, commander of the
Army of the Rhine holds a council of war at the Wissembourg lines. The Lines were in length and stretched from
Wissembourg on the west to
Lauterbourg on the east, where they were anchored on the
Rhine River. The French built this chain of fortifications during the
War of the Spanish Succession under the orders of the
Duke of Villars in 1706. During the
War of the Austrian Succession the loss of the Lines by the French played a pivotal role in the
campaign of 1744. French King
Louis XV, in command of an army of 90,000, captured
Menen and
Ypres and prepared to invade the
Austrian Netherlands. He was forced to abandon his invasion plans when
Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, assisted by the veteran
Otto Traun, skillfully manoeuvred his army over the Rhine near
Philippsburg on July 1, and captured the Lines of Wissembourg. This move cut off an army under
Louis, Prince de Conti from
Alsace. Although Conti managed to fight his way through the enemy at Wissembourg and posted himself near
Strasbourg, Louis XV abandoned the invasion of the
Southern Netherlands, and his army moved down to take a decisive part in the war in Alsace and
Lorraine. The Lines were still militarily and strategically significant during the
French Revolutionary Wars. The Lines were stormed on 13 October 1793 by an allied army under Austrian General
Dagobert von Wurmser in the
First Battle of Wissembourg.
The allies were in their turn dispossessed by
Lazare Hoche and
Charles Pichegru in a second
Battle of Wissembourg on 26 December and forced to retreat behind the Rhine. In 1815, after the
Battle of Waterloo, the
Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine advanced into France. On 25 June the
Crown Prince of Württemberg, commander of the Austrian III Corps, advanced towards the Lines in two columns. The first column assembled at
Bergzabern, and the second moved forward by
Niederotterbach. Count Wallmoden was directed to advance upon
Lauterbourg. The Crown Prince advanced his Corps still further along the
Hagenau road. His advanced guard pushed on to
Inglesheim, and the main body of the III Corps reached the Lines. The French under General
Jean Rapp abandoned the Lines in the night and fell back upon the
Forest of Hagenau, occupying the large village of
Surbourg. By 1870 the Lines no longer existed, but the two central forts in the towns of Wissembourg and Altenstadt, still possessed fortifications that proved useful defensive positions during the
Battle of Wissembourg. On 4 August 1870 the Germans under the Crown Prince of Prussia, afterwards the emperor
Frederick III, gained the
first victory of the war over a French corps (part of the army commanded by
Patrice de MacMahon) under General
Abel Douay, who was killed early in the engagement. ==Notes==