CASUALTY RECORD // February 28, 1638
Battle of Rheinfelden
Estimated casualties — killed, wounded, captured, and missing — by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Casualties by side
1 sides catalogued · combined 3,000–3,500 estimated
Holy Roman Empire
3,000–3,500
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of Rheinfelden, fought during the Thirty Years' War, was in practice two distinct engagements fought in the vicinity of the town of Rheinfelden. The first action ended in defeat for Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar's French-allied mercenary force, which numbered between 5,000 and 6,000 men. Bernhard recovered and forced a second engagement against the joint Bavarian and Imperial army under Johann von Werth and Federico Savelli, inflicting casualties estimated between 3,000 and 3,500 on the Imperial side and capturing both enemy commanders. The capture of Werth and Savelli represented a significant blow to the Imperial and Bavarian command structure in the theater, removing two senior commanders from the field in a single action. The outcome demonstrated Bernhard's capacity to reconstitute his force after an initial reverse and press a successful counterattack against a numerically comparable opponent.
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