Siege of Hüningen

Part of the War of the First Coalition
in the French Revolutionary Wars

Vauban fortress at Hünigingen

Date	27 November 1796 – 1 February 1797
Location	Hüningen, (Huningue) Alsace, France
Result	Austrian victory

Belligerents

Republican France

Habsburg Austria

Commanders and leaders

Georges Joseph Dufour

Jean Charles Abbatucci †

Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg

Strength

4,000

10,000

Casualties and losses

1,200

not known; light

Digby Smith. "Siege of Huningen." Napoleonic Wars Data Book. Merchanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 1998, p. 132.

Coordinates: 47°36′N 7°35′E / 47.600°N 7.583°E / 47.600; 7.583

In the Siege of Hüningen (27 November 1796 – 1 February 1797), the Austrians captured the city from the French. Hüningen is in the present-day Department of Haut-Rhin, France. Its fortress lay approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north of the Swiss city of Basel and .5 miles (0.80 km) north of the spot where the present-day borders of Germany, France and Switzerland meet. During the time of this siege, the village was part of the Canton of Basel City and the fortress lay in area contested between the German states and the First French Republic.

The siege occurred within the French Revolutionary Wars during which Revolutionary France ranged itself against a Coalition that included most of the states with which it shared land or water borders. In particular, France was at odds with the European monarchies, who initially feared for the safety of Louis XVI and his wife, who was the sister of the Holy Roman Emperor. Fighting, which began in 1792, had been inconclusive. Fighting in 1795 had largely favored the Coalition; the Campaign in the Rhineland in 1796, though, had pushed the Coalition forces far into the German states; the Coalition forces had pushed back and, at the end of the summer's fighting in 1796, the Austrian force under command of Archduke Charles had succeeded in pushing the French back to the Rhine.

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