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(Redirected from Siege of Mainz (1795)) 1795 battle of the French Revolutionary War

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Battle of Mainz

Part of the War of the First Coalition

Reconnaissance during the French siege of Mainz, 1795

Date	29 October 1795
Location	Mainz, present-day Germany
Result	Austrian victory

Belligerents

First French Republic

Habsburg monarchy

Commanders and leaders

François Schaal

Count of Clerfayt

Strength

33,000

27,000

Casualties and losses

3,000 killed or wounded
1,800 captured
138 cannons lost

1,400 killed or wounded
200 captured

v t e Rhine campaign of 1795
Luxembourg Handschuhsheim Höchst 1st Mannheim Mainz Pfeddersheim 2nd Mannheim

v t e War of the First Coalition (List)
Porrentruy Quiévrain Marquain Verdun Thionville Valmy Lille Mainz Jemappes Sardinia Méribel Martinique Guadeloupe Den Helder Siegburg Altenkirchen Wetzlar Kircheib 1st Kehl Malsch Neresheim Amberg Newfoundland Würzburg Limburg 2nd Kehl Biberach Ireland Fishguard Neuwied Diersheim Flanders campaign Chouannerie Mediterranean campaign War in the Vendée War of the Pyrenees Italian campaigns East Indies Theatre Rhine campaign of 1793–94 Atlantic campaign Rhine campaign of 1795 Rhine campaign of 1796 Italian campaign of 1796-1797 Anglo-Spanish War

War of the First Coalition (List)

The Battle of Mainz (29 October 1795) saw a Habsburg Austrian army led by Field Marshall François Sebastien 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. With Jourdan temporarily out of the picture, Clerfayt fell on Schaal's somewhat isolated corps and drove it away to the south. During this time the commander of the Army of Rhin-et-Moselle, Pichegru was in treasonous contact with France's enemies, perhaps accounting for Austria's success. The next clash was the Battle of Pfeddersheim on 10 November.

The siege was the second time balloon reconnaissance had been used, after the Battle of Fleurus (1794).

People involved

François Sebastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt
Jean Baptiste Kléber
Laurent de Gouvion-Saint-Cyr
Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor
Adam Albert von Neipperg
Antoine Christophe Merlin
Auguste de Marmont
Jean Bernadotte
Franz von Weyrother
Franz Joseph, Marquis de Lusignan
François, marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat
François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers
Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle
Joseph Marie, Count Dessaix
Nicolas-Jacques Conté
Paul Louis Courier
Armée de Mayence
Serbian mercenaries (see: Kočina Krajina Serb rebellion in 1791) under General Major Stephan Bernhard Keglevich did not take part, but were involved as neutral observers (see map below).
Frédéric-César de La Harpe did not take part, but was involved, had a leading role in the creation of the Helvetic Republic.

Military units

54th Infantry Regiment (France) under Colonel Sauvat(?)
Hessian (soldiers) under Colonel Johann Keglevich. He was awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresa in 1798 "for by his own initiative undertaken and successfully a campaign significantly affecting feats of arms, which an officer of honor would may have omitted without blame".

Notes

Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich: Enthaltend die Lebensskizzen der denkwürdigen Personen, welche seit 1750 in den österreichischen Kronländern geboren wurden oder darin gelebt und gewirkt haben, Band 11, Constant von Wurzbach, K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Wien 1864.
Geschichte des 1. Grossherzoglich hessischen Infanterie- (Leibgarde-) Regiments, Ausgabe 115 der Ausgaben 1621–1899, Carl Christian Röder von Diersburg (Freiherr.), E. S. Mittler 1899.
Die reiter-regimenter der k.k.österreichischen armee, Andreas Thürheim (Graf.), F.B. Geitler, 1862.

References

Dodge, Theodore Ayrault (2011). Warfare in the Age of Napoleon: The Revolutionary Wars Against the First Coalition in Northern Europe and the Italian Campaign, 1789-1797. Vol. 1. Leonaur Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85706-598-8.
Jaques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: F-O. Vol. 2. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 618. ISBN 978-0-31333-538-9.
Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011) . The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I: The Armées du Moselle, du Rhin, de Sambre-et-Meuse, de Rhin-et-Moselle. Vol. 2. Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908692-25-2.
Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.
Tucker, Spencer C. (2015). Wars That Changed History: 50 of the World's Greatest Conflicts. ABC-CLIO. p. 265. ISBN 978-1-61069-785-9.

50°00′00″N 8°16′16″E / 50.0000°N 8.2711°E / 50.0000; 8.2711

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