Battle of Hohenlinden

Background

In spring and summer 1800, while Bonaparte won Italy at Marengo, Moreau's Army of the Rhine drove Feldzeugmeister Pál Kray's Austrians from the Rhine to the Inn, winning at Stockach, Messkirch and Höchstädt. An armistice, signed at Parsdorf in July, halted the fighting. Emperor Francis II removed Kray. His brother Archduke Charles refused the command, as did two other archdukes, and it went to the 18-year-old Archduke John. Feldzeugmeister Franz von Lauer was appointed to guide him, and John was told to follow his advice; the aggressive Colonel Franz von Weyrother became chief of staff.

When the armistice ran out in late November, Weyrother persuaded John and Lauer to attack. His plan was to crush the French left near Landshut and swing south to cut Moreau's communications west of Munich. The army proved too slow for it, and the scheme was reduced to a direct advance on Munich. On 1 December at Ampfing the Austrians drove back part of Grenier's wing, losing about 3,000 men to the French 1,700. When Grenier abandoned Haag the next day, John and Weyrother overrode Lauer's caution and ordered a headlong pursuit of an enemy they believed to be in retreat.

Moreau was not retreating. He drew his army together in the clearing around Hohenlinden, 33 km east of Munich, ground he had already studied. To reach him the Austrians had to cross the forest of Haag, part of the woods around Ebersberg, by one paved highway and a few woodcutters' tracks that were barely passable in winter.

The armies

Moreau had about 56,000 men and some 99 guns. Grenier's wing held the line north of Hohenlinden towards Harthofen: Legrand's division on the left, Bastoul's in a refused echelon behind it, Ney's between Hohenlinden and Preisendorf. Grouchy's division stood astride the highway at the forest's exit, and d'Hautpoul's heavy cavalry, about 1,600 sabres, waited west of the village. Away to the south, around Ebersberg and Zorneding, were Richepanse's and Decaen's divisions, each of roughly 8,000–10,000 men; Decaen's included the Polish Danube Legion. Every French division carried its own cavalry regiments. Moreau's chief of staff was Dessolle.

Archduke John's army, about 60,000 men including a Bavarian contingent, was stronger in cavalry and had about twice the guns. It moved in four columns. Kienmayer's 16,000 on the right came down the Isen valley; Latour's 10,800 used tracks north of the highway; Kollowrat's 20,000 or more, with the Archduke, the bulk of the artillery and the trains, took the highway itself; Riesch's 13,300 followed tracks to the south. Kollowrat's column marched with its infantry first, then a long train of guns and wagons, and its cavalry last. The columns could not support each other in the forest, and their commanders expected no fight before the plain beyond it.

The battle

CDB90 records the battle as a single engagement, number 116 (HOHENLINDEN), from 08:00 to 17:30, with the Austrians as attacker. Times below come mostly from Picard's French staff history; Arnold's differ by up to half an hour.

Into the forest (dawn–08:00). All four Austrian columns set out at dawn. Overnight the rain had turned to snow falling in large flakes, and an eyewitness said one could hardly see a hundred paces. Kollowrat, on the paved road, made good time; the flank columns floundered. Riesch took five hours to cover 6 km to Albaching, arriving around 10:00.

Grouchy holds the exit (07:30–12:00). At about 07:00–07:30 Löpper's advance guard struck Grouchy's 108th Line in the woods near Kreith. A grenadier flank attack under Spannochi drove it back, and Kollowrat fed in Deroy's Bavarian brigade. As the Austrians came out of the trees Grouchy counter-attacked with infantry and cavalry: the 11th Chasseurs broke a grenadier square and the 4th Hussars overran a battery. Spannochi was captured. Kollowrat halted to wait for his flank columns and sent two grenadier battalions back south to find Riesch. The front stood still until noon.

Grenier's front (morning). To the north Kienmayer pushed French outposts out of Isen, and Schwarzenberg's division attacked Bastoul and Ney. Forstern changed hands, d'Hautpoul's cavalry helping retake it, and the hamlets from Tading to Kronacker were fought over. Latour, late, broke his column into small detachments to find his neighbours, leaving himself with three battalions.

Richepanse's march on Mattenpöt (07:15–10:00). Richepanse left St Christoph at 07:15 for Maitenbeth, the Mattenpoet of older English accounts, at the eastern edge of the forest behind the Austrian column. At about 08:00 Austrian troops cut his column in two. Leaving Drouet's brigade to hold them, he pressed on with the 8th and 48th Line, the 1st Chasseurs and six guns, and by about 09:00 his grenadiers had taken Maitenbeth, catching Nassau cuirassiers half dismounted. Leaving the 8th and the chasseurs under Walther to face Liechtenstein's cavalry, he turned the 48th west down the highway into the forest.

The column destroyed (10:00–14:30). At about 10:00 the Archduke heard of French troops behind him; his staff took them for a stray fragment. Weyrother rode back with Bavarian battalions. The 48th took a Bavarian horse battery at the bayonet through canister fire, and Weyrother was wounded by the first French round shot. Wrede's two Bavarian battalions, struggling up through the jammed artillery park, were overrun. At about 11:00 Decaen came up, freed Drouet and pushed Riesch's small columns back towards Albaching.

Around noon Moreau saw the Austrians wavering at Birkach and Kreith and ordered a general attack. Ney drove down the highway into the woods, taking eight to ten guns and more than 1,000 prisoners; Grouchy's 57th and 46th went through the forest south of the road by Schützen; Decaen's Poles burst onto the highway at the Schimmelberg among the artillery park. Attacked from front, flank and rear on a road choked with guns and wagons, Kollowrat's column dissolved. Thousands surrendered in the woods, Deroy among them, and the Archduke barely escaped. By about 14:30 Ney's men had met Richepanse's near Maitenbeth, where the 8th had survived repeated charges by Liechtenstein's cavalry.

The wings withdraw (afternoon). Latour fell back to Isen when fugitives poured into the woods, and Kienmayer ordered a retreat; Schwarzenberg disengaged without losing a gun. Riesch held the heights at Albaching until about 15:30. Dessolle reckoned the battle won by 16:00; darkness ended the pursuit.

Aftermath

The Austrians reported 978 killed, 3,687 wounded and 7,195 captured, with 50 guns; the Bavarians 24 killed, 90 wounded and 1,754 captured, with 26 guns. That is about 13,700 men and 76 guns; French claims ran to 11,000 prisoners and 100 guns. French losses were perhaps 1,700–3,000. Bastoul was mortally wounded.

Moreau pursued slowly at first, but his army then pushed across the Inn and into Austria. Lecourbe beat Riesch at Rosenheim on 9 December; the Archduke fought a successful rearguard at Salzburg on the 14th; on the 17th Archduke Charles took over what was left of the army. With the French at Steyr, he signed an armistice there on 25 December, giving up Würzburg, Braunau and the Tyrol forts. The Treaty of Lunéville followed on 9 February 1801, ending the War of the Second Coalition on the Continent.

Vienna made Lauer the scapegoat; Weyrother escaped blame and planned Austerlitz five years later. Napoleon called Hohenlinden a triumph of chance obtained without a plan. Furse, writing from the French archives, rejected that, and the opposite view that the march on Mattenpöt was Richepanse's improvisation: the move was in Moreau's orders. The victory made Moreau a rival to the First Consul, who left him unemployed. English readers know it best through Thomas Campbell's poem 'Hohenlinden'.

Wargaming it

Hohenlinden is a classic ambush in a forest, best gamed at brigade or regiment level with turns of 20–30 minutes. The whole battle needs a long table: the open Hohenlinden clearing at one end, some 5 km of forest highway, and Maitenbeth and St Christoph beyond. Many groups will prefer the centre alone: Kollowrat's column, Grouchy and Ney in front, Richepanse and Decaen arriving from the south.

Terrain and weather are the game. Woods should be passable to infantry but slow and blind, the highway the only fast route, and the Austrian column a long target of guns and wagons that blocks its own reinforcements. Falling snow can cut visibility to a hundred paces and should limit spotting and long-range fire.

Timing matters for both sides. The Austrian flank columns should arrive late and on variable schedules; Richepanse's march needs a hidden-movement or variable-entry rule, including the chance of being cut in half at St Christoph. The French player's main decision is when to launch the general attack; the Austrian player's is whether to halt the column or turn it round.

The what-ifs: Riesch marches straight for the guns; Latour keeps his column together; the Archduke believes the first reports and turns the column back in time. Ampfing two days earlier makes a good opening game for a mini-campaign.

Maps and pictures

Paintings and prints

Paintings and prints of the battle, from the time and the century after, by year: free-to-use pictures from the battle's category on Wikimedia Commons. Each opens its file page there, with the full caption and source.