This Sunday, we can celebrate the USMNT’s strong performance in the Copa America Group Stage with one of the more significant battles of Napoleon’s career- the Battle of Wagram. This battle is another slugfest between him and Archduke Charles, though, this time, the Frenchman gets the win. However, this is not the Napoleonic victories we’re used to seeing, with the unexpected brilliancy or the ruthless exploitation of an enemy’s blunder. This is a victory of brute force- which is going to be a trend for the rest of the Napoleonic Era.
Recovering from Aspern-Essling:
Neither Charles nor Napoleon felt the battle of Aspern-Essling settled the 1809 Campaign. Nor did either of them decide to make a move in the immediate aftermath. Some pressed Charles to assault Lobau Island in the immediate aftermath, but that meant attacking a fortified camp across the same rickety bridges that had consistently failed Napoleon during the earlier battle- what good could come of that? Instead, both sides turned to a period of rebuilding, fortifying and reorganizing.
Both armies began calling in reinforcements. Charles recalled his brother, Archduke John, from Italy, and sent him to Pressburg to monitor a French army in that area. He also summoned the various armies observing the Russian and Prussian frontiers- if Napoleon’ theoretical allies hadn’t made it across the border by now, they weren’t coming. Napoleon called up all the the troops he could find, too, including men guarding the supply lines, fighting in Italy, and hanging around in other places. By the time both armies had gathered their reinforcements, they would have about 155,000 men each on the field, making Wagram the largest battle in European History to date (But not the largest battle of the Napoleonic Era, naturally.)
No matter the size of the armies, someone was going to have to cross the Danube in order to bring any action. Charles was content to observe Napoleon from the north, hoping to pounce once the French made their move. Napoleon, needing to stay close to sources of supply, continued to use Lobau Island as his army camp. He fortified it to the hilt to discourage an assault, and began constructing a series of stronger bridges across the river. Charles matched this by building fortified pickets at the end of the bridges, which he hoped would give him the chance to bring up his army while Napoleon had to take the small forts to clear the bridgehead. However, he did pull most of his army back from the river, to avoid the diseases that would arise from the previous battlefield.
In order to break the stalemate, Napoleon would need to deceive Charles about his intended crossing point. Given that most of Charles’ forces were concentrated between Aspern and Gross Enzersdorf, there was an area on the eastern side of Lobau to break out from. On June 30th, 1809, Napoleon started sending raids against the fortifications around Aspern, convincing Charles that he intended to cross in that direction. He also began moving the bulk of his army onto Lobau, in preparation for the main crossing. It wasn’t until July 4th, a day before the main crossing, that the Austrians understood that the bulk of the French Army was in place, and so Charles decided to hang back and react to the French. He deployed two corps to observe the crossing, Klenau’s VI Corps and the army’s Advanced Guard, with Klenau by Essling and the Advanced Guard by Gross Enzerdorf.
The Battle of Wagram
Buckle up, this one’s a bit complex.
On the night of July 4th-5th, Napoleon completed the bridges that would carry the army to the east of the main Austrian lines, and began crossing at dawn on the 5th. By 0900, the bulk of the French force was a cross, and Massena began his attack on Gross Enzerdorf, clearing out the town by 1000. The Austrian forces by the river began to pull back, the Advanced Guard to the eastern flank of the Austrian line, Klenau to the western flank. Napoleon spent most of the mid and late morning organizing his army, and it wasn’t until 1300 or so that he was ready to move on the Austrians. However, he wasn’t too sure where Charles was, how many troops he had, or what the Austrians intended to do.
Charles had moved onto the plateau above the Marchfeld- though, it wasn’t much of a plateau, being only 30 feet or so higher. However, it offered an escarpment near the town of Wagram, which protected Charles’ troops from observation and bombardment. Once Charles realized that Napoleon was across in force, he decided to hold his strong position overlooking the Marchfeld and force Napoleon to attack this spot.
Over the course of the afternoon, the two armies took positions in arcs facing each other. Napoleon deployed Massena to the west, facing Klenau and the Prince Lichenstein. His main effort occurred under his brother-in-law, Eugene, who commanded the army of Italy, Bernadotte, commanding the army of Saxony, Oudinont, and on the eastern flank, Davout. Across from this force, Charles had the Bellengarde’s I Corps, Hohenzollern’s II Corps, Rosenberg’s III Corps, and the Advanced Guard. Concerned that Charles would try to slip away in the night, Napoleon decided to launch an attack on the evening of the 5th. A best, he hoped for the decisive victory against a wavering enemy. At least, he hoped to pin Charles down and keep him from getting away. In many ways, this was the effort Charles was hoping Napoleon would commit to- an attack against a strong defensive position.
The hasty French attack ended up coming off uncoordinated. The first to launch an effort was Oudinont, who, after a swift bombardment, moved to attack the Austrians in front of him at about 1800. The attack ran into problems quickly. Across the line, the Austrians had deployed in three lines: a forward skirmish line, backed by two lines of formed infantry, with cannon all along the line. Oudinont’s skirmishers tangled with the Austrians, forcing them back. However, the French columns ran into stout artillery fire and musketry, and fell back. Oudinont rallied, and launched another attack at 1930, and failed again. Only one regiment under his command made it to the plateau, and it was driven back by a swift Austrian counterattack.
About 1900, Eugene’s men, with some of the Saxon’s from Bernadotte’s Corps, launched a more successful attack. Attacking at the hinge between the Austrian I and II Corps, the attackers were able to gain a lodgement on the plateau, forcing the Austrian first line back, requiring Charles and Bellengarde to arrive in the area personally and begin rallying and restoring the situation. They were aided in these efforts by the French themselves. Both the Austrians and the Saxons wore white uniforms, and, in the confusion of the battle, French reinforcements spent more time attacking Saxon troops rather than Austrians. The French attack drove the Saxons off the hill, and the French horse sent to rescue the situation were mistaken by the French infantry for Austrians. Down the hill ran the French, leaving this sector in Austrian hands again.
The other two attacks were less effective. Davout deployed after 1930, bombarded the Austrians, and then decided that there was little point in attacking this late in the day. Bernadotte, who has been upset with Napoleon all day- first, for leaving him in command of the Saxons, rather than French troops, then splitting up his forces, then making them march and counter march all day before attacking, decided to sulk a bit. Then, around 2100, he made his attack, after waiting for all of his troops to arrive and carefully deploy before moving. Confusion reigned in the near darkness, where, once again, the French mistook white-coated Saxons for Austrians, and fought them as much as the enemy before retreating.
Despite the failure of these attacks, Napoleon figured he had Charles right where he wanted him He had more troops coming up during the night to fight the next day, and it didn’t seem like Charles would abandon his position. Napoleon planned to relaunch his attacks the next day, with Davout taking a more central role. To this talented marshal, he gave the task of a complex flanking attack against the Austrian left, taking him along the plateau to the north before falling on the Austrian rear.
Given his success in the evening, Charles figured he had Napoleon right where he wanted him. Guessing, largely correctly, that Napoleon would concentrate attacks against the Wagram plateau with Davout turning his flank, Charles planned to envelop the French army. Klenau and Kollowrat would advance from the west, into and around Massena, while Archduke John would rush from the east in order pin Davout between Rosenberg and himself. These envelopments would trap the French army and force its destruction.
Both of these plans were effectively null and void hours after they were conceived, before any fighting started. The Austrian staff wasn’t able to get the orders out for the long range flank marches early enough- Klenau and and Kollowrat would not be able to make their attacks at the same time as the units on the plateau, and Archduke John would not be able to get going soon enough to even make it to the battle. Meanwhile, Bernadotte, who had spent the night rallying his troops and trying to reorganize them, decided he was getting tired of Napoleon’s shit. He pulled back from the position of Aderklaa, a town central to the French position, claiming that he couldn’t defend an exposed position with poor troops. He hung back from the town in the early morning hours.
The Austrians began their attacks early, around 0400. Rosenberg’s attack against Davout began well enough, but, the lack of action from the west forced Charles to reign in Rosenberg. Bellengarde, however, met even greater success. Bellengarde had figured there would be a tough right for Aderklaa, but, he found it abandoned. His men took it quickly, and established a strong position by 0400. Bernadotte launched a desultory attack, but his force quickly crumbled and routed, and Bernadotte left the field. Meanwhile, Massena, who had moved closer to the main French position, brought word to Napoleon both of Bernadotte’s retreat and Klenau’s flank march. Napoleon, who had been supervising and supporting Davout’s attack, realized everything was about to fall apart on him if he didn’t act quickly.
The burden of resolving the crisis fell on Massena and Bessieres, who commanded the French reserves and guard. Napoleon ordered Massena to first attack Aderklaa, and retake the position. This effort sucked in troops from across the area- large numbers from Massena’s corps, the French Guard, the remaining parts of Bernadotte’s corps, and the Austrian reserve. From 0730 to 1100, the battle for Aderklaa raged, changing hands several times before finally settling in French hands around 1100. During the fighting, Napoleon met Bernadotte on the field and sacked him on the spot, sending him back to France in disgrace.
Meanwhile, the Austrian flank march began to run into the strung out, unengaged half of Massena’s corps. However, the Austrian commanders, unused to effectively independent command, decided to slow their efforts. The two commanders took pains to cross-coordinate with each other throughout the morning, and, as such, slowed their attacks down, leaving Napoleon a chance to do something about them. However, doing so, while still keeping up the momentum of his other efforts, would be difficult in the extreme.
Napoleon decided to disengage Massena, and send him south to stop the Austrian flank attack. In order to cover the gap that this would make in his line around Aderklaa, Napoleon deployed a grand battery into the gap- over 100 guns would fire into the Austrian position, supporting a massive cavalry charge into the gap. Napoleon hoped that this attack would give Eugene enough time to shift over into position to cover the gap, then attack into Bellangarde’s and Kollowrat’s position. Meanwhile, Massena would form up and march down to attack Klenau, and force his troops back.
Meanwhile, Davout’s attack continued to develop. Davout began bombarding the Austrian position with concentrated artillery fire, both with his guns and the guns from Oudinout’s Corps, who would launch small supporting attacks during the day to help pin the Austrians down. This heavy bombardment was met with an Austrian effort. However, the concentration of French fire, combined with the weight of the French pieces and their large number, began to wear down the Austrians and softened them up for a more general assault. Davout made several attacks, starting at 1000 or so, including efforts to turn the Austrian flank with infantry and cavalry. However, these efforts largely failed as they met Austrian reserves, and it was a general, frontal assault around 1200 that began to carry the Austrian line backward in the early afternoon. Outnumbered about 2:1, and without reserve or much reinforcement, Rosenburg began falling back around 1300.
Meanwhile, the fighting around Aderklaa had pulled in most of the Austrian reserves, which stood in the face of the heavy barrage of the French grand battery, which advanced as it fired, slowly putting more pressure on the Austrians and tearing great holes in the line. Meanwhile, Macdonald, one of Eugene’s commanders, was ordered to make the attack into the Austrian position. Because of the lack of training and experience in his force, he decided to form up into a massive square of columns, relying on sheer mass to carry the offensive forward. This column advanced under heavy fire, smashing itself against the Austrian position, and driving a hole as it sacrificed itself that had to be plugged with the remaining Austrian reserves. By 1400, the attack had sucked in large parts of the French reserves into the fighting as well, but it had managed the overall objective- pinning the Austrian left in place long enough for the French reinforcements to reach the Wagram plateau and Massena to reach Klenau.
The leading elements of Massena’s forces reache Kleanu’s positions around 1230. The two engaged in a pretty sharp battle around Essling, which fell quickly. Klenau began to give way quickly, making a fighting retreat that would carry him through Aspern and back to his starting position. Massena followed him most of the afternoon, until about 1700, when he fell on Kollowrat’s flank and helped drive back his remaining forces as well. Meanwhile, in the afternoon, Oudinout, supported by fresh troops from Marmont’s IX corps and other reinforcements, began attacking onto the Wagram plateau itself. With his flanks faltering, his center in disarray, and out of reserves, Charles began organizing a retreat in the midafternoon. Over the course of the afternoon and evening, he skillfully extracted his extended front from a bad situation and began a retreat into Bohemia.
Losses on the day were about even for both sides. 10,000 French and 10,000 Austrians lay dead, and 20,000 on each side were wounded- 60,000 casualties in two days of fighting from a total number of 300,000 men engaged. For every 5 men that went to Wagram, one was dead or wounded by the end of the second day. Wagram proved not only one of the largest battles of the era, but one of the bloodiest as well.
The battle wasn’t decisive in the sense that it immediately ended the campaign, but it was in the sense that Charles began to believe the war was generally lost. His main concern during the retreat was to keep an army in the field to prevent Napoleon from dismantling the Hapsburg Empire. Once Napoleon caught up to him, he negotiated an armistice as a preliminary for a more general peace.
The Treaty of Schonnbrun
The peace Napoleon inflicted on Austria was rather humilitating, in the end. Austria was forced, of course, to ally with France and join the Continental System. Also, the Austrians agreed to reduce their army to 150,000 men- which, unlike a similar stipulation Napoleon laid on the Prussians, was unenforceable. However, biggest loss for the Austrians came from territorial concessions. The French annexed Illyria, and Austria surrendered the Tyrol and Salzburg to Bavaria. Other minor territories went to the Russians and to the Poles. Austria also recognized Joseph as the King of Spain.
However, despite these shifts, Napoleon still had concerns about Austria, and its ability to fight against the French Empire. In order to further secure his position with Austria, Napoleon decided to both beat them and join them. As part of the negotiations with the Hapsburgs, he asked to marry Maria Louisa von Haspburg, Emperor Francis’ daughter. Of course, this meant divorcing his first wife, Josephine, but that was a small price to pay for a marriage alliance with the Hapsburgs. This ushered in some good feelings between the two dynasties for a while, but, things would eventually drag on between them, down the line.
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