In the meantime, the Army of Helvetia, under command of André Masséna, would secure such strategic locations as St. Gotthard Pass, the Swiss Plateau, and upper Rhine basin.

Initially, such rulers of Europe as Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor viewed the revolution in France as an event between the French king and his subjects, and not something in which they should interfere.

Compounding internal economic and social problems, French émigrés agitated abroad for support of a counter-revolution that would restore an absolute monarchy.

From their base in Koblenz, immediately over the French border, they sought direct support for military intervention from the royal houses of Europe, and themselves raised a small army.

Ferdinand of Naples refused to pay tribute to France, followed by a general Neapolitan rebellion, the French suppression, and the subsequent establishment of the Parthenopean Republic.

On his way to Egypt, Napoleon had stopped on Malta and forcibly removed the Hospitallers from their possessions, angering Paul, Tsar of Russia, who was the honorary head of the Order.

[3] Military planners in Paris understood that the northern Rhine Valley, the south-western German territories, and Switzerland were strategically important for the defense of the Republic.

Finally, control of the Upper Danube would allow France to move its troops from Italy to the North Sea, or any point in between, offering immense strategic value.

[5] Jourdan's orders were to take the army into Germany and secure strategic positions, particularly on the roads through Stockach and Schaffhausen, at the westernmost border of Lake Constance.

These positions would prevent the Allies of the Second Coalition from moving troops back and forth between the northern Italian and German theaters, and insure French access to these strategic passes.

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 Löffingen and Hüfingen.

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.

Finally, the major part of Charles' army had wintered immediately east of the Lech, which Jourdan knew, because he had sent agents into Germany with instructions to identify the location and strength of his enemy.

The French suffered significant losses and were forced to retreat from the region, taking up new positions at Messkirch (also spelled Mößkirch or Meßkirch), and then at Stockach and Engen.

From there, General Jourdan relegated command of the army to his chief of staff, Jean Augustin Ernouf, and traveled to Paris to ask for more and better troops and, ultimately, when these were not forthcoming, to request a medical leave.

This would ostensibly isolate the armies of the Coalition in northern Italy and Germany, and prevent them from assisting one another; furthermore, if the French held the interior passes in Switzerland, they could use the routes to move their own forces between the two theaters.

[15] That evening, after more than 15 hours in general engagement, the Austrians flanked his left wing, and Saint Cyr's force was pressed back to the Pfullendorf heights.

[16] Although casualties appeared even in numbers for both sides, the Austrians fielded a significantly larger fighting force of nearly 55,000 at Ostrach, with another 60,000 stretched along a line between Lake Constance and Ulm.

The Archduke himself led eight battalions of Hungarian grenadiers into the fight, and during this part of the action, both the Prince of Anhalt and Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg were killed by French case shot.

[22] On the French right flank, General Ferino attempted to push the Austrians back, first with a cannonade, followed by an attack through the woods on both sides of the road between the hamlet of Asch and Stockach.

A third charge succeeded in taking the road, but the Habsburg forces reformed the line and the artillery, now at the head of a wedge, bombarded the French troops.

[24] By mid-May, 1799, the Austrians had wrested control of the eastern portions of the newly formed Helvetic Republic from the French as the forces of Hotze and pushed them out of the Grisons.

[25] Masséna sent the newly promoted General of Division Michel Ney and part of the Army of the Danube to Winterthur on 27 May 1799 to stop the Austrian advance from eastern Switzerland.

Opposite him, Michel Ney deployed his force around the heights, the so-called Ober-Winterthur, a ring of low-lying hills some 6 kilometers (4 mi) north of the city.

[34] Despite Hotze's aggressive harassment of the French retreat, Charles did not follow up on the withdrawal; Masséna established himself on the opposite bank of the Limmat without threat of pursuit from the main body of the Habsburg Army, much to the annoyance of the Russian liaison officer, Alexander Ivanovich, Count Ostermann-Tolstoy.

In Italy, the Russian generalissimo, Alexander Suvorov, was horrified when he heard this: he depended upon a stable Austro-Russian presence in Switzerland to protect his flank and he expected to join this army by September or October at the latest.

Baron von Hotze, commander of the Habsburg force there, advanced on the position near Richterswil to direct its defense, and was killed by a French musket ball.

[42] By the time Suvorov arrived in St. Gallen in early October, the Austrians and the Russians had been pushed out and he was forced to lead his men over the Alps to the Vorarlberg, resulting in additional losses.

Lecourbe, who had been injured at Stockach, had withdrawn to Paris to recover; in a strategically astute move, he remained there until late November, when he was able to offer Napoleon direct assistance in his coup, and thus acquired Bonaparte's attention and gratitude.