Battle of Stockach (1799)

The Army of the Danube advanced on Pfullendorf and Ostrach, the former an imperial city in Upper (southern) Swabia, and the latter a nearby village of 300 belonging to the Imperial Abbey of Salem, an influential and wealthy ecclesiastical territory on Lake Constance. Jourdan's objective was simple and direct: cut the Austrian line at the border of the southwestern German states and Switzerland, preventing the Coalition's use of Switzerland as an overland route between central and southern Europe.[12] Isolation of the two theaters would prevent the Austrians from assisting one another; furthermore, if the French held the interior passes in Switzerland, they could use these routes to move their own forces between the two theaters.[13]

Stretching between the Pfullendorf heights and the village lies a flat, wide plain, marshy in places, ringed with low-lying hills, and creased with a small tributary stream from which the village takes its name.[14] Ostrach itself lies almost at the northern end of this plain, but slightly south of the Danube itself. By 7 March, the first French forces arrived there, and the Austrians arrived a day or so later. Over the following week, additional forces for both sides arrived, and the two armies faced each other across this valley.[15]

The French army extended in a long line from the Danube to Lake Constance. The Third Division, commanded by Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, positioned itself at the far left flank, and Dominique Vandamme's detached force, returning from reconnaissance near Stuttgart, roamed on the north shore of the river.[16] François Joseph Lefebvre commanded the Advance Guard, positioned on the slope below Pfullendorf, and Joseph Souham, with the Second Division, took position behind him. Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino's First Division held the southernmost flank, to defend against any encirclement by Charles' force. Jourdan set up command at Pfullendorf, and the Cavalry Reeserve, commanded by Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul, stood slightly to the north and west of Souham.[17]

By late on the 19th, Austrian and French soldiers had been skirmishing at outposts for more than 30 hours, with the action growing increasingly intense. In the early hours of the 21st, General Lefebvre informed Jourdan that the Austrians were attacking all his positions, and that the general engagement would begin shortly. After 24 hours of fighting, Austrian forces pushed Lefebvre and Saint Cyr's troops back to the Pfullendorf heights. Although sappers blew up the primary bridge over the Ostrach river, the Austrians managed to ford the stream anyway. They nearly outflanked General Saint Cyr's forces on the right flank, did outflank Lefebvre's forces in the center, and cut off a portion of the southern flank from the main body. Saint Cyr's troops barely managed to pull back before being fully cut off. Finally, General Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze, marching north with 10,000 men, from Feldkirch, threatened Ferino's First Division from the south.[18]

On 21 March, at 2200, Jourdan ordered the wounded to be transported to Schaffhausen in Switzerland, via Stockach. The main army then began its own retreat in the early morning of the 22nd. The reserve division of d'Hautpoul left first, and pulled back via Stockach to Emmengen ob Eck. The first division pulled back to Bodman, on the northern tip of the Überlingen-finger of Lake Constance; in the retreat, a portion of the force was encircled and cut off by the 2nd Lancers of Karl Philipp, Prince Schwarzenberg's brigade, and more than 500 were taken prisoner.[19]

By 23 March, Jourdan had his headquarters in the vicinity of Stockach. He had recalled Barthélemy Ferino from the far right flank; Ferino had retreated along the coast of the Überlingen Lake, the northwestern finger of Lake Constance, to be in position at the close right flank, adjacent to Souham's division. Lefebvre, wounded at Ostrach, was unable to take the field himself, and Laurent Saint Cyr commanded the left flank. When Jourdan considered his position, he felt it too extended, so he drew back further behind Stockach, toward Engen, where he could concentrate his force. The first division camped near the Hohentwiel, the 11th-century fortress overlooking the marshes at the westernmost point of the Lake Constance. The second division, the advanced guard, and a cavalry division were camped on the heights above Engen. The third division was camped by Leibtengen (Liptingen, the French called it), and Neuhausen. Vandamme and his small corps worked themselves discreetly into a position behind the Austrian right flank. Jourdan established his headquarters at Engen.[21]

French and Austrian troops concentrated their forces in the vicinity of Stockach on 25 March 1799.

The plan was straightforward: Vandamme and Saint Cyr would make a simultaneous attack on the Austrian right, and Soult's and Jourdan's main force would attack the Austrian center and left. Jourdan's plan, to attack four points of the opposition simultaneously, seemed to him to be the only reasonable action against a force with such numerical superiority.[22]

The Habsburg center columns included 17,000 men under the command of field marshal Friedrich Joseph, Count of Nauendorf, formed into three columns and approaching from the north east. The main force, under the command of the Archduke Charles, included 53,000 men, also in three columns; in the main force, Charles had under his command the princes of Anhalt and Fürstenberg plus six battalions in a fourth column, north of the main column, but south of Nauendorf's command. An additional force of 13,000 troops under the command of Lieutenant Field Marshal Anton Count Sztáray formed the southern flank.[23]

The general engagement on 25 March was brutal and bloody.[24] Before daybreak, at close to 0500, Saint Cyr opened by sending his forces in a headlong attack on the Austrian right, coordinated with Souham and Ferino's assault on the Austrian left. The ferocious attack forced the Austrians out of the woods in which they had been positioned overnight, and down the road to the village of Schwandorf. Fearing that his forces would be flanked, Charles directed some reinforcements to back up General Mervelt's force on the Austrian right, six squadrons of lancers of the First Regiment.[25] At this point, Vandamme's small corps, which had moved into position in the night of 24 March, attacked from the rear. Saint Cyr's forces had taken hold of the woods outside Stockach, named by the Austrians as the gruesome wood,[26] with the conflict there described as "obstinate and bloody."[27] The Archduke himself arrived with six battalions of Hungarian grenadiers and twelve squadrons of cuirassiers and led them into the fight.[28] His grenadiers, experienced and battle-hardened, objected to his exposure and one actually grabbed the bridle of Charles' horse, to stop him. As the archduke prepared to dismount and lead his men on foot, Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg stepped forward to volunteer, reportedly stating that he would die first, before allowing the archduke to put himself in such danger. As Karl Aloys Fürstenberg led the hussars and grenadiers into a counter-attack, he was hit by French case shot and killed. Archduke Charles eventually did lead his grenadiers, and the French momentum was not only arrested, but reversed. The Prince of Anhalt was also killed in the battle.[29] Saint Cyr made no progress until Vandamme's assault, but both withered under the Archduke's response.[30] In the melee, Claude Juste Alexandre Legrand, a general of brigade of Saint Cyr's III. Division, lost both his brother at his side, and his aide-de-camp, and Jourdan himself had barely escaped being trampled to death or captured, as he tried to rally his own troops.[31] The superior number of Austrians stalled the main French assault on the Habsburg center.[32]

At the French right flank, General Ferino attempted to push the Austrians back, first with a cannonade, followed by an attack through the woods on both sides of the road between Asch and Stockach. Two columns made two attacks, both of which were repulsed; finally, Ferino added his third column to the assault, which resulted in the Austrian reformation of the line, cannons at the center firing a heavy cannonade. Ferino could not respond because he had run out of artillery ammunition. The French fixed bayonets and charged the village of Wahlwies, successfully taking it, but they were unable to hold it in the night, and subsequently fell back.[33]

On the evening of 26 March, Jourdan arranged for the abandonment of the positions in Engen and Stockach.[34] Saint Cyr had already withdrawn along the Danube, after his and Vandamme's assaults on the Austrian right failed, and was working his way west toward the Black Forest. Inexplicably, at least at the time, the Austrians failed to pursue the retreating French; instead of pursuing the French, Charles ordered his army into cantonments at Stockach and Engen, as far south as Wahlweiss. The Aulic Council, in establishing a plan of battle, had forbidden his approach to the Rhine until Switzerland was also cleared of the French army; Charles simply held his ground.[35]

By 31 March, the Army of the Danube established itself in Neustadt, Freiburg im Breisgau, Freudenstadt and Schiltach. Jourdan set up his command headquarters at Hornberg. The cavalry could not find enough forage in the mountains, and were sent to Offenburg.[36]