Battle of Rastatt (1796)

Battle of Rastatt
Date 5 July 1796 Location Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, present-day Germany Result French victory
Belligerents
French Republic	Habsburg Austria
Commanders and leaders
Jean Moreau Louis Desaix	Count Latour
Units involved
Army of Rhin-et-Moselle	Army of the Upper Rhine
Strength
20,500	6,000
Casualties and losses
unknown	200, 3 guns

The Battle of Rastatt (5 July 1796) saw part of a Republican French army under Jean Victor Marie Moreau clash with elements of a Habsburg Austrian army under Maximilian Anton Karl, Count Baillet de Latour which were defending the line of the Murg River. Leading a wing of Moreau's army, Louis Desaix attacked the Austrians and drove them back to the Alb River in the War of the First Coalition action. Rastatt is a city in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany, located 89 kilometres (55 mi) south of Mannheim and 94 kilometres (58 mi) west of Stuttgart.

In the Rhine Campaign of 1796, Moreau's army made a successful assault crossing of the Rhine River at Kehl on 24 June. Moreau expanded his bridgehead, sending Desaix north, Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr east and Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino south. The French won a clash over Anton Sztáray at Renchen on the 28th before moving against Latour at Rastatt. Soon afterward, Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen joined Latour with reinforcements from the north. The Battle of Ettlingen on 9 July determined whether Moreau would continue his invasion of Germany.

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. USA: Leonaur Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85706-598-8.
• Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011). The Armies of the First French Republic: Volume II The Armées du Moselle, du Rhin, de Sambre-et-Meuse, de Rhin-et-Moselle. USA: Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908692-25-2.
• Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.