: 356K) Bonaparte already hoped to be the great pacificator of Europe after these eight years of war. Marengo would have been the decisive battle, won by the general as statesman. But the hopes were deceived, the peace negotiations at Lunéville in Lorraine failed, and the war started again on 28 November. Austria wasn´t willing to abandon its occupations of the previous year and to keep staying behind the Mincio leaving Lombardy to the influence of France. But France insisted to return to the political situation after the treaty of Campo Formio. As the Austrians still possessed a strong army in Germany they saw no necessity to agree to all conditions. They were willing to continue fighting for their former possessions in northern Italy and to win back the losses of the Marengo campaign. The peace negotiations should only help them to save time. Hohenlinden 1800 The Forgotten Battle
The Campaign in South Germany The Commanders of the French and Austrian Armies The Hostilities Re-Open Battle of Hohenlinden The Aftermath French Army of the Rhine Austro-Bavarian Army Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #64 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |
In spring 1800 the war started again. Only Austria was left with
some South German states who continued the war on the European
continent against the French Republic. The scenes of the new
campaigns were supposed to be in Italy and in South Germany. In
Italy Bonaparte himself wanted to reoccupy the French losses. In
Germany the army of the Rhine under General Jean-Victor Moreau
should advance to Bavaria to support the movements of the army of
the reserve south of the Alps.
Here in Ulm the Austrians could stop the French advance for more than a week up to 19 June,
five days after the battle of Marengo.
On 19 September both armies stood face to face on the future
battlefield of Hohenlinden only separated by
the forest of Ebersberg. A great battle
should take place the next day, but instead
of fighting the two opponents negotiated
again and on 20 September the French
General Lahorie and Count Lehrbach from
the Austrian side signed a new armistice. In
the end everything obviously to developed
towards a peace treaty between Austria