Instead of attacking the heavily fortified, walled city, which would result in massive losses of personnel and time, Moreau dislodged Kray's supporting forces defending the Danube passage further east.

The Danube passage connecting Ulm, Donauwörth, Ingolstadt and Regensburg had strategic importance in the ongoing competition for European hegemony between France and the Holy Roman Empire; the army that commanded the Danube, especially its passage through Württemberg and Bavaria, could command access to the important cities of Munich and the seat of Habsburg authority: Vienna.

A Congress convened at Rastatt for the purposes of deciding which southwestern German states would be mediatised to compensate the dynastic houses for territorial losses, but was unable to make any progress.

An uprising in Naples raised further alarms, and recent gains in Switzerland suggested the timing was fortuitous for the French to venture on another campaign in northern Italy and southwestern Germany.

In addition to his Austrian regulars, his force included 12,000 men from the Electorate of Bavaria, 6,000 troops from the Duchy of Württemberg, 5,000 soldiers of low quality from the Archbishopric of Mainz, and 7,000 militiamen from the County of Tyrol.

Unwisely, Kray set up his main magazine at Stockach, near the northwestern end of Lake Constance, only a day's march from French-held Switzerland.

The loss of this main supply base at Stockach compelled Kray to retreat north to Meßkirch, where his army enjoyed a more favorable defensive position.

Fighting at nearby Biberach an der Ris ensued on 9 May; action principally consisted of the 25,000 man-strong French "Center", commanded by Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr against a Habsburg force of similar size.

"[12][non-primary source needed] In his Art of War, Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini also refers to General Dedon-Duclos as having a key role in the French success at Höchstädt.

[14] Kray assumed that Moreau would follow him to the fortress at Ulm, on the Danube, where he arrayed most of the Austrian regulars and Württemberg contingent and supplies.

Several bridges crossed the river between Ulm and Donauwörth, which lay downstream to the east, and each presented a strategic point at which to rupture Kray's potential line of march into Bavaria: Leipheim, Günzburg, Gundelfingen, Lauingen, Dillingen, Höchstädt, Gremheim, and Elchingen.

[16] Moreau appeared to march toward Ulm, which lay some twenty miles east of Sigmaringen and Biberach an der Ris, where his army and Kray's had engaged a few days earlier.

[17] Lecourbe first secured posts in Landsberg and Augsburg, and left sufficient rearguard troops to protect himself from Prince Reuss-Plauen, who remained in the Tyrol, guarding mountain access to Vienna.

General Richepanse protected both shores of the Iller, covering the road from Ulm south to Memmingen, and secured communication with Switzerland; there, he withstood considerable skirmishing with the Austrians.

Emperor Francis II dismissed Pál Kray and appointed his brother, the 18-year-old Archduke John, to command the Austrian army.

The combined efforts forced the Habsburgs to accept an armistice, which ended hostilities for the rest of the summer, but the French extracted massive levies on the Bavarians.

[20] The subsequent Peace of Lunéville stripped Austria of much of her Italian territories, obliged the Habsburgs to recognize the French satellites in the Low Countries, Switzerland, and northern Italy, and laid the groundwork for the mediatization of the small independent ecclesiastical and secular imperial polities by the duchies of Baden and Württemberg, and the Electorate of Bavaria.