Battle of Amberg The Battle of Amberg , fought on 24 August 1796 , resulted in an Austrian victory by Archduke Charles over a French army led by Jean - Baptiste Jourdan . This French Revolutionary Wars engagement marked a turning point in the campaign , which had previously seen French successes . Background . Plans . The French planned an invasion of southern Germany in 1796 . General of Division ( MG ) Jourdan with the Army of Sambre - et - Meuse would advance from the middle Rhine while MG Jean Moreau would cross the river farther south with the Army of Rhin - et - Moselle . Jourdan held a bridgehead over the Rhine at Neuwied while MG Jean - Baptiste Kléber commanded his left wing based on an entrenched camp at Düsseldorf . Moreau ' s army comprised 71 , 581 infantry and 6 , 515 cavalry . He organized these into a Right Wing under MG Pierre Ferino , a Center led by MG Louis Desaix , and a Left Wing commanded by MG Laurent de Gouvion Saint - Cyr . Field Marshal Archduke Charles commanded the Army of the Lower Rhine . Charles and his deputy , Feldzeugmeister ( FZM ) Wilhelm von Wartensleben faced Jourdan along the Lahn River . This stream flows in a southwesterly direction into the Rhine near Koblenz . To the south , FZM Maximilien , Count Baillet de Latour positioned his Army of the Upper Rhine to defend against Moreau . June operations . On 4 June 1796 , 11 , 000 soldiers of the Army of the Sambre - et - Meuse , under Francois Lefebvre pushed back a 6 , 500 - man Austrian force at Altenkirchen , north of the Lahn . On 6 June , the French placed Ehrenbreitstein fortress under siege . At Wetzlar on the Lahn , Lefebvre ran into Charles ' concentration of 36 , 000 Austrians on 15 June . Casualties were light on both sides , but Jourdan pulled back to Niewied while Kléber recoiled toward Düsseldorf . Feldmarschal - Leutnant ( FML ) Pál Kray ' s 30 , 000 soldiers bested Kléber ' s 24 , 000 at Uckerath east of Bonn on 19 June , prompting the Frenchman to continue his withdrawal to the north . Meanwhile , operations of the Army of the Rhin - et - Moselle progressed more successfully for the French . On the 15th , Desaix and 30 , 000 French troops defeated FML Franz Petrasch ' s 11 , 000 Austrians at Maudach near Speyer . The French suffered 600 casualties while Austrian losses were three times as heavy . Part of Moreau ' s army under MG Jean - Charles Abbatucci mounted an assault crossing over the Rhine at Kehl opposite Strasbourg on 24 June . The defenders were French Emigres and the forces of minor German states belonging to the Holy Roman Empire . They fought gamely , but were beaten with the loss of 700 men while the French lost 150 . On 28 June , Desaix defeated FML Anton Sztaray ' s Imperial troops again at Renchen , inflicting 1 , 400 casualties for only 200 French killed and wounded . In the following weeks the Austrians determined some of their Imperial German allies to be unreliable and disarmed them . In reaction to the defeats in the south , Archduke Charles left Wartensleben in command of 35 , 000 men along the Lahn , put 30 , 000 troops into the fortress of Mainz and rushed south with 20 , 000 soldiers to reinforce Latour . July operations . After a minor clash at Rastatt on 5 July , Archduke Charles and Latour took up a position at Malsch with 32 , 000 troops . On 9 July , Moreau defeated the Army of the Upper Rhine at the Battle of Ettlingen . The archduke retreated to Stuttgart , where he skirmished with the French on 21 July before continuing to withdraw east . When Jourdan heard of French successes against the Army of the Upper Rhine , he went over to the offensive . After a series of minor victories at Neuwied , Giessen , and Friedberg in der Wetterau in early July , the French pressed Wartensleben back to Frankfurt am Main . August operations . Charles ordered Wartensleben to unite with him in order to crush Moreau . However , his colleague proved unwilling to cooperate . On 11 August , Moreau overpowered the outnumbered archduke at the Battle of Neresheim . The Austrian southern wing retreated to the south bank of the Danube at Donauworth . To the north , Jourdan pushed Wartensleben back through Würzburg and Nuremberg . Kléber clashed with Kray on 17 August at Sulzbach - Rosenberg , west of Amberg . Charles ' strategy of falling back before the two superior French armies while seeking an opportunity to combine against one of them had so far failed . Battle . Reconnaissance . A change in Austrian fortunes came when an alert cavalry brigadier , General - Major Friedrich Joseph , Count of Nauendorf detected an opportunity during a wide reconnaissance . He sent a note to Archduke Charles , " If your Royal Highness will or can advance 12 , 000 men against Jourdan ' s rear , he is lost . " Charles left 30 , 000 men under Latour to watch Moreau , and hurried north with 27 , 000 to find Jourdan still pressing Wartensleben near Amberg . On 22 August at Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz , Charles brushed aside one of Jourdan ' s divisions under MG Jean - Baptiste Bernadotte . This placed the archduke squarely on the French right rear . Combat . The total forces available were 48 , 000 Austrians and 45 , 000 French . On 24 August , Charles struck the French right flank while Wartensleben attacked frontally . The French Army of Sambre - et - Meuse was overcome by weight of numbers and Jourdan retired northwest . The Austrians lost only 400 casualties of the 40 , 000 men they brought onto the field . French losses were 1 , 200 killed and wounded , plus 800 captured out of 34 , 000 engaged . Instead of supporting his colleague , Moreau pushed further east . Results . On the same day as the Battle of Amberg , Moreau inflicted a sharp defeat on Latour at the Battle of Friedberg in Bavaria . On 1 September , Moreau clashed with Latour and Nauendorf at Geisenfeld , southeast of Ingolstadt . At the same time , Charles ' victorious Austrians pursued Jourdan ' s beaten army . The widening gap between the two French armies finally caused Moreau to abandon his gains and pull back toward Ulm . The Battle of Würzburg , fought on 3 September , would determine the winner of the campaign .