Battle of Würzburg The Battle of Würzburg was fought on 3 September 1796 between an army of Habsburg Austria led by Archduke Charles , Duke of Teschen and an army of the First French Republic led by Jean - Baptiste Jourdan . The French attacked the archduke ' s forces , but they were resisted until the arrival of reinforcements decided the engagement in favor of the Austrians . The French retreated west toward the Rhine River . The action occurred during the War of the First Coalition , part of the French Revolutionary Wars . Würzburg is southeast of Frankfurt . The summer of 1796 saw the two French armies of Jourdan and Jean Victor Marie Moreau advance into southern Germany . They were opposed by Archduke Charles who supervised two weaker Austrian armies commanded by Wilhelm von Wartensleben and Maximilian Anton Karl , Count Baillet de Latour . At the Battle of Amberg on 24 August , Charles managed to concentrate superior numbers against Jourdan , forcing him to withdraw . At Würzburg , Jourdan attempted a counterattack in a bid to halt his retreat . After his defeat , Charles forced Jourdan ' s army back to the Rhine . With his colleague in retreat , Moreau was isolated and compelled to abandon southern Germany . Battle . The French army advanced against what they thought to be an isolated Austrian division under Anton Sztáray . Jourdan ' s plan was to attack Feldmarschall - Leutnant Anton Sztáray with the divisions of Generals of Division Jean - Baptiste Bernadotte and Jean Étienne Championnet , leaving the divisions of Generals of Division Jacques Bonnaud and Paul Grenier in reserve . However , the early morning mist enabled Archduke Charles to bring up the division of Feldmarschall - Leutnant Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze as a reinforcement to Sztáray , effectively undoing what Jourdan thought to be a great numerical superiority for the French . Jourdan ' s imagined superiority diminished even more when the division of General - Major Anton von Elsnitz to the north kept the much larger force under General of Division François Joseph Lefebvre out of the battle . Meanwhile , Austrian engineers were laying pontoon bridges over the Main in order to let the remainder of the Austrian army cross the river . The French attacked the Austrian position without success until the Austrian divisions of Feldmarschall - Leutnant Pál Kray and Feldzeugmeister Wilhelm von Wartensleben arrived and drove the French off the field . Result . Army of the Lower Rhine . The French suffered 2 , 000 killed and wounded , plus 1 , 000 men and 7 guns captured . The Austrians lost 1 , 200 killed and wounded , with 300 captured . The Battle of Würzburg determined the winner of the 1796 campaign in southern Germany . Charles pursued the beaten French , turning Jourdan ' s south flank and keeping between him and General of Division Jean Victor Marie Moreau ' s French Army of Rhin - et - Moselle in southern Germany . On 7 September , Charles forced the French to lift the siege of Mainz . By 16 September , the opposing armies were back on the Lahn River where they started the campaign in June . On that day , Kray with 11 , 000 Austrians defeated 15 , 000 Frenchmen of Jourdan ' s army at Limburg an der Lahn . The French general fell back to Düsseldorf and crossed to the west bank of the Rhine . The French gave up their siege of the Ehrenbreitstein fortress on 17 September . Charles left 30 , 000 soldiers with the Army of the Lower Rhine , placed them under the command Feldmarschall - Leutnant Franz von Werneck , and hurried south . Army of the Upper Rhine . Having disposed of Jourdan ' s army , the Austrian archduke forced Moreau ' s now - isolated army to retreat west through the Black Forest to France . On 18 September , an Austrian division under Feldmarschall - Leutnant Franz Petrasch stormed the Rhine bridgehead at Kehl , but was driven out by a French counterattack . At this time , Moreau ' s army was still south of Ulm . On 2 October , Moreau defeated Feldzeugmeister Maximilian Baillet de Latour ' s Army of the Upper Rhine at the Battle of Biberach . While French casualties numbered only 500 , they inflicted 300 killed and wounded , while capturing 4 , 000 soldiers and 18 cannon . This slowed the southern Austrian pursuit , but with Charles rushing south to cut him off from France , Moreau retreated to the Rhine . On 19 October , Moreau with 32 , 000 soldiers fought Charles with 28 , 000 Austrians at the Battle of Emmendingen . The French suffered 1 , 000 killed and wounded , including General of Division Michel de Beaupuy killed . In addition , the Austrians captured 1 , 800 men and 2 cannons . The Austrians losses totaled 1 , 000 , including Feldzeugmeister Wilhelm von Wartensleben killed . The French withdrew south and fought the Battle of Schliengen on 24 October . This time , the Austrians lost 800 while inflicting 1 , 200 casualties on the French . Both sides claimed victory , but Moreau retreated to the west bank of the Rhine . Moreau soon offered Charles an armistice , which the field marshal wanted to accept . At this time , the Austrian government made a huge error by refusing to ratify the agreement . That fall and winter , while Charles reduced the fortresses of Kehl and Huningen , the French government transferred 14 demi - brigades from Moreau to General of Division Napoleon Bonaparte to help the latter bring the Siege of Mantua to a successful conclusion .