Siege of Landau (1793)

This article is about the siege in 1793. For the siege in 1702, see Siege of Landau (1702).

Date	20 August – 23 December 1793
Location	Landau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Result	French victory

Belligerents

Republican France

Kingdom of Prussia

Commanders and leaders

Joseph Laubadère

Prince Hohenlohe

Strength

3,800

25 battalions

Rhine Campaign of 1793-94

Mainz 1st Arlon Landau Pirmasens 1st Wissembourg Fort-Louis Biesingen Haguenau 1st Kaiserslautern Froeschwiller 2nd Wissembourg 2nd Arlon 2nd Kaiserslautern Vosges 3rd Kaiserslautern Luxembourg

War of the First Coalition

The Siege of Landau (20 August – 23 December 1793) saw a corps from the Kingdom of Prussia commanded by Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen lay siege to a 3,800-man French Republican garrison led by Joseph Marie Tennet de Laubadère. Since the Prussians lacked siege cannons, they tried to starve the French defenders into surrender by blockading the city. In late December, the French Army of the Moselle under Lazare Hoche and Army of the Rhine under Jean-Charles Pichegru defeated the Coalition armies opposed to them, forcing the Prussians to raise the War of the First Coalition siege.

Almost two months after Landau was surrounded, the Coalition army won a victory in the First Battle of Wissembourg, driving the Army of the Rhine deep into Alsace. The French government placed a priority on relieving Landau, so Pichegru's army began a sustained offensive against Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser's Coalition army in the Battle of Haguenau. The effort finally succeeded when Hoche's army outflanked Wurmser in the Battle of Froeschwiller and then the combined French armies won the Second Battle of Wissembourg over Wurmser and Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in late December.

Forces

Joseph Marie Tennet de Laubadère commanded the 3,800-strong French garrison of Landau. The force included one battalion each of the 3rd and 55th Line Infantry Regiments, the 2nd Battalion of the Seine-et-Marne National Guard and two squadrons each of the 22nd Cavalry and 3rd Hussar Regiments. To oppose the defenders, Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen led 25 Prussian battalions supported by 40 6-pounder field cannons. Hohenlohe's force consisted of three battalions each of Infantry Regiments Thadden Nr. 3, Manstein Nr. 9, Romberg Nr. 10, Kleist Nr. 12, Wegnern Nr. 30, Hohenlohe Nr. 32, Wolframsdorf Nr. 37 and Hertzberg Nr. 47, the Schladen Grenadier Battalion and five foot artillery batteries.^[1]

Notes

↑ Smith (1998), p. 65

References

Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011). The Armies of the First French Republic: Volume II The Armées du Moselle, du Rhin, de Sambre-et-Meuse, de Rhin-et-Moselle. USA: Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908692-25-2.
Rickard, J. (2009). "Battle of Wissembourg or The Geisberg, 25-26 December 1793". historyofwar.org. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.

Coordinates: 49°12′N 8°7′E / 49.200°N 8.117°E / 49.200; 8.117

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