Alpine Thunder:
The Battle of Zurich 1799

The War of the Second Coalition

by Major Wilbur E. Gray, US Army

The third battle of Zurich came about as a result of yet another European coalition's attempt to turn the clock of history backwards by crushing the French Republic and reestablishing the Bourbon monarchy in Paris.

FRENCH ARTILLERY IN THE ALPS

The Coalition was formed in December 1798, largely under the urging of Paul I, Czar of all the Russias. Originally, however, the underlying cause for growing tensions had been Austria's concern over continual French meddling in the affairs of the Italian states, considered by Paris to be a prime area for exporting the ideas of the French Revolution.

Specifically, a French general named Duphot had managed to get himself killed in a scuffle outside Rome, capital of the Papal States. In retaliation, Paris promptly ordered General Louis Alexandre Berthier (later Napoleon's incomparable chief of staff) to invade the place. He did so, won handily and immediately established the pro-French Republic of Rome.

Czar Paul I, unjustly considered mad and described as odious in the mind of every impartial person," could really have cared less about the fate of a few Italians.

However, when the French on their way to Egypt seized the island of Malta and expelled the Knights of St John, Paul suddenly discovered one of those "lost causes" that seemed to appeal to his personality. The fact that the good Knights offered Paul the position of Grand Mastership Extraordinary in return for his protection only hastened the Czar to action.

Nevertheless, it also seems evident that Paul had finally realized what the rest of autocratic Europe had discovered years earlier with Republican France, "a power of quite extraordinary malevolence had emerged - an armed people interested no longer in readjusting borders, but in overthrowing states and the social and religious order upon which they had been founded." [2]

Thus, Paul proposed to both Britain and Austria that they act in concert to destroy Republican France. Austria and Britain were only too happy to oblige, with the latter promising 225,000 pounds sterling per month for the services of some 107,500 Russian troops. While some Russian commanders were uncomfortable about facing troops undoubtedly much nastier than backward Poles and Turks, Paul was adamant.

The Czar was eager to put this new, improved military into combat. He had just undone the enlightened reforms of Minister of War Grigorii A. Potemkin, thereby re- establishing his army into a near duplicate of that of Frederick the Great. As one observer noted, "He expected his Russians to conquer, if they found the opportunity to fight, as a matter of course." [3]

Overall strategy for the conquest of France called for a concentric attack from several fronts. A force of British and some 11,000 Russians under LTG Johann Hermann, would land on the coast of Holland, dispose of French General Guillaume-Marie Brune's 27,000 man garrison and move south into France. Austrian Archduke Charles of Hapsburg with some 50,000 men would invade France from across the Rhine, defeating the 45,000 French under the command of Generals J.B. Jourdan and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte along the way to Paris.

The main force of Russians, about 30,000 under the command of Generalanchef A.M. RimskiiKorsakov would act in association with the Austrian army of Feldmarschall Freiherr Friedrich von Hotze to drive the 48,000 French of General Andr6 Massena out of Switzerland. In doing so they would open up a weakly fortified sector of the French frontier to invasion. Finally, an army of some 25,000 Russians and 23,000 Austrians, would drive the French out of northern Italy.

This last congregation of Allied military power indeed had a formidable task ahead of them. Italy was currently the home of not less than three separate French forces. There were some 58,000 French soldiers under General Barthelemy L. Scherer in the north, a further 34,000 in the south under General E.J.J. MacDonald, with another 25,000 in garrison throughout the central and northern parts of the country. Fortunately, the Allies were able to call upon the services of perhaps the most capable Russian general of all time.

Indeed, Alexandr Vasilievich Suvorov, Count Suvorov-Riminsky, differed greatly from nearly all other Allied commanders, principally in his willingness to deviate from the accepted military norm and fight the French on their own terms.

His views in this regard were shown as quickly as the Czar displayed his new Prussian style military uniforms. Suvorov, rather loudly, pointed out that "You can't explode hair powder! You can't shoot a belt buckle! You can't bayonet someone with a pigtail! " The Czar retired the old general for these remarks, but grudgingly brought him back for the War of the Second Coalition, making him overall commander for all Russian forces in theater. So successful was Suvorov in his conduct of the campaign in northern Italy, that historians regret to this day that a meeting between him and the young Napoleon (whom Suvorov himself acknowledged to Count O.V.Rostopchin as one of history's greatest generals) never happened. [4]

Suvorov's successes against the French were actually too dramatic for some on the Allied side. Austrian Chancellor Count Thugut was rightly alarmed that Suvorov's victories (Trebbia on 19 June 1799 and Novi on 15 August 1799) would allow the old general to return the house of Savoy's Victor Amadeus III to the throne of Piedmont, a country in northern Italy occupied by the French and coveted by Vienna. Somehow, Suvorov had to be removed from the area so that he could not block Austrian political designs. Thugut accomplished this by ordering Suvorov to move north into Switzerland and support the operations of the Austro- Russian army of Korsakov around Zurich. Korsakov had been sparring with Massena for some months now, but had little to show for his efforts other than occupation of the city itself.

Militarily the plan did make sense. While the expedition in Holland was becoming a disaster, the forces of Archduke Charles had done as well on the Rhine as Suvorov's had done in Italy. This meant that Massena's newly redesignated French Army of the Danube actually occupied an operational level salient so long as it faced off against Korsakov near Zurich. Should Charles turn south, or Suvorov move north, Massena could easily be cut off, surrounded and destroyed in total.

This was precisely what Thugut had in mind. Suvorov would advance north through the St Gotthard Pass to cave in Massena's southern flank. With typical 18th century mentality, Thugut figured that Massena would recognize the danger and simply give up his piece of ground. If not, he would be destroyed, but in either case the path into central France would be opened. Further, the majority of Freiherr von Hotze's Austrians could be transferred north to support Archduke Charles in further operations along the Rhine and into the Netherlands.

On 10 September, Marshal Suvorov obediently marched off to the north, covering 116 miles in the next five days. In conjunction with Suvarov's movement, von Hotze released the majority of his troops to move north to join Archduke Charles. This effectively left Korsakov with some 30,000 Russian troops firmly ensconced around the city and the similarly named lake which adjoined it from the SE. Freiherr von Hotze remained below the SE comer of the lake along the Linthe River with what was left of his Austrian contingent, about 7-8,000 strong.

Massena, meanwhile, used the time caused by this complex reshuffling to bring his own forces in the Zurich area to about 70,000. There remains no historical evidence that Massena ever knew that Suvorov was bearing down on him from the south, at least not initially. He was keenly aware of his danger, however, and sent 12,000 men under General Claude Jacques Lecourbe to block the St Gotthard Pass just in case.

Then Massena, sitting atop the Albis heights which overlooked the city from the SW, decided to do exactly what any self respecting 18th century general would not do. On the 25th of September, he attacked.

Alpine Thunder The Battle of Zurich 1799

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