Battle of Wetzlar

Battle context

At Wetzlar, Archduke Charles led a Habsburg Austrian force of 64,000 against Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's 48,000-strong Republican French army positioned along the Lahn River, securing an Austrian victory that forced the bulk of the French force to retreat westward to the Rhine. The outcome denied Jourdan's army its foothold on the eastern bank and reversed French momentum in the German theater of the War of the First Coalition. The retreat did not end the action: four days later, Austrian forces pursued the French left wing, bringing on the combat of Uckerath on June 19. French casualties stood at 3,000, and the strategic initiative in this sector passed to Habsburg hands.