Siege of Hüningen

The Siege of Hüningen (Fr: Huningue) occurred from 27 November 1796 to 1 February 1797, resulting in the Austrian capture of the city from the French. Hüningen is located in the eastern French province of Alsace-Lorraine on the west bank of the Rhine river. It is approximately 4 km north of the Swiss city of Basel.

Background to 1796 siege
At the end of the Rhine Campaign of 1795 the two sides called a truce. This accord lasted until 20 May 1796 when the Austrians announced that it would end on 31 May. The Army of the Lower Rhine was commanded by the 25-year old Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen and counted 90,000 troops. The 20,000-man right wing under Duke Ferdinand Frederick Augustus of Württemberg was on the east bank of the Rhine behind the Sieg River observing the French bridgehead at Düsseldorf. The garrisons of Mainz Fortress and Ehrenbreitstein Fortress counted 10,000 more. The remainder of Charles' army was posted on the west bank behind the Nahe River. Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser led the 80,000-strong Army of the Upper Rhine. Its right wing occupied Kaiserslautern on the west bank while the left wing under Anton Sztáray, Michael von Fröhlich and Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé guarded the Rhine from Mannheim to Switzerland. The original Austrian strategy was to capture Trier and to use their position on the west bank to strike at each of the French armies in turn. However, Wurmser was sent to Italy with 25,000 reinforcements after news arrived of Bonaparte's early successes. In the new situation, the Aulic Council gave Archduke Charles command over both Austrian armies and ordered him to hold his ground.

Initially the Coalition forces achieved several victories at Verdun, Kaiserslautern, Neerwinden, Mainz, Amberg and Würzburg, but in 1795, a series of defeats at the hands of Jean Baptiste Jourdan pushed the Austrian force further east into Germany. Supporting Jourdan's right flank, Jean Victor Moreau even made a daring raid on the Bavarian capital of Munich. By late 1796, however, the theater of war had moved back to the Rhineland, and Austria and France struggled for control of the river and its crossings. After the Battle of Schliengen on 24 October 1796, Moreau escaped with his army into France and offered an armistice to Charles, which Charles was inclined to accept. An armistice would free him to send a portion of his army into Italy, to relieve Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser at besieged Mantua. The Aulic Council in Vienna refused the armistice, so Charles ordered simultaneous sieges at Kehl and Hüningen, moving north with the bulk of his force to conduct the Siege of Kehl, and leaving Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg to besiege the old Vauban fort at Hüningen.

Fortress
Hüningen was wrested from the Holy Roman Empire by Julius Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg in 1634; this transfer was secured by the Treaty of Westphalia, and the town subsequently passed by purchase to Louis XIV. Louis XIV ordered the construction of the fortress by the famous architect of fortifications, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1679–1681) and a bridge was built across the Rhine to an ancillary fortification the island of Augst.

Diplomacy
The sieges of Huningen and Kehl are always tied to the siege at Mantua. Charles argued several times that he should offer terms to the French, and move the larger part of his army south to relieve Mantua. By tying him down at the Rhine, besieging to Vauban fortresses across the river, the Aulic Council effectively sealed the fate of Wurmser's troops in Mantua, which became imperative at the approach of winter. With the failure of Paul Davidovich's and Joseph Alvintzy's relief column to reach their beleaguered comrades, Wurmser hoped still that Alvintzy would cross the Adige and that his efforts to break out of Mantua were futile. After it became clear that Charles was locked into place at Kehl, and Furstenburg at Huningen, Moreau moved 14 Demibrigades to Italy, leaving behind skeleton staffs on the Rhine. In negotiations with Napoleon, General Clark, from the French Directory, proposed an armistice that would last until June 1797. Bonaparte refused any armistice until Mantua surrendered; the Directory had hopes of retaining Huningen and Kehl, and would allow Austria to keep Mantua, which Napoleon flatly refused, believing Mantua the keystone to Habsburg Italy.

Aftermath
Charles captured Kehl on 9 January 1797, after a two-month siege, and Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg took Hüningen on 1 February. While the Austrians besieged the Rhine crossings at Huningen and Kehl, Moreau sent 14 Demi-brigades into Italy to assist in at Mantua. In Mantua, Wurmser surrendered on 2 February 1797, after 16,300 men were killed or died of sickness.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the fortress was besieged from 22 December 1813 until 14 April 1814 by Bavarian troops under the command of General Zoller before the French garrison surrendered.