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The Battle of Handschuhsheim or Battle of Heidelberg (24 September 1795) saw an 8,000-man force from Habsburg Austria under Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich face 12,000 men from the Republican French army led by Georges Joseph Dufour. Thanks to a devastating cavalry charge, the Austrians routed the French with disproportionate losses. The fight occurred during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. Handschuhsheim is now a district of Heidelberg, but it was a village north of the city in 1795. In early 1795 many of France's enemies made peace, leaving only Austria and Great Britain in opposition. In September, the French government ordered the armies of Jean-Charles Pichegru and Jean-Baptiste Jourdan to attack the Austrian armies on the Rhine River. The French scored early successes, capturing two key cities and crossing the river in force. Pichegru sent two divisions to seize the Austrian supply base at Heidelberg, but his troops were bloodily repulsed at Handshuhsheim. Afterward, the Austrian commander François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt turned on Jourdan's army, driving it back across the Rhine. The Austrians later won the battles of Mainz, Pfeddersheim and Mannheim, forcing the French armies back onto the west bank of the Rhine. ==Background== On 19 January 1795, the French army of General of Division Jean-Charles Pichegru seized Amsterdam, extinguished the Dutch Republic, and set up the satellite Batavian Republic. The armies of the First French Republic stood victorious on the west bank of the Rhine. The Kingdom of Prussia, intent on joining the Russian Empire in carving up the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, desired to exit from the First Coalition. Not wishing to be swamped by thousands of unemployed soldiers at the peace, the French Directory drove a very hard bargain. Nevertheless, Prussia, the Electorate of Saxony, Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Electorate of Hanover, and Kingdom of Spain chose to make peace with France. Only the United Kingdom and Habsburg Austria continued the struggle. The Directory relaxed price controls and soon the cost of food and clothing shot up. Bread riots broke out in Paris during April and May, and mobs invaded the National Convention. The Directory struck back. On 22 May 1795, Pichegru led troops in putting down a revolt in the Faubourg Sainte-Antoine; nine of the arrested ringleaders killed themselves or were executed. On 4 November 1794, General of Division Jean Baptiste Kléber with a corps of 35,605 Frenchmen captured Maastricht from its Austro-Dutch garrison of approximately 8,000 troops. The French forces included the divisions of Generals of Division Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (9,215), Joseph Léonard Richard (9,961), Guillaume Philibert Duhesme (7,663), and Louis Friant (8,769). In exchange for turning over the fortress with 344 artillery pieces and 31 colors, Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel and his soldiers were allowed to march away. French casualties in the siege numbered 300 while their enemies lost 500. Freed for more operations, Kléber moved against Mainz. Lacking the numbers or the heavy guns to place the fortress under regular siege, the French general contented himself with blockading the city starting on 14 December 1794. Another deterrent to more aggressive French action was the presence of an Austrian army under Feldzeugmeister François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt and General der Kavallerie Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser on the east bank of the Rhine. Clerfayt was soon promoted Feldmarschall on 22 April 1795. The futile blockade of the fortress of Mainz on the west bank dragged on through the summer.〔 The Directory instructed Pichegru with the ''Army of Rhin-et-Moselle'' and General of Division Jean-Baptiste Jourdan with the ''Army of Sambre-et-Meuse'' to mount two converging thrusts across the Rhine. The plan called for Pichegru to attack anywhere between Mannheim and Strasbourg while Jourdan crossed farther to the north near Düsseldorf. Jourdan struck across the Rhine in early September and advanced toward the County of Nassau-Usingen.〔 Instead of crossing the Rhine farther south, Pichegru moved north until he was opposite enemy-held Mannheim. On 20 September 1795 Pichegru and 30,000 soldiers secured Mannheim without a shot being fired. After negotiations, Baron von Belderbusch and his 9,200-man garrison from the Electorate of Bavaria handed the city and 471 artillery pieces over to the French and marched away. The Austrians were furious, but powerless to intervene. The loss of Mannheim forced the Austrians to retreat to the north behind the Main River. The next day, a second Bavarian garrison at Düsseldorf surrendered to General of Division François Joseph Lefebvre and 12,600 French soldiers. Count Hompesch and his 2,000 soldiers were allowed to leave by promising not to fight the French for one year, but 168 fortress guns fell into French hands.〔Smith (1998), pp. 104-105〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Handschuhsheim」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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