The Battle of Messkirch on 5 May 1800 was the major engagement in the War of the Second Coalition. It followed the Battle of Stockach on 3 May. The campaign began on 25 April when a French force emerged from the Kehl bridgehead. This marked the start of the offensive of Jean Victor Marie Moreau's "Army of the Rhine" against Paul Kray's army of Habsburg Austria and its Bavarian, Württemberg and other German allies.