On a side stage of world history, a former aide-de-camp to Napoleon at La Souffel achieved what his mentor, role model and emperor was denied: a victory over (numerically superior) allied troops. This victory by General Jean Rapp, who came from Colmar in Upper Alsace, was ultimately of no political significance, but showed what Napoleon’s soldiers were still capable of achieving under skillful leadership.
When Napoleon was able to seize power in France after his return from exile on Elba, he made the strategic decision to take swift action against the most threatening Allied concentration of forces: Wellington’s and Blücher’s troops in Belgium. He did not wait for the further reconstruction of the French armed forces, but concentrated his best forces in the Northern Army under his personal command: 128,000 men, almost all of whom were veterans of previous campaigns. Several tens of thousands of line troops and National Guards remained in France, scattered among many larger and smaller garrisons and depots. The most important reserve was under the command of Marshal Nicholas Davout. In his triple function as Minister of War, Commander of the National Guard and Governor of Paris, he had 20,000 men under his direct command.
In contrast, the euphemistically named “armies”, which were to observe, delay and repel the advance of the Allies on France’s borders, looked relatively modest. In fact, these armies were more like corps strength, sometimes only division strength, sometimes not even that. For example, General Lamarque and the “Armée de l’Ouest” (10,000 men) were to put down an uprising of Bourbon insurgents in the Vendée (western France). General Lecourbe covered the Burgundian Gate and the Swiss border with the “Armée du Jura” (8,400 men). Two formations were deployed to secure the Pyrenean passes: the 6,800-strong “Armée des Pyrenees Occidentales” under General Clausel and the 7,600-strong “Armée des Pyrenees Orientales” under General Decaen. Marshal Brune stood on the Riviera with the 5,500-strong “Armée du Var”. Marshal Suchet was tasked with securing the Alpine passes and countering an expected Allied attack on Lyon. He had the 23,500-strong “Armée des Alpes” at his disposal for this purpose. The greatest threat, however, was Prince Schwarzenberg’s army, made up of troops from the Austrian Emperor and the southern German princes, which numbered over 200,000 men. Their advance across the Rhine was to be stopped by the “Armée du Rhin” in Alsace (and at the same time secure the important arms manufacturing site of Klingenthal). It numbered between 23,000 and 24,000 men and was led by deserving commanders, headed by Jean Rapp. https://militaeraktuell.at/nur-noch-ein-monat-bis-zur-airpower-2024/ Rapp was born on April 27, 1771 as the son of a Colmar town servant and had an impressive military career behind him. Wounded many times – in Warsaw in 1806 they wanted to amputate his arm, which had been badly blistered by a bullet, but Rapp refused – he had also served for a time as Napoleon’s “aide-de-camp” (= adjutant). With Napoleon’s full confidence and local knowledge (as well as both arms), he set about his mission. The reorganization of the National Guard in Alsace had been entrusted to a relative of Rapp’s from Colmar, General Jean-Jacques Kessel. One of Rapp’s subordinate generals was Henri Rottembourg, born in Phalsbourg (Pfalzburg) in Lorraine in 1769, who had worked his way up from a simple soldier to general. He served in the Imperial Guard for several years and was accepted into the “Légion d’honneur”. In 1811, he reached the rank of brigadier general – he was the first French general of Jewish faith. Rapp did not stay in the fortress city of Strasbourg, he marched north and succeeded in making contact with the French fortress of Landau, which was prudently defended by “General de Brigade” Michael Geither (a Palatine). During a battle, “Chef d’Escadron” Wilhelm von Türckheim (son of an Alsatian nobleman and Goethe’s former fiancée, Lili Schönemann) captured the Bavarian outpost at Godramstein. Rapp was moving through the area around Weißenburg when orders arrived from his emperor, who had just been defeated at Waterloo.
Napoleon ordered Rapp to march on Paris with his troops as quickly as possible, but in the meantime the Allies were able to occupy Nancy and thus cut off Rapp’s route of march, who remained in Strasbourg and the surrounding area with his troops. However, Rapp only carried out these maneuvers with the cavalry (a light cavalry division under Comte Christophe Antoine Merlin) and the three line divisions under his command; the division of the National Guard (six battalions with a total of 3,000 men under Alsatian General Sigismond Frédéric de Berckheim), made up exclusively of Alsatians, remained in Upper Alsace to cover Colmar. The French fought several retreat battles against the Allies in northern Lower Alsace, Rapp took up a position near Brumath, but abandoned it. He moved closer to Strasbourg again.
There is a primary source for the course of the battles at the eponymous river La Souffel: the memoirs of General Rapp, published just a few years later (1823). Although it should be taken with a grain of salt in places, it describes how Rapp was able to achieve success against superior enemy forces by focusing his efforts and making targeted use of his reserves, entirely in the spirit and manner of his imperial mentor. On June 28, 1815, his three divisions were opposed by the three divisions of the Württemberg Corps (one from Württemberg, one from Austria and one from Hesse-Darmstadt), which were commanded by the Crown Prince of Württemberg, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Karl. The head strength of the Allied divisions was considerably higher, and they were also more heavily equipped with artillery. With around 20,000 men, Rapp took up a position opposite around 40,000 Allied soldiers. Rapp positioned his 15th Division (the general of this division was the aforementioned Henri Rottembourg) so that its right flank leaned against the Ill River, the center covered Hoenheim and the left flank was at Souffelweyersheim. It was joined to the west by the 16th Division (“General de Division” Joseph Jean-Baptiste Albert) at Lampertheim, Mundolsheim and Hausbergen. From Molsheim, the 17th Division (“General de Division” Charles Grandjean) advanced in columns, accompanied by two regiments of cavalry. Two further cavalry regiments stood in reserve (near Bischheim) behind the 15th Division. The battle began with Allied attacks against Lampertheim, which was held by a battalion of the French 10th Light Regiment. Against overwhelming enemy superiority, the battalion had to retreat and fell back to Mundolsheim. The Allies advanced from the north (along the Brumath road) and from the north-east (along the Bischwiller road), the operational objective was to separate the 15th and 16th Divisions in order to then wear down the 16th Division further west. https://militaeraktuell.at/thales-soldatenfunkgeraete-bundesheer/ The attack by the 32nd Line Regiment gave Rapp’s army some breathing space and General Rottemboug was able to take back his left wing. When the French 36th Line Regiment then withdrew from Souffelweyersheim to support the hard-pressed 10th Light Regiment, Austrian troops entered the village. In the changeable maneuvers around Souffelweyersheim, the Austrian division offered an unsecured flank, which was the opportunity Rapp had been waiting for. He ordered his cavalry reserve, the 11th Dragoon Regiment and the 7th Chasseur-a-cheval Regiment to attack. He himself rode at the head of the attack. The Allied cavalry was thrown, and the subsequent column attack by the 32nd French Line Regiment caused the Allied front to falter and they withdrew. The French losses amounted to 510 dead and around 2,500 wounded (according to another source, only around 750 men), while the Allied losses are said to have totaled 2,100 dead and wounded.
Rapp was unable to take advantage of his tactical success; the Württembergers burned Souffelweyersheim as a reprisal, accusing its inhabitants of having fired on the Allied soldiers. The Crown Prince (from 1816 as Wilhelm I, the second King of Württemberg) had the mayor of Souffelweyersheim, George Schaeffer, arrested along with 17 other citizens and sentenced to death by firing squad on the same charge. However, he desisted when the Protestant pastor of Vendenheim, Pastor Philipp Friedrich Dannenberger, asked for mercy for his Catholic compatriots. Dannenberger was later made a Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French crown for his intervention. The Württemberg corps withdrew to be replaced by the Baden-Austrian corps under the command of Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver von Hohenzollern-Hechingen. On July 24, Rapp concluded an armistice with Prince Hohenzollern after news arrived of the occupation of the capital Paris by Prussian troops. His soldiers refused to demobilize as they feared they would no longer receive their outstanding pay. They mutinied (without bloodshed) under the leadership of a non-commissioned officer, but then gave in. On October 1, 1815, Napoleon’s last soldiers withdrew from Strasbourg. Rapp was soon back in the good graces of the Bourbon ruler Louis XVIII, who became a deputy of Upper Alsace and temporarily held the court office of chamberlain and “Maître de la Garde-robe”. Rapp died of stomach cancer on November 8, 1821 in Rheinweiler, Baden, in the same year as his mentor and patron Napoleon Bonaparte, whose cause of death was most likely also this treacherous disease.
