Army of The Danube - Crossing The Rhine

Crossing The Rhine

On March 1, 1799, the Army of Observation, in an order of battle of approximately 30,000 men in four divisions, crossed the Rhine River at Kehl and Basel. As units crossed, they took the name Army of the Danube.

• Advance Guard, with approximately 9,000 men under General François Joseph Lefebvre, and temporary commanded by Dominique Vandamme. This also included the detached left flank of 3,000 Vandamme eventually took to Stuttgart.
• I. Division, with approximately 8,000 men under General Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino.
• II. Division, with approximately 7,000 men under General Joseph Souham.
• III. Division, approximately 7,000 men under Laurent Saint-Cyr constituted the left flank.
• Reserve, with approximately 3,000 men under Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul.

The army advanced in four columns. First Division, the right wing, assembled at Hüningen, crossed at Basel and advanced eastward along the north shore of the Rhine River toward Lake Constance. The Advanced Guard crossed at Kehl, and Vandamme led it north-east through the mountains via Freudenstadt. This column eventually became the left flank. It was followed across the Rhine, also at Kehl, by the II. Division. The Third Division and the Reserve also crossed at Kehl, and then divided into two columns, III. Division traveling through the Black Forest via Oberkirch, and the Reserve, with most of the artillery and horse, further south via the valley at Freiburg im Breisgau, where they would find more forage, and then over the mountains past the Titisee to Loffingen and Hüfingen.

Although Jourdan could have established a position on the immediate eastern slope of the mountains—and indeed he might have been better advised to do so—he pushed eastward across the Danube plain, taking a temporary position between Rottweil and Tuttlingen. Eventually he directed the army to establish a line centered in Pfullendorf. He planned to engage the Austrian army under the Habsburg commander-in-chief Archduke Charles on the Ostrach plateau.

While may have seemed like a good plan, Jourdan's choice of ground created problems for him later. The plain below Pfullendorf was riddled with such streams and brooks as the Ostrach, a Danube tributary, which drained out of the marshes and swamps of Pfrungenried; in the spring of most years, this was not the best choice of ground. Although from Pfullendorf and the more moderate heights to the north of the village of Ostrach, Jourdan could establish reasonable artillery positions, the softness of the marshland itself would diminish the impact of a cannonade on the Austrian line. The marsh was also prone to fogginess, which would hinder visual planning and tactics. Furthermore, the softness of the ground would make the use of cavalry difficult, and cavalry maneuvers would be made more difficult by the likelihood of fog. Finally, the major part of Charles' army had wintered immediately east of the Lech River, which Jourdan knew, because he had sent agents into Germany with instructions to identify the location and strength of his enemy. This was less than 64 kilometres (40 mi) distant; any passage over the Lech was facilitated by available bridges, both of permanent construction and temporary pontoons and a traverse through friendly territory.