Battle of Wetzlar explained

Conflict:Battle of Wetzlar (1796)
Partof:War of the First Coalition
Date:15 June 1796
Place:Wetzlar, Germany
Result:Austrian victory
Combatant2: Habsburg Austria
Combatant1: Republican France
Commander2: Archduke Charles
Commander1: General Jourdan
Strength2:64,000
Strength1:48,000
Casualties2:Wetzlar: 400
Uckerath: 600
Casualties1:Wetzlar: 500, 7 guns
Uckerath: 3,000
Units2: Army of the Lower Rhine
Units1: Army of Sambre-et-Meuse

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 66km (41miles) 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.

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