Initial action at Mannheim resulted in a minor skirmish, but the Bavarian commander negotiated a quick truce with the French and withdrew.

On 17 October 1795, 17,000 Habsburg Austrian troops under the command of Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser engaged 12,000 soldiers, led by Jean-Charles Pichegru in the grounds outside the city of Mannheim.

Baron von Belderbusch, the commander, entered into negotiations with the French, surrendering Mannheim and its 471 guns on 20 September without resistance.

By sheer weight of numbers, Wurmser drove them from their encampment; 10,000 of them retreated into the city of Mannheim and the rest scattered to join other forces near Mainz and Pfeddersheim.

[1] The siege of Mannheim (18 October – 22 November 1795) began when 17,000 Habsburg Austrian troops under Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser defeated 12,000 Republican French soldiers led by Jean-Charles Pichegru.

After a month-long siege, the 10,000-strong Republican French garrison of Anne Charles Basset Montaigu surrendered to 25,000 Austrians commanded by Wurmser.

Clerfayt advanced with 75,000 Coalition troops south along the west bank of the Rhine against Pichegru's 37,000-man strong defenses behind the Pfrimm River near Worms.

At the Battle of Frankenthal (13–14 November 1795), an Austrian victory forced Pichegru to abandon his last defensive position north of Mannheim.

[7] The Coalition's successful conclusion of the battle and subsequent siege brought to an end French incursions west of the Rhine in 1795.

In a decree on 6 January 1796, Lazare Carnot, one of the five French directors, again gave Germany priority over Italy as a theater of war.

The French First Republic's finances were in poor shape, so its armies would be expected to invade new territories and then live off the conquered lands, as they had been instructed to do in 1795.