Battle of Wetzlar 1796
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 15 June 1796 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1796 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Germany | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | War of the First Coalition | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Antoine Richepanse | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 50.5667, 8.5000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
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.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Wetzlar (revision 1370593766), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Nauheim 1762 · 28 km
- Battle of Grünberg 1761 · 32 km
- Battle of Limburg (1792) 1792 · 37 km
- Battle of Limburg (1792) 1793 · 37 km
- Battle of Limburg (1796) 1796 · 37 km
- Battle of Bergen (1759) 1759 · 49 km
Other battles of the War of the First Coalition
- Battle of Höchst (1795) 1795
- Battle of Loano 1795
- Battle of Pfeddersheim (1795) 1795
- Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder 1795
- Invasion of France (1795) 1795
- Battle of Altenkirchen 1796
- Battle of Amberg 1796
- Battle of Bassano 1796
- Battle of Ettlingen 1796
- Battle of Kehl (1796) 1796
All 84 battles of the War of the First Coalition →
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