French troops had ineffectively besieged the western side of Mainz Fortress since December 1794. However, in early September 1795 the General of Division Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's Army of Sambre-et-Meuse crossed the lower Rhine River and advanced south to the Main River. For the first time Mainz was besieged on the east side of the river, but this state of affairs did not last long. After the Battle of Höchst, Clerfayt forced Jourdan's army to retire to the west bank of the Rhine. With Jourdan temporarily out of the picture, Clerfayt fell on Schaal's somewhat isolated corps and drove it away to the south. During this time the commander of the Army of Rhin-et-Moselle, Pichegru was in treasonous contact with France's enemies, perhaps accounting for Austria's success. The next clash was the Battle of Pfeddersheim on 10 November.
Serbian mercenaries (see: Kočina Krajina Serb rebellion in 1791) under General Major Stephan Bernhard Keglevich did not take part, but were involved as neutral observers (see map below).[citation needed]
Hessian (soldiers) under Colonel Johann Keglevich.[1][2] He was awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresa in 1798 "for by his own initiative undertaken and successfully a campaign significantly affecting feats of arms, which an officer of honor would may have omitted without blame".[3]
Notes
^Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich: Enthaltend die Lebensskizzen der denkwürdigen Personen, welche seit 1750 in den österreichischen Kronländern geboren wurden oder darin gelebt und gewirkt haben, Band 11, Constant von Wurzbach, K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Wien 1864.
^Geschichte des 1. Grossherzoglich hessischen Infanterie- (Leibgarde-) Regiments, Ausgabe 115 der Ausgaben 1621–1899, Carl Christian Röder von Diersburg (Freiherr.), E. S. Mittler 1899.
^Die reiter-regimenter der k.k.österreichischen armee, Andreas Thürheim (Graf.), F.B. Geitler, 1862.
References
Dodge, Theodore Ayrault (2011). Warfare in the Age of Napoleon: The Revolutionary Wars Against the First Coalition in Northern Europe and the Italian Campaign, 1789-1797. Vol. 1. Leonaur Ltd. ISBN978-0-85706-598-8.
Jaques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: F-O. Vol. 2. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 618. ISBN978-0-31333-538-9.
Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011) [1929]. The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I: The Armées du Moselle, du Rhin, de Sambre-et-Meuse, de Rhin-et-Moselle. Vol. 2. Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN978-1-908692-25-2.