page_title: Battle of Kaiserslautern
section_title: Prologue
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Kaiserslautern / Prologue
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Général et Baron Français Deutsch: Balthasar Alexis Henri Antoine von Schauenburg (1748-1831),französischer General elsässischer Herkunft.
context_page_description: The Battle of Kaiserslautern saw a Coalition army under Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel oppose a Republican French army led by Lazare Hoche. Three days of conflict resulted in a victory by the Prussians and their Electoral Saxon allies as they turned back repeated French attacks. The War of the First Coalition combat was fought near the city of Kaiserslautern in the modern-day state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, which is located about 60 kilometres west of Mannheim.
  In the First Battle of Wissembourg, the Coalition army of Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser broke through the frontier defenses and drove the French Army of the Rhine south to Strasbourg. In response to this crisis, the French government appointed Hoche to command the Army of the Moselle and Jean-Charles Pichegru to lead the Army of the Rhine, while urging then to relieve the Siege of Landau. In November, Hoche launched an offensive which pressed back the Duke of Brunswick's army to Kaiserslautern. On 28 November, French troops moved on Brunswick's defenses from the north, northwest and west, but for two days the Coalition army fended off the piecemeal attacks of their adversaries.
context_section_description: The 36,850-man Coalition army of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick successfully concluded the Siege of Mainz on 23 July 1793. The French garrison of 18,675 men surrendered and was released on the promise of not fighting the Coalition for one year. The French government immediately sent the released troops to fight in the internal War in the Vendée. During the siege, the French suffered approximately 4,000 casualties while the Coalition lost about 3,000. The 60,000-strong Army of the Rhine under Alexandre de Beauharnais and the 40,000-strong Army of the Moselle under Jean Nicolas Houchard were poised to march to the relief of Mainz. However, Beauharnais had not informed the Mainz garrison that help was on the way and then took too long to start his movement. After the fall of Mainz, both French armies retreated, the Army of the Rhine to Wissembourg and the Army of the Moselle to the Saar River. Blamed for the loss of Mainz, Beauharnais fell into a funk, begged to be relieved of command and on 23 August 1793 he was replaced by Charles-Hyacinthe Le Clerc de Landremont. Meanwhile, Houchard had been replaced by Balthazar Alexis Henri Schauenburg on 5 August. Beauharnais was executed by guillotine on 23 July 1794. His widow Joséphine de Beauharnais later married Napoleon Bonaparte.
  Landremont was soon ordered to send 12,000 soldiers to the Army of the North. This reduced the strength of his field force to 45,000 with an additional 39,000 in garrisons or in the Upper Rhine Division under Jean-Charles Pichegru. Brunswick pressed forward toward the fortress of  Bitche, driving back the Corps of the Vosges and the Army of the Moselle. At this moment, the French government dismissed Schauenburg for the crime of being an aristocrat. During his short tenure he had drilled the troops into better shape. The late commander of the Corps of the Vosges Jean René Moreaux was named to succeed him, but declined because an old wound had reopened. A division commander, Jacques Charles René Delauney reluctantly took over the army on 30 September. Landremont was also dismissed and arrested but his intended replacement, Antoine Guillaume Delmas was trapped in the Siege of Landau. Pichegru was offered command of the Army of the Rhine but he refused. Since the generals saw that leading the army led to arrest or execution, none wanted to accept the command. Finally on 2 October, Jean Pascal Carlenc took command of the Army of the Rhine. He would quickly prove to be completely unfitted for the job.
  On 13 October 1793, a 43,185-man Coalition army led by Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser defeated Carlenc's 34,400-strong army in the First Battle of Wissembourg. The government ordered Carlenc's arrest on the 23rd. The Army of the Rhine withdrew to the Zorn River near Strasbourg while Wurmser's army occupied northern Alsace. On 22 October, Delauney sent six battalions to Saverne where they helped repel an attack by one of Wurmser's divisions. Pichegru took command of the Army of the Rhine on 29 October. That same day Delaunay was dismissed from command of the Army of the Moselle. The representatives on mission wanted Eustache Charles d'Aoust to replace Delauney but Lazare Hoche arrived from Paris to take command on 31 October. His rank was general of division rather than army commander because he was supposed to act under the orders of Pichegru. On 18 November, Pichegru began a series of attacks on Wurmser's defensive lines in the Battle of Haguenau.
  The French government reinforced the Army of the Moselle with 15,000 troops taken from the Army of the Rhine and 5,000 from the Army of the Ardennes. Both Hoche and Pichegru were well aware that the main objective was the relief of Landau. In mid-November 1793, Hoche  advanced from the Saar with 36,000 troops while the rest of the army guarded the passes through the Vosges. Hoche used rough language with his subordinates; at this time he wrote one of his division commanders Jean-Jacques Ambert, "Listen, bugger of a sans-culotte...". On 17 November, a Prussian raid on the fort at Bitche failed. Leopold Al
caption: Alexis de Schauenburg
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