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Battle of Wetzlar (1796)
Part of War of the First Coalition
Date15 June 1796
LocationWetzlar, Germany
Result Austrian victory
Belligerents
Habsburg Monarchy Habsburg Austria France Republican France
Commanders and leaders
Habsburg Monarchy Archduke Charles France General Jourdan
Units involved
Habsburg Monarchy Army of the Lower Rhine France Army of Sambre-et-Meuse
Strength
64,000 48,000
Casualties and losses
Wetzlar: 400
Uckerath: 600
Wetzlar: 500, 7 guns
Uckerath: 3,000



The Battle of Wetzlar (15 June 1796) saw a Habsburg Austrian army led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen launch an attack on a Republican French army under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in its defenses on the Lahn River. The War of the First Coalition action ended in an Austrian victory when most of the French army began retreating to the west bank of the Rhine River. On the 19th the combat of Uckerath was fought as the Austrians pursued the French left wing. Wetzlar is located in the state of Hesse in Germany a distance of 66 kilometres (41 mi) north of Frankfurt.

In the Rhine Campaign of 1796, Jourdan's Army of Sambre-et-Meuse won a foothold on the east bank of the Rhine after defeating its opponents at Altenkirchen on 4 June. This was part of a plan to lure Archduke Charles to the north so that the Army of Rhin-et-Moselle under Jean Victor Marie Moreau could breach the Rhine defenses in the south. The strategy worked as designed. When Charles came north with heavy forces to drive back Jourdan, Moreau successfully mounted an assault crossing of the Rhine at Kehl near Strasbourg.

References[]

Coordinates: 50°34′N 8°30′E / 50.567°N 8.5°E / 50.567; 8.5

All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Battle of Wetzlar (1796) and the edit history here.
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