Battle of Teugen-Hausen

Overview

The Battle of Teugen–Hausen or the Battle of Thann was an engagement that occurred during the War of the Fifth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was fought on 19 April 1809 between the French III Corps led by Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout and the Austrian III Armeekorps commanded by Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. When the Austrians withdrew that evening, the French won a hard-fought victory over their opponents. The site of the battle is a wooded height approximately halfway between the villages of Teugn and Hausen in Lower Bavaria, part of modern-day Germany.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

Teugen-Hausen was fought on April 19, 1809, as part of the opening Austrian offensive in the War of the Fifth Coalition. Davout's French III Corps, outnumbered by the Austrian III Armeekorps under Prince Hohenzollern, held and ultimately forced the Austrians to withdraw by evening, securing a hard-fought French victory. The engagement demonstrated that French corps could sustain pressure against superior numbers without immediate support from Napoleon's main force. Casualties were roughly comparable on both sides — approximately 3,862 Austrian and 4,000 French — indicating the intensity of the fighting despite the numerical disparity. The Austrian withdrawal ended their offensive momentum in that sector and contributed to the broader French recovery during the opening days of the 1809 campaign in Lower Bavaria.

Tactics

Forces & casualties

Commanders (7)