Battle of Limburg (1796) in the context of Altenkirchen

Sometimes called the Battle of Limburg or Second Battle of Altenkirchen or Battle of the Lahn (16–19 September 1796), this was actually a single-day battle followed by a lengthy rear-guard action. The action occurred during the War of the First Coalition, part of a wider conflict known as the French Revolutionary Wars. Limburg an der Lahn is located in the state of Hesse in Germany about 31 miles (50 km) east of Koblenz. On 16 September, the Habsburg Austrian army commanded by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen attacked a Republican French army led by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in its positions behind the Lahn River. The unexpected collapse and withdrawal of their right flank on the evening of the 16th compelled the French to make a fighting withdrawal that began in the evening of the 16th and continued until late on 19 September.

Two French armies were initially successful in the Rhine Campaign of 1796, penetrating far into southern Germany. However, Archduke Charles defeated Jourdan's army at Amberg and Würzburg in the late summer, forcing the French to retreat to the Lahn. On the 16th, Charles launched an attack at Giessen on Jourdan's left flank, but his main assault was intended to crack the French center at Limburg an der Lahn. Though both Austrian thrusts stalled, Jourdan was forced to withdraw when the French right flank commander Jean Castelbert de Castelverd ordered his troops to fall back. During the next three days, the French center under François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte made a fighting retreat back to Altenkirchen so that Jourdan's left flank troops could escape. French division commanders Marceau and Jacques Philippe Bonnaud were fatally wounded in the various clashes. After the battle Jourdan pulled most of his army back to the west bank of the Rhine, effectively ending the campaign in the north. Leaving Franz von Werneck with a reduced army to watch the French, Charles turned south, hoping to cut off a second French army under Jean Victor Marie Moreau.