Battle of Winterthur

Battle of Winterthur
Part of the War of the Second Coalition
Topographic map of Switzerland highlighting the location of the battle
Date 27 May 1799 Location Winterthur, Zürich, Switzerland 47°30′N 8°45′E / 47.500°N 8.750°E / 47.500; 8.750 Result Austrian victory
Belligerents
Austria	France
Commanders and leaders
Friedrich von Hotze Friedrich Joseph	Michel Ney
Strength
8,000	7,000
Casualties and losses
1,000 killed, wounded or missing	800 killed, wounded or missing[1]

War of the Second Coalition:
Austria

200km
125miles

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

Zurich

6

5

4

3

2

1

  

The color black indicates the current battle

The Battle of Winterthur (27 May 1799) was an important action between elements of the Army of the Danube and elements of the Habsburg army, commanded by Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze, during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The small town of Winterthur lies 18 kilometers (11 mi) northeast of Zürich, in Switzerland. Because of its position at the junction of seven roads, the army that held the town controlled access to most of Switzerland and points crossing the Rhine into southern Germany. Although the forces involved were small, the ability of the Austrians to sustain their 11-hour assault on the French line resulted in the consolidation of three Austrian forces on the plateau north of Zürich, leading to the French defeat a few days later.

By mid-May 1799, the Austrians had wrested control of parts of Switzerland from the French as forces under the command of Hotze and Count Heinrich von Bellegarde pushed them out of the Grisons. After defeating Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's 25,000-man Army of the Danube at the battles of Ostrach and Stockach, the main Austrian army, under command of Archduke Charles, crossed the Rhine at the Swiss town of Schaffhausen and prepared to unite with the armies of Hotze and Friedrich Joseph, Count of Nauendorf, on the plains surrounding Zürich.

The French Army of Helvetia and the Army of the Danube, now both under the command of André Masséna, sought to prevent this merger. Masséna sent Michel Ney and a small mixed cavalry and infantry force from Zürich to stop Hotze's force at Winterthur. Despite a sharp contest, the Austrians succeeded in pushing the French out of the Winterthur highlands, although both sides took high casualties. Once the union of the Habsburg armies took place in early June, Archduke Charles attacked French positions at Zürich and forced the French to withdraw beyond the Limmat.