{
 "slug": "second-zurich",
 "title": "Second Battle of Zurich",
 "status": "draft",
 "era": "1775–1815",
 "date_text": "25–26 September 1799",
 "start": "1799-09-25",
 "end": "1799-09-26",
 "war": "French Revolutionary Wars",
 "cdb90_war": "WAR OF THE SECOND COALITION",
 "place": {
  "name": "Zurich and the Limmat valley, Switzerland (crossing at Dietikon; Linth crossings near Schänis and Weesen)",
  "lat": 47.367,
  "lon": 8.55,
  "wikidata": "Q233426"
 },
 "lede": "On 25 and 26 September 1799 Masséna crossed the Limmat at Dietikon, trapped Korsakov's Russians in Zurich and destroyed his army, while Soult killed the Austrian Hotze on the Linth. Russia left the Second Coalition within weeks.",
 "result": "Decisive French victory",
 "result_cdb90": "attacker win",
 "belligerents": [
  {
   "role": "attacker",
   "name": "French Army of Helvetia",
   "commanders": [
    "André Masséna",
    "Édouard Mortier",
    "Jean Lorge",
    "Jean Ménard",
    "Dominique Klein",
    "Nicolas Oudinot",
    "Jean-de-Dieu Soult (Linth operation)"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 35448,
    "low": 33500,
    "high": 35448,
    "source": "s1"
   },
   "casualties": null
  },
  {
   "role": "defender",
   "name": "Russian army under Korsakov, with the Austrians under Hotze on the Linth",
   "commanders": [
    "Alexander Korsakov",
    "Mikhail Durasov",
    "Aleksey Gorchakov",
    "Fabian Osten-Sacken",
    "Nikolai Gudovich",
    "Friedrich von Hotze (Austrian, killed)"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 27116,
    "low": 19600,
    "high": 30000,
    "source": "s1"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 4000,
    "low": 3000,
    "high": 8000,
    "source": "s1"
   }
  }
 ],
 "sections": {
  "background": "By the summer of 1799 the Allies in Switzerland were split between two commanders and two plans. After the First Battle of Zurich, Masséna held a defensive line behind the lower Aare with about 77,000 combatants in Switzerland. Archduke Charles's Austrians were to be reinforced by Alexander Korsakov's Russian corps, which reached Schaffhausen after a march of some ninety days. On 16 and 17 August the archduke and Korsakov tried to force a crossing of the Aare at Gross-Döttingen, but the engineers misjudged the current and depth, the pontoon bridge could not be secured, and the attempt was abandoned.\n\nThen Charles, under orders from the Hofkriegsrat, moved north with his main force, leaving Friedrich von Hotze with about 29,000 men. The plan was that Suvorov's column, advancing from Italy, would trap Masséna from the south while Korsakov and Hotze held him in front. Charles's main force left Switzerland on 28 and 29 August; Korsakov arrived in Zurich the same days. On 30 August Masséna's own attempt to cross the Aare failed.\n\nMasséna told his division commanders his plan on 19 September. Suvorov, now marching through the Alps, did not arrive in time. News that he had captured the Gotthard pass reached Masséna on 24 September, and Masséna moved his attack forward by a day, from 26 to 25 September.",
  "forces": "On the French side Masséna had about 35,000 in the operation, in divisions under Mortier, Ménard, Lorge, Klein and Soult, with Oudinot and Gazan among the leaders of the main body. The French had about 76,000 in Switzerland altogether, so the attacking force was a fraction of it. Masséna's advantage was local: he chose where to concentrate.\n\nKorsakov had 27,116 Russians on the best count, with others giving 19,600 to 30,000, under Durasov, Gorchakov, Osten-Sacken and Gudovich. He had detached Osten-Sacken's roughly 5,000-man reserve division to Rapperswil shortly before the battle, which weakened his line on the Limmat. Korsakov's corps held the line after Charles's departure.\n\nFurther east, Hotze had about 25,000 Austrians, including 3,000 Swiss, spread from Uznach to Chur and Disentis. Nauendorf had 5,400 between Waldshut and Basel. Suvorov's 28,000 Russians were still in the Alps. The French also had an engineering success: General Dedon quietly gathered about 37 boats and a pontoon bridge to cross the Limmat.",
  "course": "**Night of 24 September.** Dedon moved the pontoon bridge from Rottenschwil to Dietikon, where more than 8,000 men of Lorge's division and 26 guns were concentrated by evening, opposite about 2,600 Russians under Markov.\n\n**The crossing at Dietikon (25 September).** At 4:45 am boats were launched and the alarm was raised. About 600 men crossed in 37 boats and formed a bridgehead, and at 5 am Dedon began the pontoon bridge. By 6 am the Russians on the Kloster-Fahr heights had been driven back and Markov was wounded and captured. The bridge was finished by 7:30 and by 9 am Lorge's whole division, about 8,000 men and 26 guns, was across. Bontemps was sent to the Glatt slopes to cut the communications between Regensberg and Zurich, and the main body of about 15,000 men under Oudinot advanced on Höngg.\n\n**The feints.** From 5 am Mortier's attacks at Wiedikon and Wollishofen were pinned or counterattacked by Gorchakov, who followed up towards the Uetliberg. Klein's advance from Altstetten onto the Sihlfeld enfiladed the Russian right and forced Korsakov to withdraw that wing about 1 pm. Ménard bombarded Durasov and showed troops to him, and Durasov stayed idle between Freienwil and Würenlingen for most of the day.\n\n**Closing on Zurich.** By 10 am the French were advancing along both banks of the Limmat under heavy artillery fire. Before 3 pm Oudinot attacked the Zürichberg and Gazan moved to Schwamendingen to cut the Winterthur road. Korsakov's withdrawal through the narrow streets was slowed by wounded men and baggage. At night he shut himself in Zurich, and Masséna summoned the town and received no reply.\n\n**The Linth (from 2:30 am on 25 September).** Soult's men swam and ferried across the Linth near Schänis, with similar crossings at Grynau and Schmerikon. Hotze was killed in the fog near Weesen, and the Austrians under Petrasch fell back towards Lichtensteig. Molitor drove Jellacic back towards Walenstadt.\n\n**26 September.** Korsakov mustered 16 battalions and attacked at dawn, briefly driving back Bontemps and retaking the Winterthur road. He then ordered a general retreat, leaving a rearguard in the town. Masséna attacked the column in the flank, and Oudinot and Klein broke into the city through the Höngg and Limmat gates. There was no effective pursuit. Korsakov reached the Rhine via Bülach and Eglisau with about 10,000 men from more than 25,000, and lost his baggage, guns, military chest and records.",
  "aftermath": "The Russian army was ruined: figures for the combined losses of the two days are at least 8,000, of which Clodfelter and Bodart give 4,000 as Russian killed or wounded in the battle, and Tucker adds a further 4,000 on the retreat. About 100 guns were lost. Hotze was dead and the Austrians on the Linth beaten.\n\nSuvorov, meanwhile, had taken the Gotthard and crossed the Reuss, and after those fights he changed course, turning east over the Pragel Pass towards Glarus. He beat Masséna at Muottental and escaped encirclement, but his army was hurt in the effort and the final retreat took it over the Panix Pass. The last Allied troops left Swiss territory on 15 October, and Switzerland came back under the Helvetic Republic. On 22 October Tsar Paul announced that Russia was leaving the coalition and recalled Suvorov.\n\nThe Swiss paid for the campaign: Masséna requisitioned food, livestock, fodder, soldiers and money. Paddy Griffith called it arguably the most significant French victory of 1799. Monuments stand on the Zürichberg and at Langnau am Albis, and Dietikon and Muotathal are among the names on the Arc de Triomphe.",
  "wargaming": "Second Zurich is a river-crossing and deception problem. A game at about 1:50 for the Limmat sector needs the pontoon-bridge build (it took under three hours from the first boats), the 37 boats that carry the first wave, and the feints by Mortier and Ménard that fix the Russian line in place. The Russian player has to guess which attack is real; the historical player did not, and Durasov spent most of the day idle.\n\nTime matters: the French have to cross and build the bridge before Korsakov can bring his dispersed corps together, and Osten-Sacken's detached division is a ready-made 'what if' to put back. The Linth crossing is a separate small scenario, with Hotze killed in the fog near Weesen, which could also be run as a free-standing game.\n\nThe campaign also offers a larger-scale rule: Charles's earlier departure and Suvorov's late arrival are the strategic what-ifs. If Suvorov had arrived a day sooner, or Charles had not left, the French plan would have been much harder. A game can take that on by letting the Allied player add, or deny, a late-arriving column on 25 or 26 September."
 },
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   "caption": "The Battle of Zurich, by François Bouchot (1835).",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Battle_of_Zurich.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
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   "artist": "François Bouchot",
   "credit": "https://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/a/bouchot-francois/the-battle-of-zurich-25th.html",
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  {
   "file": "File:Limmat - Dietikon - Massena - Zweite Schlacht von Zürich 1799 IMG 6091.jpg",
   "kind": "map",
   "caption": "French positions in the Limmat valley, from a map of 1801.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Limmat_-_Dietikon_-_Massena_-_Zweite_Schlacht_von_Z%C3%BCrich_1799_IMG_6091.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
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   "artist": "Roland zh , fotografiert von der Informationstafel an der Limmat beim Bahnhof Dietikon",
   "credit": "Own work",
   "width": 2757
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Limmat - Dietikon - Massena - Zweite Schlacht von Zürich 1799 IMG 6092 ShiftN.jpg",
   "kind": "illustration",
   "caption": "A drawing of the French crossing, by Siméon Fort.",
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  {
   "file": "File:André Masséna (Fontaine et Gros).jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "André Masséna, the French commander.",
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   "licence_url": "",
   "artist": "Edme-Adolphe Fontaine / After Antoine-Jean Gros",
   "credit": "\"L'album de l'Empereur\", Max Gallo, éditions Robert Laffont, 1997",
   "width": 1278
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Friedrich von Hotze.jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "Friedrich von Hotze, killed on the Linth on 25 September.",
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  },
  {
   "file": "File:Joseph Kreutzinger - Portrait of Count Alexander Suvorov - WGA12281.jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "Alexander Suvorov, whose late arrival from Italy left Korsakov alone.",
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   "credit": "Web Gallery of Art : Image Info about artwork wga QS:P11807,\"/k/kreutzin/suvorov\"",
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 "sources": [
  {
   "id": "s1",
   "title": "Second Battle of Zurich (English Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Zurich",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s2",
   "title": "Duffy, Christopher, Eagles over the Alps: Suvorov in Italy and Switzerland, 1799, The Emperor's Press, 1999 (pp. 213-221), seen only as cited in s1",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s3",
   "title": "Clodfelter, Michael, Warfare and Armed Conflicts, 4th ed., McFarland, 2017 (p. 109), seen only as cited in s1",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s4",
   "title": "Bodart, Gaston, Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905), Stern, 1908 (p. 343), seen only as cited in s1",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s5",
   "title": "Tucker, Spencer C., A Global Chronology of Conflict, ABC-CLIO, 2009 (p. 1009), seen only as cited in s1",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s6",
   "title": "Griffith, Paddy, The Art of War of Revolutionary France 1789-1802, Greenhill, 1998, seen only as cited in s1",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s7",
   "title": "Suvorov's Swiss campaign (English Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suvorov%27s_Swiss_campaign",
   "kind": "web"
  }
 ],
 "cdb90": [
  113
 ],
 "order": 68,
 "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/second-zurich/",
 "oob": [],
 "oob_lwtv": [],
 "scenarios": [],
 "orbat": null,
 "orbat_lwtv": null,
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  "history": [],
  "fiction": [],
  "poetry": []
 },
 "reading_lwtv": {
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 "photos": [],
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}