received orders, on the twenty-feventh, to return from Offenburgh to Kehl, and, marching up from ther ce along the banks of the Rhine by forced marches, he arrived, at Fribourg on the thirtieth of April. General St. Cyr, who had reached Fribourg without lofing a man, purfued, meanwhile, that courfe of march, which was neceflary to form the junction of the whole army, between Shwetlingen and Schaffhaufen, near the Lake of Conftance. The divifion, under the immediate command of Moreau, croffed the Rhine, at Bafle, and proceeded, without any confiderable oppofition, to the point where the various divifions were to meet. General Lecourbe, with the divifion under his command, croffed the Rhine between Schaffhaufen and Stein, and, after fome fighting and making a good number of prifoners, the whole army, with the exception of the corps under general St. Sufanne, was affembled at, and in the environs of, Schaffhaufen. In the courfe of tefe various marches, the French took fifteen hundred prison, ers, and fix pieces of cannon. The divifion, under Lecourbe, likewife took, by capitulation, the caftle of Hohenweil, in which there were eighty pieces of cannon. The great magazines of the Auftrians were at Kampten, a town in Upper Suabia. The French general directing his march towards this point, with a view to cut off general Kray from his principal depot, or, at leaft, in the mean time, to effect the main object of occupying the whole of his force and attention in Germany, drove all the Auftrian advanced pofts before him, and advanced to attack the imperialifts at Stockach. The mafterly manoeuvres of Mo reau had completely deceived ge ner Kray, refpecting the plan of attack meditated by the French. In an official account, published in the Vienna Court Gazette, of the third of May, we find the general announcing the paffage of the Rhine, on the twenty-fifth, and that, in confequence of having foreseen this manœuvre, he had fent a great body of troops to prevent the French from following up their plan of extending themfelves in the neighbourhood of Raftadt. He confdered the feint made, by general Sufanne's divifion, as the main attack, and concentrated all his forces at Donaweefchingen, at the moment when, under cover of that feint, Moreau was enabled, as juft obferved, to cross the Rhine at a point, which enabled him completely to turn the pofition of the Aufirian army. The confequences of Moreau's plan were immediate. General Kray was compelled to decamp precipitately from Donaweelchingen, in order to oppofe the progrets of the French army, leaving in their hands, in abandoning his pofition at Donaweefchingen, a great part of what is called the angle of Suabia. The Auftriam magazines and ftores were either conveyed away in hafte, left behind, or destroyed. The left wing of the French, under general Sufanne, on the third of May, entered Donaweefchingen, which had been evacuated by the Auftrians, and prefed upon their rear, ftretching out his flanks, at the fame time, to the main body of Moreau's army, endeavoured to establish themfelves in the lines of Stockach, in order to oppofe the lines of the enemy. On the third of May, a part of the French army attacked 1 Kray. The lofs on both fides muft, by all accounts, have been great, Mr. Wickham, the British narrator of thele engagements, affirmed, in his difpatches to our cout, “ that few prisoners were male on either fie;" while Moreau alerted, that, in the two engagements, the French made no lefs than about ten thoufand prifoners. The exaggeration in both thele accounts is obvious. We have not been able, from any statements we have yet received, to atcertain the truth, or any thing near it, on this fubject. In this laft aétion, denominated the battle of Mofskirk, the Bavarian fubli iaries fought with fuch fpirit, as excited the praise of their fellow combatants. The Swils regiment of Roverea alfo particularly diftinguished itself. attacked the poft at Stockach. The force that defended it, under the orders of prince Jofeph of Lorraine, being too weak, was foon overpowered, and obliged to retreat, with confiderable lots. The poft, at Engen, was commanded by general Kray in perfon. He was attacked, on the fourth, by Moreau, who, in repeated charges, loft a great number of men. In the courte of these conflicts, a body of the Auftrian army, under the archduke Ferdinand, in their retreat from Donaweefchingen, were attacked, in their rear, by general Sufanne's divifion, and nearly cut off The archduke, on this occafion, difplayed that perfonal bravery, which diftinguishes the princes of his houfe. By great exertions of judgement, and prefence of mind, as well as valour, he was enabled to join the main army. General Kray mantained his poft, and prevented the enemy from making any great impreflion, and kept the field during the night. But, at day-break, he thought it prudent to commence a retreat; which he had continued to the length of about fifteen miles, when he was again attacked, on The Auftrians, in their retreat. the fifth, by the indefatigable Mo- from Motskirk, were purfied by a reau; one of whofe leading maxims divition of the French, under geneit appears to have been, to hang on ral Ney, who took fifteen hundred and harafs the enemy, at every prfoners. A very serious engageturn, and in every fortune, and to ment was the confequence of an give him no refpite either for the opportunity afforded to the French execution, or even the formation, of attacking the Aufirian advanced of new defigns. Being ably allifted pofts, on the ninth of May, at Biby Lecourbe, he made fome impref- berach. The refult of tans battle fon on the Auftrian battalions, not- was, that the Auftrians were forced withfunding their intrepid exer- to retreat with the lofs of above tions: but, though fuperior in nun- one thouland killed on the spot, and bers, he did not think it proper to above two thousand prifoners. Anorenew the combat on the following ther bloody engagement took place, day. His lofs was fuppofed to have on the eleventh, near Memmingen. been greater than that of general On the termination of this battle, Mr. Wickham reported, that, in the battle of Molskirk, the French were repulled. The Auftrians, however, on the day thereafter, fixth of May, retreated across the Danube, here a fmall fiream, to the ground between Sigmaringen and Reitlingen, a distance of at leaft fifteen miles farther. general general Moreau wrote, by the telegraph, to the French minifter of war, as follows: "The right wing of the army, commanded by general Lecourbe, attacked the enemy on the twenty-firft of Floreal (eleventh of May), in their pofition at Memmingen. They were completely beaten. Memmingen has been taken, more than two thoufand prifoners have been made, and a great number of dead were left on the field of battle." The accounts of the Auftrians ftate, that the advantage in this action was ou their fide. However this may be, general Kray, leaving a confiderable body of troops, under general Mereveldt, to keep up the communication with general Reufs in the Voralberg, retreated to Ulm, for the protection of his magazines there. At Ulm he was joined by general Sztarray, with the troops under his command, and fix thouland Bavarian and Wirtemburg auxiliaries, under the orders of the baron de Deux-Ponts. The main body of the imperial army was pofted at Phuel, half a league from Ulm. This city had a garrifon of ten thoufand men, commanded by general Petrarfch and major Davidovich. General Sztarray, with additional troops, railed the number of the garrifon, which came under his command, to the number of eighteen thoufand. The gates were guarded by the auxiliaries. The French were also concentrated on the territory of the imperial city of Ulm, near Rheineck, little more than a league from Ulm. In this fituation of the two armies, it feemed that the French were defirous of giving battle to general Kray, who, on the other hand, was defirous to avoid it, until the rein forcements promifed, and part of which were on their way, fhould arrive from Auftria. Six battalions of infantry, of the garrifon of Vienna, were on their march, and to be followed by fix more, and five fquadrons of cuiraffiers. The garrifons of the cities in Auftria, Bohemia, and Moravia, we repairing partly to the Danube, and partly to the Adige, on each of which rivers there was to be formed a body of referve. As no inviting circumftances for an attack were prefented to efther party, both generals contented themfelves with mutual obfervation, while terror and confternation prevailed throughout the circle of Suabia. But this state of inaction and repofe, if it comforted the Auftrians with the hope of fuccours, was ftill more advantageous to the cause of the invaders, who laid the whole of Franconia and Suabia under fevere contribution, intercepted the fupplies, and took or deftroyed not a few of the Auftrian magazines, fupported themfelves at the expenfe of the Germans, kept the grand Auftrian army in check, and on a conflant alert, and prevented general Kray from fending any confiderable detachment to Italy. In the mean time, the plan of co-operation, concerted between Buonaparte and Moreau, began to be pretty clearly developed. While Moreau ftill made a fhew of directing the main force of his army to the countries on the left bank of the Rhine, he began to detach part of his troops towards the Lake of Constance: whither be afterwards withdrew with the main body, with an intention to remain on the defenfive, and favour, as much as poffible, the ope ration of the campaign in Italy General General St. Sufanne, with the divifion of the French army under his command, had always remained on the left bank of the Danube, in the neighbourhood of Geifligen, which was his head-quarters. While the attention of the Auftrians was occupied by a great deal of manoeuvring and fkirmishing in that quar ter, and other demonftrations of a defign to penetrate into the heart of Germany, and to the capital, ftretched off, by degrees, along the courfe of the Iller, by Memmingen and Kampten, to the Lake of Conftance. By cutting off prince Reufs from general Kray, and keeping the commander-in-chief fo long in check, he had already enabled divifions or detachments, from his army, to get poffeffion of Aufburgli, Lindau, Bregentz, Fieldkirk, and other pofts, which might be confidered as the keys of the Grifons and the Tyrol, through which countries it would now be in his power to communicate with Buonaparte, by this time defcending from the fummit of the Alps into the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy. For nearly two months Moreau had fought nothing farther than to amufe general Kray by marches and countermarches, by threatened fieges, and ham irruptions, to alarm the Auftrians for the fafety of the hereditary states, and prevent them from paying any attention to the affairs of Italy. After the battle of Maringo, he was at liberty to act with more enterprize and vigour. The armistice in Italy did not extend to Germany; and the last, and one of the most important articles in the convention, as above observed, prevented either party from fending detachments to that quarter. This condition was evidently in favour of the Auftrians; but there were other circumftances equally encouraging to the French commander. A fmall body of men remained, organized, at Dijon, after the departure of Buonaparte, and its numbers had been fince very confiderably increafed. This body had already made a movement from Dijon towards a point from whence it could go to the affiftance of either army, and now it received orders to repair to the banks of the Iller; and the very fuccefs and fplendour of Buonaparte's enterprize, raifed the Ipirits of Frenchmen to an enthu fiafm, which nothing could withftand, that was not in its nature impoffible. The victories, the conquefts, and the pofitions of the French at this time, were indeed fuch as might have infpired a lefs fanguine and volatile nation with confidence in government, political and military, and the genius of France under proper direction.Switzerland was in their hands, and formed a most important point of communication between the armies in Italy and Suabia. They were in poffeffion of both fides of the Lake of Conftance. All Suabia was in their hands. A corps of troops, in Switzerland, was ready to attack the Grifons. A detachment of twenty-five thousand men, from the Milanefe, was marching through the Valtelline for the fame purpofe.— The right wing of Moreau's army, threatened the Auftrian pofitions in the Tyrol, upon the north-weft: in a word, the French armies, from the fhores of the Mediterrancan to the Danube, and even the Lower Rhine, formed but one compact force, without any points to interrupt their correfpondence, and without any obftacle to their entire cooperation. operation. On the whole, general chief conful, he determined to make Moreau being now without any ularm for the army of referve, or any reftraint impofed upon his operations, by a concern for its prefervation, but, on the contrary, firengthened by its co-operation on the tide of the Grifons and the Tyrolefe, was now at liberty to unfold the onterprize of his character, after a difplay of the most confummate prudence. He prepared to crufs the Danube, and, if pollible, to bring general Kray to a decitive action. For this at purpose, on the eighteenth of June, he fent the right wing of his army, under Lecourbe, over the river below Ulm, between Dillingen and the celel rated village of bienheim: by this movement, threatening to cut off general Kray from his magazines at Donawert and Ration, as well as from his expected reinforcements. The main body crofled at a point nearer to Ulm. The motives or views of general Moreau, in this ftep, he explains in a letter addrefied to the chief conful, bearing date the twenty-fecond of June: "He had obferved," he fays, that the Aufian army kept clofe to its camp at Ulm, which gave it the advantage of eafy openings on both fides of the Danube, while it confequently prevented the French from making any confiderable progress in Germany. General Moreau had made a movement, in order to induce the enemy to give battle near Blaubeuven, which he declined. Fearing that general Kray might avail intelf of that movement, in order to advance upon Memmingen, connect imfelf with the Tyrol, and fend down a corps of troops into Italy, that night have very much embarrufled the general Lecourbe execute feveral maneuvres on the Leck, in the Lopes that he should thereby force general Kray to march to protect bavaria; but he continued to ma vre in the French rear. Imagiuing that an opportunity was prefented of gaining a confiderable advantage, he made an attack on Moreau's left wing, on the fifth of June, but was to bravely opposed by general Richenparfe and other oh.cers, that he was obliged to retreat with precipitation, and repafs the Danube. General Moreau then formed the project of compelling him to withdraw, or come to a battle." In the execution of this defign, a feries of actions took place for four fucceffive days, on the famous plains of Blenheim or Hock ftat; in which the Auftrians loft, in killed, wounded, and prifoners, not lefs than five or fix thousand men; and the French, at least, as was computed, half that number. The Auftrian divifions, under the generals Sztarray and Nauendorf, being cut off from the main army, general Kray was reduced to the neceffity of leaving Ulm to the protection of a garrifon. The blockade of Um was now carried on by general Richenpanfe. General Kray, after feveral very fevere actions on the left fide of the Danube, retreated, with his reduced ariny, to Ingot |