BATTLE // August 22, 1796

Battle of Theiningen

Name: Battle of Theiningen
Start: 1796-08-22
End: 1796-08-22
Location: Battle of Theiningen

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Overview

The Battle of Theiningen was a meeting engagement that took place in Germany on 22–23 August 1796 during the War of the First Coalition. A French division, led by Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, repulsed an attempted encirclement, and fought a successful rearguard action, despite being outnumbered three-to-one, against an Austrian army led by Archduke Charles of Austria, allowing the French Army of Sambre and Meuse to retreat toward the Rhine.

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

Significance

At Theiningen on 22–23 August 1796, a French division under Bernadotte faced an Austrian army under Archduke Charles that outnumbered it three-to-one. By repulsing the attempted encirclement and conducting a successful rearguard action, Bernadotte's force preserved the cohesion of the French Army of Sambre and Meuse and enabled its withdrawal toward the Rhine. The engagement therefore served a defensive operational function: preventing the destruction or isolation of a larger French force during a critical retreat phase of the 1796 German campaign.

Tactics

Bernadotte's division repulsed an attempted encirclement by the Austrian army and fought a rearguard action that held off the larger Habsburg force long enough to cover the withdrawal of the Army of Sambre and Meuse toward the Rhine.