The battle fought at Hohenlinden, east of Munich, in December 1800 ended in a decisive victory for the French Revolutionary forces of Jean Moreau over Austrian and Bavarian troops, led by Archduke John of Austria. Thomas Campbell was travelling in Germany at the time and had witnessed fighting at Regensburg that both disturbed and inspired him. His poem Hohenlinden was published in 1802. In Turner’s illustration, cannons are fired at short range into a melee of cavalry troops, beneath appropriately stormy skies.