Director of the Napoleonic History/Napoleonic... · First published in Great Britain in 2001 by...

TODD FISHER is the ExecutiveDirector of the NapoleonicAlliance, America's mostprestigious Napoleonic interestgroup, and a founding memberof the International NapoleonicSociety. He has a life-longfascination with the Napoleonicperiod, and is Chief ExecutiveOfficer of Emperor's Pressand Napoleon Journal, both

of which specialize inNapoleonic history.

PROFESSOR ROBERT O'NEILL,AO D.Phil, is the ChicheleProfessor of the History of Warat the University of Oxford andSeries Editor of the EssentialHistories. His wealth ofknowledge and expertise shapesthe series content, and providesup-to-the-minute researchand theory. Born in 1936 anAustralian citizen, he served inthe Australian army 1955-68and has held a number ofeminent positions in historycircles. He has been ChicheleProfessor of the History of Warand a Fellow of All SoulsCollege, Oxford since 1987.He is the author of many booksincluding works on the Germanarmy and the Nazi party, theKorean and Vietnam wars.

Essential Histories

The Napoleonic WarsThe rise of the Emperor 1805-1807

Essential Histories

The Napoleonic WarsThe rise of the Emperor 1805-1807

Todd FisherOSPREYPUBLISHING

First published in Great Britain in 2001 by Osprey Publishing,

Elms Court, Chapel Way. Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP

E-mail: [email protected]

© 2001 Osprey Publishing Limited

All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose

of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under

the Copyright. Design and Patents Act. 1988. no part of this

publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical,

chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright

owner Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.

Every attempt has been made by the publisher to secure the

appropriate permissions for material reproduced in this book.

If there has been any oversight we will be happy to rectify

the situation and written submissions should be made to the

Publishers.

ISBN 1 84176 205 9

Editor: Rebecca Cullen

Designer: Ken Vail Graphic Design. Cambridge, UK

Picture research by Image Select International

Cartography by The Map Studio

Index by Alan Rutter

Origination by Grasmere Digital Imaging. Leeds. UK

Printed and bound in China by L Rex Printing Company Ltd

01 02 03 04 05 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For a complete list of titles available

from Osprey Publishing please contact:

Osprey Direct UK, P.O. Box 140.

Wellingborough. Northants NN8 4ZA, UK

Email: [email protected]

Osprey Direct USA. P.O. Box 130,

Sterling Heights. Ml 48311-0130. USA

Email: [email protected]

Or visit Osprey at:

www.ospreypublishing.com

Contents

Chronology 7

Background to war

A temporary peace 9

Warring sides

The armies prepare 15

The fighting

From Ulm to the Treaty of Tilsit 24

Portrait of a soldier

Lannes, Marshal of France 82

The world around war

Art in the Empire 86

Portrait of a musician at war

Philippe-René Girault 88

Conclusion and consequences 92

Further reading 93

Index 94

Chronology

1802 2 August Napoleon proclaimedConsul for life

1803 20 May War breaks out betweenFrance and Britain

1804 21 March Execution of the Ducd'Enghien19 May Creation of the Marshalate2 December Napoleon's coronationas Emperor of the French

1805 25 August Grande Armée leavesBoulogne for Germany9 October Ney forces the Danube atGunzburg14 October Ney closes the door onthe Austrian army at Elchingen19 October Mack and the Austrianarmy capitulate at Ulm21 October Battle of Trafalgar30 October Massena fights ArchdukeCharles at Caldiero10 November Mortier escapesdestruction at Durenstein2 December Battle of Austerlitz26 December Austria makes peace inthe Treaty of Pressburg

1806 23 January Pitt dies after hearing thenews of Austerlitz14 February Massena leads theinvasion of Naples30 March Napoleon's brother Josephis proclaimed King of Naples5 June Napoleon's brother Louis isproclaimed King of Holland

4 July Battle of Maida: minor Britishvictory in the south of Italy12 July Creation of theConfederation of the Rhine6 August Holy Roman Empire isdissolved9 August Prussia begins to mobilizefor war7 October Napoleon receives thePrussian ultimatum; he crosses theborder the next day10 October Battle of Saalfield; Lannesdefeats Archduke Ferdinand14 October Twin battles of Jena andAuerstädt27 October Napoleon enters Berlin21 November In the 'Berlin Decrees'Napoleon institutes the ContinentalBlockade28 November French troops enterWarsaw26 December Battles of Pultusk andGolymin

1807 8 February Battle of Eylau21 March A British adventure inEgypt ends in defeat at Damietta27 May Selim III dethroned in Turkey10 June Battle of Heilsberg14 June Battle of Friedland7 July Defeat at Buenos Aires ends aBritish invasion of the Argentine7 July Treaties of Tilsit betweenFrance, Russia and Prussia7 September Copenhagen surrendersto a British army

8 Essential Histories • The Napoleonic Wars

Napoleon in the Battle of Jena (by Vernet).(AKG London)

Background to war

A temporary peace

When Napoleon Bonaparte signed the Peaceof Amiens on 25 March 1802, he became themost popular man in France. Not only hadthe crown of victory constantly sat uponhis brow as he had defeated one enemyarmy after another - the Piedmontese, theAustrians, the Mamelukes, the Turks and theAustrians again - but now he gave Francewhat she really wanted: peace.

Peace allowed First Consul Bonaparte toput France's domestic house in order. Hereorganized the laws of the land, theeconomy and the education system. Earlierin the year he had established freedom ofreligion, and his treaty, or Concordat, withthe Pope had finally brought religious peace.

The Treaty of Amiens, 1802

The Treaty of Amiens between France andBritain ended the last of the wars of theFrench Revolution. It represented a defeat forWilliam Pitt the Younger, but he was morethan happy to see the blame for it fall on his

successor as Tory Prime Minister,Henry Addington. Pitt never regarded thepeace as anything other than a pause in acontinuing power struggle with France. ButGreat Britain needed time. She had lost oralienated many of her potential andtraditional allies. Austria had been badlymauled by France in the last war as a resultof the battles of Marengo and Hohenlinden.Russia appeared on the verge of an alliancewith France. Denmark had been thrown intoFrance's arms by the unprovoked British attackon the Danish fleet at Copenhagen in 1801.Prussia coveted Hanover, a British crownpossession and home of the royal house, andhad also been offended by Britain's behaviorin the Baltic. Britain was somewhat isolated asa result. More vexing to Pitt and his friendswas their perception that France had violatedthe spirit of the Peace of Amiens by absorbing

Signing of the Louisiana Purchase. This vast sale ofland to the United States put much-neededmoney in the hands of France in return for aterritory that Napoleon saw as indefensible.(Hulton Getty)


Europe at the start of 1805

parts of Italy and interfering in the internalaffairs of Switzerland.

Following the treaty, France quickly madepeace with the Turks. Britain viewed this withalarm as a possible threat to India or Egypt.She countered by refusing to withdraw fromMalta, a specific violation of the peaceaccord. Addington even went so far as to saythat every gain made by France should becountered by a concession given to Britain.Bonaparte stirred up discontent among theBritish merchants by charging a higher tariffon British goods than French. French traderose by 50 percent in the year following thetreaty and the British middle class saw littleadvantage in continuing a military peace thatwas coupled to a trade war.

No more a believer that peace would lastthan Pitt, Bonaparte took advantage of therespite to expand the French fleet, furtherthreatening recent British naval dominance.The sale of Louisiana to the Americans in

1803 brought 80 million francs into theFrench treasury. Bonaparte also made largelyunsuccessful and somewhat shameful effortsto reestablish the French colonies in theCaribbean. While these attempts wouldultimately prove a failure, they caused greatalarm in the British Parliament.

Seeing no advantage in maintaining thepeace, the British ambassador to France,Sir Charles Whitworth, gave an ultimatumto Bonaparte to evacuate Holland andSwitzerland. This was refused as beingoutside of the treaty's terms. France thencountered by offering to have the Tsar,Alexander of Russia, who had plans for theislands himself, mediate the question ofMalta; this was refused in turn, furtheralienating the Russians. But the tide wouldsoon turn in Britain's favor. Following thewithdrawal of the British ambassador in May1803, Addington broke the Peace of Amiensby seizing French ships without giving a

Background to war 11

declaration of war. This infuriated Bonaparte,who ordered the arrest of all British citizenscurrently in France. While he had beenprovoked, the monarchs of Europe, biasedagainst Republican France anyway, viewedBonaparte's act as criminal.

Napoleon the Emperor

Bonaparte's popularity in France had onepotential drawback. As the prospects of apopular revolt against him faded, the formerruling family of France, the Bourbons, becamemore desperate. At several points during theperiod of the Directory (1795-99), France hadseemed on the verge of restoring themonarchy. But now all hope was fading, forthe First Consul's government shone incomparison to the Directory that it replaced.

William Pitt the Younger Although early in hiscareer he espoused liberal ideas, as head of thegovernment 1784-1801 and 1804-06 he increasinglyemployed repressive measures. As an implacableenemy of Napoleon and the Revolution, it wassaid that the news of Austerlitz led to his death.(Ann Ronan Picture Library)

Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul. First Consulwas his office after he seized power in the Brumairecoup. In 1800 he won the Battle of Marengo, whichled to the establishment of his Imperial reign.(Hulton Getty)

This led the Bourbon reactionaries to takeextreme measures. The Bourbons felt that sincethey were God's appointed, any measures toreestablish themselves on the throne of Francewere justified, including assassination. Nofewer than 11 plots or attempts on Bonaparte'slife were made and failed, and considerablecontroversy remains as to whether heultimately died of natural causes.

Bonaparte recognized that if he intendedto live long enough to achieve his goals, hewould have to put a stop to the Bourbons'assassination bureau. He established a policedepartment to spy on his enemies under thesupervision of the notorious Joseph Fouché,who was a former priest, a terrorist and aman well known for his corrupt nature, but


who was highly qualified for the job. Hepressured neutral states into evicting thetroublesome emigres who had beenoperating with near impunity along France'sborders. Finally, he learned that the youngDuc d'Enghien was in Baden planning tolead an insurrection against him. Bonaparte'sForeign Minister, Charles Maurice Talleyrand,convinced him to send out a raiding party tocapture Enghien as a way to strike againstthe Bourbons. As a result, on 10 March 1804,a group of dragoons rode into Ettenheim,abducted the young duke and quicklybrought him back to the chateau ofVincennes outside Paris. A quick

The Duc d'Enghien. kidnapped on Napoleon's ordersat Baden, which was neutral territory, and executedin the moat of the chateau of Vincennes.(Ann Ronan Picture Library)

court-martial found Enghien guilty of beingin English pay and planning an invasion,and he was executed in the early morning of21 March 1804.

This act was a turning point ofBonaparte's career. The execution of a princegalvanized the monarchies of Europe againsthim. It can be argued that Bonaparte hadlittle choice but to send the message to theBourbons that two could play at the game ofmurder. In fact, the assassination plotsagainst Bonaparte dwindled considerablyafter this event.

At this juncture the First Consul for Lifedecided that his best security lay in havinga hereditary title. At the urging of many ofhis closest advisers, Bonaparte introduced abill into the Senate declaring the FrenchEmpire. This was passed in May 1804 andoverwhelmingly approved by a plebiscite

Background to war 13

put to the French people. So it was thatFirst Consul Bonaparte became Napoleon I,Emperor of the French. His coronationceremony took place at Notre Dame on2 December 1804, with the Pope presiding.The symbolic height of the ceremony-occurred when Napoleon placed the crownupon his own head, further antagonizing theEuropean dynasties, who regarded him as'the usurper'.

A death in St Petersburg

The Russian nobility had been shiftingtowards the British camp for some time.The previous Tsar, Paul, had been on theverge of allying Russia with Napoleon'sRepublic, alarming both the Russianaristocracy and the British, so the Britishenvoy extraordinary to Russia, Sir CharlesWhitworth, helped hatch a plot for theremoval of the francophile Tsar. A number ofdisgruntled nobles and generals fell in withthe plot and assassinated Tsar Paul on11 March 1801. The new Tsar, Paul's sonAlexander, was aware of the plot andbecame beholden to the conspirators.From the complex feelings of guilt regardinghis father's murder, Alexander woulddevelop something of a messianic complex

Tsar Alexander After the murder of his father. Alexandertook over the vast Russian Empire. While he was a mosteccentric ruler, he expanded its holdings until after theend of the Napoleonic Wars, when he went mad and

abdicated to follow the life of a monk (Ann Ronan

Picture Library)

wherein he played the role of savior ofChristian Europe.

Over the next few years, relations betweenRussia and France deteriorated. Alexandersaw every move on the part of the French asa threat to the areas of the Mediterraneanover which he claimed a protectorate.Despite some false moves by the British,Alexander gradually drew closer to a Britishalliance. The execution of the Duc d'Enghienwas the telling event. After this, Alexanderjoined with Britain in forming the ThirdCoalition in April 1805, and was rewardedwith a lavish British subsidy.

Efforts were now made to get Austria tojoin the coalition. While Austria had metNapoleon twice before in war and beenhumiliated, Napoleon's consolidation ofnorthern Italy was a direct threat to Austrianinterests. Austria had been building up herarmies for several years. When Napoleoncrowned himself the King of Northern Italyin March 1805, this was too much. Austriajoined the Third Coalition in August of thatyear, and received a generous subsidy too.The stage was now set for one of history'sgreatest campaigns.


Napoleon's coronation. 2 December 1804. In aceremony presided over by the Pope, Napoleonplaced the crown on both Josephine's and his

own head. (AKG London)

Warring sides

The armies prepare

With Britain renewing the war in the latespring of 1803, Napoleon went aboutreorganizing his army for the possibleinvasion of England. He sent orders to hisChief of Staff, Alexander Berthier, to preparecamps for his Army Corps at Bolougne. Herethey would train and prepare for the timethat the English Channel was clear of Britishships and invasion could take place.

France

Napoleon organized his army incorporatingthe ideas of French military theorists ofthe previous generation. He was the firstto attempt to use a permanent corpsstructure. Prior to the French Revolution,any organization above the brigade wastemporary. The French had establishedpermanent divisions to great effect duringthe wars of the French Revolution(1792-1801). Now Napoleon decided tocreate permanent corps that were in effectminiature armies, each with its own cavalryand artillery complements attached to twoor three infantry divisions. The success ofthis structure can be shown by the fact thatmodern armies use the same organization ina largely unaltered form.

The French corps had a permanent staffattached. Commanders would learn to knowtheir subordinates. Divisions would becomeaccustomed to maneuvering in conjunctionwith their sister divisions. The Light Cavalry,attached to the corps, went through exercisesthat brought a higher degree of cooperationthan any other army in the world enjoyed.

European armies consisted of a series ofbuilding blocks. Infantry regiments weremade up of battalions, which in turn werecomprised of companies. A brigade consistedof regiments, and divisions were composed

Alexander Berthier As Napoleon's Chief of Staff, hestayed by the Emperor's side until his first abdicationin 1814. He was said to be the only man in theEmpire who could keep up with and understandNapoleon's mind. (Photo Musee de I'armée. Paris)

of two or more brigades. On top of this,Napoleon added infantry corps of two ormore infantry divisions with one or twocavalry brigades attached.

Napoleon had infantry of two types, line(ligne) and light (légère). The light infantry,more than the line, tended to be used forskirmishing, reconnaissance and rearguardprotection. Infantry battalions at this timewere made up of nine companies: sevencenter companies and two elite companies;


the latter were a voltigeur (light) companyand a grenadier or carabinier company,depending on whether it was a line or lightbattalion. In 1805, Napoleon stripped theelite companies from a number of regimentsleft in garrison to form an elite divisionunder General Oudinot. This formationbecame known as Oudinot's grenadiers.

The light cavalry attached to the infantrycorps was one of two types, either hussars orchasseurs. These were functionally the sameoutside of their dress, although the hussarsgenerally had the better reputation, Duc inpart to their dashing appearance.

Napoleon then created the CavalryReserve Corps from the line cavalry(dragoons) and the heavy cavalry regiments(cuirassiers and carabiniers). Their intent wasto act as the 'arm of rupture', to becommitted to break an enemy that had beenworn down by the infantry. To a lesserextent they could be used to stabilize asituation that was getting out of hand. Toaccompany these heavy cavalry werebatteries of horse artillery, whose 8pdr gunscould be brought quickly into positionand deliver tremendous hitting power. Thecombination of these two arms wasextremely hard to resist.

Napoleon, having trained as an artilleristhimself, aided by fine gunners like Marmont,had implemented many improvements thatgreatly increased the power of the Frenchartillery. Better, lighter and more mobileguns, better gunpowder, better training andbetter tactics gave France a major superiorityin this field.

One problem for the French in the 1805campaign was that they did not haveenough mounts for their dragoons.Therefore, one division of dragoons had tofight dismounted as infantry. They wouldnot prove to be effective as infantry, but theyeventually received their horses fromcaptured stocks.

Finally there was the Imperial GuardCorps. These elite men combined the twoGuard infantry regiments (the grenadiers andchasseurs of foot), the Guard cavalry (thegrenadiers, carabiniers and chasseurs of

horse) and the flying horse artillery batteries.The Guard acted as a final reserve and as theforce that would deliver the coup de grace.

In 1803, as this army formed in its variouscamps, Napoleon was making preparationsfor an invasion of England. He had bargesbuilt and began to stockpile large quantitiesof supplies for the anticipated campaign.While the invasion would never occur, theintensive training that the men received overa two-year period would hone this army intoa superb fighting machine.

When France was declared an Empire,Napoleon quickly adapted many of hiscreations into Imperial ones. As First Consulhe had created the Legion of Honor. Thisnow became a method of rewarding peoplewho had excelled in their field - a sort ofminor nobility, but one based on merit.Along the same lines, Napoleon now createdthe Marshalate. Originally, 18 generalsbecame marshals. They were chosen for theirability and either for their personal loyalty orbecause they represented a political ormilitary faction that Napoleon wished to winover. The military factions were made up ofmembers of the army who had served in anarmy not commanded by Napoleon. Thesewere many of the men who would leadNapoleon's Corps in the following years.With these titles came a large salary. Tobecome a marshal was the aspiration ofevery French soldier. The phrase 'There isa marshal's baton in every knapsack' wasmore than just propaganda, for some ofNapoleon's marshals had indeed come upthrough the ranks.

The life of a French soldier was very hardby modern standards. The soldiers oncampaign slept on the ground, wrapped intheir bedroll. The French had learned that tocarry tents and other camp baggage slowedthe army down considerably. Unless the armywent into winter quarters, it was generallyfrowned upon to billet inside a house,although this rule was violated frequentlyand did not apply to higher-grade officers.

The soldier received 24 ounces (680g)of bread each day and 8 ounces (227g) ofmeat. In addition, there were vegetables and

Warring sides 17

wine. The meat and legumes were pooledand most often turned into a soup or stew.These were the official rations, and thesoldiers were free to buy other items fromthe locals, vivandiéres or cantiniéres. Therewas also pillage or loot from the surroundingcountryside, although this was discouragedin varying degrees by the different marshals,Davout being the strictest, and Massenaperhaps the most slack.

If required, the infantry could march20 miles (32km) a day or more. The soldiersof this French army could achieve this ratewith astoundingly low rates of attrition. It wasin no small part a result of their training, forlater less-trained armies of Napoleon wouldnot come close to this standard.

While Napoleon had his headquartersand two of his corps near Boulogne - the4th Corps under Marshal Soult, the largest inthe army, and the 5th Corps under MarshalLannes - the remainder of the army wasspread along the coastline. MarshalBernadotte's 1st Corps was in Hanover.General and future Marshal Marmont's2nd Corps was in Utrecht. Marshal Davout's3rd Corps was in Bruges. Marshal Ney's6th Corps was in Montreuil. MarshalAugereau's 7th Corps was at Bayonne. Finally,there were cavalry camps in which MarshalMurat oversaw the formation of his cavalryreserve. These were located in Amiens,Bayonne, Bruges, Compiegne, Montreuil, andNijmegen.

Let us view Napoleon's corpscommanders. Marshal Bernadotte, incommand of the 1st Corps, was a veteran ofthe Revolutionary Wars, where he haddistinguished himself as much for hispolitical intrigues as for his fighting ability.He was personally brave, while oftenhesitant to commit his command to battle.He had been in opposition to Napoleon'sseizure of power in 1799, and had plottedagainst him with General Moreau in theAffair of the Placards in 1802. Bernadotte'serratic behavior under the Empire, in whichhe was entrusted with commands afterrepeated failures, was initially protected by astrong following among the Republicans, but

was ultimately saved by his marriage toDesiree Clary, Napoleon's former fiancee andsister to Joseph Bonaparte's wife, Julie. As abrother-in-law by marriage, Bernadottewould be spared the wrath that he would sooften deserve - and he would ultimatelyreward Napoleon with betrayal.

General Marmont of the 2nd Corps wasone of Napoleon's few friends. He hadshown great organizational skills. He showeda particular talent for the artillery. It wouldbe under him that the artillery reforms of'Year 11' or 1804 would take place. It showsNapoleon's high opinion of him that he wasthe only non-marshal to command a corpsin the Grande Armée.

Marshal Davout was to earn himselfrenown in the years 1805-07. He was theyoungest of the original marshals. Totallydevoted to Napoleon and France, he was ashrewd tactician and a harsh disciplinarianand did not suffer fools gladly. The resultwas that, although respected by his men andimmediate subordinates, he was unpopularwith his equals.

Marshal Soult was considered the bestorganizer in the army. He would make his4th Corps the envy of the world. It wassignificantly larger than any other corps andwas made up of some of the best fightingunits in Europe. Soult had been a heroduring the Revolution. He had foughtdeterminedly in actions on the Rhine, inFlanders and in Italy. He always led from thefront. In 1800 he was attempting a breakoutfrom encircled Genoa when he received anear fatal wound. This would change him forever. Never again would he be so cavalier inexposing himself to enemy fire. This meantthat at times he was too far from the actionto react quickly to opportunities at the front.In 1805, however, this was not yet known.

Marshal Lannes of the 5th Corps isconsidered in detail on pp. 82-85. MarshalNey had a deserved reputation as a fieryleader. He had been in the thick of thefighting during the Revolutionary campaignson the Rhine and in Flanders. He had neverserved under Bonaparte, and worse had beena friend of the 'traitor' Moreau, but his


fortune was assured when he married one ofthe Empress Josephine's favorite ladies-in-waiting. He had the confidence to projectvictory in everything he did, and that attitudeplayed well with the Emperor. When themarshals' batons were being handed out, Neywas considered the most trustworthy amongthe former Army of the Rhine generals. Forthese reasons, he received command of the6th Corps and became a marshal.

Marshal Augereau had served withBonaparte in Italy and had played a criticalrole in holding off one wing of the Austrianarmy, while Napoleon had crushed the otherat the Battle of Castiglione. This, coupledwith his avowed Republican sentiments, wassufficient to earn Augereau his marshalateand the 7th Corps command. Augereau wasa braggart and somewhat of a bully. He hadfloated from one soldier-of-fortune job to thenext until the French Revolution had givenhim the opportunity to rise. He was arapacious looter and scoundrel, but he knewhow to fight when cornered.

Marshal Murat was now Napoleon'sbrother-in-law after marrying his sisterCaroline. He was the Beau Ideal of thecavalry; dashing, daring, leading from thefront, and dressed in the most flamboyantuniforms of the army. He had limitedintelligence, but had a killer eye for thetiming of a cavalry charge. Vain andfrivolous, he always seized the day and hadbeen instrumental in Bonaparte's successesin the Vendemiaire uprising and the coup ofBrumaire. He had been with Bonapartethroughout all of his campaigns and hadserved him well.

Several other commanders deserve ourattention. The most important of them isMarshal Massena. He had been an armycommander before Bonaparte and resentedbeing forced to take a subservient role tohim in 1796. He soon came to appreciate the'Little Corporal's' talents. He fought by hisside in 1796-97 and remained in Europewhile the expedition to Egypt took place. Hewon great fame at the Battle of Zurich in1799, when he destroyed a Russian-Austrianarmy under Rimsky-Korsakov. This caused

the Russians to withdraw from the SecondCoalition and set the table for Bonaparte'sreturn, the coup d'etat of Brumaire. andvictorious Marengo campaign. WhileNapoleon was descending on the rear ofthe Austrian army under Melas in 1800,Massena was doggedly holding Genoa. Herehe made superhuman efforts to hold outuntil Bonaparte could make the winningmaneuver. In 1805, Massena may have beenthe best man in France to commandan army apart from the Emperor. He wouldsquare off in northern Italy against Austria'sbest commander, Archduke Charles. Whilehighly skilled as an army leader, Massenahad a deserved reputation for being theworst looter in the French army, for hislibertine lifestyle required constantsustenance. It seems his attitudes neverchanged after his early life as a smuggler.

Marshals Mortier and Lefevbre wereboth daunting fellows; no thinkers butpossessed with a determination to forgeahead into the thickest of the fighting.They were admired by their men andcompetent only under the direct eye of theEmperor. Both men would command corpsduring the campaigns of 1805-07.

Marshal Bessieres had been by Napoleon'sside for much of his time as a commander.He was a noble of the ancien régime andbrought an air of class to the Imperialentourage. A stickler for detail and dress,Bessieres would lead the Guard for many ofthe campaigns, where his renown forcourage was coupled with a reputation forbeing priggish.

Marshal Brune had been one of themost devoted Republicans. He was given hismarshalate to help mollify that faction.He commanded the army that defeated aRusso-British army under the Duke of Yorkin 1799 in Holland. He had a Reserve Corpscreated around him to protect the coastagainst a British invasion once the GrandeArmée moved inland.

As 1805 wore on and France's navy hadnot the slightest prospect of clearing theEnglish Channel, Napoleon recognized thathe would have to deal with the continental

Warring sides 19

threats of Russia and Austria before he couldonce more turn his attention to the British.When Austria declared war, Napoleon madehis move. The 'Army of the Ocean Coast'became the Grande Armée. He issued ordersand on 31 August the well-oiled militarymachine turned its back on the Channeland marched towards the Austrian andRussian threat.

Austria

The Austrian army that awaited Napoleonwas in a state of confusion, still reeling fromthe debacles of the First and the SecondCoalitions. In these wars, the armies of theFrench Revolution and Consulatecontinually outperformed their Habsburgcounterparts. The problems that confrontedthe armies of the Holy Roman Emperor,Francis ü, were broad: logistically, tactically,strategically, and politically, the armiessuffered handicaps compared to the rapidlymodernizing French. The army of theEmpress Maria Theresa of Austria had heldoff the greatest general of his day, Frederickthe Great of Prussia. Her artillery was theenvy of the world, and the infantry andcavalry accounted well for themselves.Following the Seven Years War (1756-63), anumber of 'reforms' were attempted. Theworst of these was an overhaul of theartillery arm. The result was a disaster, withseveral humiliating defeats at the hands ofthe Turks. Attempts to redress this situationsucceeded only partially. Austria had the bestartillery of the continental allies, but it couldnot compare to that of the French.

Throughout the reigns of the EmperorsJoseph and Leopold, a number of changeswere attempted in the infantry. Lightinfantry regiments were raised in 1798, butdisbanded in 1801. The Habsburgcommanders had no faith in the averagetroops performing well when not under thedirect supervision of their officers. Therewere Jäger battalions (elite rifle-armed lighttroops) and the Grenz troops (hardyfrontiersmen from the Balkans with a

traditional duty of military service), butthere were never enough to counter theFrench swarm of skirmishers. To compoundthe problem, the Austrians were introducinggreater discipline into the Grenzer to ensuretheir political reliability and make themmore compatible with the rest of theirarmy, but suppressing their old flair forirregular warfare.

The problems faced by the AustrianEmperor were in large part Duc to pastHabsburg successes. Primarily throughmarriages they had acquired many provinceswith varied ethnic and racial populations.Therefore, no universal language existed inthe army. Further, many of these provincesowed no loyalty to the Austrians, just to theEmperor personally. This meant that theHungarians, for example, believed theycould decide among themselves how muchthey would support the war effort. As theEmpire was teetering on bankruptcy in 1805,the regiments were dispersed to minimizethe costs of upkeep and to aid recruitment.Whatever its economic advantages, suchdispersal meant that mobilization was along process.

The Emperor's brother, the ArchdukeCharles, had set about reforming the armyin 1801. He had taken power from theHofkriegsrat, a military/civilian assembly,and had streamlined the logisticalprocedures. He was unquestionably Austria'sbest field commander, but he had a knack ofalienating the court personalities and theossified high command. He had closefavorites whom he allowed to dictate toothers considered above their station.Charles was constantly at odds with a seriesof foreign ministers and a combination ofhis enemies worked to remove him fromhis position of power. They launched atwo-front attack, playing on Francis'sparanoia regarding his brother's popularity,while urging him to join the alliance againstNapoleon. Charles was adamant that thearmy was in no shape to fight the Frenchand that Austria needed further peace to gether financial house in order. To that end heeven advocated recognizing Napoleon's


General Mack. Despite defeat and capture whileon loan to the Neapolitan army in 1805, Mack stillappeared to the Austrians as the model of amodem scientific soldier and much was expectedof him. (Roger-Viollet)

imperial status, humiliating as that might befor the oldest ruling family in Europe.

Charles, by advocating peace, gave hisopposition an opening. Pitt, succeedingAddington as British Prime Minister in May1804, offered subsidies and lavished bribesaround the Viennese court, and Charles'senemies pounced. First they persuadedFrancis to reinstate the Hofkriegsrat, thenthey stripped Charles's allies of their officesand commands. Finally, they advocatedGeneral Mack von Leiberich as acounterweight to Charles on militarymatters. Mack advocated joining the allianceand going to war. While Charles said thearmy was not ready, Mack's soothing wordsto Francis dismissed such worries. WhenBritain provided the required subsidies, thedie was cast. Francis joined the alliance andCharles was assigned to the nominal 'main

theater' of Italy, while Mack took the largestarmy and in the late summer of 1805prepared to invade Bavaria.

Mack chose this ill-suited time toreorganize the infantry regiments. Hechanged their existing structure, threebattalions of six companies each, into fourbattalions of four companies. To completethe confusion, Mack did not provide forproperly trained higher commanders for theextra battalions. That Mack attempted thischange on the eve of war shows howunrealistic he could be.

The Austrian cavalry had started theFrench Revolutionary Wars as completelydominant over their French counterparts. Asthe war continued, their advantage waned.By 1801, they still believed themselves to bethe best horsemen in Europe, but they werein for a shock four years later. While theAustrians' tactics and training remainedstagnant, their French counterparts werecreating cavalry that could function enmasse. The majority of the Austrian cavalrywas parceled out in 'penny packets' to thevarious infantry formations, which led tooccasion after occasion where they would bethrown over by superior enemy numbers atthe point of attack. Individually theircuirassiers, dragoons, chevau-légers anduhlans (lancers) were still good, butcoordination was all but nonexistent.

While major efforts were being made tomeet the supply and tactical needs of theAustrian army, scant attention had beengiven to its strategic doctrines. Austria stillfought her wars by trying to maneuver heropponent out of theoretically vitalgeographic objectives. The concept ofannihilation was foreign to the expensivearmies that Austria fielded. However, theFrench Revolution and its levies hadchanged the way that war would be waged.Austria was not ready to adapt, adhering to abelief in a cordon style of defense, withfortresses holding key points. These wouldact as rocks against which the enemy woulddash himself, while the field army massed tostrike a decisive blow. Austria would in turntake the enemy's strong points and achieve

'checkmate'. The problem with this thinkingwas that it had failed against Napoleonin the past. But Mack would not toleratethe cautious thinking coming out ofCharles's camp.

One final consideration hampered theAustrians: in order to place their troopsunder an Austrian commander, the Russiansinsisted that the commander be of theappropriate royal stature. The ProtestantMack would never do, therefore Mack's armywas nominally placed under Francis'syounger brother Ferdinand. Ferdinand failedto grasp that he was a figurehead until latein the campaign, causing no small amountof friction between the two leaders.

Russia

The Russian army during the NapoleonicWars owed its origins to Peter the Great. Ithad grown and matured under the TsarinaElizabeth and had nearly wrecked Frederickthe Great's army during the Seven YearsWar. Under Catherine the Great and her sonPaul, there had been a number of reformsand counter-reforms, depending on thepolitical winds. But throughout there was ahistory of almost unbroken successes. Onlyduring the last stages of the wars of theFrench Revolution did the Russians sufferany serious reverses. These the Tsar and hisnobility blamed on their allies, the Britishand Austrians, and by and large it was afair assessment.

The army was a typical ancien régime army,organized upon the regimental basis. Therewas no standing formation above theregiment and regiments were switched fromone brigade to another on a moment'snotice. The inhaber or commanding officerrarely took to the field. The drudgery ofcommand was left to his subordinate.

The life of the typical Russian soldier wasbrutal even by the standards of the time. Hewas beaten on a regular basis, and while thiswas not unusual in ancien régime armies, thecapricious nature of it was. The juniorofficers were of the mind that the majority

of the men were animals. The food of theday was vegetable soup, most often madewith barley and cabbage. The dark bread wasbaked to a rock-like consistency. This waseither ground up into a mush or those bravesouls that still had most of their teeth couldattempt to bite it.

The Russian army was conscripted. Noticewas given to landowners to provide a certainnumber of men, and he would pick therequired number of his serfs (slaves) to sendto the army. The term of enlistment was solong that villagers often held funerals for thedeparting men. With this attitude, it is easyto see that a high degree of fatalismconsumed the vitality of the army. The mencomplained little, compared to their Frenchcounterparts, and had a reputation forwithstanding high casualties stoically. WhileRussian soldiers were brave, numerouschroniclers have said that this was morefrom a sheep-like willingness to follow theirleaders than from élan.

The Russian artillery arm was greatlyadmired throughout Europe. Their gunswere plentiful and packed a good punch.The artillerists would doggedly defend theirpieces, in many cases to the death, ratherthen abandon them to the enemy. Whilefierce, the gunners lacked the skill needed toget the most out of their guns. On manyoccasions the French out-dueled the Russianseven though they were often outnumberedby more then two to one.

Poor training caused a chronic problem.The senior officer corps was made up of theupper nobility from St Petersburg andMoscow. The line officers, however, wereoften ill-educated, under-trained men whowere beyond their depth at command level.Only the best-trained troops could performthe maneuvers required to keep up with theFrench. This meant that the best units sawcontinual service in battle. The commandof Bagration would see more combat thanthe standard line division. They alwaysresponded well, but it meant that it wasalways the pick of the army that was takingcasualties. It was with this brave but flawedarmy that Kutusov took the field.

Warring sides 21


Prussia

The Prussian army of the Napoleonic Warswas the direct descendant of Frederick theGreat's. Perhaps no army has been soundeservedly maligned throughout history.One is required to examine the motives andperspectives of the authors of these attacks.

It has been said that the army generalswere extremely antiquated. While the seniorcommanders and staff were old, this alsomeant that they had a great deal ofexperience. The commander, after the King,was the Duke of Brunswick. He was a veteranof the Seven Years War, where he had won anumber of spectacular victories over theFrench. He had commanded the army duringPrussia's participation in the wars of theFrench Revolution, 1792-95, and hadperformed well, with the exception of theValmy campaign. His failure to performat Valmy was just possibly a result of awell-placed bribe, rather then a lack of

The Duke of Brunswick. Nominal commander of thePrussian army in 1806, he was forced to fight a war heopposed. Mortally wounded at Auerstädt, he died atOttensen on 10 November 1806. (Hulton Getty)

military acumen, for when the Duke's estatewas catalogued following his death, anumber of the former crown jewels of Francewere found. The Duke's biggest problem wasthat he stood between the King and anumber of 'War Party' generals, whoresented his more prudent policies.

The army itself started the campaigndispersed throughout Prussia. They gatheredslowly and were still assembling in 1806when the French thunderclap fell on them.The 200,000 men were well trained andefficient. Such was their level of training thatonly the French of the Grande Armée werebetter. The structure of the army was similarto every other ancien régime army. There wasno permanent structure above the regiment.Units were brigaded together as befitted thewishes of the wing commander.

The Prussian cavalry was considered bymany to be the best in Europe. Certainlytheir mounts were of the highest quality,and the troopers were brave and skilled inpersonal combat. If they lacked anything, itwas the ability to coordinate multiplesquadron charges efficiently.

The infantry, which had won such highrenown during Frederick's early campaigns,retained the impressive level of fire disciplineof their forebears. These battalions couldpour out a devastating level of fire, andmaintain this pace until their ammunitionran out. This meant that when the Frenchmet the Prussians in a stand-up firefight, ashistory would verify, huge casualties couldbe expected for both sides.

The Prussians, however, had a significantdisadvantage in their inability to matchup well against the French skirmishers.This failure of tactical doctrine became adecisive factor when Prussian line battalionsexposed in the open tried to exchange volleyswith skirmishers who were able to takeadvantage of cover. When the Prussianfusiliers had cover, such as in the woodsaround Closwitz and Isserstadt, they gavethe French tirailleurs all they could handle.But Prussian commanders did not exploitvillages or woods as defensive strongpoints,instead preferring open ground to use the

Warring sides 23

musketry machines that their infantrybattalions had become.

Another problem was Prussia's artillery-arm, the majority of which used obsoleteguns. They lacked much of the hitting powerof the French pieces, weighed more, andtherefore suffered in maneuverability. TheFrench gunners were able time and again tooutduel the Prussians and deprive the stolidPrussian infantry of critical artillery support.

Finally, we come to the much-malignedPrussian General Staff. While it is true that thePrussians lacked a modern General Staff, theywere no different from any other ancien régimecountry such as Russia, Austria or Britain.

Prince Louis Ferdinand. The pride of thePrussian aristocracy, he commanded at Saalfeldand did not survive the experience. (Roger-Viollet)

Only the French command and controlsystem had evolved its capabilitiessignificantly since the Seven Years War. It is nocoincidence that the other countries wouldbasically adopt the Napoleonic model as thewars continued. The much-vaunted Prussianstaff system of the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies grew directly out of the failures of1806, such that the later armies of Bismarckand the Kaiser could be said to trace a moredirect lineage to Napoleon than to Frederick.

The fighting

From Ulm tothe Treaty of Tilsit

General Mack of Austria believed that thesecurity of the Rhine front depended onclosing off the gaps that led through themountainous Black Forest area of southernGermany, where much of the 1796-97, 1799,and 1800 campaigns had been fought. Heassumed that central Germany was out ofplay - in effect, neutral ground. The linchpinto his plan was the city of Ulm on theborders of Bavaria and Württemberg. Byseizing and holding Ulm, he would maintainthe position until General Kutusov arrivedwith the Russian reinforcements, whereuponthe combined army would crush the upstartCorsican. At Ulm, the fortified position ofthe Michelsberg rose above the town, andMack believed that this position wasvirtually impregnable. In this way, Mackpredicated his defense upon a chimericalview of the situation.

The Ulm campaign

The first part of Mack's plan was to cross intoBavaria and, with the combinedAustrian-Bavarian army, occupy the Ulmposition. Francis sent his emissary to theBavarian Elector to win him over by acombination of promises and threats. Whilethe Elector's wife actively lobbied on theHabsburgs' behalf, a combination of Austrianblunders, popular sentiment, and Napoleon'soffers of succor led to the Bavariansretreating to Würzburg and allyingthemselves to the French cause.

At almost the same moment that theAustrians were crossing into Bavaria,Napoleon was setting his army into motion.He correctly judged Mack's strategy andplayed up to Mack's preconceptions. WhileMack took up a position at Ulm, the GrandeArmée would feint at his front while making a

large wheeling motion and descending on hisnorthern flank. That would interpose part ofthe French army between the Austrians andtheir supply line running through Munich.

On 25 September 1805, the 3rd and6th Corps crossed the Rhine and moved onStuttgart. Mack's army was strung outbetween Ulm and Augsburg as the trapbegan to close on the unsuspectingAustrians. Mack finally realized that he was

The fighting 25

being outflanked on 3 October. Orderinggarrison forces to deploy along the Danube,he waited with his main army in Ulm.

The first of Napoleon's hammer blowsfell on 8 October. After crossing the Danubethe day before, elements of the 5th Corpsand Murat's cavalry reserve met a columnunder General Auffenberg hurrying to stopthe French crossing to the right bank. Aswas to happen time and time again in thiscampaign, the Austrians were too late, andwere in turn caught wrong-footed. In arunning battle, Auffenberg's column wascrushed at the Battle of Wertingen.

The following day, elements of Ney'scorps forced the bridge at Gunzburg againstdetermined opposition. The Austrians fought

well, but again were defeated. Napoleonassumed that Mack would attempt to escape.In his mind the most logical route was forthem to head south and meet up with asmall force in the Tyrol under ArchdukeJohn. Therefore, Napoleon had most of hisarmy swing south to head them off. He leftMarshal Murat in charge of sweeping up therearguard around Ulm. All forces wereordered south of the Danube. But Ney wasstill getting reports of significant activitynorth of the river. One of his divisions underGeneral Dupont was up there, having been

The Battle of Elchingen. The abbey high on thehill was stormed while the battle raged on theflats below. (Roger-Viollet)


The Ulm campaign

The fighting 27

General Dupont. Superb and aggressive performances atJungingen and Friedland suggested Dupont was a comingman in the French army, but a craven defeat at Bailen in1808 led to the greatest disgrace of any French generalin the Napoleonic Wars. (Roger-Viollet)

ordered to move along the right bank tosweep up isolated units. Ney argued withMurat all day on the 10th that it was urgentto move his entire 6th Corps to the north ofthe river to support this increasingly isolateddivision. Nothing was resolved, and Dupontmarched on.

Early on the morning of the following day,as he reached the suburbs of Ulm, Dupontdiscovered a horrifying sight: Mack and hisarmy were still at Ulm and issuing forth tomeet him. What transpired marked a cleardemonstration of the superiority of thetroops of the Grande Armée over theirHabsburg opponents. In this desperateday-long battle, Dupont used the Frenchsuperiority in street fighting to hold thevillage of Jungingen, counterattackingskillfully when the Austrians brokethemselves on this strongpoint. The rest ofDupont's infantry barely managed to holdtheir left flank against the sluggish Austrians.His cavalry were defeated by their Austriancounterparts, but gallantly prevented them

from overwhelming the French right flank,diverting them into a wasteful attack on theFrench baggage. In all, not only did Duponthold out against four-to-one odds, but he alsoinflicted five times the casualties, almost theequal of his entire force. The French werespent, no doubt, but they had put on anamazing performance. In the face of suchAustrian numbers, with yet more Austriansthat could be committed, Dupont beat ahasty retreat on the night of the battle. Hehad no desire to tempt fate twice, no matterhow gallant his men.

On 12 October, the proverbial veil hadfallen from Napoleon's eyes. Mack was stillin Ulm and still in the trap. Mack, for hispart, believing that his position wasinvulnerable, saw an opportunity to destroythe exposed French line of supply north ofthe Danube. After dithering and repeatedlychanging his mind, he sent two columnsout of Ulm on the afternoon of the13th. One under General Riesch wenttowards Elchingen to secure the bridge there

Marshal Michael Ney. Although keen to display hisworth before the Emperor, Ney's ill fortune wasto shine outside his sight at Elchingen, but to bea scapegoat for failures at Jena and Eylau. Finally,at Friedland he was victorious while Napoleonwas present. (Ann Ronan Picture Library)


Surrender at Ulm, by Thevenin. Although many ofthe uniforms are anachronistic, this painting gives agood idea of the scale of the surrender (AKG London)

and prevent the French doubling back overthe river. The other column, under Werneck,headed north with most of the heavyartillery. After Riesch chased a smalldetachment out of the town, he prepared hisdefenses. According to Mack's calculations,no French should have been in theElchingen area. What were they doing there?

Napoleon and Ney had hurried toreestablish contact with the isolated Dupont.The quickest route to this goal lay over thebridges at Elchingen. On the morning of14 October 1805, Ney led his men to aposition south of the Danube oppositeElchingen. Having assaulted south over theriver at Gunzburg, Ney had to storm backover it at Elchingen. The field was a partiallywooded flood plain, rising suddenly andsteeply to a hill town overlooking all. Afterclearing the Austrian pickets with

The fighting 29

artillery, the corps advanced across thebridge. One regiment fought up through thetown and took the abbey at the top withthe bayonet. The rest of the division movedright across the low ground. They faceddown the Austrian cavalry and scatteredRiesch's infantry. Ney won the title of Dukeof Elchingen for annihilating the enemydespite the imposing terrain. By evening onthe 14th, communications had reopened andNey was advancing towards Ulm, 6 miles(10km) away.

This last defeat was too much forArchduke Ferdinand. He took most of theremaining Austrian cavalry and headednorth, following after Werneck. He wasgoing to escape, even if the foolish Mackwould not. He rode through much of thenight and out of this phase of the campaignto report to Vienna.

Following the victory at Elchingen,Napoleon released Murat to chase downWerneck. He finally caught up with him onthe 16th at Neresheim and destroyed him ina running battle over the next two days.Meanwhile, Napoleon ordered the coup degrace. As Ney, followed by part of Lannes'corps, approached the Austrian position onthe Michelsberg on the afternoon of the15th, Napoleon ordered an assault followinga 30-minute bombardment. Stripped of theirheavy guns a day earlier, the Austrians hadno adequate response, and it turned out thatthe fortifications had yet to be completedbecause of sloth and the rains. Ney's3rd Division under General Malher trudgedup the muddy slopes. About 45 yards (40m)from the fortified lines they broke into a run.Amazingly, the 'unassailable position' of theMichelsberg was taken in the first try.Vicious hand-to-hand fighting left hundredsof dead strewn around the fortifications. Bynightfall, the remainder of Mack's army wascompletely surrounded in the walled town ofUlm. With the loss of the Michelsberg theirposition was hopelessly compromised.Napoleon could shell them at his leisurefrom the heights.

Negotiations were opened on 17 October.Assured that the Russians could not comein time to his aid, and informed ofWerneck's fate, Mack agreed to surrenderon the morning of the 20th. As the remainsof his army marched out of the city onthat October morning, history witnessed oneof Napoleon's most complete triumphs.Mack had lost over 60,000 of the72,000 men with whom he had enteredBavaria. He had been no match forNapoleon's speed, and learned too latethat no position is unassailable. NowNapoleon could face the Russians.


The Austerlitz campaign

After the capitulation of Mack's army on20 October 1805, Napoleon took several daysto gather the spoils of war and reorganize hisarmy to head for the Russians underKutusov. The latter's army had marched asfar as the Inn river, on the borders of Austriaand Bavaria, and then stopped. The marchhad been a terrible ordeal. Straggling anddisease had cost the Russians about one-thirdof their men. In the past, much has beenmade of the scheduling problems caused bythe Russian and Austrian use of the Julianand Gregorian calendars respectively,accounting for an 11-day difference.However, it appears that most of theirdifficulties arose from the false assumptionthat Napoleon could not bring his army tobear before the two armies of his opponentswere able to combine.

When word reached Kutusov of thedisaster at Ulm, he knew that the nature ofthe war had changed. He devised the

Prince Mikhail Kutusov. Immortalized as the idealRussian commander in Tolstoy's War and Peace.in reality he was a very different man. Blind in oneeye from a battle wound, well educated and alibertine, he conducted retreats with great skill, butseemed at a loss to do much else. (Hulton Getty)

obvious plan of falling back upon his supplylines and support. As he withdrew from theInn river, Kutusov barely kept ahead of therapidly marching French. He left rearguardswho fought the French in a succession ofskirmishes. At Amstetten, Murat rode too farahead of his support and almost got himselfkilled. At Mariazell, Davout destroyed one ofthe last contingents of Austrians underGeneral Merveldt.

The Russians faced the problem that theirline of supply ran south from Brünn. Thismeant that to secure their retreat they had tomove north of the Danube river. To do this,however, would expose the Austrian capitalof Vienna. Understandably, the Habsburgspreferred that a defense of their capital bemade, but after a show of making a stand,Kutusov slipped his army north of the riverand positioned himself around Krems.

While this happened, Murat pushedahead and found that the way to Vienna wasopen. With his cavalry he entered the cityon 11 November. As Murat rode for the gloryof capturing the enemy's palaces, to thenorth of the Danube dramatic events wereunfolding. Napoleon had hoped to preventthe Russians from crossing the river and hadsent a newly formed corps under MarshalMortier over the river by a pontoon bridgeto cut them off. The first division, led byGeneral Gazan and Mortier himself, movedalong the left bank. Following behind wasanother division under Dupont. Withoutany cavalry screen, Mortier did not knowhe was walking into a trap. As he spentthe night encamped around the town ofDürrenstein, Kutusov had completeknowledge of his position and sent severalcolumns around to the north to come intothe rear of the Marshal while attacking atthe same time to the front.

This plan worked, but the march throughthe freezing night took much longer thananticipated. Gazan's men fought fiercelymost of the day against heavy odds. Theywere able to exploit the vineyards on thehillsides to their best advantage and were onthe point of preparing a final push to breakthe troops to their front when the tardy

The Austerlitz campaign

The fig

htin

g

31


Russian columns appeared in their rear.Mortier turned his men around and tried topunch his way out. Much of the fightingoccurred in the streets of Dürrenstein. Themen were running out of ammunition andwere completely exhausted. Surrenderseemed inevitable when the report ofcannon coming from the west was heard.Dupont's men had force-marched and werelaunching bayonet attacks in the eveninggloom. The Russians, now fearing they werethe ones who were in danger of beingsurrounded, broke off the action andretreated into the hills. The French hadbarely avoided a disaster that would havewiped out the propaganda benefits of Ulm.Only the tenacity of the French soldiers,outnumbered five to one, had saved the day.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Napoleonlooked for a way to transport his army to thenorth of the Danube. He had dispatched the2nd and 6th Corps of Marmont and Ney tocover the Tyrol and the approaches toVienna from the south, for both ArchdukesCharles and John with armies from Italy andHungary could have threatened his rear hadhe not done so. This still left him with the1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th, most of the cavalry,

Joachim Murat. The dashing cavalry leader becamea Prince of the Empire because of his marriageto Napoleon's sister Caroline. While extremelyskilled in leading cavalry, his performance inindependent command left something to be desired.(Ann Ronan Picture Library)

Prince Peter Bagration. As the fearless leaderof the Russian avant-garde, he caused moreproblems for the French than any otherRussian. (Roger-Viollet)

The fighting 33

and Mortier's ad hoc corps to face theRussians. Napoleon found the answer to hisproblem when Lannes and Murat bluffed theguards of the Vienna bridges into believingthat an armistice had been signed. While theAustrian guards were distracted by theglittering French marshals, some Frenchgrenadiers swiftly seized the bridge. This actof daring allowed the quick pursuit of thenow fleeing Russians. Murat caught up withthem at HollaBrünn.

It was here that the Russians turned thetables, for Bagration now bluffed Murat intosigning a temporary armistice in preparationfor a permanent peace. While Lannes fumed,both sides agreed to a four-hour warningbefore resuming combat. A message was sentto Napoleon, who was enraged and ordered aresumption of the war. The respite had giventhe cunning Kutusov time to get most of hisarmy away. After the required four hours the

Napoleon at the chapel of St Anthony. He is viewing theprogress of the annihilation of the allied left, sending inhis reserves as needed from this position. (Roger-Viollet)

French attacked into the night's gloom. Onlythe light provided by the burning town ofSchöngraben allowed the men to work theirway through the vines of the fields in frontof the Russian position. Receiving canisterfire from the Russian guns that overlookedtheir approach, they pressed on despite thehuge swaths cut through their ranks. As theyreached the Russian position it gave way,yielding many prisoners. However, PrinceBagration, the rearguard commander, haddone his job. He broke off the fight andsaved most of his command while allowingthe main army to escape againstoverwhelming odds.

Kutusov was able to retreat throughBrünn and continue on to Olmütz, where he


Lieutenant General Buxhöwden. A man muchmore interested in his drink and prostitutes thanin military tactics, he spent much of the Battle ofAusterlitz drunk while presiding over a monumentaldisaster (Roger-Viollet)

met up with the reinforcing army ofGeneral Buxhöwden, including the Tsar, on24 November. The combined army, whichincluded about 15,000 Austrians, wouldnumber around 72,000 men.

An allied conference was held to decidewhat was to be done. Kutusov argued for acontinued retreat to draw the French furtherfrom their supply sources, and this, inretrospect, was exactly the strategyNapoleon feared. It had the obviousadvantage for the allies that they would nothave to face the French immediately inbattle. Further, there was an increasingchance that the Prussians would throw intheir lot with the allies. The alternative wasto bring on battle. This had the attraction ofavoiding a prolonged retreat in winter, whichcould produce terrible losses from hunger,

The Mamelukes were part of the Imperial GuardCavalry that Napoleon unleashed on the StareVinohrady. Many of them had followed Napoleonfrom Egypt, but over the years they were oftenrecruited from Paris 'toughs'. (Musee de I'armée, Paris)

exhaustion, and cold. The allies also had thechance to catch Napoleon with his armyspread out. Desire for a victory prevailed atallied headquarters - ultimately, the Tsarwanted to gain the glory of commanding thearmy that would destroy this champion ofthe French Revolution.

The fighting 35

Napoleon wished to lure the allies into adecisive battle. His supply line was stretchedand, in addition, his intelligence sources toldhim that Prussia was preparing to enter thewar. Finally, and most importantly, the newsof the naval defeat at Trafalgar, combinedwith the rumors floating around Paris about

the situation of the army, had causedanother financial panic. The Emperor wasalways aware that he was only one defeataway from a coup that could topple histhrone. Napoleon therefore decided to baitthe allies into bringing on a battle. He madethe appearance of weakness by asking for an


armistice and being unusually polite toemissaries. While doing this, he sent ordersto Bernadotte to march on Brünn and herecalled Davout from Vienna.

By 1 December the trap was set. In afurther sign of weakness, Napoleon withdrewfrom the powerful position of the PratzenHeights and deliberately weakened his rightflank to tempt the Russians to attack there.The allies gladly occupied the heights andmade plans to turn the French right flankand place their army between Napoleon'sarmy and his line of communication.What the Tsar and his advisers did not knowwas that Davout had marched his twodivisions the 92 miles (150km) fromVienna and was falling into place on theFrench right. Davout's men broughtNapoleon's army up to about the samestrength as that of the allies.

The allies were not the only ones whothought the French were in a bad way. On thenight of 28 November, a group of marshalswere meeting in the Imperial Headquarterswaiting for the return of the Emperor. Soultand Murat were convinced that they were infor a drubbing and wished to convinceNapoleon to retreat. Knowing that they didnot hold the ear of the Emperor like Lannes,they cajoled him into finally putting forwardthe idea. When Napoleon returned, Lannespulled him aside and suggested a retreat.Napoleon had never before heard such wordsout of the fighting Marshal and asked himwhere he had got such an idea. 'It was theidea of all of us,' responded Lannes nobly. 'Iwill place my corps at your service sire, and itwill perform as double its number,' said Soult,trying to squirm out of the responsibility,whereupon Lannes drew his sword at Soultand demanded a duel . Lannes vainly tried toobtain satisfaction over the next few days.When challenged on the morning of thebattle, Soult responded that they had enoughwarm work ahead of them that day without aduel. This incident would be the cause of afeud between the two marshals for the rest ofLannes's life.

Napoleon's battle plan was to tempt mostof the allies off the Pratzen Heights in an

effort to turn his weak right flank. He wouldthen launch an attack up the center and breakthe enemy in two, after which he would rollup both flanks from the middle. The alliedplan fell right into Napoleon's trap. Threecolumns were to descend from the heightsand crush the French right and then turn todrive Napoleon against the Moravian hills.

On the night before the Battle ofAusterlitz, Napoleon went on an inspectionof the troops. As his soldiers recognized him,they lit his way by burning their bedstraw,which they bundled into torches. Soon theentire camp area was illuminated by the mencoming to see their Emperor. Napoleonwould call it the finest night of his life.

By 6 am the Russian and Austrian columnswere on the march. The Austrian Weyrother,Tsar Alexander's Chief of Staff, had drawn upa detailed general plan the night before whileKutusov slept. Weyrother's timetableexceeded the capabilities of the army, andhad not accounted for various columnscrossing paths and becoming confused.Count Langeron had to stop his column toallow for the cavalry of General Liechtensteinto pass through to their assigned place.Ironically, this delay nearly upset Napoleon'splans.

As the allies came into the fields oppositethe towns of Telnitz and Sokolnitz,Vandamme's and St Hilaire's divisions weremassing at the foot of the Pratzen Heights,waiting for the signal to advance. Theirposition was hidden from above by thick fogwhich hung in the low ground.

At around 8 am the first allied columnattacked the village of Telnitz. Defending thevillage was the 3rd Line regiment. Afterseveral assaults on the town, the French wereexpelled and retreated to the west of theGoldbach stream. Moments later a Frenchbrigade came up, as Davout arrived on thescene and immediately poured his men intobattle. They launched a counterattack andonce more regained Telnitz. They in turnwere routed when coming out the other sideof the village, attacked by Austrian hussars.The allies once more regained the village,but were prevented from advancing further

The fighting 37

Nicolas-Jean de Dieu Soult Called thegreatest maneuverer in Europe, he was a master intraining and bringing his corps to the battlefield.Once there he took a less active role.(Ann Ronan Picture Library)

by French artillery, which raked the exitsfrom the town.

Slightly to the north was the village ofSokolnitz. A little time after the battle beganat Telnitz, the allied second column made itsfirst assault against the village of Sokolnitzwith its castle and walled pheasantry.Defending here was the 26th Light, theTirailleurs du Po and the Tirailleurs Corses.These were some of the best troops in theGrande Armée. The fire from these battalionsbattered the advancing column. GeneralLangeron, the column commander, decidedto blast them out of the village. Heunlimbered his guns and began a deadlybarrage. While this was going on, the thirdcolumn arrived and began an assault uponthe castle. Though they were takingwithering fire, the allies' superiority innumbers told and the French light infantrywas expelled. They fell back, rallied and

counterattacked. This time it was theRussians who were driven back. They in turnrallied and once more threw out the French.Then Friant's division came forward andonce more expelled the Russians.

For most of the rest of the battle, controlof Sokolnitz passed to and fro. After Friant'sattack, the French never completely lostcontrol of Sokolnitz. All was going accordingto Napoleon's plan, for the more in thebalance the issue appeared upon theGoldbach, the more reserves the alliedcommanders would commit to that fight andthe less they would have elsewhere.

The last two weeks of the campaign hadbeen fought under overcast skies. On themorning of 2 December 1805, the sun brokethrough the clouds and began to burn offthe haze that covered the battlefield. At8.30 am, Napoleon turned to Soult and askedhow long it would take for his men to reachthe top of the Pratzen Heights. 'Twentyminutes, Sire.' 'Good,' replied the Emperor.'Start your men off in a quarter of an hour.'

So it was that the 'Sun of Austerlitz' shonedown on St Hilaire's division as it began itsascent. The Tsar spotted this movement andasked what it could be. This wasn't supposedto happen! Kutusov was ordered to send menover to stop the French from seizing thePratzen and splitting the allied army in two.The fourth allied column was on the march,but could only feed in several battalions at atime. They were no match for the finest linedivision in the Grande Armée, but theirnumbers were almost twice those ofSt Hilaire. In some of the most desperatefighting of the Napoleonic Wars, both sidesblasted away at each other. As one Russianbattalion gave way, another took its place.Charge and countercharge led to melees inwhich no prisoners were taken and thewounded were bayoneted. After an hour ofthe most savage fighting, the allied fourthcolumn effectively ceased to exist.

As all appeared lost for the allies, thedelayed portion of the second columnarrived on the scene. These were the troopswho had been separated from their mainbody by errors in the marching order. They


were Austrians and inexperienced, but stillthey weighed in and attacked the tiredFrench. Finally, the weight of numbers drovethe French back off the heights. Withammunition getting scarce, retreat seemedthe only way out. Instead the menfixed bayonets and charged. The battle hadhung in the balance, but French élan carriedthe day. The Austrians fled down the backslope of the hill, and the French had brokenthe center.

Further to the north, Vandamme, withSoult's second division, launched an assaultagainst the Stare Vinohrady, the summit ofthe northern portion of the Pratzen Heights.Two pockets of troops held out here. Thefirst was dispatched when hit by three timestheir number after receiving point-blank

canister fire from guns that had beenunlimbered in their face.

The second group was five battalionsholding the Stare Vinohrady proper. Thesemen were first tormented by the Frenchlight infantry tactics, then treated to acrushing series of short-range volleys fromVandamme's veteran soldiers. The Austrianswere routed. The entirety of the Pratzenwas in French hands. The Tsar had noreserves left to commit except his preciousImperial Guard. When it became clear toNapoleon that both ends of the Pratzenwere in the hands of his men, he cameforward from his headquarters of themorning, and advanced with his Guard tothe top of the recently captured ridge.At the same time, he ordered Bernadotte's

The fighting 39

1st Corps to advance and support the left ofVandamme's men.

With the loss of the Pratzen, theGrand Duke Constantine, the Tsar's brotherand acommander of the Russian ImperialGuard, launched a counterattack in anattempt to restore the situation. Vandamme'smen had taken up a position in a vineyardjust below the Stare Vinohrady. Sendingforward his Guard fusiliers, Constantine sawthese men push back the first battalion ofbicorned soldiers, only to have the secondFrench battalion drive back his men with awithering volley. As his men came backdown the hill, the Grand Duke sent inseveral squadrons of his heavy Guard horse.They rode down the rows of vines andslammed into the weary infantry. In a brief

Austerlitz (by Gerard). The prisoners of the Russianguard are presented to Napoleon. (AKG London)

battle, the first battalion of the 4th Line wascrushed and its standard taken.

As Napoleon watched this from his newvantage point, he committed his Guardcavalry to counter the enemy's. Guard. Thefield squadrons of his mounted Guardchasseurs and grenadiers slammed into themagnificent Russian cavalry. The Frenchimpetus was too much and the Russians weredriven back on to their own Guard fusiliers,who had just re-formed. As they were on theverge of breaking, Constantine committedthe last of his available reserve, the GuardCossacks and the Chevalier Guard. Thesemen swung the balance back in the Russianfavor. Napoleon countered by sending in hispersonal guard of the service squadrons ofGuard cavalry. They flew into the swirlingmelee, but the Russians still held a largenumerical advantage.

As the fight hung in the balance,Bernadotte's 2nd Division underGeneral Drouet finally made its appearance.Advancing on the flank of the Russians,they came forward in serried ranks, theirbattalions deployed in a chessboard fashion.This new support allowed the outnumberedFrench cavalry to fall behind the coverof their infantry in order to catch theirbreath, while maintaining pressure on theRussians with a galling fire. On the occasionswhere the Russians tried to follow, theymet with a devastating crossfire and fellback. Given this development, the battleshifted in the French favor. When the Guardhorse artillery rode up, unlimbered andpoured canisters into the RussianGuard cavalry, the day was won. Fallingback through the ranks of the Russianinfantry, they disordered the Guard fusiliersjust as the combined French Guard cavalrybore down on them. The result was amassacre. Sabering the fleeing Russians, .the French Guard cavalry followed up for0.25 mile (0.4km) until they called off thepursuit because of the exhaustion of theirmounts. The victory was won - the only


question remaining was the escape of theallied army.

As Vandamme made his assault on theStare Vinohrady, the action on the northside of the battlefield was heating up. TheRussian cavalry column, under PrinceLiechtenstein, was making its way towardsthe right flank of the French 5th Corps.Opposing them was General Kellerman andhis division of light cavalry. Kellerman'scommand made up part of the cavalryreserve under Murat. Behind them was theinfantry division under General Caffarelli.For an hour and a half, Kellerman fought aseries of battles with the much morenumerous enemy cavalry, besting theminitially, then falling behind the infantry toregroup as their infantry comrades firedvolley after volley into the increasinglydisordered enemy ranks. Finally, Murat senttwo cuirassier divisions to finish the job.These heavy cavalry, tremendouslyimpressive in their polished steel breastplatesand helmets, crashed into the remainingenemy cavalry, and sent it packing.

With the defeat of the Russian cavalry,Lannes could turn his attention to the defeatof the Russian avant-garde under PrinceBagration. All morning the brave andaggressive Russian Prince had been eager tomake his attack, but no orders had come.Finally, as the situation in the center beganto deteriorate, Bagration sent his menforward to seize the Santon, a small butprominent hill that jutted forth from theheights to the north. In an attempt tooverlap Lannes's line to the north, Bagrationsent a Jäger regiment around to the flank.There they met a murderous fire from theelite 17th Light and a large battery of formerAustrian light guns that were placed uponthe Santon. Reeling back, they fell behindtheir own artillery.

Lannes advanced in a counterattackonly to be stopped by Russian artillery fire.Directing his guns to suppress the Russianartillery, the French corps artillery drove offthe Russian guns after sustaining high losses.Once this was accomplished, Lannes couldadvance again, and with the help of his

supporting cavalry he eventually droveBagration's men off the field. Lanneswanted to pursue the Russians but was heldup by Murat, who held command on thispart of the field. The failure to follow upaggressively would leave the Russians thenucleus of an army when it mustered a fewdays later.

The greatest spoils of the battle were wonon the southern front. Napoleon now directedthe unengaged units of his army to wheel tothe south and crush the first three columns ofthe allied army. The brunt of the fighting fellonce more on Soult's two divisions,St Hilaire's and Vandamme's. Descending theslope of the Pratzen, they crashed into theremains of the 3rd column. At the same time,Davout sent in his last reserves to take thetwo villages of Sokolnitz and Telnitz. TheRussians who now held the castle at Sokolnitzwere hit on two sides, by Davout's men fromthe west and St Hilaire's men from the north.Fighting heroically, most of the Russiansperished rather than yield.

Count Langeron, commander of the 2ndcolumn, could now see all was lost and madeprovision to get out with what he could. Thecommander of the avant-garde of the 1stcolumn, General Kienmayer, did the same.The commander of the front, Buxhöwden,was evidently so drunk that he made a runfor it, leaving little direction for his men.

To cover the withdrawal, Kienmayerdeployed his best cavalry regiment, theO'Reilly chevau-legers. To counter, thedragoon division of General Beaumont, withsix regiments, advanced. In a dramaticcharge, the O'Reillys broke through five ofthe regiments. Only the sixth was able toforce them to withdraw. Re-forming, theO'Reillys came on again against a line ofstationary dragoons. The French cavalrypeeled away, exposing a line of French Guardartillery, which belched fire and shot at thesurprised Austrians. The gallant cavalry hadhad enough and broke. This now fed thepanic that was spreading among the allies.Many dropped their weapons and ran fortheir lives. The path that many took wasacross frozen ponds that blocked their way

The fighting 41

to the south. As the men fled across theponds, a combination of their weight andFrench artillery fire broke the ice and manymen plunged into the freezing water. Whilethese ponds were shallow, undoubtedly theshock killed many. With the ice breaking,those troops who were still north of theponds threw down their weapons and,pleading for mercy, surrendered.

The allies had lost 25,000 men, 182 gunsand 45 standards. The French had lost8,500 men and one standard. While thenumbers engaged had been about equal,

it is worth pointing out that Napoleonfought most of the battle with onlytwo-thirds of his troops. The entire1st Corps, Oudinot's grenadier division,Legrand's division of Soult's 4th Corps, andthe Guard infantry had seen very littleaction, while the allies had left almostnothing uncommitted. Napoleon had many

Napoleon meets Francis I following Austerlitz.Francis was relieved to get off so lightly aftersuch a defeat, but Napoleon had other foesin mind. (Hulton Getty)


options left to him at the end of the day;Alexander had none. The battle had beenwon when Napoleon had lured the alliesinto the battle he had wanted.

Napoleon, in his address to the troopsthe following day, said that he was wellpleased with them. Their hard work on theplains above Boulogne had paid off. Theywere superior in skill and training to theircounterparts. Added to this, there wasNapoleon himself - seldom has a generalnot only predicted the enemy's moves, butactually provoked them. Perhaps TsarAlexander summed it up best: lamenting thedefeat, he declared, 'We are babies in thehands of a giant.'

On 4 December 1805, the Austrianssigned an armistice, and on the 27th, by theTreaty of Pressburg, they exited the war.The Russian army was allowed to withdrawto its homéland and the French army beganto disengage from Moravia. Eventually theywould set up in cantonments throughoutsouthern Germany. Napoleon returned toParis amid the triumph afforded aconquering hero.

With the formation of the Confederationof the Rhine, the role for the Holy RomanEmperor ceased to exist. Facing a faitaccompli, the Emperor Francis ü gave up histitle and became Emperor Francis I ofAustria-Hungary. The news of Austerlitz wassaid to have killed the British Prime Minister,William Pitt the Younger, Napoleon'sarch-antagonist. The Sun of Austerlitz wasshining on all Napoleon's realm.

Prussia joins the war, 1806

As 1806 arrived, there was little thought inthe court of France of a war with Prussia. Onthe contrary, negotiations were continuingfor a formal Franco-Prussian alliance.Napoleon had offered the much-prizedHanover to Prussia in exchange for the smallprovinces of Cleves, Berg, and Neufchatel.Additionally, Bavaria would swap Ansbachfor part of Bayreuth. All these territorialchanges would serve two purposes forFrance. They would consolidate the holdingsof the two spheres of influence as well asalienate Great Britain from a potential ally.In fact, once Prussia occupied Hanover,Britain declared war on Prussia, although itcan hardly be said that the conflict wasprosecuted in any serious manner.

Napoleon continued to pursue the waragainst Britain and her allies, the greatestsuccess coming with the removal of the

Queen Louisa of Mecklenburg. As Prussia's Queen,she became the focal point of those wishing warwith France. She used every weapon at herdisposal to defeat Napoleon. Her death in 1810came before her country's resurrection.(Ann Ronan Picture Library)

The fighting 43

Bourbons in Naples and the installation ofhis brother Joseph on the vacated throne.While this was happening, however, morestorm clouds were gathering. Prior toAusterlitz, Tsar Alexander had visited thecourt of Prussia and had fallen under thespell of the beautiful francophobe QueenLouisa. Making a pledge of mutual supportin a melodramatic ceremony in the crypt ofFrederick the Great, Russia and Prussiamade plans to work in concert. The firstresult had been Prussia's tardy decision toexploit her position and enter the war onthe side of the allies, just as Napoleon hadreached his most extended point of the 1805Austerlitz campaign.

Arriving at the Imperial headquarters justprior to the great battle, Haugwitz, thePrussian Foreign Minister, had been preparedto deliver the ultimatum that would bringPrussia into the war. Napoleon beratedHaugwitz for hours and sent him awaybefore the message could be officiallydelivered. When Napoleon next metHaugwitz on 15 December, the situation hadchanged significantly. Haugwitz meekly

Officers of the elite Prussian gendarmes cavalry regimentshow their contempt by sharpening their swords on thesteps of the French embassy (by Myrbach).

offered congratulations from the Prussiancourt to the recent victor. Napoleon quipped,'It seems that there has been a change ofaddress since the letter was penned.'

Prussia was caught between a rock and ahard place. Napoleon exploited her positionby demanding the alliance and a break withBritain. While Prussia was handsomelycompensated for the action, Queen Louisaand the 'War Party' were in a state of nearapoplexy. Napoleon had triumphantlyoutmaneuvered them.

He was helped in no small measure by the'Peace Party', which was led by the King,Haugwitz, and the Duke of Brunswick. Theysought to obtain the best deal for Prussiawhile not risking her army. This prudentcourse had the disadvantage of having noappeal to the brash character of the Prussiannobility, who still regarded their army as thefinest in the world. Louisa loathed theFrench Revolution and its minions and had


been busy trying to gather allies for arenewed war effort against 'the Usurper'.The 'War Party' was made up of most of theGeneral Staff, including Hohenlohe andBlücher, plus the young, dashing PrinceLouis. They all relished the opportunity toattack and destroy the French.

Napoleon had been busy consolidatingthe gains of the last year and had formed theConfederation of the Rhine, which was anassembly of German states under theprotection of France. This move threatenedthe Prussians, even though Napoleon hadencouraged Prussia to take similar measuresfor the northern German states. Napoleongenuinely wanted peace at this stage of hiscareer, and in the spring of 1806 he madestrong overtures to Britain and Russia. TheRussian ambassador had worked out a treatythat offered Russian withdrawal from theIonian Isles in exchange for the withdrawalof French troops from Germany. This hadevery prospect of bringing about peace, butQueen Louisa had been haranguing herhusband into opening negotiations withRussia for a renewal of hostilities.

The Prussians vacillated betweencommitting for war or peace until wordreached Berlin from the Russians thatNapoleon had offered Hanover back toBritain. This was only partially true, forNapoleon had indeed floated the idea, butwith the stipulation that suitablecompensation be given Prussia in exchange.It is doubtful that this latter stipulation waspassed on to the Prussians, but whatever thetruth, the news tipped the balance in favorof the War Party. Russia and Prussia signedan agreement and prepared for war. Thetreaty Napoleon had signed with the Russianambassador was repudiated and Russia beganonce more to mobilize.

As the summer wore on, Napoleonremained convinced that the peace would bemaintained. He delayed call-up of thereserves until 6 September 1806. He believedthat the Prussians would never commit the'folly' of going to war against him, but tookmeasures to secure himself against alleventualities. As late as 10 September, a full

month after Russia and Prussia haddetermined to go to war against the French,he wrote to Berthier that he expected peace.

After the Russians rejected the treaty,Napoleon began to take measures thatwould allow him to gather his army togetherquickly. The implications of the rejection ofsuch a generous treaty could only mean onething. Letters were sent to Prussia saying thatSaxony must not be forced to join anyconfederation against her will. As this letterwas going out, Prussia was doing just thatto the reluctant Elector. Under threat ofinvasion, Saxony was instructed to readyits army to march with the Prussiansagainst France.

The problem the Prussians faced duringtheir one-month head start on Napoleon wasthe lack of any consensus on how to prosecutethe war. For over a month the General Staffargued, and ultimately came to no finalopinion. This weakness has to be placedsquarely at the feet of the King, for had hetaken charge and decided on any one of thealternatives presented, even the worst of themwould have trumped indecision and turmoil.

By 18 September, Napoleon, after receivingmany reports from his diplomats and spies,decided that war was inevitable. He dispatchedorders to his various corps that were spreadout all over southern Germany. Within dayshis army was on the march. He headed towardWürzburg where, headquartered in theBishop's residence, he made his final plans forhis campaign. After receiving the reports as towhere the enemy was located, he initiated hisplan to move through the Thuringerwald areaof forest and hills and descend off the plateauinto the valley of the Saale, thereby placing hisarmy between the main Prussian force andBerlin. Furthermore, he wished to move withhis usual speed, for he hoped to defeat thePrussians before the Russians could march totheir support.

The Prussians assumed that the Russiansunder General Bennigsen would join up withtheir army by the beginning of November.Totally misjudging the speed with whichNapoleon could react, the Prussians issuedan ultimatum to Napoleon intended to

The fighting 45

The opening moves

King Frederick William of Prussia. Crowned in 1797,he preferred a neutral policy with France until hisQueen and the army's militants dragged him into war(Ann Ronan Picture Library)

provoke war. He was given until 8 Octoberto respond. Napoleon had arranged forsignalling stations to be set oncommanding ground throughout theterritories he controlled, where flags orlights were used to pass messages. Becauseof this semaphore system he knew of theultimatum's contents at once, but noofficial delivery could be made to theEmperor in Paris as he was already in thefield preparing for his lightning strokeagainst the Prussians. The messenger finallycaught up with him on 7 October aftergoing by way of Paris. Napoleon's answerwas to send the lead corps of his armyover the border into Prussia on themorning of the 8th.

As the Grande Armée advanced, it moved inthree parallel columns, each within one day'smarch of the other. The left column wasmade up of Lannes' 5th Corps andAugereau's 7th Corps. The middle columnwas headed up by Bernadotte's 1st Corpsfollowed by Davout's 3rd Corps, bothsupported by cavalry. The right columnconsisted of Soult's 4th Corps, Ney's6th Corps, and the Bavarians.

The first contacts occurred at Hof andSaalburg; at both places the French cavalrypushed back the Prussian screen. Thefollowing day, 9 October, Murat, heading upBernadotte's light cavalry and the leaddivision of his infantry, attacked the Prussianrearguard at the town of Schleiz. WithNapoleon on the field, Murat led a number ofimpetuous charges that required the infantryto extricate him. In the end, reserves arrivedand drove the Prussians from the field. Onthe next day, Marshal Lannes came down theslope leading towards the town of Saalfeld.There waiting for him was a sizable forceunder the command of Prince Louis. Thebattle that followed demonstrated all theFrench tactical advantages in this campaign.

The contest opened with the 17th LightInfantry breaking out into skirmishformation opposite stiff combined armsopposition. While the French lights couldnot press the Prussians, their ability to usethe terrain to the best advantage worked intheir favor. It bought time for Lannes to senda column through dense woods to emergehalf a mile (0.8km) away, thereby expandingthe front. As more of his corps came up,Lannes was able to mass his troops inpreparation for a coordinated assault. Usingthe ground to their advantage and massingquickly to assault key positions, Lannes'smen were able to drive back the nowoutnumbered Prussians and Saxons. In asharp battle the French overwhelmed theiropponents, killing the Prince in the process.The French had taken 34 guns and four flags,and inflicted 1,700 casualties for a loss offewer than 200. The victory would send


shock waves through the Prussian royalhousehold. Not only had the pride ofPrussia, Prince Louis, fallen, but the Frenchwere obviously able to deal with the Prussianarmy as they had the Austrians and Russians.

Napoleon's army swept up the rightbank of the Saale, and the towns of Jena

and Gera fell into their hands. On13 October, the lead element of Davout's3rd Corps entered Naumburg and captured anumber of pontoon bridges over the Saale.The Prussians were hurriedly concentratingon the left bank of the river with the centerof their forces around Weimar. Having

The fighting 47

been beaten in two piecemeal engagements,Brunswick wished to meet the Frenchthreat massed.

Lannes's 5th Corps entered Jena on themorning of the 13th and soon crossed theriver, climbed to the heights above the townand assembled on a sheltered plateau below

the village of Cospeda. Here his scoutsreported that he was faced by 40,000-50,000Prussians. Lannes sent a report to the Emperorand deployed his men to face any attack.Retreat doesn't seem to have entered hismind, for Lannes had total confidence in hismen. On the evening of the 13th, PrussianPrince Hohenlohe began to move troopsforward to the attack, but he canceled theassault, probably after being reminded of hisrole as a rearguard and not an attack wing.

Napoleon assumed that the Prussians hadgathered an army on the heights above Jenafor the purpose of cutting across his lines ofcommunication should he advance uponBerlin. This was an entirely logicalassumption and reflected what he wouldhave done in the same situation. Napoleonfelt the need to bring the Prussians to battlesoon, for if too much of a delay occurred,the Russians under Bennigsen might arrivein the theater of war. He told Lannes to holdin place and quickly ordered Soult, Ney, theGuard infantry, and two divisions of heavycavalry to force-march to Lannes's assistance.Once assembled, he would bring on a battle.

The orders to Marshal Bernadotte were towork in conjunction with Marshal Davoutand move upon Dornburg and, from there,Apolda. The two marshals detested eachother and Bernadotte chose to follow onepart of the order, while deliberately ignoringthe other. He did not feel he should act in asubordinate role to a junior officer, nomatter what the Emperor's intentions were.His behavior would place Davout's corps inthe greatest of peril, yet ironically bringeternal credit to the man he loathed.

Throughout the night Napoleon pushedhis men as they passed through Jena, over theSaale and up the steep slope to the bridgeheadon the Landgrafenberg plateau above. To gethis cannon up the slope, caissons were doubleand even triple teamed. The Guard choppeddown trees to widen the road where possible.

The death of Prince Louis (by Knotel). Separatedfrom any escort, trying to rally his troops, Prince Louiswas run through by a bold French cavalrymanwho did not even recognize him, (AKG London)


Even the Emperor dismounted and directedoperations to get as many men as possibleinto position. As the men arrived, they tooktheir place on the increasingly crowded field,some literally sleeping shoulder to shoulder.Tomorrow Napoleon would have enough mento fight a battle, for the danger of adesperately outnumbered Lannes beingcrushed had passed.

The Prussians had sprung to life afterSaalfeld, and Brunswick had decided to restoreequilibrium to the war by stealing a march onNapoleon in order to get his army betweenBerlin and the French. He decided to force-march towards Magdeburg, where he wouldbe able to join up with the command of theDuke of Württemberg, which was at Halle. Hisplan was to leave a blocking force underGeneral Hohenlohe, swing behind that force,

Prince Hohenlohe-lngelfingen. Drubbed at Jena, he later

surrendered humiliatingly at Prenzlau. (Roger-Viollet)

and make an end run through Auerstädt andup the river towards Halle and Magdeburg.The plan might have worked but for twothings: the aggression of Hohenlohe and theheroics of Davout and the 3rd Corps.

Jena

The dawn of 14 October 1806 was veryfoggy; men claimed that they could not see30 feet (10m) in front of them. WhileNapoleon was aware of the Prussians'position from the previous evening'sreconnaissance, their exact alignmentremained a mystery. What was needed wasroom to deploy his army as it hurried upthroughout the day. This could be achievedonly by driving the enemy out of theirpositions around Lutzeroda and Closewitz.Napoleon's main battle plan seems to havebeen to separate the Prussians from their

The fighting 49

anchored position on the cliffs above theSaale river. Once the Prussians had beenunhinged from this position, the Frenchcould use their superior ability to exploitthe terrain.

Towards that end, at about 7.30 am,Napoleon ordered the 17th Light of Lannes's5th Corps to the advance. They movedthrough the fog and opened fire blindly onthe position in front of them. As theyhad advanced, they had approached slightlyat an oblique, which exposed their leftflank to deadly fire from part of vonZezschwitz's Saxon division. Fortunately forthe light infantry, their supporting lightcannon had been wheeled up to short-rangecanister position and poured in devastatingsalvoes. The Saxons fell back, which relievedthe pressure.

As it became clear that this was quicklydeveloping into a serious battle, GeneralTauentzien sent reports to his commander,General Hohenlohe. After initially dismissingTauentzien's fears, Hohenlohe was convincedby the increasing level of noise of the battlethat this was much more than a Frenchreconnaissance in force. He now made thecritical decision of the day. Rather thenattempting to break off the action andwithdrawing in accordance with hisrearguard orders, Hohenlohe decided tocounterattack and throw the French off theLandgrafenberg plateau.

It was now about 8.30 am and the fog,while still thick, had lessened to the extentthat the Prussian army's position was cominginto view. The advanced guard underTauentzien held this area of the battlefield.These were the best light troops in thePrussian army. Lannes launched an attackthat slowly cleared the Closwitz woods andunhinged the Prussian line. Severalcounterattacks were made by the troopsHohenlohe fed forward, but these wererepelled by the fresh troops Lannes was alsoplacing into the line. Not believing in astrongpoint doctrine that would haveallowed them to anchor in a village, thePrussians were left with no other optionbut to fall back and realign their battle front

in a north-south axis, so as not to beoutflanked.

As soon as the first shots had been fired, amessage was sent to General Holtzendorff tosupport the Prussian effort by marching tothe battlefield from his position aboveDornburg. This he did, and arrived almost toupset the French day. As the Prussians andSaxons fell back to their new positionbeyond Vierzehnheiligen and Krippendorf,Marshal Soult was able to send his leaddivision around Lannes's right flank. Itswung into the open ground beyond thewoods above Closwitz. Here Holtzendorffappeared. His column consisted of acombined-arms force that included some ofthe finest cavalry in the world.

As the fog lifted, Holtzendorff launchedhis attack to break through to the mainarmy. He had the misfortune to have runinto perhaps the finest line division in theworld, St Hilaire's. The cavalry made theircharge and instead of following the standardinfantry tactical procedure of forming squareto meet cavalry attacks, St Hilaire, with bothof his flanks protected by two villages, kepthis infantry in line to deliver a volley. Withno way to envelop the French line, thecavalry attack fell apart. The Saxons andPrussians formed up and tried again, butwith similar results. Soult now released hiscavalry against the disordered and blownenemy cavalry and put it to rout. The Frenchinfantry subsequently advanced and put thePrussian supporting infantry to flight. Thiswork done, the division formed up andturned to march back into the main battlesome time after 11.30 am.

At about 10 am, the situation hadstabilized around Vierzehnheiligen. TheFrench were waiting for reserves to come upand the Prussians were recovering theirbreath, covered by fresh reserves of cavalry.All night Marshal Ney had been pushing thelead element of his corps to arrive at thebattlefield in good time. Ney had missedAusterlitz and had never performed in frontof Napoleon. He was anxious to correct thisshortcoming and make a dramatic differencein the battle. The lead element of the


The Jena campaign

The fighting 51

6th Corps pushed its way through a gap inthe line, led personally by the red-hairedMarshal. He launched an impetuous attackwith just his lead infantry regiment supportedby his two light cavalry regiments. The firstcavalry regiment, the 10th Chasseurs, movedout of the woods and into the open, andoverran a 30-gun battery. They were soonunder attack from two Prussian cavalryregiments, one cuirassier and one dragoon.

Ney's second cavalry unit, the3rd Hussars, fell upon the flank of thePrussians. A swirling melee ensued with theFrench having the worst of it. It was whenseveral squadrons of Saxon dragoons joined

Napoleon in the Battle of Jena (by Vernet). Eager forbattle, the Guard asked Napoleon to be committed, buthe did not need them that day. (AKG London)

in that the French broke and fled to the rear.The German allies in turn charged andquickly overthrew the hapless infantry. A gapdeveloped in the center of Napoleon's lineand the crisis of the battle from the Frenchviewpoint had arrived. Napoleon was muchannoyed by Ney's rash decision, but reactedcalmly to the situation. The Prussian cavalryhad broken through the center and werethreatening to roll up the line by wheelingto their left. Ney's remaining cavalry rallied


and were still having the worse of it whenthe corps cavalry of Lannes charged into thefray, slowly driving back the Prussians.

While French quick thinking had averteda disaster, Napoleon had little fresh cavalryon the field. This meant that the Prussianscould not be pushed until either morecavalry came up or artillery blew open ahole. Napoleon therefore began to assemblea massed battery of his Guard artillery andsome of Lannes's guns in order to blast hisway through Hohenlohe's line.

Around 11 am, Hohenlohe ordered anattack to retake Vierzehnheiligen. GeneralGrawert sent forward the infantry of hiscolumn to assault the village. The Frenchskirmishers of the 21st Light poured deadlyfire into the massed infantry formations,but had to give way when Grawert broughtup cavalry to outflank and surround thetown. The Prussians seized the village, andwere preparing to come out into the openon the other side when they spotted themassed guns of Napoleon. Seeing that theycould not go forward and having no desireto defend the town, they set it ablaze andfell back.

The French countered by sending Gazan'sbrigade of Lannes's 5th Corps around thenorth of the village. They were met byPrussian and Saxon cavalry and driven backin confusion. Again the Prussian follow-upwas stopped, this time by the batterysupported by the newly arrived heavycavalry under d'Hautpoul.

To the south of Vierzehnheiligen lay thevillage of Isserstadt, and there was a largewood just to the east. Since 10 am the Frenchof Desjardin's division of Augereau's 7thCorps had been attempting to seize thevillage. Three times it had changed hands.Each time the French were able to keep atoehold in the woods because of theirsuperior ability to skirmish. Any attempt topush the attack, however, was stopped by thetwo Saxon brigades and supporting cavalryarrayed to the south and west of Isserstadt.

A stalemate ensued, but by 12.30 pm thesituation was looking grim for the Prussians.Fresh French units were pouring on to the

battlefield. Heudelet's division of the7th Corps was coming up from the south.The 2nd and 3rd Divisions of Soult's4th Corps were moving to a reserve positionbehind the French center, and perhaps moretelling, St Hilaire's division had swung into aposition extending the French line further tothe north, threatening to envelop thePrussian left. Napoleon had concentrated hisartillery fire against the center of thePrussian line opposite Vierzehnheiligen.

Hohenlohe had few options left. His linewas fully committed, with the exception ofTauentzien, who had rallied his men to takeup a reserve position behind the center-leftof the main line. He had sent word forGeneral Ruchel to march from Weimar thatmorning, but as yet there was no sign ofhim. Napoleon kept up pressure everywherealong the line, while pounding the center.Finally, the pressure was too much and thedecimated battalions began an orderlywithdrawal. It was now that Napoleon gavethe order to Marshal Murat to unleash hisreserve cavalry. Eleven regiments passedthrough the gap between Vierzehnheiligenand the Isserstadt woods and plunged intothe retreating enemy. This was too much forthe Prussians and the center snapped like adry twig.

The order passed down the French battleline to advance all along the front, and theresult was repeated everywhere except on theright flank, where the Saxons were mostlyunaware of the disaster befalling their allies.The remaining cavalry of the center and lefttried to slow down the French, but they wereswept back in the tide of retreating infantry.Only Tauentzien remained steady. His troopsacted as a breakwater that their routedcompatriots could rally behind. Althoughgallant, they did not last long, however.Hopelessly outnumbered and receiving aterrific pounding by the French artillery,they too gave way. What remained of theorganized cavalry fell back trying to coverthe retreat.

In the south, the two Saxon brigades heldon grimly. They had lost almost all of theircavalry support and were now being

The fighting 53

assaulted by the entirety of Augereau's corps.To make matters worse, several regiments ofFrench dragoons had peeled off the pursuitin the north and had come to harass thesehelpless heroes. Having no option but toform squares in the face of the enemycavalry, they were systematically pounded bythe 7th Corps batteries. For almost an hourthey had huge holes ploughed through theirranks until sanity prevailed and theformations surrendered. Several of thebattalions had taken advantage of the terrainto make an escape, only to be captured laterthat night.

While this was taking place, Ruchel had atlast arrived at Kappelendorf. Here he formedup his 15,000 men and began an advance.Kappelendorf had a fortified chateau thatwould have been a formidable obstacle inthe path of the French pursuit, but againPrussian doctrine prevented them fromoccupying it. As Ruchel moved up the slopepast his fleeing comrades, he was firstassaulted by the pursuing French cavalry.These charges his men were able to fend off,but it gave time for more of the French armyto close in. As the cavalry withdrew, sixFrench batteries bombarded Ruchel's men.Spearheaded by Lannes's and Ney's men, theFrench infantry came on. In their openingvolley, Ruchel went down with a grievouswound. Napoleon's men would not bedenied. The massed bands struck up 'Victoryis Ours' and with a shout the Frenchcharged. It was over in the blink of an eye.The Prussians had had enough and brokeand ran. Once more Murat launched hiscavalry into a pitiless chase.

As the sun set on this gloomy Octoberday, the French advanced guard rounded upthe last of any organized opposition. Of the54,000 men with whom Hohenlohe andRuchel started the day, over 20,000 were lost,

Prince-Field Marshal Blücher. A general at thetime of Auerstädt, he heroically but foolishly ledhis cavalry against the French during the battle. Astaunch member of the 'War Party', he surrenderednear Lübeck - a stinging memory that fed hisfrancophobia. He obtained his revenge in the1814 and 1815 campaigns. (Hulton Getty)

in addition to 30 standards and 300 guns.These losses compared to about 6,000 of theFrench. While this disparity shows themagnitude of the victory, almost 14,000 ofthe Prussians lost were captured, making thekilled and wounded almost equal on bothsides. This was a testament to the firepowerof the Prussians. Napoleon was triumphant,for he had crushed the main Prussian army,or so he thought. It was only late in theevening that he received his report fromMarshal Davout. Looking up from themessage, he told his assembled generals andmarshals, 'Davout has had a rough time of itand Bernadotte has behaved badly.'

Auerstädt

On the night of 13 October 1806, MarshalDavout received his orders for the next dayat his headquarters in Naumburg. He was tomove on Apolda by the road of his choice.Similar orders were given to MarshalBernadotte. This, Napoleon conjectured,


Auerstädt

| FREDERICK WILLIAM |

would allow both corps to fall on thePrussian rear. Davout dispatched orders forMorand's division to come up through thenight so as to be able to support his othertwo 3rd Corps divisions under Friant andGudin. Bernadotte chose to ignore thesecond part of the order to support Davoutand marched his corps out of the actiontowards Dornburg. Bernadotte had hatedDavout ever since 1799, when Napoleonasked Davout to spy on him and Davout hadhelped expose a conspiracy to overthrowBonaparte. Lacking absolute proof, Napoleonpardoned Bernadotte, but the Gascon hadnever forgiven Davout. And now Bernadotte

saw no reason to subordinate himself to ayounger man whom he outranked.

At 4 am on the 14th, the 3rd Corpsscouting party ran into a large Prussiancavalry force in the village of Poppel. Theyscurried back to the protection of the leadinginfantry elements of Gudin's division, whoquickly formed into a square. They had justcome up the steep slope rising from the Saaleriver. They were approaching the village ofHassenhausen when the cavalry underGeneral Blücher deployed between them andthe village. Some French skirmishers had gotinto Hassenhausen just before Blücher'stroops arrived and now came out and chased

The fighting 55

off Blücher's supporting cavalry battery,taking half the guns in the process. Strippedof this artillery support, Blücher launchedseveral furious attacks upon the Frenchsquares. The heavy fog added to theconfusion, but the crack French troops heldfirm and delivered deadly salvoes, both from

The Prussian command decapitated (by Knotel).The mortally wounded Duke of Brunswick isled from the field. (AKG London)

their muskets and from the cannon that hadbeen deployed at the corners of the squares.Blücher brought up more cavalry andanother battery, which he deployed near thetown of Speilburg.

Marshal Davout, who had been on thefield since the opening moments of theaction, rode from square to square toencourage his troops. After repeated attacks,the Prussian cavalry had had enough andbroke fleeing from the battle. Blücher had a


horse shot out from under him, which inaddition to the fog made rallying any of hiscavalry problematic. The lull in the actionallowed the rest of Gudin's division toarrive and deploy. Coming right behindthem were the lead elements of Friant'sfantassins (infantry).

As the fog lifted, Davout was able to seethat it was much more than an isolatedcontingent that had attacked him. Therespread before him was the main Prussianarmy. The largest contingents were deployingon the plain on either side of the village ofPoppel. The King and the Duke of Brunswickhad come up with Schmettau's division andhad deployed it to the north of Poppel, buthad waited to bring the division ofWartensleben into position south of thetown to make a coordinated attack. Thisattack aimed to sweep aside the isolatedforce and allow the army to continue itsretreat to Magdeburg.

This delay gave Friant a chance to arriveon the field, and after deploying he movedtowards Spielburg in an attempt to outflankthe Prussian line from the north. Theyoverran the battery that had been dealingout death to Gudin's squares and swungtheir line to face south. At this same time,Davout broke Gudin's infantry out of squareand formed a line extending north fromHassenhausen to meet the threat ofSchmettau. Both sides closed and began adeadly firefight. Schmettau went down withtwo wounds and his line faltered.

To the south, things were going muchbetter for the Prussians, directly under thecommand of Brunswick. They hadmaneuvered to a position south of thevillage of Hassenhausen and were on theverge of turning the flank. All that stoodbetween them and the capture of the keytown was the 85th Line. A withering fire waspoured into the outnumbered Frenchmenand, when a cavalry charge came crashingupon them, the line gave way.

Davout had anticipated that the85th could not hold out much longer andsent another regiment over to succor them.The 12th Line pulled up alongside the

retreating 85th and released a volley into thepursuing cavalry. The effect was to sendthem reeling back. The 85th rallied andformed square. The French position couldhave given way at any moment, andBrunswick was hurrying up two elitegrenadier battalions to overturn the French.It was at this moment that a musket ballpassed through both of his eyes, making himhors de combat. Ultimately, Brunswicksuccumbed to this wound on 10 November.

French marksmanship had decapitatedthe Prussian army. Schmettau was down,Brunswick was mortally wounded andWartensleben had just been knocked senselesswhen his horse had been shot out from underhim. The King was in charge, but seemedincapable of giving orders. The armycommand fell to the aged General Mollendorf,who proceeded to get himself captured. As aresult, with no central command, thePrussians were incapable of getting off anothercoordinated attack, while the French underDavout were able to respond rapidly to eachslow-developing threat.

Despite the dramatic change of fortune,the Prussians were able to exert tremendouspressure on the French holdingHassenhausen. Friant was attackingaggressively in the north, but just asSchmettau's right flank gave way, a newdivision under the Prince of Orange camerolling up to counterattack. Once more thetwo sides leveled crushing volleys againsteach other. It was now 10 am and Morandarrived on the field with his division. It fellinto line, extending the left flank fromHassenhausen to the steep slopes fallingdown to the Saale.

By 10.30 am the Prussian cavalry of thereserve, along with the few remains ofBlücher's command, deployed oppositeMorand's infantry. Taking command, PrinceWilliam led the finest cavalry of Prussia upthe slope towards Morand's men. Infantryfire out of the squares, along with theclose-range canister, emptied many saddlesincluding Prince William's. As if by aprearranged signal, the Prussian line gaveway. The cavalry went streaming back

The fighting 57

toward Auerstädt. The infantry fell back,leaving their supporting batteries to theirfates; most were captured.

Prince Henry made a last counterattackwith several grenadier battalions. A heroicassault took the town of Poppel, but as theattack reached the apogee of its success, thePrince was mortally wounded. Once morethe commanding officer of a wing wentdown. Void of any instructions and facingthe talented commander General Morand,the bewildered grenadiers were enfiladed andforced back after a vicious fight. The Kinggave the order for the Guard to cover theretreat and for the army to break off. Onerearguard was placed on the high point ofthis section of the field, the Sonnenberg; theother was left to contest the retreat routetowards Eckartsberg.

French General Debilly, leading hisbrigade in the assault on the Sonnenberg,overthrew the position and captured manyPrussians in the process. During this attack,Debilly was killed, the only French generalofficer casualty. This is contrasted withthe devastating officer casualties taken bythe Prussians, which can again be tracedback in part to the decisive Frenchsuperiority in skirmishing.

To the north, Friant led his exhaustedmen on the assault up the Eckartsberg hill.The disciplined Prussian infantry remainedwilling to stand and deliver deadly volleys.The French responded by breaking their leadbattalions into skirmish order and workingtheir way up through the woods. Takingcover, they sniped at the exposed Germansand eventually wore them away to the pointthat they broke. Those who headed forAuerstädt fell in with the mass of panickedtroops who represented what was left ofPrussia's finest. Those who went to theEckartsberg were gathered up by the Frenchlight cavalry, who had swept around thenorthern flank to cut them off.

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. Despite his disloyaltyand general incompetence during the Empire,he would be chosen as Sweden's Crown Princeand succeed to that country's throne.(Ann Ronan Picture Library)

The only remaining Prussian troops ingood order on the field were a handful ofgrenadier battalions and the Guard. Thesemen gave ground slowly, finally falling inwith the remainder of the main army.Davout's men followed till they were sure ofthe result, whereupon they fell down fromexhaustion. Davout was to occupy the castlein Auerstädt that evening and dine at thetable so recently used by the King of Prussiaand his high command. He had lost a thirdof his men, but the devastation wascomplete for his opposition. The King ofPrussia had lost over 100 guns and between10,000 and 15,000 men.

Aftermath

On the night of the twin battles, Napoleonassessed the situation. Davout was victorious,but exhausted for the moment. The leadelements of his army were in Weimar.Bernadotte was in Apolda. He had sent amessage that his arrival in Apolda had savedDavout - a statement that was hardlyjustified by the facts.


Bernadotte: what should he do about him?Orders were given to arrest him inpreparation for arraigning him for a court-martial. No sooner had these been issuedthan Napoleon countermanded them.Bernadotte was, after all, married to hisformer fiancee, who was the sister of hisbrother's wife. This would cause no end ofdomestic trouble to the Emperor. Better forNapoleon to give Bernadotte one morechance for now, while leaving his optionsopen.

After getting reports of the day's actions,Bernadotte considered the position in whichhis pride had placed him. He had conspiredagainst Napoleon several times in the past,on every occasion receiving a pardon upondiscovery. But there was an end to everyman's patience. He felt he would have toredeem himself, and looked for anopportunity to do so.

On receiving his intelligence, Napoleonissued orders for the pursuit to commence thefollowing morning. The process was delayedbecause most of his men had force-marchedto the battlefields and it took time to decipherthe many reports that were coming in. Evenwith the delay, the pursuit that followed afterJena-Auerstädt was so devastating that onewould have to go back to the days of theMongols to find its equivalent.

Leading this hunt was the vaingloriousPrince-Marshal Murat. He was in his elementnow. His cavalry would chase down Prussianformations with an intoxicating ruthlessness.Over the next week, his command wouldcapture as many men as the combinedPrussian losses of the twin battles. WhileMurat was chief in this gathering up of thestraggling army, the infantry corps weredoing their share moving up the Saaletowards Berlin. Between them and the capitalwas the column of the Duke of Württembergstationed around Halle.

Napoleon, on the morrow of Jena, beganto wean the Saxons away from the Prussian

Prussian prisoners (by Myrbach). Entire Prussian armiesmarched into captivity, something the Prussiansremembered for more than a century. (Author's collection)

alliance. He sent messages of friendship tothe Saxon Elector, and as a prelude to formalnegotiations released his Saxon prisonersafter receiving an oath of loyalty. The Saxonssoon switched sides and fought withNapoleon the following year.

On the morning of 17 October, theleading elements of Bernadotte's 1st Corpsattacked the dragoons attached to the Duke'sforces on the outskirts of Halle. Driving thePrussians back to a series of three bridges thatpassed over the Saale river and then pressing

The fighting 59

on through the city, the French metsupporting enemy infantry who held thethree bridges. Led by the divisional generalDupont, the hero of Jungingen andDürrenstein, the French soldiers set up acrossfire upon the enemy troops who wereholding a dike, which sat above the swampyground guarding the only approach to theouter bridge. The 32nd Line and a battalionof the famed 9th Light rolled over the bridgeand quickly seized the two inner bridgesunder fierce fire. A panic occurred inside the

city and soon all Prussian opposition hadeither fled or surrendered.

Dupont followed up to find that thePrussian main position was on the heights tothe south of the town. Unable to press theposition until reserves came up, the 9th Lightsent forward a skirmish line to harass them. Asmore of Bernadotte's men moved into Halle,Württemberg realized that if they moved outof the city to the east, they would block hisline of retreat. He therefore began to shift histroops from the heights along the front of the


city towards the north. This left them exposedto flanking fire and vulnerable to attack, whichis just what Bernadotte did.

Leading his men out of the medieval gate,Bernadotte plunged into the Prussian line,committing himself to the midst of thebattle. Splitting the Prussian army in two,the jubilant Frenchmen ran down wholepockets of the fleeing enemy. In anengagement lasting about two hours, halfthe Prussians were casualties, while theyinflicted very small losses in return.Bernadotte had a victory on the scale ofSaalfeld and, more importantly, Napoleon'sforgiveness. This was to be his finest dayfighting for the French Empire.

Between now and early November, a seriesof Prussian units and garrisons were caughtand surrounded, and surrendered. Hohenlohewas trying to take the main army towardsStettin, where he hoped to revictual and headeast to join up with the approachingRussians. On 24 October, Napoleon enteredPotsdam and visited the tomb of Frederickthe Great. Entering the crypt with severalmarshals and generals, Napoleon said, 'Hatsoff, gentlemen, for if he [Frederick] were herenow, we wouldn't be.' On the 25th, Davout's

Napoleon before the tomb of Frederick the Great(by Camus). Napoleon removed Frederick's swordfrom the mausoleum, saying, 1 prefer this to twentymillions [in plunder].' (Roger-Viollet)

men had the honor of a triumphal marchthrough Berlin, rewarding them for theirperformance at Auerstädt. On the 27th, thegreat fortress of Magdeburg surrendered aftera mere ten-day siege.

Napoleon just had time to play the part ofbenevolent conqueror - and he knew how toplay it well. Napoleon, now headquartered inBerlin, had the Governor of Berlin, PrinceHatzfeld, arrested after intercepting a letterwritten by him incriminating him as a spy.Facing her husband's execution, the Prince'swife went to Napoleon to plead his case. Sheassured the Emperor that her husband wasincapable of doing the things with which hewas charged. Napoleon showed her the letterand asked if that was not indeed herhusband's handwriting. One look by thedistraught wife made her husband's guiltclear, and she broke down weeping.Napoleon said that if she threw theincriminating evidence into the fire nearby,then there would be nothing left on which

The fighting 61

to convict her husband. This she did, andher spouse was saved.

The main Prussian army under Hohenlohecontinued to retreat north, with Murat andLannes in hot pursuit. As they chased thePrussians, both Lannes and Murat sentmessages to Napoleon claiming that theother was unsupportive and slow. The oldfeud was pushing both marshals to have theirmen perform herculean feats of marching.On 27 October, General Lasalle's and GeneralGrouchy's cavalry crushed Hohenlohe'srearguard at Zehdenick, where Queen Louisa'sregimental standard was captured. On the28th, Murat and Lasalle surrounded the townand Hohenlohe surrendered.

Lasalle went on to Stettin and tricked thegarrison into surrender. Here hedemonstrated around the city and claimed tohave an infantry corps coming up thatwould show no mercy should the Prussiansnot surrender immediately. The ruse workedand the Prussians marched out of the city,

only to find that they had given up to fewerthan 500 cavalrymen.

Marshal Murat peeled off after thesurrender at Prenzlau and joined withBernadotte's and Soult's corps in following upBlücher. They finally caught up withhim at Lübeck. The previous day his Swedishally had lost 600 men to Bernadotte.Ironically, it was Bernadotte's treatment ofthese prisoners that earned him a reputationfor generosity that years later won him thecrown of Sweden. Blücher had occupied theindependent city of Lübeck in hopes ofcontinuing the war. The French cavalry,however, stormed the two main gates ofthe city. While Blücher escaped with abouthalf his men, the remainder fought adesperate street-to-street melee until they werecompelled to yield. With all hope lost, Blücher

French triumphal march through Berlin. The victoryparade was to set the fashion for many others over thefollowing century. (Hulton Getty)


surrendered the remainder of the army on thefollowing day in the village of Ratgau.

The entire Prussian army was now lostwith the exception of those garrisons thathad been out of the theater of war inoccupied Poland and East Prussia. GeneralLestoq commanded the only field force inthe following campaign. Additionally, thecities of Danzig, Colberg, and Stralsundwould hold out for most of the nextyear's campaign.

On 21 November, Napoleon issued hisBerlin Decrees. These closed all the occupiedports to British ships, and all British goodsseized were forfeit. This was the beginning of

the Continental System, an economic formof warfare that often at times seemed on theverge of success, but would ultimatelyundermine Napoleon's regime.

Other fronts

As the main French army operated under theEmperor, events were happening on a globalscale. While Napoleon made his marchagainst Ulm, the main Austrian army underArchduke Charles squared off againstMarshal Massena. Massena's role was toentertain Charles while Napoleon destroyed

The fighting 63

Mack and took Vienna. Throughout themonth of October, the two armiesmaneuvered to gain advantage. Finally, theyfaced each other on the battlefield ofCaldiero, the site of Napoleon's only defeatin his first Italian campaign. Massena knewthat if he was not aggressive, Charles mightgive him the slip and turn the tide insouthern Germany. So he attacked. TheFrench acquitted themselves well, butCharles had almost twice the troops and wasable to repulse the main attack.

The reverse at Caldiero would be salvagedby Napoleon, for word of Mack's capitulationreached Charles and ended all thought of

offensive action. Withdrawing his army inan attempt to reach Vienna to forestallNapoleon, Charles was forced to fight aseries of rearguard actions and was slowed bythe coming of the Alpine winter. In the end,he was miles from helping the allied armieswhen they were crushed on the field ofAusterlitz. Massena had put Venice undersiege, and when the peace with Austria came(the Treaty of Pressburg), the 'jewel of theAdriatic' was incorporated into Napoleon'sKingdom of Northern Italy.

Massena was now directed south toconquer the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples.Queen Caroline had signed a treaty ofneutrality with Napoleon, but renounced it assoon as he marched north out of Vienna. Aforce of 13,000 Russians under General Lacyhad landed along with 7,000 British troops tosupport a Neapolitan invasion of northernItaly. When word reached this force of thedefeat at Austerlitz, the Russians and Britishpulled out, leaving the Queen with no optionbut to abandon her southern Italian holdingsand retreat to Sicily under the British fleet'sprotection. This departure allowed Napoleonto place his brother Joseph on the Neapolitanthrone. He arrived in Naples on 15 February1806. The city of Gaëta held out and requiredMassena to conduct a five-month siege.

Attempting to stir up a revolt in thesouthernmost province of Calabria, BritishGeneral Stuart landed a force of 5,000 men.Joseph dispatched General Reynier withabout an equal force to attack him. Theaction at Maida on 4 July 1806 resulted inthe French being routed by the British. Stuartfailed to pursue and in fact soon retreatedback to the protection of Sicily when the fallof Gaëta released Massena's troops to moveagainst him. Calabria remained in revolt andpresaged the type of savage guerrilla fightingthat would be seen in Spain.

When Napoleon signed the Treaty of Tilsitwith Alexander in July 1807, Britain becameconvinced that the Danes were about to jointhe French. Despite Denmark's trying tofollow a strictly neutral policy, the British

Retreat of the Prussians (by Knotel). (AKG London)


attacked without provocation. Copenhagenfell, but the captured Danish fleet was foundto be in poor condition. This provocation wastoo much for the Danes. They allied withNapoleon and would stand by him until nearthe end. Britain was considered a pariah forher piratical behavior. In the same year, therewas another example of it. In the Argentine, aBritish expedition tried to seize Buenos Aires,but had to surrender in a humiliating fashion.In Egypt, another small British army landedto try to take the country. It took Alexandria,but was ambushed in Rosetta and driven fromthe country. At the same time a British flotillaunder Admiral Duckworth was repelled fromthe walls of Constantinople. British militarypolicy during this time was a series ofdisasters. It would take Wellington'scampaigns in Spain and Portugal to reverseBritain's fortunes and reputation.

It was in 1807 that Napoleon, demandingthat Portugal cut off all trade with Britain,sent an army under General Junot to occupythe country and force adherence to theContinental System. Napoleon offered tosplit the country with Spain and as a resultthe armies of the two countries occupiedPortugal in the latter part of the year. Junotmarched into Lisbon on 30 November 1807.The much-prized Portuguese fleet had sailedto Brazil under British escort. Disappointed,Junot was still able to set up a governmentand temporarily close the ports to Britishtrade. Napoleon had taken his first stepstowards the Iberian war that would sap somuch of France's strength.

The Polish campaign

Following the final capitulation of Blücherand Hohenlohe, Napoleon set his sights onthe Russians. He called up fresh recruits fromFrance as well as from his allies. He haddiscovered that his Spanish ally had been onthe point of betraying him, only waiting forany reverse against the Prussians. This hadnot happened, so Napoleon required that15,000 of Spain's best troops under de laRomana be sent to support his efforts in

northern Germany. They would serve thedouble purpose of supplying him troops andacting as de facto hostages.

The Emperor had sent General Sebastianito Turkey in an effort to convince Selim III togo to war against Russia. Sebastiani had beensuccessful and so Tsar Alexander now faced asecond front. The Tsar had been slow tomobilize prior to this because he had thoughtthat he was only acting in a supporting roleto Prussia in this war. With the exception of20,000 Prussians plus a few garrisons and theineffectual secondary fronts of Sweden andBritain, Alexander's army was now going tohave to face France alone.

Both sides now made a race for the bestareas in which to winter and prepare for ananticipated spring campaign. The immediatefocus was Warsaw. The Poles had risen upand celebrated the arrival of the French,seeing them as liberators. Napoleon had toplay a careful balancing act, for while he wassympathetic to Poland's cause, openlyembracing it could draw Austria back intothe war as well as making peace with Russiaimpossible. His immediate answer was tostrip Prussia of her Polish holdings and setup a Polish client state.

As Napoleon advanced, he had to contendwith two conflicting needs. The first was toseize the left bank of the Vistula river andthe second was to mop up the variousgarrisons left in his rear. This he did in aleapfrog fashion. Progress was slowed by themuddy roads resulting from a thaw. Muratadvanced ahead of the corps of Davout,Lannes and Soult.

Bennigsen had decided that he riskedbeing cut off from the supporting army ofBuxhöwden, which was coming by way ofTilsit. He abandoned Warsaw and retreatedto the right bank of the Vistula.

Murat entered Warsaw as the liberator onthe evening of 28 November 1806. He heldthe city until Lannes and Davout arrived tosupport him. The town of Praga, oppositeWarsaw, was taken, which gave the French apassage over the Vistula. Further downriver,Soult, Bessieres, Augereau and Ney crossedwith their corps.

The fighting 65

The Russians were still holding the Bugriver, which, along with the Wkra and Narewrivers, gave them a good defensive position.Napoleon was now heading to the front andordered Murat to break the Bug line. On10 December, Davout sent a division acrossand secured a bridgehead to the west of theconfluence of the Wkra and Bug rivers.

The Wkra, which runs on a north-southaxis, still presented a strong defensiveposition. On 20 December, Davout occupiedthe island that was formed by the junction ofthe Bug and Wkra. Marshal Kamenski hadarrived in Pultusk on the night of21 December to take command of the Russianarmy and ordered an offensive against thestrung-out French arm}'. The Russian advancewas blunted at every turn and Kamenskipaused to figure out his next move.

Davout was looking to force the Russianposition. With Napoleon on the scene, helaunched a nighttime river assault on the24th. In an amazingly well coordinatedattack, the Russians were driven back.Napoleon ordered an advance over the hastilybuilt bridges and the Russians were drivenback to the towns of Golymin and Pultusk. Bythis time, Augereau's and Murat's men werealso over the Wkra. The muddy roads were sopoor that it was virtually impossible to moveartillery. The advancing French columnsgathered up several Russian guns.

On Christmas night, Marshal Kamenskiordered a retreat and left the army,apparently suffering a mental breakdown.Bennigsen once more took over commandand decided to stand at Pultusk. At 10 am on26 December 1806, Lannes' corps drew up tothe south of the Russian position on thehigh ground around Pultusk. His guns hadnot yet come up, but he ordered an attackanyway. The lay of the ground masked thefact that Lannes was badly outnumbered, forhe was facing the main Russian army of45,000 men. Lannes drove the outposts of

General Bennigsen, Russian commander at Eylauand Friedland. A master of writing communiques,Bennigsen was always able to make his defeatsappear like victories. (Hulton Getty)

the Russians back and then brought up hismain attack columns. Claparede's divisionhurled itself against the Russian left, pushingback the Russian first line slowly.

It was beginning to snow and vision wasbecoming difficult. Wedell's leading brigade,who were in the center of Lannes's line,began to wheel to their right to fall upon thetroops in front of Claparede. As they did so,Russian cavalry came charging out of thesnow and fell upon their flank. Hand-to-hand fighting went on, with the Russianshaving the better of it until Wedell's secondline came up and fell on to the flank of thecavalry. Eventually falling back, they leftmany sabered French behind.

Lannes's cavalry were committed now, butwere surprised when the Russian cavalryopposite fell away to reveal a massed battery,which unloaded a crushing canister salvo. Asthe French cavalry streamed back to theirlines to re-form, Claparede's men succeededin driving back the first line in front ofthem, capturing their guns in the process.Coming to a deep ravine running in front ofthe Russian reserves, they made severalattempts to cross, but each time they weredriven back. Bennigsen then released hisreserve, and the French right flank slowly fellback under overwhelming pressure.


While this action was going on, Lannes wasleading Suchet's division against GeneralBarclay de Tolly's column. Deployed in awood on the Russian right, Barclay's men werea formidable force outnumbering Lannes'smore than two to one on this portion of thefield. The French came on in skirmish order,taking advantage of the cover afforded by thetrees, but Barclay's men were every bit theirmatch. Even the inspiration of Lannes andSuchet leading their men from the front wasnot enough to overcome the determination ofthe Russian Jäger and line units.

As the day darkened because of the seasonand a relentless snowstorm, things were nearbreaking point. The French had all their mencommitted to battle and ammunition wasrunning low after four hours of combat.Runners were sent back to replenish theammunition, but the whole line was underpressure and the main supply wagons hadnot been able to get to the front because ofthe muddy road. The center was being heldby Lannes's artillery, which after finallycoming up had been engaged in a furiouscounter-battery fire with three times itsnumber of Russian batteries.

At noon, several miles away Generald'Aultanne, temporarily commandingGudin's division of Davout's corps, heard theheated artillery exchange. Abandoning hisplans to camp for the night, he marched tothe sound of the guns. At about 2.30 pm, hismen fell upon the flank of Barclay's men.Falling back on to Bennigsen's center,Barclay's men rallied and plunged back intothe battle. The 34th Line was now out ofammunition and gave way. This created agap between Lannes and d'Aultanne intowhich poured 20 squadrons of Russiancavalry. In the snow they were able to sweeparound both divisions largely undetected.However, cries went down the French lineand units formed square to repel the attack.Fortunately for the French, the snow thathad aided the breakthrough also obscuredthe squares from a severe pounding from theRussian artillery in the center. The Tsar'scavalry, after repeated charges against theformed French, fell back through the line.

With the exception of the woods, wherefighting continued in a desultory fashion foranother couple of hours, the battle was over.Lannes had lost about one-third of hisnumber while inflicting slightly fewercasualties on his opponent. The following dayBennigsen resumed his retreat and Lannes's5th Corps was too exhausted to follow up.

While the desperate battle was going onat Pultusk, several miles away at Golymin,General Gallitzen was fighting a heroicrearguard against odds as bad as Lannes wasfacing. Left to cover the retreat of theRussian right, he had one small column toface three divisions with supporting cavalry.Given his instructions by his superiorGeneral Doctorov, Gallitzen deployed hismen around the town. He was fortunate thatthe area was surrounded by heavy woodsand swampy ground. The only access forcavalry or artillery was by the few roads thatled into the village. In the morning,Lasalle's cavalry and the two divisions ofAugereau's corps attacked Gallitzen'sposition. The French cavalry was thrownback by the charge of three squadrons ofRussian cuirassiers. The two divisions,lacking their artillery, dissolved intoskirmisher attacks about noon after theirinitial attacks were repulsed.

About this time, Murat and Davoutarrived. Davout sent Morand's division intothe attack. He drove back the Russians, buttheir resistance stiffened as they found thesafety of the houses of the town. In anattempt to scatter the Russian cavalry whowere impeding the French assault, GeneralRapp, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor, led acharge of dragoons down the road leadinginto the town. The Russian cavalry stood tomeet them as the French rumbled down theroad towards them. Suddenly standing upfrom the reeds that flanked the road wereRussian infantrymen, who delivered awithering volley. Many saddles were emptiedand the riderless horses fled down the roadalong with the remainder of the routeddragoons. As night covered the land,Gallitzen was able to break off his men andfollow his withdrawing army.

The fighting 67

When he received the report of Golymin,Napoleon was dismayed, for this ended thechance to pin the Russians against the Narewriver. As it was clear that the Russians hadescaped his trap, Napoleon ordered his meninto their winter camps the following day.

Both sides felt pleased with their position.Bennigsen told the Tsar that he had defeatedNapoleon and 60,000 men at Pultusk. Hereceived the high command of both his andBuxhöwden's army as a result. Things wouldhave remained at the status quo, had it notbeen for the aggressive actions of MarshalNey. Hoping to increase the forage area of hiscorps as well as put himself in a position to bethe first corps to take Königsberg, he began toextend his corps. Bennigsen caught wind ofthis and thought it a perfect opportunity tocrush an isolated French corps. He began hiswinter offensive on 10 January 1807. His firstcontact with Ney was on the 18th. Thiscavalry skirmish helped to alert Napoleon tothe Russian movements. Napoleon formulateda plan to move the 3rd, 4th, and 7th Corpsfrom the south and pin the Russians againstthe coast and the 1st and 6th Corps.

The Battle of Eylau (by Bovinet).The church at Eylau, thehighwater mark of the Russian advance, still stands there,turned into a factory building by disrespectful Russians inthe 1960s. (AKG London)

The operation was well under waywhen Napoleon's plans were captured andBennigsen realized his danger. Ordering aretreat, he fell back first to a position aroundAllenstein and finally to Eylau. Therewere three sharp actions at Mohrungen,Bergfried and Hof; all were indecisive, yetforced the Russians back further. All thetime Napoleon was hot on their heels. On7 February, the Russians turned and foughtSoult's corps for possession of Eylau.Both sides wanted to sleep in the meagershelter that the town afforded against thebitter cold. In a tough fight, Soult's menwere finally able to shelter with cover overtheir heads. It is most probable that the firstday's actions were brought aboutaccidentally.

Eylau

As day broke on 8 February, Napoleon had onthe field 44,500 men opposite Bennigsen's67,000. Napoleon thought that he had Ney's10,000 men coming on fast as well asDavout's 5,500. All he wanted to do was fixthe enemy in place and watch hisreinforcements turn both flanks. The Russiansdid not intend to stand by passively and bedefeated. They opened the battle with a


terrific barrage by a grand battery of over100 guns. This bombardment pulverized theFrench center. The French, with less then halfthe guns in action, responded in kind, butwere hampered because a driving snowstormwas blowing straight into their faces.

Napoleon had Soult attack the northernflank in an attempt to draw away troops fromthe south, where Davout was coming up.Soult advanced and the Russians respondedeffectively. Soult soon recoiled to the safetyof the main line, having unquestionably gotthe worst of it. By now the first of Davout'sdivisions, under Friant, was deploying.A large Russian cavalry contingent was sentto attack them. This forced the French toclose up to meet the onslaught and the keyassault lost its impetus.

To relieve the pressure, the Emperorsent forward Augereau's corps in an attackon the Russian center. The men foughtagainst the driving storm and waded

The cavalry charge at Eylau. By committing his superb cav-alry in mass. Napoleon regained the initiative. (Roger-Viollet)

The fighting 69

The Grenadiers a cheval charge at Eylau. ThatNapoleon committed this regiment, the finestregiment of his Guard, showed his determination toreverse the tide of battle. (Roger-Viollet)

through 2 feet (0.6m) of snow. As theymoved forward they drifted off track,exposing their flank to the line of theRussian barrage. Equally destructive was thefire of their own guns. The swirling snowhad so blinded the gunners that they werefiring at the last-known Russian position andit was into this line of fire that Augereau'smen wandered. As they were hit from allsides, confusion reigned. Bennigsen seizedthe opportunity and sent a cavalry divisionafter the hapless Frenchmen. Coming out ofthe snow, the Russian cavalry pounced uponAugereau's men long before they could reactand form square. Behind them came twocolumns of green-coated Russian infantry.

As the first fugitives came flying back tothe main line, Napoleon realized that thiswas a crisis of the first magnitude. He


The Eylau campaign

The fighting 73

Heilsberg

On 10 June, the lead elements of Napoleon'sarmy, under Murat, arrived and attacked theoutlying villages south of Heilsberg. The firstvillage was taken, but the town of Bevernickproved more difficult. Soult's corps wascommitted to the fight. Forming a batteryof 36 guns, they pounded the Russianavant-garde and Bagration's men were forcedback. The Russians fell back contesting everyfoot of ground, but finally gave way and fellbehind the main position. Here stood twoRussian divisions in entrenchments backedby cavalry.

The French reorganized and made anassault against the Russian left. The keyredoubt was taken at bayonet point.However, before more support could comeup, the Russians counter-attacked with six

battalions and threw out the enemy.Simultaneously, Prussian cavalry moved tothe Russian infantry's right and, chargingthrough the smoke, caught Espagne'scuirassiers at a standstill. The impetusbehind them, the Prussians exacted theirrevenge for Jena. Many of the French werekilled before they could ride off.

Another attempt was made to retake theredoubt, but once more the effort failed. Allalong the line, the Russian artillery blastedthe French from the safety of their dug-inpositions. At last the French fell back safelyout of cannon shot.

At dusk, Lannes made one more effort tounhinge the Russian position. One of hisdivisions under General Verdier moved from

Heilsberg. The 55th Line have one of their Eagles capturedby the Prussian 5th Hussars (by Knotel). (Author's collection)


the cover of the woods, came on at thedouble and fell upon the men defending theRussian line. Engaged in a vicious hand-to-hand fight, Verdier's men too were defeatedwhen no support came to back up theirinitial success.

Heilsberg had been a needless bloodbathwith the French taking over 8,000 in lossesand the Russians probably somethingslightly less - needless because the followingday the Russians were turned out of theirtrenches by a flanking maneuver. This battlemight have had significant political effectshad it not been for the events in thefollowing few days.

At midday on 11 June, Bennigsenabandoned his position and fell away tothe east. Convinced that his opponentwould try to defend Königsberg, the last cityof Prussia, Napoleon began to march hisarmy in that direction. Throwing Lannes andthe cavalry under Grouchy out towardsFriedland, he got reports on the 13th thatthere was a large Russian presence in thatarea. Ordering the corps of Mortier, Ney, andthe Guard to move to Lannes's support, hehoped that Marshal Lannes could hold onuntil the main army arrived.

Friedland

On 14 June, the anniversary of Napoleon'svictory at Marengo, the battle started early inthe morning. Bennigsen had crossed most ofhis army to the west of the Alle river. Hethought he had caught one of Napoleon'scorps isolated and viewed this as theopportunity to gain the victory that wouldbring Austria back into the war. At 2 am, thefighting began on both flanks. Bagrationtried to push part of Oudinot's grenadiersout of the Sortlack forest. These elite troopswere more than a match for Bagration'shard-fighting veterans.

On the northern flank, General Uvarovand the Russian Guard cavalry wereattacking Grouchy's cuirassiers and dragoonsdivisions, with the support of more lightcavalry. This was one of the great cavalry

fights in history, with the gallant Frenchthrowing back twice their numberthroughout the morning. Sending forwardinfantry support, the Russians seized the keyvillage of Heinrichdorf. Grouchy counteredby sending Nansouty's cuirassiers forward ina perfectly timed charge that caught theRussian infantry by complete surprise. TheFrench quickly riding among them, mostwere sabered where they stood. Lannes nowsent his reserve brigade of grenadiers tooccupy the bloody streets of Heinrichdorf.

By 7 am Mortier's men began to arrive.Sent to the hardest-pressed part of the line,they frustrated every success that theRussians gained. The forest of Sortlackwould change hands at least five times, butby 11 am it was firmly in French control.Nine hours had passed and Lannes had heldout against almost three times his number.Bennigsen now made one more supremeeffort to break the French, only to be hurledback more viciously than before. Thebutcher's bill was rising for Bennigsen andhe called off the attack. There are somereports that Bennigsen now experienced agall bladder attack that incapacitated him.Report after report was sent to Russianheadquarters that the French were pouringon to the battlefield, but no responsecame forth.

Napoleon arrived on the field at12 noon and met with Lannes. The Marshalreported that the Russian position wasdivided by the swollen stream called theMühlen Floss. Further, their only line ofretreat over the Alle was by three ricketybridges. Napoleon couldn't believe hisfortune. Carefully watching every movementof the enemy, he placed the troops of Ney's6th Corps, Victor's 1st Corps, and the Guardinto their positions to deliver the crushingblow. Shortly before 5 pm, Napoleon gavehis signal to attack. Ney's men stormed outof the Sortlack forest and slammed intoBagration's men. The blow hit like a hammerand drove them back on to the town ofFriedland. Trying to stabilize the position,Bagration threw his cavalry on toMarchand's division, but General Latour-

The fighting 75

The Friedland campaign

The fighting 77

Charge of the 4th Hussars at Friedland. The Hussarsthought their swaggering panache made them the eliteof the cavalry in every army. Their critics retorted thatthis characteristic was evident off the battlefield moreoften than on it. (Roger-Viollet)

Maubourg was waiting for such a move androde down the Russians from the flank.

Ney's men pressed on, but were soon caughtin a crossfire coming from the guns in front ofFriedland and from across the river. Staggeredby these blows, they then had to face theRussian reserve cavalry. Most regiments brokeand ran. The Russian cavalry retired behind therapidly contracting Russian center. Ney rodeback and forth rallying his men and formingthem back up for a final push.

As this was going on, Dupont, leading the1st Division of Victor's corps, advanced andpoured a galling fire into the massedRussians. Supporting him was Victor's chiefof artillery, General Senarmont, with30 guns. Rolling up to within close canisterrange of the massed Russian infantryformations, they unleashed salvo after salvoupon the hapless troops. In the smoke andconfusion, the troops being so efficientlybutchered could not even locate the sourceof their torment. Thousands died in place.

Napoleon now massed his howitzerbatteries to drop shells on the town andbridges of Friedland. Soon all were on fireand in various stages of destruction.Bennigsen threw in his last reserve in thesector of this field, the Imperial Guard.Senarmont swung his guns about andswept away the cavalry in short order. TheGuard infantry came on though and weremet with sheets of flame as Dupont's mendelivered a short-range volley. The giants ofthe Tsar fired back, but Dupont's men hadseen much worse than this and, afterwearing them down with an exchange offire, leveled their bayonets and charged.The sight of these men coming on, havingno respect or fear for their status, unnervedthe Guard, who broke and fled into theovercrowded streets.

Ney's men were now pressing the advanceand caught the Tsar's men against the Alle


Napoleon on the battlefield of Friedland(by Vernet). Unlike Eylau, this was the decisivevictory Napoleon had come to expect. (AKG London)

river. Many jumped into the river trying toescape the Frenchmen's fury. Terror seizedBennigsen's men, and many who did notsurrender were slaughtered or drowned.

To the north, Lannes and Mortier nowadvanced against the remaining Russians.With their backs to the river, the men inGeneral Gortschakoff's column held on witha fanatical desperation. If it had not been foran opportunely discovered ford and theinactivity of Grouchy's exhausted cavalry,the result would have been the same as atFriedland. As it was, fewer then half ofGortschakoff's men could muster thefollowing day.

Friedland had been as complete a victoryas Napoleon would ever have. While takingabout 10,000 in losses himself, he hadinflicted nearly 40,000 on the Russians.Alexander's army under Bennigsen was inruins. Five days later, Alexander requested anarmistice in preparation for a final peace.

The Treaty of Tilsit, 1807

On 25 June at Tilsit, the Tsar met withNapoleon to make peace and divide upEurope. Prussia was left out of the initialnegotiations.

The meeting was held on a raft in themiddle of the Niemen river. Napoleon had aprofound effect on Alexander personally. Hewas generous to his vanquished foe and thetreaty granted Alexander much more than hecould have hoped for after such a crushingdefeat as Friedland. The provisions of thepeace were: the recognition of all theterritorial acquisitions of France and herallies; the restoration of at least a truncatedPoland in the form of the Duchy of Warsawunder the protectorship of the King ofSaxony; an alliance between France andRussia; and the cession of the formerPrussian territory of Bialystock to Russia.Napoleon abandoned the Turks and

The fighting 79


recognized Russia's right to take theDanubian provinces away from his formerally. The peace treaty with Russia wassigned on 9 July and that with Prussia on12 July.

Much has been written about Napoleon'scallous behavior towards the Turks, but thiscriticism fails to take into account the factthat the Sultan Selim III had been murderedthe month before by his Janissary guards,who supplanted him with a puppet ruler,Mustapha. Selim had been a friend toNapoleon, and there was no reason forNapoleon to have any faith in Mustapha, forSelim was killed in large part because of themodernizing reforms he had introduced withthe urging of French advisers.

Tilsit On a raft in the Niemen, the two Emperors,ostensibly now allied, discuss the government of theworld. (Hulton Getty)

Napoleon reviews the Russian Guard at Tilsit(by Debret).The new alliance even led to givingdecorations to former foes, but the new friendshipswere not to last (AKG London)

Prussia was humiliated. She lost all herholdings west of the Elbe and her Polishprovinces. Furthermore, Danzig wasdeclared a free city, to be garrisoned by theFrench. The beautiful Queen Louisa tried touse her charms upon Napoleon in order toameliorate the conditions, but failed.

Sweden had been promised Britishsupport. What came was much too smallto face the troops freed up from the victoryat Friedland. With designs elsewhere, theBritish pulled out leaving the hapless Kingto face the might of France. The Tsarabandoned Sweden and Napoleon gave himpermission to take Finland from her. Thisoffer Alexander gladly accepted.

The fighting 81

Portrait of a soldier

Lannes, Marshal of France

Jean Lannes was insecure, crude, blunt andreckless, but he may have been Napoleon'sgreatest marshal.

Early life and career

He was born in Lectoure, France, on 10 April1769, four months before Napoleon. Hisfamily were farmers and Lannes received hisbasic education from his older brother, apriest. Apprenticed as a dyer, he gladlyjoined the local volunteer regiment in 1792.

His early combat experience was on thePyrenees front, fighting the Spanish. Here herose rapidly in rank, reaching that of coloneljust over a year later. This early part of hiscareer was highlighted by continual acts ofbravery. In 1795, as the war with Spain waswinding down, Lannes was placed under thecommand of General Pierre Augereau, thefuture marshal. Once more his outstandingcombat performance brought him to theattention of his commanding officer. Thisbegan a friendship that would last for therest of Lannes's life.

The division was transferred to Italy, andLannes came under the command ofBonaparte when the latter took command ofthe army in March 1796. Napoleon firstnoticed Lannes when he led the decisivebayonet charge to win the Battle of Dego.Promoted to the command of the elitegrenadiers, Lannes once again carried theday with his courage at Lodi, when he ledthe rush over the bridge that conveyedBonaparte one step nearer to immortality.

When he performed almost the identicalact at Bassano, becoming wounded in theprocess, Bonaparte promoted him to general.Recuperating, Lannes hurried to the frontupon hearing news of the defeat at Caldiero.Finding that Bonaparte had regrouped to

conduct a flanking battle at Arcola, Lannesresumed his command. Being woundedtwice more, he rose from his ambulance bedupon hearing of the continued failures of thearmy. He arrived at the front just asBonaparte had been personally thrown downa steep bank into the river, amidst theconfusion caused by a failed attack over thebridge of Arcola. Rallying the men, Lannesled the charge that took the town, and savedNapoleon from capture or death. This actearned him the eternal affection of thefuture Emperor.

The remainder of the war in Italy sawLannes perform diplomatic missions to thePapal States and Genoa. In both cases,Lannes shocked the opposing diplomats byhis bluntness, but came away with thedesired outcome.

When Bonaparte led the campaign toEgypt, Lannes followed. After the victory ofAlexandria came the march to Cairo. Muratcomplained bitterly about the conditionsand Bonaparte's mistakes. When thesegrumblings got back to Napoleon, Muratblamed Lannes. This started a life-long feudbetween the two men.

Lannes continued to cover himself withglory throughout the Egyptian campaign.His one failure was at Acre, where he led anassault on the walls. Shot through the neck,he almost perished. Fortunately, he wasdragged to safety by one of his officers. Heslowly recovered, and did not see actionagain until he captured the Turkish campduring the victory at Aboukir. It wasfollowing this triumph that he learned thathis wife had given birth to an illegitimatechild. This made the moody Gascon evenmore so.

He had become one of Napoleon's closestfriends, so it was not surprising that he wasone of the few chosen to accompany

Portrait of a soldier 83

Bonaparte back to France. He played a smallbut important role in the coup d'etat ofBrumaire that put Napoleon in control of thegovernment of France. Following this event,Lannes divorced his wife and prepared torejoin the army.

In the campaign of 1800, Napoleonturned his attention to ending the war andretaking Italy. Lannes received the keycommand of the avant-garde. After crossingthe St Bernard Pass through the Alps,Lannes's men swept down the Aosta valley.After several successful skirmishes, Lannesdaringly led his men past the impregnableFort Bard in the middle of the night. AtChiusella, Lannes led a storming party thatseized the vital stronghold. This opened theline of communications and his men wereresupplied. Under his leadership, his mencontinued to march quickly and took thecity of Pavia. Moving south, he defeated theAustrians at Stradella.

He had now marched around the Austrianarmy and so turned back to the west to linkup once more with the main army. As heapproached the town of Casteggio, he saw onthe heights above twice his number of enemy.Confident of his men, Lannes launched an

attack up the slopes. In a desperate struggle,the Austrians were pushed back, but had theirnumbers doubled by reinforcements hurryingup from the town of Montebello. Thesituation was critical, with Lannes riding upand down the line encouraging his men tohold on. On the verge of collapse, Lannes wasrelieved by the division of Victor, which wasdouble-timing it down the road. They threwthe white-uniformed Austrian infantry back tothe town of Montebello.

After a lull of an hour, Lannes sent hismen forward once more to double-envelopthe village. Despite the commandingstrength of the Montebello position, theFrench were irrepressible. The ground fellaway sharply, and the retreating Austrianswere caught with no good retreat route.Against odds of one to two, Lannes had wonhis signature battle. In 1808, he would bemade the Duke of Montebello.

He enjoyed little respite, for five days laterhe and his men were fighting for their liveson the plains of Marengo. Here his troopsresisted stubbornly for most of a day, butultimately gave way. Finally, with new troopsarriving on the field, Napoleon gave theorders for the counterattack that would winthe day and regain Italy.

Following the Italian campaign, Napoleonrewarded Lannes with command of hisGuard. He landed himself in hot wateralmost immediately by spending300,000 francs out of the Guards' treasury toupgrade the men's condition. This came tothe attention of General Bessieres, who toldhis close friend Murat. The latter, itching toget back at Lannes, told First ConsulBonaparte. Infuriated, Bonaparte demandedthat his friend repay the funds out of his ownmoney or face court-martial. It was his oldfriend Augereau who loaned Lannes themoney to get out of his fix. Lannes resignedhis command of the Guard, but soonreceived the important diplomatic mission

Jean Lannes. Combining a shrewd tactical skillwith astounding personal bravery, he was forgivenexceptional familiarities with Napoleon becauseof his battlefield prowess. (Ann Ronan Picture Library)


to Portugal. Remarried, Lannes headed southfrom Paris.

It was in Portugal that Lannes was able towin many trade concessions for France and,either from bribes or gifts, raised enoughmoney to repay Augereau. Because of thesuccess of his entire career, Jean Lanneswas made one of the original 18 marshalsin 1804. Recalled to Paris, he attendedNapoleon's coronation before takingcommand of the newly formed 5th Corpsat the camp of Boulogne.

Lannes in the Napoleonic Wars

This takes us up to the point where Lannesbegins to appear in the earlier chapters on thecampaigns of 1805-07. Lannes's V Corps wasusually in the forefront of the Grande Armée.

Though Lannes was a very forthrightpersonality, very prone to lose his temperwhen he felt put upon, he was capable ofrising above it when necessary. Despite his

animosity for Murat, Lannes gave him hisbest support when Murat's cavalry trapped theAustrian column at Wertingen. When Muratfollowed the wrong trail before Vienna andhad to recuperate by stealing a bridge acrossthe Danube, Lannes was at his side to overaweand bamboozle the Austrian bridge guards.By the time the guards realized that they hadbeen taken, French grenadiers were withinthe defenses. Seldom have such high-rankingofficers been ready to lead special operationsfrom the front-line. Because Murat in turnfell for the ruse of a false armistice, Lanneswas robbed of enough daylight to destroyBagration's rearguard at Schongrabern.

Before Austerlitz Lannes fell out with Soultafter the latter had put him up to challenging

Lannes at Ratisbon, 1809. When several assaultshad failed to take the walls and his men wouldnot go forward, Lannes seized a ladder himself.Shouting to his men, 1 was a grenadier before Iwas a marshal,' he headed towards the walls. Hewas overtaken by his men, who soon capturedthe town. (Ann Ronan Picture Library)

Portrait of a soldier 85

Napoleon's plan but then backed downwhen the reaction was very hostile. After ahard fight on the northern flank under theinsufferable Murat, Lannes thought hisachievements were underrated in the victorybulletin compared to those of the despisedSoult. Lannes stormed off from the army,and no one dared tell him to return.

The "AWOL" marshal rejoined his corpson the Prussian frontier on 7 October 1806,the same day that war was declared. Threedays later he crushed the corps of PrinceLouis at Saalfeld, beginning the cascade ofFrench victories. For only 172 casualties,900 Prussians and Saxons were deadincluding their leader, 1800 more werecaptured, and 6000 scattered, even thoughthey were good troops. Training andleadership made the difference.

Lannes was first up the escarpment atJena, and on 13October he was in theforefront of battle the entire day, until theFrench army had gained another greatvictory. Without sleep or rest, his corps wenton to round up the scattered Prussiansurvivors. In fact Lannes kept pushing all theway into Poland, though as winter closed in,the mud and cold slowed V Corps. In theend it took an entire Russian army to stophim at Pultusk, though in a desperate battlehe tried hard to break through that as well.Finally the pace was too much for him, andhe was sent on sick leave to Warsaw for hiswife to nurse him back to health. She did agood job, despite depression caused by whathe saw as the intrigues of jealous rivals, forin the spring he was in his best form. Heskillfully held the Russian army in play atFriedland until Napoleon could bring upenough troops to launch a decisive attack.When the moment came, Lannes led hiscorps from the front, and the day ended inanother glorious victory.

For once Lannes was satisfied with hisshare of praise and rewards, and he enjoyedseveral months in France with his family. Hewas called to action once again when thebest generals were needed in Spain to repairthe damage caused by lesser ones. Lanneswas not even given time to gather his

baggage, but literally had to gallop thelength of France to get to his new command.Within days he was leading it into combat atTudela on 23 November 1808. Catching aSpanish army unready, deployed over far toogreat a distance, he took the opportunity tocrush one half while the other looked onaghast. When Lannes's attention shiftedtheir way they ran. Lannes moved on toSaragossa, where fanatical resistance anddemoralized troops had led to a series ofcostly and botched attempts at siege. Despitedifficult conditions, Lannes revitalized theattack in this hardest form of warfare, streetfighting against a determined foe.

Victory came, but at a terrible cost forbesieger and besieged. It was a hard job welldone, but observers remarked that Lanneswas now war weary and depressed. His spiritsrose when news came of battles on theDanube front. Lannes leapt at this chance torejoin his beloved commander, Napoleon,and once more galloped the length of Europeto get there in time. He was one of the fewFrench commanders to leave Spain with hisreputation enhanced.

In 1809 he fought the Austrians oncemore, crowning a legendary career withmore victories and acts of heroism. Beforethe walls of Ratisbon (Regensburg), when thetroops hung back, he grabbed a ladder andtried to scale the walls himself. Leading fromthe front was his one military vice. After adogged defensive action around Essling inMay, Lannes paid for this when he wasmortally wounded.

Lannes had been one of the few men whocould speak to Napoleon on intimate terms,and never thought his respect for Napoleonshould prevent honest criticism. Napoleoncould never replace him. He died with arecord of no defeats on the battlefield, andmore than enough victories. His battlerecord was enough to cover the Arc deTriomphe by itself. He had grown from beinga brave uncouth grenadier to being a manhighly regarded for both his personal andmilitary virtues. So much had he grown thatNapoleon said of him after that "He hadfound a pygmy and lost a giant."

The world around war

Art in the Empire

The Empire embraced and appropriated anumber of artistic influences that had begunbefore and during the French Revolution.Naturally, the arts often reflected Imperialtastes, which approved of the fascinating andexciting interplay of Neo-classicism andnascent Romanticism.

Painting and music

In the field of painting, artists such asJacques-Louis David and Antoine-Jean Grosnot only reflected the epic glory of theEmpire, but also expressed some of its highestsentiments. Music saw the movement fromthe strict classical style of Franz JosephHaydn to the more lyrical strains ofRomanticism. Ludwig van Beethovenbecame both the embodiment and thecatalyst of this transition. His career wouldreflect the changes in music better than anyother composer. A fervent republican thewhole of his life, he composed SymphonyNo. 3 (the 'Eroica') in Bonaparte's honor, butchanged the dedication 'to the memory of agreat man' when he heard of Napoleonbecoming Emperor.

The court of Napoleon saw a number ofcomposers of whom none but the mostscholarly of musicologists would know today- Mehul, LeSueur, Cherubini and Gossec.Napoleon's preference was for Italian-styleopera, so that was what was most presentedin Paris. This operatic era marked aninterregnum period between Mozart andVerdi with little to distinguish it. However,not surprisingly, Napoleon's composers didproduce some great martial music. Departingfrom the preceding fife and drum style, theNapoleonic army bands came close toapproaching a modern orchestra. On the dayof battle, the sound of 100 drums with

accompanying brass would soar over thebattlefield and provide an important boostfor the morale of the soldiers.

Sculpture and architecture

Other arts flourished as well. Napoleon hadopened the Louvre to the public to see theart from the collections of the Bourbon kingsand from the spoils of Napoleon's firstItalian campaign. Here was the sculpture ofantiquity that had graced the palaces ofItalian princes and Popes, as well as newmasterpieces by contemporary artists such asAntonio Canova. The new public museumwas organized by Dominique-Vivant Denon,the father of the modern museum system.Expanding upon ideas being developed inVienna, Denon perfected the system oforganizing the museum into periods of artand styles. Prior to Denon, pictures andsculptures had been presented in ahodgepodge fashion.

The Consulate and Empire saw a buildingprogram such had never been seen before inFrance. Paris witnessed the start of the Arc deTriomphe, the Bourse, the arcades along theRue de Rivoli, the north wing of the Louvre,the Place Vendôme with its triumphalcolumn, and the reconstruction of theMadeleine church. When you look onmodern Paris, much of what you see was theEmperor's inspiration. While the worksprogram in Paris is the most celebrated,Napoleon executed similar programselsewhere in France.

French society

The society of France was transformed underthe Empire. During the Revolution, much of

The world around war 87

what was considered high society revolvedaround the private salons, but in the earlyEmpire the places to be were the courts ofthe Empress Josephine or one of Napoleon'ssisters. This allowed Napoleon better toinfluence the politics and fashions of Paris.

Fashion had become more conservativeafter the libertine days of the Directory,which Napoleon found in poor taste.Women wore long, high-waisted,'empire-style' dresses that were meant tohark back to the classical period of Greece.The men wore variants of the topcoat, vestand trousers. These were essentially the

beginning of modern styles of men's dress.It became fashionable to dine out for the

first time in history. Restaurants had begunto flourish. France's first great chefs,Brillat-Savarin and Carême, were makingtheir mark. The latter was Talleyrand's chefat the insistence of the Emperor, to employthe culinary as well as the diplomatic artsto enhance French prestige.

Napoleon put his stamp on everythingfrom the theater to furniture, from the lawto the Catholic Church. The Age ofNapoleon' was as much a conquest of styleand imagination as it was a military epoch.

Portrait of a musician at war

Philippe-Rene Girault

Early life and career

Philippe-Rene Girault was a veteran by thetime the Grande Armée marched eastwards in1805. He joined the army in 1791 as asoldier-musician, probably aged 15. Heserved at Valmy and in the campaigns alongthe Rhine, enduring privations, enjoyingadventures. By the time of Hohenlinden hewas part of the band of the prestigious 5thHussars, but soon afterward new regulationseliminated the cavalry bands. Musiciansenjoyed to a limited extent the freedom ofindividual contractors, moving fromregiment to regiment according to howmuch the colonel and officers wanted tosubsidize the regimental music. Forced out ofhis billet in the Hussars, Girault drifted intoa regiment that became the 93rd Line.

The 93rd was not a prestigious unit, butin its peacetime station it wanted a goodband to impress the locals. GarrisoningLa Rochelle and the Îe de Ré in south-westFrance, the 93rd provided drafts for servicein San Domingo, an unpopular duty wheremany perished from sickness. Not that theÎle de Ré was much better, for it was asickly station where many went down withfevers. Girault almost died, but he wasnursed through the crisis by a girl whom hewisely married.

The Napoleonic Wars

Girault, his wife Lucile, and the 93rd Linewere sent into Italy at the beginning of 1805to provide a reserve for Massena's army. Theregiment was a raw one and was not calledinto action, but Napoleon neededreplacements to fill the gaps in his armyafter Austerlitz and Jena. In November 1806,the regiment was ordered to cross the

Tyrolean mountains into Germany. Thesnow was deep, and even though Girault'swife was game, she was so short the snowcame up to her thighs. She had to share acarriage with an officer's wife. The couplesqueezed into an overcrowded inn in themountains, but found they could not affordthe wine or beer to go with what they hadgathered for their dinner. A general ofbrigade chanced by, who happily invitedhimself to share their meal in return forproviding the wine. The Giraults werehappy: they calculated they had spent amere 12 sous, whereas the General musthave spent 6 francs or more.

Then it was down into Bavaria, wherethey settled into winter quarters inAugsburg. As Girault reported to his colonelin the city, a messenger told him that hiswife, following the regiment on a cantiniere'swagon, had fallen into the Danube when thecarriage horse had panicked and gone intothe river. Rushing back, he was relieved tofind his wife being carried through the citygates: a voltigeur (the voltigeur company wasthe company specially designated forskirmish work) from the passing rearguardhad gallantly leapt in and pulled her out ofthe river.

A cantiniere, sometimes called a vivandiere,was a soldier's wife or mistress working as alicensed sutler. Sometimes these womenwere very popular, especially if theyextended credit, or were brave enough tobring brandy up to the regiment under fire.Under cannonfire or musketry, somecantinieres were wounded or killed: somedid not charge for brandy dispensed inaction, thinking it part of their duty underfire. However, the cantiniere riding withLucile was obviously not one of these,because she was not popular. Perhapsbecause she did not extend credit or pressed

Portrait of a musician at war 89

her debtors too hard, or her protector mighthave been a bully. Whatever it was, none ofthe soldiers dived in to save her, and it wasleft to a Bavarian to fish her out.

The troops were never so happy aswhen they were campaigning in Bavaria orAustria. It was rich countryside in which toforage, even when the rations were regular.One officer thought that, whenever hisbattalion left a bivouac, it left enough foodto last for 15 days. The soldiers hoped thatby the time they had 'eaten' the countryout, the supply services would have caughtup. In billets the civilians were soon taughtthat if they did not serve their guests thebest, the soldiers would not only helpthemselves, but cause waste and damage thatwould make it ten times worse. Of course,these habits did not make friends among thepopulation, and the pickings were not sogood in the poorer countries to the east, EastPrussia and Poland.

At the end of a march, the fires werelighted, the camp kettles were put to the boiland some sort of shelter was improvised, asthe army did not carry tents. Tents wouldslow up an army's march, and Napoleon'sarmy marched hard. The troops hadconfidence in their leadership and acceptedthat hard marching resulted in fewercasualties. The French veteran Massena wasadmired for his ability to conjure shelters outof branches, straw, leaves, anything.Meanwhile, the marauders returned withfood or wood for their comrades.

Recruits, however, would often arrive at acampsite so tired that they would justcollapse, and unless there was someone tolook after them, they would wake up to findthey had to begin the next day's march after anight without warmth or food or shelter. Aftera few days of this, the conscripts would fallout with sickness and exhaustion, often beingleft to their fate and never seen again. Thecold and mud of Poland, worse than they hadever seen before, soon showed the limitationsof such a rough-and-ready style of warfare.The troops grew demoralized and losses fromattrition soared. After Eylau, however,Napoleon pulled his troops back into warm

quarters and began to rebuild his army.To replace the losses and reinforce the

Grande Armée, rear area troops were broughtup. In their wake, even second-lineformations, like the 93rd, were calledforward. In the spring of 1807, the regimentmarched up to Berlin, being shocked on theway at how grisly the field of Jena was evensix months later. Still stationed in Berlin, theregiment had comfortable billets and thechance for some tourism: Girault visited thepalace of Frederick the Great. Then they wenton to winter in Stettin, again in good billets.

Usually on campaign the troops did nothave such amenities, but the French soldierswere famed for their ability to makethemselves comfortable if they had a littletime to do so. Further to the east, the GrandeArmée was building itself military towns ofwood, straw, and canvas in the wildernessnear Tilsit. More than comfortable, thestreets of these towns were even elegant.One regiment, to outshine its neighbors,planted rows of fir trees along their streets,one outside every hut. Then they built aparade ground, neatly bordered with moretrees. Other regiments tried to compete, butsoon there were no more woods withinstriking range. Even the villages had beendismantled to provide wood for the huts,after their barns and flocks had disappearedto feed the troops.

For an agrarian economy, one Frenchsoldier noted, 'War, flood, hail and fire areless dangerous than the presence of anenemy army.' Later this same soldier,Captain Elzear Blaze, saw his regimentreviewed by Napoleon himself, accompaniedby the Tsar and the King of Prussia. The Kingwas very impressed by the camp. 'It wouldbe impossible to build finer camps thanyours,' he said, 'but admit that you've leftsome wretched villages.'

But there was work for even a despisedregiment. The 93rd was called forward tojoin Marshal Brune in front of the fortress ofColberg, and Girault had to leave his wifebehind with their newly born son. ThisPrussian fortress had been under siege forsome time, but as it was also a port, the


French land blockade did not work. Half-hearted attacks had only served to give thegarrison a sense of heroism at being one ofthe few Prussian forces to hold out after thedebacle of 1806. Brune, however, did notintend to sit in inactivity and ordered anassault. The 93rd went forward through awood in a vigorous attack, but stalled. It satexposed to the fire from the Red Fort to itsfront and from an English frigate cruising

The Camp of Boulogne (by Bellanger). While therewere many ceremonies as illustrated here, usuallythe camp was the scene of constant training untilthe troops surpassed the standards of their opponents.(Hulton Getty)

along the shoreline to its left. The musicianswisely took cover behind some sand dunes,where the surgeon was working on thewounded streaming back.

As was usual, the band was conscripted tocarry back the wounded. If there were limbsto be amputated, the surgeon worked away;other cases were loaded on wagons to beevacuated. Girault had never seen anamputation before; now he saw far toomany. Soon he was covered in blood fromhead to toe, 'like a butcher,' he said. Withthe standards of medical care of the time,doctors resorted to amputation as the onlyanswer to a shattered limb: if the doctor wasskillful, the wounded might survive

Portrait of a musician at war 91

operation and infection. A cannonball tohead or body could only be lethal, a bulletwound might be survived if not in the gut ortoo deep, a saber wound was almost lucky.

When the regiment finally withdrew,Girault was left to watch some conscriptedpeasants dig a ditch to bury the limbs leftbehind. Seeing an arm on a pile of straw,Girault attempted to gather it up, but foundit was still attached to its live owner. Afterhis arm had been shattered, the poor soldierhad made it as far as the surgeon, but hadcollapsed on a pile of straw. More straw andmore wounded had been piled on top ofhim, and unconscious he had stayedforgotten until Girault found him. The

surgeon was summoned and amputated thearm. Not a single cry escaped the soldier,who ended up staggering off on his own legsto the hospital rather than await the returnof an ambulance. Girault was impressed bythis display of hardness, but in the days ofthe survival of the fittest, these soldiers werevery tough - they had to be.

The next day the 93rd was allowed to stayin cover. An Italian regiment took its place inthe line. A ration of beef was issued, but itwas highly unlikely that the beef was in anyrecognizable cut, not unless a soldier hadgreat pull with the butcher. When theregulations specified a pound of beef, theymeant it literally, even if the pound includedskin, bone or offal. Usually the beef wasissued in one ration for a mess of soldiers,and often there was little they could do withit other than make it into soup or stew, notonly because of the quality of the meat, butalso because they seldom had more than apot to cook in over an open fire. Occasionalissues of rice or vegetables would make themeal more palatable, but usually a messwould have to scrounge or buy these.Sometimes the bread ration was so poor as tobe good for nothing but a stew as well.

Girault and his fellow bandsmen had themakings for soup, but lacked wood for a fire.They went searching for it in the woodwhere the regiment had fought the daybefore. The garrison was still alert, andcannonballs soon chased the band to thecover of the sand dunes. Even there ricochetsfrom the fire hunted them down, and theyhad to bolt for it. One of his comrades lost athumb and finger, but Girault lamentedmore the loss of wood and soup.

After a hungry night, the next day thePeace of Tilsit was announced to the troops.The good news was tainted by a rumor thatBrune had known of the peace three daysearlier. In his quest for glory, Brune hadproceeded with the attack anyway. Within ayear Brune had been dismissed by Napoleon,probably for political reasons rather than thisbutchery. It had cost 400 unnecessarycasualties, but the 93rd was finally blooded.That was the life of a soldier.

Conclusion and consequences

In the end, the Peace of Tilsit, negotiated inJune and July 1807 between France, Russiaand Prussia, failed to hold. Why was this? Inessence, the stakes were too high for acompromise to endure. The conflict wasalways, ideologically, a war to the death. Theold monarchies of Europe could not bringthemselves to accept the principles of theFrench Revolution that Napoleon sorepresented to them, nor could they livewith his domination of Europe. There were atleast three successful imperialist powers,France, Britain, and Russia, each vying for thebest position. This created an environmentwhere the powers always looked for anopening to gain the advantage once more.The less successful imperialist powers ofPrussia and Austria wished to revive theirfortunes, and hoped to gain revenge for thehumiliations they had received in 1805 and1806 from this 'parvenu emperor'. Theywere potentially available as allies toNapoleon's enemies.

Napoleon would strengthen theirresentment by instituting his ContinentalSystem. While it came close to driving Britaininto bankruptcy, it also impoverished themercantile economies that were underNapoleon's control. This led to widespreadsmuggling and defections. For example, assoon as the Treaty of Tilsit was signed, the

Russian merchants aligned themselves withthe established nobility to begin toundermine it. At sea, Britain enjoyed adomination that not only protected her, butgave her direct links to every continentalpower, and allowed her to strike at anycoastline of Napoleon's Empire where an allysupplied an opening.

With an enormous empire to control,Napoleon had to incorporate more men intohis army from outside France. Some newcontingents did not have the enthusiasmfor Napoleon that had driven his earlyarmies. Furthermore, even the Frenchrecruits who took up the musket to replacetheir fallen comrades were now mostlyconscripts. The French army no longerfielding volunteers, the rate of desertionincreased. Finally, Napoleon's later armiesnever achieved the level of training thatwould have allowed them to perform themost intricate of maneuvers.

In the end, though, it may have beenthat the allies caught up with the Frenchtechniques for waging war on land.Captain Parquin, in his famous memoirs,tells of having a conversation with aRussian general following a French victory.'The Russians are today pupils of theFrench, but they will end up by being theequals of their masters.'

Further reading

Bowden, Scott, The Glory Years: Napoleon andAusterlitz, Emperor's Press, 1997.

Chandler, David, The Campaigns of Napoleon,Cassell, London, 1997.

Duffy, Christopher, Austerlitz 1805, Cassell,London, 1999.

Elting, John R., Swords around a Throne, daCapo Press, USA, 1997

Esposito, Vincent J., and Elting, John R., AMilitary History and Atlas of the NapoleonicWars, Greenhill Books, 1999

Hourtoulle, F.-G., Jena, Auerstädt, the Triumphof the Eagle

Petre, F. Loraine, Napoleon's Conquest ofPrussia 1806, Greenhill Books, 1993

Petre, F. Loraine, Napoleon's Campaign inPoland 1806-1807, Greenhill Books,forthcoming

Jones, Proctor Patterson, Napoleon: AnIntimate Account of the Years ofSupremacy: 1800-1814, Random House,USA, 1992

Thiers, Louis, A History of the Consulate andEmpire under Napoleon

Vachee, Colonel, Napoleon at Work

Index

Figures in bold refer to illustrations

Addington, Henry (1757-1844) 9,10Alexander I, Tsar of Russia (1777-1825) 13, 13, 42, 43,

64the Austerlitz campaign 34, 37, 38and the Treaty of Tilsit 78

Amiens, Treaty of, 1802 9-11arts, the 86Auerstädt, battle of, 14th October 1806 53-57,

54(map)Auffenberg, General 25Augereau, Marshal Pierre Francois Charles (1757-1816)

18,82Austerlitz, the battle of, 2nd December 1805 36-42,

38-49Austerlitz campaign, the 30, 31(map), 32-42Austrian Empire, the 9, 13, 19, 72, 92Austrian forces 19-20, 30, 42

the Austerlitz campaign 34, 38at Caldiero 63at Casteggio 83tactics 20-21the Ulm campaign 24, 25, 27, 29

Bagration, Peter, Prince (1765-1812) 32, 33, 40, 74Bavaria 24, 42Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770-1827) 86Bennigsen, General Levin A. T. (1735-1826) 64, 65,

65, 67, 69, 72, 74Berlin 60, 61, 87Bernadotte, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jules 17, 57, 57-58,

58, 60, 61and Davout 47, 54

Berthier, Marshal Louis-Alexandre (1753-1815) 15, 15Bessieres, Marshal Jean-Baptiste (1768-1813) 18, 83Blücher, Field Marshal Gebhard Lebrecht von, Prince

of Wahlstadt (1742-1819) 53, 54-55, 55-56, 61Boulogne 15, 90-91Bourbons, the 11, 12, 43Brune, Marshal Guillaume Marie Anne (1763-1815)

18, 87, 91Brunswick, General Charles William Ferdinand, Duke

of (1735-1806) 22, 22, 43, 47, 48, 55, 56Buxhöwden, Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm,

Count of (1750-1811) 34,34 ,40

Caldiero, battle of 63, 82calendars 30cantiniéres 88-89Casteggio, battle of 83casualties 90-91

Auerstädt 57Austerlitz 41Colberg 89Eylau 72Friedland 78Heilsberg 74Jena 53Saalfeld 45Ulm 27, 29

Charles, Archduke of Austria (1771-1847) 19-20, 62,63

chronology 7

Colberg, siege of 89-90, 91Confederation of the Rhine, the 42, 44Constantine, Grand-Duke (1779-1831) 39Continental System, the 62, 90

Danzig 72, 80Davout, Marshal Louis Nicholas (1770-1823) 17, 30,

36, 65, 71-72at Auerstädt 53-54, 55, 56, 57and Bernadotte 47, 54

Denmark 9, 63-64Dupont, General 25, 27, 27, 59, 77Dürrenstein 30, 32

Elchingen, battle of, 14th October 1805 24-25, 27, 28,28-29

Enghien, Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon-Conde,Duc d' (1772-1804) 12, 12, 13

Europe 10(map)Eylau, battle of, 8th February 1807 67, 67-68, 68-69,

70(map), 71, 71-72

Ferdinand, Archduke (1781-1835) 21, 29Fouche, Joseph (1759-1820) 11-12France 10, 35, 42, 92, 93-94Francis I, Emperor of Austria-Hungary (1768-1835) 19,

20, 24, 41, 42Frederick William III, King of Prussia (1770-1840) 45,

56, 57French forces 16, 16-17, 19, 42, 45, 46, 58, 92

at Auerstädt 54-55, 56, 57at Austerlitz 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41the Austerlitz campaign 30, 32, 32-33in Berlin 60, 61, 87at Caldiero 63at Eylau 67-69, 68-69, 71, 72at Friedland 74, 76-77, 77-78at Halle 58-60at Heilsberg 73, 73-74the Imperial Guard 16, 34-35, 68-69at Jena 47-48,49,51-52,52,53marshals 16, 17-18organisation 15-16the Polish campaign 64, 65, 65-66at Saalfeld 45the Ulm campaign 25, 27, 28-29

Friedland, battle of, 14th June 1807 74, 75(map),75-78, 76-77, 78-79

Gallitzen, General Andrei, Prince 66Girault, Rene 88-91Golymin, battle of, 26th December 1806 66-67Great Britain 9, 10, 13, 42, 44, 62, 63-64, 80, 92

Halle 58-60Hanover 9, 42, 44Hatzfeld, Franz Ludwig, Prince (1756-1827) 60Haugwitz, Christian August (1752-1832) 43Heilsberg, battle of, 10th June 1807 73, 73-74Hohenlohe-lngelfingen, General Frederick Ludwig,

Prince of (1746-1818) 47, 48, 48, 49, 52, 60, 61Holtzendorff, General 49

ideology 92

Index 95

Jena, battle of, 14th October 1806 47, 48-49, 50(map),51-53

Junot, General Jean Andoche (1771-1813) 64

Kamenski, Marshal Alexander (1731-1807) 65Kellerman, General Francois Etienne (1770-1835) 40Kienmayer, General 40Kutusov, Prince Mikhail Hilarionovich (1745-1813)

30, 30, 33-34

Langeron, General Count 37, 40Lannes, Marshal Jean (1769-1809) 61, 82-85, 83, 84

at Acre 82the Austerlitz campaign 33, 36, 40at Friedland 74, 85at Heilsberg 73at Jena 47, 49, 85the Polish campaign 65-66at Pultusk 85at Ratisbon 85at Saalfeld 45, 85at Saragossa 85at Tudela 85mission to Portugal 84

Lefebvre, Marshal Francois Joseph (1755-1820) 18, 72Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, Prince (1773-1806) 23,

45, 46-47Louisa of Mecklenburg, Queen of Prussia (1776-1810)

42, 43, 43-44, 44, 80Louisiana Purchase, the 1803 9, 10Louvre, the 86Lübek 61

Mack, General Karl Freiherr von Leiberich (1752-1828)20, 20, 21, 24the Ulm campaign 24-25, 27, 27-28, 29

Magdeburg 60Malta 10Marengo campaign, the 18,83Mariazell 30Marmont, General Auguste Frederick Louis Viesse de

(1774-1852) 17Massena, Marshal Andre (1758-1817) 18, 62, 63medical services 90-91Michelsberg, the 29Mortier, Marshal Adolphe Edouard Casünir Joseph

(1768-1835) 18, 30, 32, 72Murat, Marshal Joachim (1767-1815) 18, 32, 45, 58,

61, 82the Austerlitz campaign 30, 33, 36, 40at Eylau 71at Jena 52the Polish campaign 64, 65the Ulm campaign 25, 27, 29

musicians 88, 90, 93

Naples 43, 63Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French

(1769-1821) 11, 33-34, 42-43, 53, 54, 74, 92, 94assassination plots 11,12at Austerlitz 36, 37, 38-39, 38-39, 39, 40, 41-42the Austerlitz campaign 30, 32-33, 35-36in Berlin 60Berlin Decrees 62coronation 12-13, 14at Eylau 67, 68, 69, 71, 71, 72and Francis I 41at Friedland 74, 77, 78-79invasion of England 15, 16invasion of Portugal 64at Jena 47, 48, 48-49, 51, 51, 52, 53, 57and Lannes 82, 82-83, 83, 84, 85mobilises against the Prussians 44mobilises the Grand Armée 18-19musical tastes 91

and the Peace of Amiens 10,11peace talks 44the Polish campaign 64, 65, 67popularity 9, 11and Prussia 42, 43, 44, 45reorganises the army 15and the Saxons 58and the Treaty of Tilsit 78, 81and the Ulm campaign 24, 25, 27, 28, 29visits the tomb of Frederick the Great 60, 60

Ney, Marshal Michel (1769-1815) 17-18, 27, 67, 72at Jena 49, 50the Ulm campaign 25, 27, 28, 29

Paris 91Pitt, William, the Younger (1759-1806) 9-10, 11, 20, 42Polish campaign, the 64-67Portugal 64, 84Pressburg, Treaty of, 1805 42, 63Prussia 9, 43, 72, 80, 92

and France 42, 43-44ultimatum to Napoleon 44-45

Prussian forces 22, 43, 46, 58-59, 60, 61, 61-62,62-63, 64at Auerstädt 54-55, 56, 56-57at Eylau 72French invasion of Saxony 45General Staff 23, 44at Halle 58-60at Heilsberg 73, 73at Jena 49, 51, 52, 53at Saalfeld 45tactics 22-23

Pultusk, battle of, 26th December 1806 65-66, 85

Riesch, General 27, 28Ruchel, General Ernest Philip von (1754-1823) 53Russia 9, 13, 43, 44, 80, 92Russian forces 21, 42, 63, 81

at Austerlitz 37, 39, 40the Austerlitz campaign 30, 32, 33-34, 34at Eylau 67-68, 69, 71, 72at Friedland 74, 77, 78at Heilsberg 73the Polish campaign 65, 66, 67

Saalfeld, battle of, 10th October 1806 45-46Saragossa 85Saxon Forces, at Jena 49, 51, 52, 52-53Saxony 44, 58Soult, Marshal Nicholas-Jean de Dieu (1769-1851) 17,

36, 37, 37, 49, 68Stettin 60, 61Stuart, Lieutenant General Sir John (1759-1815) 63Sweden 72, 80

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice (1754-1838) 12Tauentzien, General Bolesas Friedrich Emanuel

(1760-1824) 49, 52Third Coalition, the 13Tilsit, Treaty of, 1807 63, 78, 80, 80, 91, 92Trafalgar, battle of, 21st October 1805 35Tudela, battle of 85Turkey 64, 80

Ulm campaign, the 24-25, 26(map), 27-29, 28-29

Vienna, French occupy 30Voltigeur 88

Warsaw 64Werneck General 28, 29Weyrother, General 36Whitworth, Sir Charles 10,13Württemberg, Frederick Duke of (1759-1830) 58, 59

Director of the Napoleonic History/Napoleonic... · First published in Great Britain in 2001 by...

Documents

Transcript of Director of the Napoleonic History/Napoleonic... · First published in Great Britain in 2001 by...