The Battle of the Vosges also known as the Battle of Tripstadt was fought on 13 July 1794 in western France in the Vosges Mountains from which it derives its name. July 13 is the 194th day (195th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 171 days remaining. ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Vosges mountains are range of mountains in central-western Europe, stretching along the west side of the Rhine valley in a NNE direction, from Basel to Mainz, for a distance of 250 km (150 miles). ...

Introduction

By July 1794 the fledgling French Republic had been at war for a little under two years and in that time its fortunes had changed dramatically. Following initial setbacks for the Revolutionaries the war changed in France's favour with the appointment of Lazare Carnot to the post of War Minister (or as the position was formally known - Head of the Committee of Public Safety War Section). Following the introduction of the levée en masse or mass conscription French armies had increased to around 800,000 frontline troops and a grand total of between 1.4 and 1.6 million men under arms. These were divided into 13 principal field armies. 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Lazare Carnot Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot (Nolay, May 13, 1753 - Magdeburg, August 22, 1823) was a French politician and mathematician. ... The Committee of Public Safety (French: comité de salut public), set up by the National Convention on April 6, 1793, formed the de facto executive government of France during the Reign of Terror (1793 - 1794) of the French Revolution. ... Levée en masse (literally Mass uprising) is a French term for mass conscription. ...

The largest of these was the Army of the Rhine which in July 1794 amounted to around 115,000 and was under the command of the unremarkable General Michaud. The Army of the Rhine was deployed along a frontline some 70 kilometres in length and was opposed by an Allied army of around 70,000 Prussians, Austrians and Saxons under the command of Prussian Field Marshal von Möllendorf. Despite the sizeable numerical disparity between the two armies the Allied force held strong defensive positions and elevated terrain. In the approximate centre of the Allied line was the town of Tripstadt on which the ensuing battle would hinge. At 1,320 kilometres (820 miles) and an average discharge of more than 2,000 cubic meters per second, the Rhine (German Rhein, French Rhin, Dutch Rijn, Romansch: Rein, Italian: Reno) is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe. ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (Old Prussian: PrÅ«sa, German: Preußen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: PrÅ«sai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad... The Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen; Sorbian: Swobodny Stata Sakska) is at a land area of 18,413 km² and a population of 4. ...

The battle

On 2 July Michaud launched an attack all along the front. The French army was halted everywhere except on the extreme right where a brilliant young divisional commander, Louis Desaix, successfully pushed back the Allied wing. However this left his division isolated and counter attacks by the Prince of Baden and future victor of Waterloo, von Blücher, reversed his advance whilst inflicting about 1,000 casualties. At the end of the day both armies occupied approximately the same positions as they had at the commencation of hostilities. Louis Charles Antoine Desaix de Veygoux Louis Charles Antoine Desaix de Veygoux (1768 - June 14, 1800), was a French military leader. ... For other uses, see Baden (disambiguation). ... Waterloo The top of the knoll and the famous lion. ... Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (December 16, 1742 in Rostock (Mecklenburg) - September 12, 1819 in Krieblowitz (Silesia) (now Krobielowice in Poland)), Graf (Count), later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian general who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of...

On orders from Carnot, Michaud launched a second offensive on 13 July. On the right of the French line General Gouvion Saint-Cyr, a future Napoleonic marshal, captured the village of Kaiserslautern supported by the artillery of General Desaix's division. In the centre of the battlefield General Taponnier's corps pushed back Prince von Höhenlohe's Prussian corps to Tripstadt whilst on the left the French advance divided the Allied line, thus denying General Kalckreuth the chance to assist Höhenlohe. Laurent, Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Marshal of France Laurent, Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr (April 13, 1764 – March 17, 1830) was a French marshal. ... ... Friedrich Adolf Graf von Kalckreuth (1737-1818), was a Prussian field marshal. ...

An attack on Tripstadt by Taponnier completed a French victory when the Austrians failed to support their Prussian allies. Möllendorf ordered his forces to regroup east of the Rhine on the night of 13-14 July thus ending all Allied presence on the west bank. On the 16th Kalckreuth and Höhenlohe rejoined the bulk of Möllendorf's army, but no attempt to salvage the situation was made until September when Höhenlohe successfully caught Michaud off-guard. This later success however was not followed up and the complacency of both forces led to stagnation of the front. Friedrich Adolf Graf von Kalckreuth (1737-1818), was a Prussian field marshal. ...