After winning a bridgehead on the east bank, the northern French army under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan advanced south to the Main River.

Clerfayt crossed the Main to the east, gaining a dangerously exposed position on the French left flank.

After being repulsed at Höchst, the French withdrew northward, eventually abandoning the east bank of the Rhine altogether.

The operations were designed to catch Feldmarschall Count of Clerfayt's defending Austrian army in a great pincer.

[3] Hemmed in by General of Division François Joseph Lefebvre and 12,600 French troops, Count Hompesch surrendered the Bavarian garrison at Düsseldorf on 21 September.

[3] Despite having a 9,200-man Bavarian garrison, Baron von Belderbusch turned over Mannheim and its 471 guns to the Army of Rhin-et-Moselle after negotiations.

Since the downfall of the Committee of Public Safety and the end of the Reign of Terror in July 1794, the power of the representatives on mission over army generals had declined.

[6] On 24 September, Quosdanovich's 8,000 men overcame 12,000 French soldiers when an Austrian cavalry charge led by Johann von Klenau rode down Dufour's division at the Battle of Handschuhsheim.

While they were waiting, Clerfayt took his Habsburg army south to block further moves by Pichegru against his Heidelberg base.

[3] On 1 October 1795, the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse consisted of the divisions of Generals of Division Lefebvre, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Jean Étienne Championnet, Claude-Sylvestre Colaud, Louis Friant, Paul Grenier, Louis-Auguste Juvénal des Ursins d'Harville, François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, Antoine Morlot, André Poncet and Jacques Louis François Delaistre de Tilly.

[9] Ignoring Frankfurt's neutrality, Clerfayt's troops crossed the Main, circled around the east side of the city and advanced west along the south bank of the Nidda River.

[3] On 11 and 12 October 1795, 10,000 French troops commanded by Kléber tried to overpower an Austrian force defending the line of the Nidda near its confluence with the Main.

The 5,500 defenders, commanded by General-major Adam Boros de Rákos, consisted of one battalion of the Jordis Infantry Regiment Nr.

Despite persistent French assaults, Boros' men held their ground and inflicted losses of 500 killed and wounded on their opponents.

[3] On 13 October at Niedernhausen in the Taunus hills the Austrians attacked the 5,000-man French rear guard in a severe clash.

Generals of Brigade Klein and Charles Joseph Boyé led six infantry battalions, three cavalry regiments and three artillery pieces.

They faced a total of 8,000 Austrians in Boros' command plus General-major Friedrich Joseph, Count of Nauendorf's Observazionkorps.

Nauendorf's troops included two unidentified infantry battalions, four squadrons of Blankenstein Hussar Regiment Nr.

The Republican French force dispersed with the loss of 334 killed and wounded, 134 missing, five guns and 111 wagons, including 80 carrying ammunition.

A portion of Clerfayt's Observazionkorps under General-major Karl Joseph Hadik von Futak was driven off by the rearguard of Lefebvre's division.

Marceau had under his command the 9th Light and 1st, 21st, 26th and 178th Line Demi-Brigades, the 31st Gendsarme Battalion and the 11th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiment.

The general accepted money from a British agent and was in contact with persons who wished for a return to the French monarchy.