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Battle of Amsteg
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Battle of Amsteg
The Battle of Amsteg (14–16 August 1799) saw a Republican French division under General of Division Claude Lecourbe face a brigade of Habsburg Austrian soldiers led by General-major Joseph Anton von Simbschen. Lecourbe's offensive began on 14 August when six columns of French infantry advanced on the upper Reuss valley from the north and east. By 16 August, Lecourbe's forces had driven Simbschen's Austrians from the valley and seized control of the strategic Gotthard Pass between Italy and Switzerland.
On 4 June, the First Battle of Zurich was fought between André Masséna's French Army of Helvetia and an Austrian army led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. After the battle, Massena relinquished Zürich and retreated to a strong defensive position to the west of the city. At about the same time, the French commander ordered Lecourbe to abandon the Gotthard Pass and pull back to Lucerne. In August, Masséna had second thoughts and wanted Lecourbe to recapture the Gotthard Pass. The French commander feared an Austro-Russian stroke from Italy across the pass, so he ordered an offensive to occupy the area. Louis Marie Turreau's division advanced northeast from the Canton of Valais in support of Lecourbe. Masséna sent the divisions of Jean-de-Dieu Soult and Joseph Chabran to attack other Austrian positions in order to prevent Archduke Charles from interfering with Lecourbe's main operation. At the end of September 1799, Alexander Suvorov's Russian army had to retake the pass in the Battle of Gotthard Pass.
Lecourbe's Engadine campaign began with a victory on 12 March 1799 at La Punt Chamues-ch. By 2 May Lecourbe was back at La Punt and on 13 May he arrived at Bellinzona, having completely abandoned the Engadine. At the end of April, a rebellion broke out among the Swiss in the Cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. Since this insurrection cut his communications with Lecourbe and his right wing, Massena sent Soult to suppress it. Promising clemency, Soult managed to get the rebels in Schwyz to disperse. He acted more vigorously to drive the insurgents out of the upper Reuss valley, by storming their trenches at Flüelen and again at Wassen on 11 May. Soult seized the Teufelsbrücke (Devil's Bridge) in Schöllenen Gorge before the rebels could break it down and overran the insurgent position at the Gotthard Pass. On 15 May, his troops met soldiers of Michel Ney's brigade of Lecourbe's division at Faido on the upper Ticino River.
Consolidating his position, Masséna ordered Lecourbe to pull back. On 21 May 1799 he began withdrawing from Bellinzona across the Gotthard Pass. By 24 May, Lecourbe was at Altdorf on the upper Reuss. Promoted to general of division, Ney soon transferred out of Lecourbe's division. On the Allied side, Heinrich von Bellegarde's Austrian corps marched from the upper Rhine valley south via Lake Como to Alessandria which it reached on 8 June. To replace these troops, the Allied commander-in-chief in Italy, Suvorov ordered Karl Joseph Hadik von Futak and 16 battalions to the north and the leading formations began moving across the Gotthard Pass on 27 May. Two days later, Franz Xaver Saint-Julien with 6,300 Austrian soldiers defeated Louis Henri Loison and 3,300 French troops in the Urseren valley. The Austrians inflicted 664 casualties on their foes while losing only 200. On 31 May, Lecourbe with 8,000 troops turned the tables on Saint-Julien at Wassen. On 2 June, Lecourbe drove Saint-Julien back across the Devil's Bridge, which the Austrians broke down. Two battalions of Austrians were cut off and forced to surrender. According to orders, Lecourbe now evacuated the upper Reuss valley and withdrew to Lucerne.
On 4 June, Archduke Charles commanding 53,000 Austrians attacked Masséna who led 45,000 French in the First Battle of Zurich. The victorious Austrians suffered heavier losses, 730 killed, 1,470 wounded, and 2,200 captured, while the French lost 500 killed, 800 wounded, and 300 captured. Another authority stated that the Austrians lost 2,000 killed and wounded plus 1,200 captured while the French sustained over 1,200 casualties. On 4 June, the Austrians broke into the French position but were driven out by a ferocious counterattack. However, Masséna conceded defeat by withdrawing from Zürich to a stronger position west of the city on the night of 5 June.
At this time Masséna's Army of Helvetia was arranged as follows. Lecourbe's 1st Division (11,279 men) was on the right flank at Lucerne and Chabran's 2nd Division held the line between Lucerne and the Albis Hills west of Zürich. Soult's 3rd Division (6,986) held the Albis Hills with Jean Thomas Guillaume Lorge's 4th Division (9,040) to its left. Jean Victor Tharreau's 5th Division (9,046) held the line of the Limmat River from Baden to Böttstein. François Goullus' 6th Division (5,753) guarded the line of the Aare River down to the Rhine River and Joseph Souham's 7th Division (10,059) defended the Rhine down to Basel. The 6th and 7th Divisions were directed by Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino. The Reserve under Jean Joseph Amable Humbert (4,527) was at Mellingen southwest of Baden and the Cavalry Reserve under Louis Klein was at Geneva and other places in the rear. The Interior Division under Louis-Antoine Choin de Montchoisy (3,170) occupied Bern and the Valais Division under Turreau (7,561) held the Great St Bernard Pass and the Canton of Valais. Masséna's force counted 76,781 troops, but only 59,000 were available for field service. Technically under Massena were the divisions of Claude Juste Alexandre Legrand (6,186) and Claude-Sylvestre Colaud (5,106) guarding the Rhine north of Basel. Earlier, Masséna suggested that Legrand and Colaud be formed into a separate Army of the Rhine but this was not acted on until 2 July 1799.
According to various estimates, Archduke Charles led between 61,000 and 85,000 Austrians. One estimate gave him 54,000 infantry and 18,000 cavalry. Perhaps 20,000 were north and east of the Rhine watching Legrand, Colaud, and Ferino. Gottfried von Strauch's brigade occupied the Gotthard Pass, the Furka Pass to its west, and the Grimsel Pass farther west which leads north into the Aare valley. Karl von Bey's brigade held the upper Reuss valley. Charles established a flotilla on Lake Zurich under the command of James Ernest Williams. Charles told British agent William Wickham that his army could probably drive the French from their positions before Zürich, but it would cost his troops so many casualties that he would be unable to exploit the victory. Charles planned to wait for Alexander Korsakov and his approaching Russian army to join him. During the stalemate, the Austrians grew careless of security, even to the extent of inviting French musicians to play at their dances in Zürich.
Unknown to the French and even to the Austrian and Russian army commanders, Allied strategists were on the verge of making a colossal strategic blunder. In 1799, William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville was British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs under Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. Grenville concocted a scheme whereby Korsakov with 45,000 Russians would be joined by Suvorov with 20,000 Russians from Italy. Suvorov would take command of the combined army and drive the French from Switzerland. In the second phase, Suvorov would thrust into Franche-Comté, an area of France weakly defended by frontier fortresses. Meanwhile, Archduke Charles would move north into Germany, leaving 18,000 Austrians under Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze to cooperate with the Russians. Charles and 60,000 troops would strike across the lower Rhine from Germany into France. Far to the north, a joint Anglo-Russian army would invade the Batavian Republic, a satellite of France. The plan was sent on 8 June to Emperor Paul I of Russia, who approved it. Emperor Francis and his foreign minister Johann Amadeus von Thugut endorsed the plan because it came to them via Emperor Paul and it was a good excuse to get Suvorov out of Italy.
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Battle of Amsteg
The Battle of Amsteg (14–16 August 1799) saw a Republican French division under General of Division Claude Lecourbe face a brigade of Habsburg Austrian soldiers led by General-major Joseph Anton von Simbschen. Lecourbe's offensive began on 14 August when six columns of French infantry advanced on the upper Reuss valley from the north and east. By 16 August, Lecourbe's forces had driven Simbschen's Austrians from the valley and seized control of the strategic Gotthard Pass between Italy and Switzerland.
On 4 June, the First Battle of Zurich was fought between André Masséna's French Army of Helvetia and an Austrian army led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. After the battle, Massena relinquished Zürich and retreated to a strong defensive position to the west of the city. At about the same time, the French commander ordered Lecourbe to abandon the Gotthard Pass and pull back to Lucerne. In August, Masséna had second thoughts and wanted Lecourbe to recapture the Gotthard Pass. The French commander feared an Austro-Russian stroke from Italy across the pass, so he ordered an offensive to occupy the area. Louis Marie Turreau's division advanced northeast from the Canton of Valais in support of Lecourbe. Masséna sent the divisions of Jean-de-Dieu Soult and Joseph Chabran to attack other Austrian positions in order to prevent Archduke Charles from interfering with Lecourbe's main operation. At the end of September 1799, Alexander Suvorov's Russian army had to retake the pass in the Battle of Gotthard Pass.
Lecourbe's Engadine campaign began with a victory on 12 March 1799 at La Punt Chamues-ch. By 2 May Lecourbe was back at La Punt and on 13 May he arrived at Bellinzona, having completely abandoned the Engadine. At the end of April, a rebellion broke out among the Swiss in the Cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. Since this insurrection cut his communications with Lecourbe and his right wing, Massena sent Soult to suppress it. Promising clemency, Soult managed to get the rebels in Schwyz to disperse. He acted more vigorously to drive the insurgents out of the upper Reuss valley, by storming their trenches at Flüelen and again at Wassen on 11 May. Soult seized the Teufelsbrücke (Devil's Bridge) in Schöllenen Gorge before the rebels could break it down and overran the insurgent position at the Gotthard Pass. On 15 May, his troops met soldiers of Michel Ney's brigade of Lecourbe's division at Faido on the upper Ticino River.
Consolidating his position, Masséna ordered Lecourbe to pull back. On 21 May 1799 he began withdrawing from Bellinzona across the Gotthard Pass. By 24 May, Lecourbe was at Altdorf on the upper Reuss. Promoted to general of division, Ney soon transferred out of Lecourbe's division. On the Allied side, Heinrich von Bellegarde's Austrian corps marched from the upper Rhine valley south via Lake Como to Alessandria which it reached on 8 June. To replace these troops, the Allied commander-in-chief in Italy, Suvorov ordered Karl Joseph Hadik von Futak and 16 battalions to the north and the leading formations began moving across the Gotthard Pass on 27 May. Two days later, Franz Xaver Saint-Julien with 6,300 Austrian soldiers defeated Louis Henri Loison and 3,300 French troops in the Urseren valley. The Austrians inflicted 664 casualties on their foes while losing only 200. On 31 May, Lecourbe with 8,000 troops turned the tables on Saint-Julien at Wassen. On 2 June, Lecourbe drove Saint-Julien back across the Devil's Bridge, which the Austrians broke down. Two battalions of Austrians were cut off and forced to surrender. According to orders, Lecourbe now evacuated the upper Reuss valley and withdrew to Lucerne.
On 4 June, Archduke Charles commanding 53,000 Austrians attacked Masséna who led 45,000 French in the First Battle of Zurich. The victorious Austrians suffered heavier losses, 730 killed, 1,470 wounded, and 2,200 captured, while the French lost 500 killed, 800 wounded, and 300 captured. Another authority stated that the Austrians lost 2,000 killed and wounded plus 1,200 captured while the French sustained over 1,200 casualties. On 4 June, the Austrians broke into the French position but were driven out by a ferocious counterattack. However, Masséna conceded defeat by withdrawing from Zürich to a stronger position west of the city on the night of 5 June.
At this time Masséna's Army of Helvetia was arranged as follows. Lecourbe's 1st Division (11,279 men) was on the right flank at Lucerne and Chabran's 2nd Division held the line between Lucerne and the Albis Hills west of Zürich. Soult's 3rd Division (6,986) held the Albis Hills with Jean Thomas Guillaume Lorge's 4th Division (9,040) to its left. Jean Victor Tharreau's 5th Division (9,046) held the line of the Limmat River from Baden to Böttstein. François Goullus' 6th Division (5,753) guarded the line of the Aare River down to the Rhine River and Joseph Souham's 7th Division (10,059) defended the Rhine down to Basel. The 6th and 7th Divisions were directed by Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino. The Reserve under Jean Joseph Amable Humbert (4,527) was at Mellingen southwest of Baden and the Cavalry Reserve under Louis Klein was at Geneva and other places in the rear. The Interior Division under Louis-Antoine Choin de Montchoisy (3,170) occupied Bern and the Valais Division under Turreau (7,561) held the Great St Bernard Pass and the Canton of Valais. Masséna's force counted 76,781 troops, but only 59,000 were available for field service. Technically under Massena were the divisions of Claude Juste Alexandre Legrand (6,186) and Claude-Sylvestre Colaud (5,106) guarding the Rhine north of Basel. Earlier, Masséna suggested that Legrand and Colaud be formed into a separate Army of the Rhine but this was not acted on until 2 July 1799.
According to various estimates, Archduke Charles led between 61,000 and 85,000 Austrians. One estimate gave him 54,000 infantry and 18,000 cavalry. Perhaps 20,000 were north and east of the Rhine watching Legrand, Colaud, and Ferino. Gottfried von Strauch's brigade occupied the Gotthard Pass, the Furka Pass to its west, and the Grimsel Pass farther west which leads north into the Aare valley. Karl von Bey's brigade held the upper Reuss valley. Charles established a flotilla on Lake Zurich under the command of James Ernest Williams. Charles told British agent William Wickham that his army could probably drive the French from their positions before Zürich, but it would cost his troops so many casualties that he would be unable to exploit the victory. Charles planned to wait for Alexander Korsakov and his approaching Russian army to join him. During the stalemate, the Austrians grew careless of security, even to the extent of inviting French musicians to play at their dances in Zürich.
Unknown to the French and even to the Austrian and Russian army commanders, Allied strategists were on the verge of making a colossal strategic blunder. In 1799, William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville was British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs under Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. Grenville concocted a scheme whereby Korsakov with 45,000 Russians would be joined by Suvorov with 20,000 Russians from Italy. Suvorov would take command of the combined army and drive the French from Switzerland. In the second phase, Suvorov would thrust into Franche-Comté, an area of France weakly defended by frontier fortresses. Meanwhile, Archduke Charles would move north into Germany, leaving 18,000 Austrians under Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze to cooperate with the Russians. Charles and 60,000 troops would strike across the lower Rhine from Germany into France. Far to the north, a joint Anglo-Russian army would invade the Batavian Republic, a satellite of France. The plan was sent on 8 June to Emperor Paul I of Russia, who approved it. Emperor Francis and his foreign minister Johann Amadeus von Thugut endorsed the plan because it came to them via Emperor Paul and it was a good excuse to get Suvorov out of Italy.
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