The Bavarians having retreated into Wurtemberg, a council of war was held to decide in what manner the greatest advantage could be gained during their absence.  Most of the chief officers were in favour of retaking Freiburg.  Turenne was of a different opinion.  He represented that the siege would occupy a considerable time, and that if successful they would, at the end of a campaign, have simply retaken a town that was theirs when it began.  They could therefore point to no advantage gained by their efforts or by the loss of so many men.  He advised, therefore, that as the Bavarian army was now sixty miles away, and could not very well return, as it would need large reinforcements, fresh cannon, and baggage wagons, they should take the opportunity of making themselves masters of the whole course of the Rhine and even of the Palatinate.

The Duc d’Enghien declared for this plan.  Turenne went at once to Breisach, and arranged for the transport, by boat down the Rhine, of all the necessaries for the siege of Philippsburg.  The army started on the 16th of August, a part of Turenne’s army being detached to capture small towns and castles.  On the 23rd of August Philippsburg was invested by Turenne, Enghien’s force arriving on the following day.  Philippsburg stood on the Rhine, which at this point formed a sharp elbow, and the land being low, many morasses surrounded the town, and the approach therefore was exceedingly difficult.  Eight hundred paces from the town stood a square fort, which commanded the river, and was connected with the town by a causeway.  The town itself had seven bastions, round these ran a very thick hedge, and the moat was wide and full of water.  The garrison was a weak one, not exceeding a thousand men, but they had a hundred pieces of cannon and a large store of ammunition.

Feeling that he could not hold a fort so far from the town, the commander withdrew the garrison from it, and Turenne seized it, and placed a strong force there.  Enghien then threw up strong lines in a semicircle round the town to protect the army in case any large force of the enemy should endeavour to relieve it.  This occupied four days, and in the meantime the boats had arrived with cannon, ammunition, and provisions.  A bridge was thrown across the river in twenty-four hours, and a force was sent over; this attacked and captured Germersheim, and then marched to Spires, which at once opened its gates on the 29th of August.  In the meantime the siege of Philippsburg was begun in earnest.  The approaches could only be carried on in one place, where the ground was sandy, and continued so up to two of the bastions of the town.