Battle of Haguenau (1793)

Part of War of the First Coalition

Date	18 November – 22 December 1793
Location	Haguenau, France
Result	French victory

Belligerents

French Émigrés

Commanders and leaders

Charles Pichegru

Count von Wurmser

Prince de Condé

Count Minnuci

Units involved

Army of the Rhine

Army of Condé

Strength

57,000

41,000

The Battle of Haguenau (18 November – 22 December 1793) saw a Republican French army commanded by Jean-Charles Pichegru mount a persistent offensive against a Coalition army under Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser during the War of the First Coalition. In late November, Wurmser pulled back from his defenses behind the Zorn River and assumed a new position along the Moder River at Haguenau. After continuous fighting, Wurmser finally withdrew to the Lauter River after his western flank was turned in the Battle of Froeschwiller on 22 December. Haguenau is a city in Bas-Rhin department of France, located 29 kilometres (18 mi) north of Strasbourg.

Consisting of troops from Habsburg Austria, Hesse-Kassel and Electoral Bavaria, plus French Royalists, the Coalition army broke through the French frontier defenses in the First Battle of Wissembourg on 13 October 1793 and overran Alsace as far as the Zorn River. The French government reacted to the emergency by appointing Pichegru to lead the Army of the Rhine and urging it to attack. Beginning on 18 November, Pichegru ordered continual attacks on the Coalition lines which slowly forced Wurmser's army back. The Battle of Berstheim was a notable action during the French offensive. Unfortunately for Wurmser, a Prussian army failed to pin down Lazare Hoche's Army of the Moselle to the west. When Hoche began to put pressure on the Coalition right wing, Wurmser was unable to spare sufficient troops to resist the new threat because of Pichegru's relentless frontal attacks. The next combat was the Second Battle of Wissembourg on 25–26 December.

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