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Battle of Mainz 1794

Battle of Mainz: Early flight 02561u
Image: Created/published: Paris : Romanet & Cie., imp. edit.,, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.

Key facts

Year1794Wikidata P580 (start time)
EraEarly modern (1500–1799)derived from year
LocationGermanyNatural Earth (modern borders)
ContinentEuropeNatural Earth
War / conflictWar of the First CoalitionWikidata P361
Coordinates50.0000, 8.2711Wikidata P625

About the battle

The Battle of Mainz (29 October 1795) saw a Habsburg Austrian army led by Field Marshal François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt launch a surprise assault against four divisions belonging to the French Army of Rhin-et-Moselle directed by General of Division François Ignace Schaal. The right-most French division was completely routed and all the French troops were compelled to retreat with the loss of their siege artillery and many casualties. Clerfayt followed up his Rhine campaign of 1795 victory by driving most of General of Division Jean-Charles Pichegru's Army of Rhin-et-Moselle south. The War of the First Coalition action was fought near the city of Mainz in the modern-day state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany.

French troops had ineffectively besieged the western side of Mainz Fortress since December 1794. However, in early September 1795 the General of Division Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's Army of Sambre-et-Meuse crossed the lower Rhine River and advanced south to the Main River. For the first time Mainz was besieged on the east side of the river, but this state of affairs did not last long. After the Battle of Höchst, Clerfayt forced Jourdan's army to retire to the west bank of the Rhine.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Mainz (revision 1370448590), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Location

50.0000, 8.2711 · Germany

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Other battles of the War of the First Coalition

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Further reading