Hohenlinden 1800:
The Forgotten Battle
The Hostilities Re-Open
by Guenter Schneider, Germany
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The plans of the French for the new campaign were very simple: They wanted to cross the Inn and then the Enns to drive back the Austrian army and to threaten Vienna. For that reason, Moreau sent his divisions to the river to look for the best place of passage, always being careful not to be surprised by Archduke John. That was exactly what John planned: He wanted to outflank the French by a march on Landshut and then follow the Isar to Munich to attack the French army from the rear. But the weather thwarted his plan, because the snow melting and the slush turned the roads into mud and a march along the Isar would have lasted too long. Therefore the Austrians changed plans and decided to march to Munich via Haag, a town in the middle of the French´s zone of concentration. The best for the Austrians would have been to stay behind the Inn in their strong position, then it would have been very difficult for the French to cross the river. On 1 December both armies met at Ampfing. On the French side only Grenier was present with his divisions. The Austrians succeeded in driving him back for some miles, but the French were not badly defeated. Now Moreau knew where the Austrians wanted to break through to get to Munich. He ordered the retreat and on the following day he assembled two corps of his army with about 55,000 men. His divisions had to take their positions which they held before the armistice: with the village of Hohenlinden in the centre behind the forest of Ebersberg. The Austrian leaders overestimated their victory at Ampfing. They supposed the French to be on the retreat to Munich, or even to the Lech river. Therefore the foll owing day they stopped at Haag for their troops to recover. On 3 December they wanted to continue their march to Munich seeing no more obstacle in front of them. 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 |
