Battle of Hohenlinden

Battle of Hohenlinden
Part of the War of the Second Coalition
Moreau at Hohenlinden (Galerie des Batailles, Palace of Versailles)
Date 3 December 1800 Location Hohenlinden, east of Munich 48°09′35″N 11°59′53″E / 48.15972°N 11.99806°E / 48.15972; 11.99806 Result French victory[1][2]
Belligerents
France	Austria Bavaria
Commanders and leaders
Jean Moreau	Archduke John
Strength
Total: 53,595 41,990 infantry 11,805 cavalry 99 guns[3]	Total: 60,261 46,130 infantry 14,131 cavalry 214 guns[4]
Casualties and losses
2,500-3,000[5] dead or wounded 1 gun	Total: 13,550-15,500[6]  • 11,860 Austrians  • 1,868 Bavarians 4,600-5,500[6] dead or wounded  • 4,665 Austrians[7]  • 114 Bavarians[7] 8,950-10,000[6] captured  • 7,195 Austrians[7]  • 1,754 Bavarians[7] 76 guns
class=notpageimage| Location within Europe

War of the Second Coalition:
Austria

200km
125miles

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The color black indicates the current battle.

The Battle of Hohenlinden was fought on 3 December 1800^[8] during the French Revolutionary Wars. A French army under Jean Victor Marie Moreau won a decisive victory over an Austrian and Bavarian force led by 18-year-old Archduke John of Austria. The allies were forced into a disastrous retreat that compelled them to request an armistice, effectively ending the War of the Second Coalition. Hohenlinden is 33 km east of Munich in modern Germany.

General of Division Moreau's 56,000-strong army engaged some 64,000 Austrians and Bavarians. The Austrians, believing they were pursuing a beaten enemy, moved through heavily wooded terrain in four disconnected columns. Moreau ambushed the Austrians as they emerged from the Ebersberg forest while launching Antoine Richepanse's division in a surprise envelopment of the Austrian left flank. Displaying superb individual initiative, Moreau's generals managed to encircle and smash the largest Austrian column.

This crushing victory, coupled with the narrow French victory at the Battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800, ended the War of the Second Coalition. In February 1801, the Austrians signed the Treaty of Lunéville,^[8] accepting French control up to the Rhine and the French puppet republics in Italy and the Netherlands. The subsequent Treaty of Amiens between France and Britain began the longest break in the wars of the Napoleonic period.