 The armies of the First Coalition included the imperial contingents and the infantry and cavalry of the various states , amounting to about 125 @,@ 000 ( including the three autonomous corps ) , a sizable force by eighteenth century standards but a moderate force by the standards of the Revolutionary wars . In total , though , Charles ’ troops stretched in a line from Switzerland to the North Sea and Wurmser ’ s troops stretched from the Swiss @-@ Italian border to the Adriatic ; furthermore , a portion of the troops in Fürstenberg ’ s corps were pulled in July to support Wurmser ’ s activities in Italy . Habsburg troops comprised the bulk of the army but the thin white line of Habsburg infantry could not cover the territory from Basel to Frankfurt with sufficient depth to resist the pressure of the opposition . In spring 1796 , drafts from the free imperial cities , and other imperial estates , augmented the Habsburg force with perhaps 20 @,@ 000 men at the most . It was largely guesswork where they would be placed , and Charles did not like to use the militias , which were untrained and unseasoned . Compared to French coverage , Charles had half the number of troops covering a 211 @-@ mile front , stretching from Renchen near Basel to Bingen . Furthermore , he had concentrated the bulk of his force , commanded by Count Baillet Latour , between Karlsruhe and Darmstadt , where the confluence of the Rhine and the Main river made an attack most likely , as it offered a gateway into eastern German states and ultimately to Vienna , with good bridges crossing the relatively well @-@ defined river bank . To the north , Wilhelm von Wartensleben ’ s autonomous corps stretched in a thin line between Mainz and Giessen . 
