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| Battle of Altenkirchen | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofWar of the First Coalition | |||||||
 Battle of Altenkirchen, 4 June 1796 byHippolyte Bellangé, 1838-1839 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 French Republic |  Habsburg Austria | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Jean Baptiste Kléber | Duke Ferdinand of Württemberg | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Army of Sambre-et-Meuse | Army of the Lower Rhine | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 20,000 | 20,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Light | 1,500, 12 guns | ||||||
TheBattle of Altenkirchen (4 June 1796) saw twoRepublican French divisions commanded byJean Baptiste Kléber attack a wing of theHabsburg Austrian army led byDuke Ferdinand Frederick Augustus of Württemberg. A frontal attack combined with a flanking maneuver forced the Austrians to retreat. Three futureMarshals of France played significant roles in the engagement:François Joseph Lefebvre as a division commander,Jean-de-Dieu Soult as a brigadier andMichel Ney as leader of a flanking column. The battle occurred during theWar of the First Coalition, part of a larger conflict called theWars of the French Revolution.Altenkirchen is located in the state ofRhineland-Palatinate inGermany about 50 kilometres (31 mi) east ofBonn.
The French opened theRhine Campaign of 1796 by ordering Kléber to attack south out of his bridgehead atDüsseldorf. After Kléber won sufficient maneuver room on the east bank of theRhine River,Jean Baptiste Jourdan was supposed to join him with the remainder of theArmy of Sambre-et-Meuse. But this was only a distraction. When the Austrians underArchduke Charles, Duke of Teschen moved north to oppose Jourdan,Jean Victor Marie Moreau would cross the Rhine far to the south with theArmy of Rhin-et-Moselle. Kléber carried out his part of the scheme to perfection, allowing Jourdan to cross the Rhine atNeuwied on 10 June. The next action was theBattle of Wetzlar on 15–16 June.
50°41′14″N7°38′44″E / 50.68722°N 7.64556°E /50.68722; 7.64556
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