If you’ve ever kept up with a fighting sport- or sports entertainment, for that matter- you know that there are some matchups you want to see, or even need to see. Two fighters that seem to be at the top of the sport, and you know a match between the two will be amazing. The longer they go without fighting, for whatever reason, the more you want to see what happens. In this case, we’ve had two generals emerge as the best of this era- Napoleon Bonaparte, who worked his way up to Emperor of France, and Archduke Charles of Austria, brother to the Austrian Emperor. They finally meet in the 1809 Campaign- and produce a pair of interesting battles as a result.
The War of the Fifth Coalition
French troubles in Spain encouraged the other powers of Europe to consider reopening war against France. British ambassadors across Europe, naturally, supported creating another coalition. The Austrians were most open to reopening war with France- they had a burning desire to avenge their defeats of the 1790s and early 1800s, and, as we shall see, they had been preparing for another war. Russia was out- by 1808, when the coalition was coming together, they were too deeply involved with war on three other fronts- Finland, Persia and Romania- to be interested in a war with France, not to mention the rather mild terms for Russia’s recent capitulation had left Alexander more disposed to the French. The Prussians had a great deal of interest in renewing the war with France. However, the French found out about this, and, since they were occupying Prussia at the time, were able to force a humiliating diplomatic agreement.
In spite of tension in the Austrian Court- Napoleon had offered Archduke Charles the Austrian throne after Austerlitz out of respect for his abilities- Emperor Ferdinand gave Charles carte blanche to reform the Austrian Army, though he retained control of a number of bureaucratic structures to stave off a coup from his brother. (Though, there’s no evidence that Charles ever desired the throne for himself.) Charles reformed the Austrian Army along the French system, though, perhaps imperfectly. The most notable reform came in the adoption of the Corps System, which would give the same benefits to the Austrians that the French had- rapid maneuver and the ability to bring more troops under the effective command of the Austrian army commander. However, the Austrian generals were not used to this system, and, as such, needed more supervision than Napoleon’s marshals needed. The Austrians also instituted a massive conscription system, raising tens of thousands of more troops, though many of these troops in 1809 had little training or experience. This levee would also have serious implication in a couple of generations, but this is a little beyond our story. Charles also attempted to increase the number and skill of skirmishers in the Austrian army. Because of the composition of the Austrian army, skirmishing had been traditionally limited to the Croatian troops in the army, and there was some difficulty establishing skirmishers in the Austrian and Hungarian infantry, limiting their effectiveness.
Still, while imperfect, the Austrian army was in much better shape to face the French than in 1805- they had a much better commander, Charles, a much larger army, a much more effective scheme of maneuver, and a certain element of surprise. Napoleon was unsure of Austrian intentions, even with Austrian mobilization and diplomacy in 1808 and 1809, both because of his own diplomatic efforts and because of the possible courses of action Charles might take. Napoleon wasn’t completely caught unawares- he withdrew his main army from Spain in late 1808 to face an Austrian attack- but he wasn’t sure who he would face until it came to pass. His diplomacy did prevent a more complete junction, by forcing the Prussians to capitulate before the war started and by gaining Russian favor with a series of diplomatic treaties that recognized Russian successes against Sweden and the Ottoman Empire. Still, he’d have to deal with war on several fronts- in Spain, along the French Coast, and against Austria.
The Landshut Maneuver
Charles’ campaign got underway on April 10th, 1809. There was some dispute about strategy- Charles wanted to launch an attack north of the Danube, while his brother, John attacked into Italy. However, he was overruled, and forced to stay south of the river, for easier communications with Vienna. While freezing rain slowed his initial advances, he had managed to catch the French largely unprepared. Napoleon was still in France, leaving Berthier, his Chief of Staff, in charge of the army. Berthier was indecisive and had conflicting orders about what to do. His maneuvers eventually split the French army in two, with a few troops holding the lines of communication open between them. Charles decided to try and defeat the French in detail, starting with Davout’s Corps in Regensburg.
Napoleon, believing the Austrians were still moving slowly as they usually did, attempted to concentrate his army, but Davout, realizing he was going to get attacked, began giving ground on the 17th of April, and called on Lebfevre to come assist him, rather than marching to Napoleon’s planned concentration. Lebfevre wasn’t able to quite get over to Davout, but tied down a number of Austrian troops that tried to dislodge him from his position. Meanwhile, Napoleon, realizing that he had given a bunch of orders that were outdated, shifted his plan. He ordered Davout to hold on and not get wiped out, even with his back to the Danube, and ordered the other wing of his army, under Massena, to march on Landshut in the Austrian rear, cutting off Charles as Charles tried to cut off Davout.
Concerned about this maneuver, Charles shifted his troops further to the east, leaving his escape clear over the Danube at Straubing if he needed it, and on the 20th, began attacking Davout. Davout fought a desperate defense as the other corps scrambled to help him. Lebfevre marched on Eckmuhl, to the rear of Charles’ army, while Massena continued to head for Landshut. Napoleon himself marched to support Davout as rapidly as possible. On the 21st of April, Charles launched a series of attacks to crush Davout before the French could cut him off, but couldn’t. He opted to escape to the northeast, into Bohemia, while Napoleon began a march down the Danube.
Rather than pursue Charles, Napoleon marched on Vienna, hoping the capture of the city would either force Charles into an ill advised battle, or force the capitulation of the Austrians. While he capture the city on May 13th, neither of these happened. Charles stalked him north of the Danube, while the Imperial Family packed up for the countryside. Charles made his way to the Marchfeld, the traditional exercise ground of the Austrian army. Napoleon made one abortive crossing west of the city, before heading to Lobau Island on the Danube to make his crossing, figuring the channels around the islands would be easier to cross than the whole river at once.
The Battle of Aspern-Essling
On May 19th, Napoleon’s army began the crossing to Lobau Island, and established a camp there. On the 20th, the bridge over to the north bank of the Danube finished building, and Napoleon began ordering troops across. This is exactly what Charles wanted. He had kept his troops back away from the river, waiting to see where Napoleon would cross. Charles wanted Napoleon to get part of his army across. Charles would then attack the bridgehead and crush it, smashing whatever was across against the banks of the Danube. Charles held the advantage in position and numbers: 100,000 men against Napoleon’s 77,000.
Charles believed that Napoleon would march west from the bridgehead, and deployed his men accordingly. He sent two corps against what he expected would be the head of the French march column, one against what he expected would be its flank, and two against the bridges at the French rear, with the Reserve Corps held towards the center. However, Napoleon did not plan to move from his bridgehead, banded on the west by the town of Aspern, and the west by the town of Essling. To assist this attack, he sent a force of riverboats to attack the French bridges, which damaged them to the point where the current of the Danube consistently threatened to cut them- which, at 1000 on the 21st, they did. Given the damage to the bridges Napoleon decided to hold his forces in position, and prepare a retreat. This disrupted Charles’ attack, and forced the Austrian army to arrive piecemeal, rather than all together in an attack that could likely have crushed Massena’s corps.
Because of the confusion and delays, the battle did not open until about 1430 on May 21st, about the time the French finally got the bridges repaired. The columns on the French left, led by Hollenzollern and Hiller, reached the town of Aspern. A firefight developed between them and some troops led by Massena, who had split his corps and some reinforcements between himself and Lannes, who took command of the force heading for Essling. Massena drove the Austrian troops out of Aspern around 1500, and established a tenacious defense. At 1600, the Austrian troops under Hiller launched a series of attacks against Massena. While Massena held out for most of the afternoon, he was obliged to retreat once night began to fall.
In the center, Napoleon had deployed a large force of cavalry, and decided to launch an attack against the Austrian horse forming up in the area. Around 1530, Marshal Bessieres, who had command of the French cavalry, launched an attack, driving into the advance guard and cavalry in the area. This attack went well until 1600, when Charles shifted part of the forces attacking Aspern to the east to join with the rest of the corps forming up in the area. Bessieres continued the attacks, but the Austrians formed mass- effectively, a solid square formation- and forced the French to smash themselves against the strong Austrian defense. However, the attacks effectively stopped the Austrian advance in the center, protecting the weak point in the French line.
It wasn’t until 1900 that the forces dispatched to Essling were in a position to attack, and they did so piecemeal. One attack went off shortly after 1900, the other around 2000. This allowed Lannes to organize a strong defense against tall odds. Uncoordinated attacks continued to dusk, around 2300, when both sides decided to call it a day.
Over the might of May 21-22, the French engineers kept the bridge open. Over the course of the night, Napoleon decided to reinforce the bridgehead rather than retreat, moving the whole of Lannes’ corps across, more cavalry, and some more guns and infantry, and the Guard close to the fighting. Charles believed all the noise was Napoleon retreating, and didn’t take much action until almost dawn, when he formed a ring around Napoleon’s bridgehead. Napoleon’s plan was pretty simple: he needed more room to bring Davout’s corps onto the field. He ordered Massena to attack Aspern, Lannes to attack the center and left a smaller force to retake Essling. This furious attack, he hoped, would make enough room for Davout to cross the river and seal the deal.
The French attack began at 0400, shortly after dawn. Massena seized Aspern at about 0700, about the same time that Lannes achieved Essling. At 0730, Lannes launched his main attack against the Austrian center. The attack went quite well at first, with one of Lannes’ divisions driving the Austrians back and forcing a break in the Austrian lines. Lannes ordered his cavalry through the gap, thinking he had won the day. Charles, sensing crisis, ordered his reserves to stop the French cavalry, while he headed to the gap. He ran into the faltering 15th Regiment, grabbed their colors himself, and began marching towards the French. The men of the regiment recovered quickly, reformed around him, and began driving Lannes back while the grenadiers of the reserve blasted the French cavalry. This created disorder in the French line, and the Austrian counterattack began to push Lannes back.
Just as Lannes ran into trouble around 0900, a barge sent down the river smashed into one of the bridges, stopping any effort to reinforce the bridgehead. Napoleon ordered Lannes to halt and hold, rather than renew the assault. At 1100, the bridge collapsed again, and Napoleon realized that the day was lost. He travelled to the north bank of the river to supervise the defense, hoping the bridges couild be rebuilt before all of his troops were lost.
Most of the middle of the day was spent with both sides reforming for the final attacks and defense. At about 1400, the Austrians launched a series of attacks across the front. Massena held on to Aspern for seven desperate hours before being forced from the town and back on the collapsed bridges. In the center, Lannes and Napoleon organized a desperate defense, with Napoleon himself coming under fire on several occasions to rally troops. The Austrians were not able to breach the line here, either.
However, at about 1500, the Austrians organized a strong, coordinated attack against Essling. This attack broke the French defenders, and the Austrian commander began a march on the bridgehead. With his army about to be surrounded and his flank crumbling, Napoleon committed his Young Guard to stop the attack. This attack bogged down, and Napoleon had no choice but to commit the Old Guard. The Old Guard drove the Austrians back to Essling, and held. Charles decided to keep pressure up on the town with artillery fire.
During a break in the bombardment, Lannes went out and met with one of his commanders. While they were talking, a cannonball struck his friend, annihilating him. Shocked by the sudden death, he settled down on the top of the ditch to gather his wits. While he sat, he took a cannonball to both knees and lost his legs. He died nine days later.
About 1700, Aspern fell. The French began compressing their lines down further and further on the bridge head, but the Austrians were exhausted after nearly 14 hours of combat, and the battle began to wind down.
On the night of May 22-23rd, for the first time in his career, Napoleon ordered a retreat from the field. The bridges were back up, his army was nearly destroyed, and it was time to reorganize and fight again. He left behind 7,000 dead, with 13,000 men wounded. The Austrians had suffered about the same casualties, but held the north bank of the Danube.
For the next few weeks, Charles and Napoleon would watch each other across the mighty river.
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