Battle of Zusmarshausen

Battle of Zusmarshausen
Part of the Thirty Years' War
Date17 May 1648
Location
Zusmarshausen, near Augsburg (present-day Germany)
Result French-Swedish victory
Belligerents
Sweden Sweden
 France		  Bavaria
 Holy Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Kingdom of France Vicomte de Turenne
Sweden Carl Gustaf Wrangel		 Holy Roman Empire Peter Melander von Holzappel †
Holy Roman Empire Raimondo Montecuccoli
Bavaria Jost Maximilian von Bronckhorst-Gronsfeld [de]
Strength

22,000

  • 7,500 infantry
  • 14,500 cavalry[1]

15,370–18,000[2]

  • 8,150 infantry
  • 7,220 cavalry[1]
Casualties and losses
500[3]–2,000[4] 1,897[5]–2,200[2]
6 Guns

The Battle of Zusmarshausen was fought on 17 May 1648 between Bavarian-Imperial forces under von Holzappel and an allied Franco-Swedish army under the command of Carl Gustaf Wrangel and Turenne in the modern Augsburg district of Bavaria, Germany. The allied force emerged victorious, and the Imperial army was only rescued from annihilation by the stubborn rearguard fighting of Raimondo Montecuccoli and his cavalry.[6]

Zusmarshausen was the last major battle of the war to be fought on German soil during the Thirty Years' War, and was also the largest battle (in terms of numbers of men involved; casualties were relatively light) to take place in the final three years of the war.

  1. ^ a b Wilson, Peter (2010). Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War. Penguin Books. pp. 738–740.
  2. ^ a b Grant 2017, p. 344.
  3. ^ Höfer 1998, p. 195.
  4. ^ Ivonina 2015, p. 35.
  5. ^ Wilson, Peter (2010). Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War. Penguin Books. pp. 740–741.
  6. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Montecucculi, Raimondo, Count of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 764–765, midway down. ...and at the battle of Zusmarshausen in 1648 his stubborn rearguard fighting rescued the imperialists from annihilation