Battle of Schliengen
Schliengen was a strategically important location for the armies of both Republican France and Habsburg Austria. The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle and the Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles of Austria both claimed victories. Although the French and the Austrians claimed victory at the time, military historians generally agree that theAustrians achieved a strategic advantage.
About Battle of Schliengen in brief
During the French Revolutionary Wars, Schliengen was a strategically important location for the armies of both Republican France and Habsburg Austria. The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle and the Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles of Austria both claimed victories. Although the French and the Austrians claimed victory at the time, military historians generally agree that theAustrians achieved a strategic advantage. The battle is commemorated on a monument in Vienna and on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The Rhine Campaign of 1795 proved especially disastrous for the French, although they had achieved some success in other theaters of war. The armies of the First Coalition included the imperial contingents and the infantry and cavalry of the various states, amounting to about 125,000, a sizable force by eighteenth century standards but a moderate force by the standards of the Revolutionary wars. In total, though, the commander-in-chief Archdukes Charles’ troops stretched from Switzerland to the North Sea and Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser’s, from the Swiss-Italian border to the Adriatic coast. The bulk of the army, but the thin white line of Habsatic infantry could not resist the cover of the territory from Basel to Frankfurt. Compared to the French front that stretched from Renchen to Bingen, Charles had half the number of troops covering a 211-mile front. To his north, Wilhelm von Wartzben’s corps covered the bulk of his force, commanded by Count Baillets Latours between the confluence of theRhine and the Mainstadt, where the most likely attack was to take place.
To the south, Count Karl Karls Latruhe’s corps concentrated the autonomous line between the Main and Darmstadt, and made an attack an likely attack on the Main. For the French Republic, the problems became even more acute following the introduction of mass conscription, the levée en masse, which saturated an already distressed army with thousands of illiterate, untrained men. The position of the revolutionaries became increasingly difficult. Despite some victories in 1792, by early 1793, France was in terrible crisis: French forces had been pushed out of Belgium; also there was revolt in the Vendée over conscription; wide-spread resentment of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy; and the French king had just been executed. A confusion of politics and diplomacy in Vienna wasted any strategic advantage that Charles might have obtained and locked the Hapsburg force into two sieges on the Rhines. The Battle of Schli Engen was held on October 20, 1795, near the border of Baden-Württemberg, the Haut-Rhin, and the Canton of Basel-Stadt. French forces withdrew from the battlefield in good order and several days later crossed the Rhined River at Hüningen. It offered a gateway into eastern German states and ultimately to Vienna, with good bridges with a relatively well-defined bank.
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This page is based on the article Battle of Schliengen published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
