Battle of Glarus (1799)

Battle of Glarus
	Part of Suvorov's Swiss campaign (War of the Second Coalition)
	; Painting of the battle from Molitor's possession
Date	October 1, 1799
Location	Glarus, Switzerland
Result	Russian victory
Belligerents
Russian Empire; Habsburg monarchy	France; Helvetic Republic
Commanders and leaders
Alexander Suvorov; Pyotr Bagration; Franz Xaver von Auffenberg	Jean-de-Dieu Soult; Gabriel Molitor; Honoré Gazan
Strength
4,160	5,497
Casualties and losses
450 killed; 1,700 wounded	320 killed; 830 wounded

The Battle of Glarus (also uncollectively the Combat of Näfels/Netstal^[6]), fought on October 1, 1799,^[b] was the bloodiest battle of the War of the Second Coalition.^[7] The battle ended the Austro-Russian invasion of the Helvetic Republic and was the last campaign which involved the Russian undefeated general Alexander Suvorov.^[8] Initially, Suvorov's rearguard, led by Andrei Rosenberg, was able to fend off a French attack led by Adolphe Mortier in the Battle of the Muota Valley. Suvorov's vanguard under Pyotr Bagration managed to overwhelm French forces at Glarus, also capturing Netstal, but came to a stalemate near Näfels and Mollis.^[9] Despite having accomplished the main goal of capturing Glarus,^[9] Suvorov began a retreat via the Panixer Pass. In his report to Emperor Paul I^[10] Suvorov did not mention the battle. Instead, the report portrayed his Alpine campaign as a series of brilliant victories, even though he considered a retreat to Italy, which would have been an admission of complete failure.^[11]

^ Cite error: The named reference WWed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Alexander Suvorov § Consequences
^ Reding-Biberegg, p. 127 does not include reinforcements from Yakov Povalo-Shveikovsky's division
^ Reding-Biberegg, p. 127
^ Gaston Bodart (Hrsg.): Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905). C. W. Stern, Wien/Leipzig 1908, P. 344 (Battle of Glarus is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive).
^ Petrushevsky. Generalissimo Prince Suvorov (Russian: Генералиссимус князь Суворов; 1884 ed.), vol. 3, ch. 34 (p. 250)
^ Measured by the percentage of fallen and wounded soldiers. Steven T. Ross: The A to Z of the Wars of the French Revolution. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland 2010, ISBN 978-1-4616-7238-8, pp. 20, 36 (Digital link): «bloodiest action of the War of the Second Coalition».
^ Peter Hoffmann: Alexander Suvorov. The undefeated general. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-327-00026-3, p. 6 ("Suvorov never lost a battle as a commander [...]"), 199 (battle of Näfels suppressed).
^ ^a ^b Mikaberidze, Alexander (2003). Lion of the Russian Army: Life and Military Career of Prince General Peter Bagration. Florida State University. pp. 162–165.
^ Resolution of the official reports of Prince Suvorov on his campaign in Switzerland. In: Ludwig Ferdinand Huber (Red.): Allgemeine Zeitung. Stuttgart, December 26, 1799, p. 1593 (Digital link); Georg Fuchs (ed.): Correspondence of the Kai. Soot. Generalissimo, Prince Italiisky Count Alexander Wassiljewitsch Suworoff-Rimniksky on the Russian-Austrian campaign in 1799. [...] Translated from the Russian by a Prussian officer. 2nd part, Carl Heymann, Glogau/Leipzig 1835, P. 223 (Digital link).
^ Alexander Statiev: The Alpine Campaign of 1799 as a Stepping Stone to a Doctrine of Mountain Warfare. In: Tallinn University Press (ed.): Estonian Yearbook of Military History. 9, No. 15, 2019, doi:10.22601/SAA.2019.08.02, p. 29 –65, here p. 54/note 84: «which would have been an admission of total failure».

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[WWed-1] Cite error: The named reference WWed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[2] Alexander Suvorov § Consequences

[4] Reding-Biberegg, p. 127 does not include reinforcements from Yakov Povalo-Shveikovsky's division

[5] Reding-Biberegg, p. 127

[6] Gaston Bodart (Hrsg.): Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905). C. W. Stern, Wien/Leipzig 1908, P. 344 (Battle of Glarus is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive).

[7] Petrushevsky. Generalissimo Prince Suvorov (Russian: Генералиссимус князь Суворов; 1884 ed.), vol. 3, ch. 34 (p. 250)

[9] Measured by the percentage of fallen and wounded soldiers. Steven T. Ross: The A to Z of the Wars of the French Revolution. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland 2010, ISBN 978-1-4616-7238-8, pp. 20, 36 (Digital link): «bloodiest action of the War of the Second Coalition».

[10] Peter Hoffmann: Alexander Suvorov. The undefeated general. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-327-00026-3, p. 6 ("Suvorov never lost a battle as a commander [...]"), 199 (battle of Näfels suppressed).

[:0-11] Mikaberidze, Alexander (2003). Lion of the Russian Army: Life and Military Career of Prince General Peter Bagration. Florida State University. pp. 162–165.

[12] Resolution of the official reports of Prince Suvorov on his campaign in Switzerland. In: Ludwig Ferdinand Huber (Red.): Allgemeine Zeitung. Stuttgart, December 26, 1799, p. 1593 (Digital link); Georg Fuchs (ed.): Correspondence of the Kai. Soot. Generalissimo, Prince Italiisky Count Alexander Wassiljewitsch Suworoff-Rimniksky on the Russian-Austrian campaign in 1799. [...] Translated from the Russian by a Prussian officer. 2nd part, Carl Heymann, Glogau/Leipzig 1835, P. 223 (Digital link).

[13] Alexander Statiev: The Alpine Campaign of 1799 as a Stepping Stone to a Doctrine of Mountain Warfare. In: Tallinn University Press (ed.): Estonian Yearbook of Military History. 9, No. 15, 2019, doi:10.22601/SAA.2019.08.02, p. 29 –65, here p. 54/note 84: «which would have been an admission of total failure».

[a]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[b]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]