The clash between the French Republican forces and the armies of Prussia and Habsburg Austria was fought over several days (13 to 17 July) in the lower Vosges Mountains in the German states west of the Rhine River.

Fighting occurred across a wide front and included action in Kaiserslautern, Trippstadt, Schänzel and Neustadt and along the banks of the Speyerbach River.

[4] By the summer of 1794, conflict in this theater of the war had reached a stalemate with armies facing each other in the Palatinate Forest of the lower Vosges Mountains.

Disagreement as to the best offensive punch ensued, and the council ultimately decided to attempt a plan favoured by General Desaix with the cavalry leading the attack on the enemy’s left by means of the Rhine flood plain.

[6] At Michaud’s next council of war, new plans were made to attack the coalition lines stretching from Kaiserslautern in the mountains, south to Trippstadt, down to the Rhine flood plain at Neustadt and along the Speyerbach River.

General Michaud planned to continue the battle and attack the Prussians at Kaiserslautern on 16 July but overnight the evening before Hohenlohe retreated out of the mountains to Frankenthal on the Rhine.

With their northern flank now dangerously exposed, the coalition armies in the Upper Rhine withdrew east to the fortified city of Mainz.