Battle of Biberach (1796)

This article is about the battle in 1796. For the battle in 1800, see Battle of Biberach (1800).

Battle of Biberach (1796)
Part of the War of the First Coalition
Photo shows Biberach and the nearby rolling hills.
Date 2 October 1796 Location Biberach an der Riss, Germany Result French victory
Belligerents
France	Habsburg Austria
Commanders and leaders
Jean Moreau	Baillet de Latour
Strength
35,000–39,000	15,000–26,000
Casualties and losses
500 killed & wounded	300 killed & wounded, 4,000 & 18 guns captured

The Battle of Biberach was fought on 2 October 1796 between a French Republican army led by Jean Victor Marie Moreau and a Habsburg Austrian army led by Maximilian Anton Karl, Count Baillet de Latour. The French army paused in its retreat toward the Rhine River to savage the pursuing Austrians. The action occurred during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. Biberach an der Riss is located 35 kilometres (22 mi) southwest of Ulm.

During the summer of 1796, the two armies of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in the north and Moreau in the south advanced into southern Germany. They were opposed by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen who oversaw two Austrian armies under Latour and Wilhelm von Wartensleben. At the Battle of Amberg on 24 August 1796, Charles and Wartensleben combined to throw superior strength against Jourdan while Moreau was separated from his colleague. After Jourdan was beaten again at the Battle of Würzburg on 3 September, Moreau was forced to abandon southern Bavaria to avoid being cut off from France. As the outnumbered Latour doggedly followed the French retreat, Moreau lashed out at him at Biberach. For a loss of 500 soldiers killed and wounded, Moreau's troops inflicted 300 killed and wounded on their enemies and captured 4,000 prisoners, 18 artillery pieces, and two colors. After the engagement, Latour followed the French at a more respectful distance. The next action was the Battle of Emmendingen on 19 October.

Background

On 20 May 1796, the Austrians notified the French that the existing armistice would end on 1 June, thus initiating the Rhine campaign of 1796. At this time, there were two Austrian armies defending the Rhine River. Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen commanded 71,076 infantry and 20,702 cavalry on the lower Rhine while Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser directed 82,776 soldiers on the upper Rhine. Facing Wurmser's Army of the Upper Rhine was the French Army of the Rhine and Moselle led by Jean Victor Marie Moreau. Archduke Charles's Army of the Lower Rhine was opposed by the French Army of Sambre and Meuse under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan. Lazare Carnot dictated a strategy that required the two French armies to operate on the extreme flanks of the Austrian armies. This faulty strategy would lead to the eventual failure of the French effort in Germany.

Events in Italy caused a major change in the campaign. The French Army of Italy under its new commander Napoleon Bonaparte won a series of victories and occupied Milan on 15 May 1796. This compelled the Austrian government to order Wurmser and 25,330 soldiers to transfer to the Italian theater. When Wurmser left Germany on 18 June, Archduke Charles was placed in overall command of both Austrian armies in Germany, totaling 151,334 troops. At this time, Moreau commanded 79,592 French soldiers and Jourdan led 77,792 French troops. Count Baillet de Latour replaced Wurmser in command on the upper Rhine, while Wilhelm von Wartensleben assumed command over Austrian forces on the lower Rhine. Putting both armies in Germany under one supreme commander gave Austria a strategic advantage over the French, whose two armies were given separate and not necessarily cooperative orders.

Using the French bridgehead at Düsseldorf to his advantage, Jourdan moved the bulk of his army south on the east bank of the Rhine as far as the Lahn River. Archduke Charles reacted by moving to the Lahn with superior forces. The French were defeated at the Battle of Wetzlar on 15 June 1796. Jourdan's forces subsequently withdrew partly to Düsseldorf and partly to the west bank of the Rhine. While the Austrians concentrated their forces against Jourdan's army, Moreau's army forced a crossing of the Rhine upstream near Kehl on 24 June. Leaving 25,351 infantry and 10,933 cavalry with Wartensleben, the Archduke raced south to confront Moreau's army. In the Battle of Ettlingen on 9 July, Moreau compelled Archduke Charles to abandon the Rhine River and retreat. The Archduke left 30,000 troops in the garrisons of Mainz, Mannheim, Philipsburg, Ehrenbreitstein, and Königstein.

Battle

The French troops under General Louis Desaix attacked at noon on October 2, advanced via Seekirch, threw back an enemy detachment from Ahlen and pursued the Austrians via Gutharzhofen to Burren. The now open right flank of the imperial division under Siegfried von Kospoth forced this general to retreat his troops via Biberach to the Galgenberg, where the French left wing between Birkenhard and Stafflangen developed to attack.

On the other wing, three French columns had meanwhile advanced on the streets of Reichenbach and Schussenried and had begun the attack against the Austrian division of Karl Mercandin and Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé. When the corps under Claude Saint-Cyr with a half-brigade from Sattenbeuren swung across the mossy ground, which was considered impenetrable, against Latour's right flank and the other columns also renewed their attack. Latour had to withdraw his center back to the new position at Groth under the protection of the cavalry. The divisions under Prince Conde and Mercandin were pushed back to Ingoldingen and Winterstätten. After Saint-Cyr's troops marched slowly between Muttensweiler and Wattenweiler, Latour forced him back. Latour, at the necessary time to save his artillery park stood there.

General Desaix had meanwhile decided on the left wing to bypass the opposing lines on the Galgenberg via Oberndorf through the valley there towards Biberach. Latour ordered a general retreat, Field Marshal Lieutenant Mercandin had to retreat to Eberhardzell, Prince Conde to Schweinhausen and Ummendorf, and Kospoth's division through Biberach to the other heights of the Riss. The French advanced from Lindeberg, the garrison of the city and the last four battalions of Kospoth were taken prisoner. Appendorf was set on fire during the retreat. Here, as at Rissegg, the fire was kept up into the night.

The troops of Baillet-Latour were defeated after a short battle and left 300 dead and wounded on the battlefield. In addition, they lost 18 cannons and two regimental flags

Aftermath

Desaix followed on the left wing with two divisions along the Danube; the troops under General Saint-Cyr took the route to Pfullendorf and Stockach. A rearguard remained to watch Latour's defeated troops. The troops under Desaix crossed the Danube near Riedlingen and pursued Sigmaringen. From now on the Austrians contented themselves with following the French from a distance without attempting to stop them again. The fighting flared up again in the Battle of Emmendingen on October 19, when Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen caught the French again, after the Battle of Schliengen (October 24), Moreau's troops had to retreat across the Rhine.

References

• Cust, Edward (1859). "Annals of the Wars: 1783–1795, Volume 4". London: Mitchell's Military Library. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
• 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. Vol. 1. Leonaur Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85706-598-8.
• Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011) [1929]. The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I: The Armées du Moselle, du Rhin, de Sambre-et-Meuse, de Rhin-et-Moselle. Vol. 2. Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908692-25-2.
• Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.