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.
Turenne commanded the attack against the right bastion, de Gramont that on the left.

They first diverted a brook running through the plain, and were enabled to use its channel as an approach, thus advancing fifteen hundred paces nearer to the town.

They then formed an intrenchment that could be used by both columns, and from this on the 1st of September they began to open their trenches against their respective bastions.