The Battle of Neuburg occurred on 27 June 1800 in the south German state of Bavaria, on the southern bank of the Danube river. Neuburg is located on the Danube between Ingolstadt and Donauwörth. This battle occurred late in the War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802), the second war between Revolutionary France and the conservative European monarchies, which included at one time or another Britain, Habsburg Austria, Russia (until late 1799), the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), Portugal and Naples. After a series of reverses, several of the allies withdrew from the Coalition. By 1800, Napoleon's military victories in northern Italy challenged Habsburg supremacy there. French victories in the upper Danubian territories opened a route along that river to Vienna.
In a series of battles in what is now southern Germany, the French pushed the combined Austrian and Coalition force back, first capturing Stockach, then Meßkirch, then Biberach. After his loss at Biberach, the Coalition commander Pál Kray withdrew to the fortress at Ulm, leaving detachments to secure the Danube crossings that lay further to the east, at Höchstädt, Blindheim, Donauwörth, and Neuburg. The battle at Neuburg was the last of the Danube campaign for the summer of 1800; the armistice between the Habsburgs and the French was signed a couple of days later and ended in late November, and the French ultimately defeated the Austrians at the battles at Ampfing and Hohenlinden. The heaviest action of the battle occurred in the village of Unterhausen, in the outskirts of Neuburg.
Background
By early 1799, the French Directory had become impatient with stalling tactics employed by Austria. The uprising in Naples raised further alarms, and recent gains in Switzerland suggested the timing was fortuitous to venture on another campaign in northern Italy and southwestern Germany.Timothy Blanning. The French Revolutionary Wars, New York, Oxford University Press. p. 200. At the beginning of 1800, the armies of France and Austria faced each other across the Rhine. Feldzeugmeister Pál Kray led approximately 120,000 troops. In addition to his Austrian regulars, his force included 12,000 men from the Electorate of Bavaria, 6,000 troops from the Duchy of Württemberg, 5,000 soldiers of low quality from the Archbishopric of Mainz, and 7,000 militiamen from the County of Tyrol. Of these, 25,000 men were deployed east of Lake Constance (Bodensee) to protect the Vorarlberg. Kray posted his main body of 95,000 soldiers in the L-shaped angle where the Rhine changes direction from a westward flow along the northern border of Switzerland to a northward flow along the eastern border of France. Unwisely, Kray set up his main magazine at Stockach, near the northwestern end of Lake Constance, only a day's march from French-held Switzerland.James R. Arnold, Marengo & Hohenlinden. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword, 2005, pp. 197–199.
Strategic importance of Danube Valley
The French war goal, to occupy Vienna and force the Habsburgs to accept and comply with peace terms established in 1798, required a double-pronged invasion through northern Italy, which First Consul Napoleon commanded, and through southern Germany, a campaign that fell to Moreau. To secure access into Bavaria and, eventually, to Vienna, the French needed to control the Danube riverway. This was not a new tactic: The stretch of river between Ulm and Neuburg had been the site of major battles of the Thirty Years' War and War of the Spanish Succession. Between Ulm and Ingolstadt, the Danube grows significantly in volume, making it a wide and swift waterway. The Iller joins the Danube at Ulm, dumping massive amounts of water into the stream; at Donauwörth, the Lech enters the Danube. Neuburg, the first significant city on the river after Donauwörth, had been the family seat of the princes of Pfalz-Neuburg; taking it from a princely family of the Holy Roman Empire would be a blow to the morale and prestige of the Habsburgs, whose role it was to protect the small princely domains. Control of the bridges and passages between Ulm and Donauwörth, Neuburg, then Ingolstadt offered an advantage of both transport and prestige.Andrew Beattie, The Danube: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 29–33.
Preliminary to battle
After withdrawing from Biberach, Kray waited at Ulm for Moreau's assault, which did not come. Instead of striking directly at the well-fortified and supplied city, Moreau's first division, approaching Ulm from the south, suddenly veered to the east and struck at the smaller forces posted between Ulm and Donauwörth.David Eggenberger, "Höchstädt II", An Encyclopedia of Battles, Dover Publications, 2014, p. 193. Its commander, Claude Lecourbe, secured posts in Landsberg and Augsburg, and left sufficient rearguard troops to protect himself from Prince Reuss-Plauen, who remained in the Tyrol guarding mountain access to Vienna. Lecourbe then approached Dettingen, Blindheim (Blenheim) and Höchstädt. The corps of General Paul Grenier had been posted with its right flank to the Danube and Gunzburg, and their left flank at Kinsdorf. General Richepanse protected both shores of the Iller, covering the road from Ulm south to Memmingen, and secured communication with Switzerland; there, he withstood considerable skirmishing with the Austrians. Three divisions of reserve remained at the hamlets of Kamlack and Mindel, to support an attack made by General Lecourbe on Ulm, in a case it should succeed, or Grenier's attack upon Günzburg, in case Lecourbe should not succeed. At the battle at Höchstädt, a full Austrian corps maintained possession until dislodged by repeated attacks of carabiniers, cuirassiers and hussars, who took about 2,000 of the Austrians and Württembergers as prisoners, along with some cannons and standards.Willem Lodewyk Van-Es, The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte ...: With a Concise History of the Events W. Day, 1810 – France, pp. 31–35. Once Höchstädt and its nearby bridges fell on 19 June, the French controlled the Danube crossings between Ulm and Donauwörth. Kray abandoned Ulm, and withdrew further downstream. The next French target would be Neuburg.Digby Smith, Smith, Napoleonic Wars Databook. London: Greenhill Press, 1998, p. 178.
Orders of battle
French
The exact order of battle of French forces is not clear, but contemporary sources suggest the presence of a portion of General Claude Lecourbe's Corps of 28,368, including the forces of generals Laval, Molitor, Jardon, and Vandamme.Smith, p. 177. This is also confirmed in an extract of Moreau's dispatch to the French Minister of War, published in the London Chronicle, 10 June 1800. "The 6th Chasseurs, 13th Cavalry, 4th Hussars and 11th Chasseurs distinguished themselves in this affair. The rest of the division, and that of [Lecourbe], passed rapidly [along] the Danube...General Grenier was equally well prepared."Van Es, Life of Napoleon... Extract of a letter from Gen. Moreau to the Minister of War, Neresheim, June 20. In addition, the presence (and death) of Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne, the First Grenadier of France, suggests that the grenadier company of the 46th Demi-brigade infantry de ligne was at least engaged.Mathieu Dumas, Memoirs of his own time: including the revolution, the empire, and the restoration, Volume 2, Lee and Blanchard, 1839, p. 105. In addition, General Espagne's 37th and 84th Regiments were engaged, as were grenadiers the 109th Regiment. Lecourbe mentions the 37th and the 109th several times in his own account of the battle,J. Macgowan, The Field of Mars, 1801, un-numbered pages. Battlefields listed alphabetically. so apparently they were heavily engaged: this would include the brigades of François Goullus and François Bontemps.Smith, 177–178.
Lecourbe's Division, Armée du Danube Lecourbe's division was reformed in April 1800 while still in Switzerland. After the Battle of Messkirch, both Gouvion Saint-Cyr and Sainte-Suzanne had retired to the Rhine, taking many of their forces with them. Consequently, Moreau had assigned had the cavalry commanded by Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul to reinforce Lecourbe's division.Adolphe Thiers, translated by J. Stapleton. Thiers' History of the consulate, and empire of Napoleon, London : Houlston & Stoneman, [1845?], , p. 144. Based on the mentions in the dispatches and Lecourbe's reconstituted division, portions of the following probably were either present or available: General of Division Dominique Vandamme, Generals of Brigade Jardon, Laval, Molitor: First Demi-Brigade de Légère The French Army designated two kinds of infantry: d'infanterie légère, or light infantry, to provide skirmishing cover for the troops that followed, principally d’infanterie de ligne, which fought in tight formations. 36th 83rd, 94th Demi-Brigades de Ligne 8th Hussar Regiment Total 9,963 infantry, 540 cavalry Generals of Brigade François Goullus and François Bontemps 10th Demi-Brigade de Légère 37th, 84th 109th Demi-Brigades de Ligne 36th 93rd, 94th Regiments de Ligne 9th Hussars Total 8,238 infantry, 464 cavalry General of Division Montrichard and General of Brigade Joseph Augustin Fournier 10th Demi-Brigade de Légère 38th, 67th Regiments de Ligne Total 6,998 General of Division Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty Combined Grenadiers, 25th Cavalry, 11th Dragoons, 12th Chàsseurs Total 1,500 infantry, 1,280 cavalry
Austrian The Austrian force included:Smith, pp. 187–88. FZM Baron von Kray, Commanding Infanterie Regiments Wenkheim #35, Erbach # 42 (battalions each) Kür Regiment Lothringen #7, Hohenzollern # 8, Kinsky #12 (6 squadrons each) Dragoon Regiment Latour #11 (6 squadrons)
Total Austrian force: 8,000 men.
Battle
On 26 June 1800, Kray's force held the remaining passages across the Danube between Neuburg and Inglostadt. On that morning, the divisions of Gudin and Montrichard marched toward the junction of the Danube and Lech rivers from Donauwörth. General Gudin's division followed a southward track toward Pöttmes and established a line north to Ehekirchen, approximately (roughly along what is now road 2035). Montrichard's division, the 10th Demi-Brigade de Légère and the 38th and 67th Regiments de Ligne marched toward Neuburg, which he was instructed to occupy with his right wing connecting to Gudin's and covered the road between Augsburg and Neuburg. Gudin's division encountered some resistance before it could take possession of Pöttmes, but succeeded with several charges executed by the 6th and 8th Hussars, who also captured 100 horses from the Austrians. General Puthed, who commanded the brigade on General Gudin's left, took control of Ehekirchen with little opposition.The Field of Mars
General Montrichard's division approached Neuburg on the causeway that ran parallel to the river and took possession of the outskirts of the city with little problem. Kray's troops, joined with Prince Reuss-Plauen and emerged from Neuburg to defend the outskirts. Both Austrian forces were unprepared for battle at the moment, which allowed Montrichard's troops to penetrate within four miles of the city with little opposition. Espagne's brigade supported the advance guard, and after a brief action took the heights of Oberhausen with the 37th and the 84th Regiments. By early afternoon, the Austrians had recovered the village of Niederhausen, but the village of Unterhausen remained in French hands, defended by 100 marksmen, portions of the 37th Regiment and the 1st company of grenadiers of the 109th regiment.