Battle of Austerlitz

The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in the Austrian Empire (now Slavkov u Brna in the Czech Republic). Around 158,000 troops were involved, of which around 24,000 were killed or wounded.

The battle is often cited by military historians as one of Napoleon's tactical masterpieces, in the same league as other historic engagements like Hannibal's Cannae (216 BC) or Alexander the Great's Gaugamela (331 BC). The military victory of Napoleon's at Austerlitz brought the War of the Third Coalition to an end, with the Peace of Pressburg signed by the French and Austrians later in the month. These achievements did not establish a lasting peace on the continent. Austerlitz had driven neither Russia nor Britain, whose armies protected Sicily from a French invasion, to settle.

After eliminating an Austrian army during the Ulm campaign, French forces seized Vienna in November 1805. The Austrians avoided further conflict until the arrival of the Russians, who helped increase the allied numbers. Napoleon sent his army north in pursuit of the Allies, but then ordered his forces to retreat so he could feign a grave weakness to lure the Allies into thinking that they were facing a weak army, while it was in fact formidable. Napoleon gave every indication in the days preceding the engagement that the French army was in a pitiful state, even abandoning the dominant Pratzen Heights near Austerlitz. He deployed the French army below the Pratzen Heights and weakened his right flank, enticing the Allies to launch an assault there to roll up the French line. The French Emperor meanwhile hid the main army in dead ground. Napoleon's plan was based on the hope that Marshal Davout and his III Corps would arrive soon on their way from Vienna. A forced march by Davout plugged the gap left by Napoleon just in time. Davout's men stubbornly held their defensive positions under the onslaught of superior opponents. These positions represented both a natural and a fortified-structural barrier. The Allied deployment against the French right weakened the Allied centre on the Pratzen Heights, which was attacked by the IV Corps of Marshal Soult. Napoleon also exploited the weather: noticing the weakened Allied centre, he sent this corps just as the early morning mistwhich contributed to the concealment of both Soult's corps and the Allied centrewas clearing. The mist at that moment had not cleared low enough to uncover Soult's advance. With the centre demolished, the French swept through both flanks and routed the Allies, which enabled the French to capture thousands of prisoners.

Remarkably, the pleiad of Russian military commanders nurtured by the great general Alexander Suvorov (17301800)including Mikhail Kutuzov, Pyotr Bagration, Mikhail Miloradovich, Nikolay Kamensky, Sergei Kamensky, Peter Wittgenstein and Friedrich (Fyodor) von Buxhoevedenwas decisively defeated at Austerlitz. The blame for the Allied disaster initially lies with the supreme commander Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who, together with his Austrian chief of staff Franz von Weyrother, fell into Napoleon's "trap" at Austerlitz, first accepting encounter on the battlefield chosen by the French Emperor, and then being encircled in the direction of the left Allied flank. The Allied disaster significantly shook the will of Emperor Francis to further resist Napoleon. France and Austria agreed to an armistice immediately, and the Treaty of Pressburg followed shortly after, on 26 December. Pressburg took Austria out of both the war and the Coalition while reinforcing the earlier treaties of Campo Formio and of Lunéville between the two powers. The treaty confirmed the Austrian loss of lands in Italy and Bavaria to France, and in Germany to Napoleon's German allies. It also imposed an indemnity of 40 million francs on the Habsburgs and allowed the fleeing Russian troops free passage through hostile territories and back to their home soil. Critically, victory at Austerlitz permitted the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of German states intended as a buffer zone between France and the eastern powers, Austria, Prussia, and Russia. The Confederation rendered the Holy Roman Empire virtually useless, so Francis dissolved the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, but remained as emperor of Austria. Prussian worries about the growing French influence in Central Europe led to the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806.

Background

Europe had been in turmoil since the start of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792. In 1797, after five years of war, the French Republic broke up the First Coalition, an alliance of Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, and various Italian states. A Second Coalition, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and the Kingdom of Naples, was formed in 1798, but by 1801, this too had been defeated, leaving the British the only opponent of the new French Consulate. In March 1802, France and Britain agreed to end hostilities under the Treaty of Amiens.

However, many problems persisted between the two sides, and implementing the treaty became increasingly difficult. The British government resented having to return captured colonies to France and the Batavian Republic under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens. Napoleon was angry that the British refused to abandon the island of Malta. The tense situation only worsened when Napoleon sent an expeditionary force to restore French authority in the colony of Saint-Domingue. In May 1803, Britain declared war on France.

Third Coalition

In December 1804, an Anglo-Swedish agreement led to the creation of the Third Coalition. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger spent 1804 and 1805 in a flurry of diplomatic activity geared towards forming a new coalition against France, and by April 1805, Britain and Russia had signed an alliance. Having been defeated twice in recent memory by France and being keen on revenge, Austria joined the Coalition a few months later.

Forces

French Imperial army

Before the formation of the Third Coalition, Napoleon had assembled an invasion force called the Armée d'Angleterre (Army of England) around six camps at Boulogne in Northern France. He intended to use this force, amounting to 150,000 men, for his planned invasion of Britain; Napoleon was so confident of success that he had commemorative medals struck to celebrate the "conquest" of Britain. Although they never invaded, Napoleon's troops received careful and invaluable training for any possible military operation. Boredom among the troops occasionally set in, but Napoleon paid many visits and conducted lavish parades to boost morale.

The men at Boulogne formed the core of what Napoleon would later call . The army was organized into seven corps, which were large field units that contained 36 to 40 cannons each and were capable of independent action until other corps could come to their aid. A single corps (adequately situated in a solid defensive position) could survive at least a day without support. In addition to these forces, Napoleon created a cavalry reserve of 22,000 organized into two cuirassier divisions, four mounted dragoon divisions, one division of dismounted dragoons and one of light cavalry, all supported by 24 artillery pieces. By 1805, the had grown to a force of 350,000 men, who were well equipped, well trained, and led by competent officers.

Russian Imperial army

The Russian army in 1805 had many characteristics of Ancien Régime organization. There was no permanent formation above the regimental level, and senior officers mostly belonged to aristocratic circles. The Russian infantry was considered one of the hardiest in Europe, with fine artillery crewed by experienced professional soldiers.

Austrian Imperial army

Archduke Charles, brother of the Austrian Emperor, had started to reform the Austrian army in 1801 by taking away power from the , the military-political council responsible for the armed forces. Charles was Austria's most able field commander, but he was unpopular at court and lost much influence when, against his advice, Austria decided to go to war with France. Karl Mack became the new main commander in Austria's army, instituting reforms on the eve of the war that called for a regiment to be composed of four battalions of four companies, rather than three battalions of six companies.

Preliminary moves

thumb|upright=1.3|alt=Colored painting showing Napoleon receiving the surrender of General Mack, with the city of Ulm in the background. |[[Napoleon accepts the surrender of General Mack and the Austrian army at Ulm. Painting by Charles Thévenin]]

In August 1805, Napoleon, Emperor of the French since December of the previous year, turned his sights from the English Channel to the Rhine to deal with the new Austrian and Russian threats. On 25 September after a feverish march in great secrecy, 200,000 French troops began to cross the Rhine on a front of . Mack had gathered the greater part of the Austrian army at the fortress of Ulm in Swabia.

Napoleon swung his forces southward in a wheeling movement that put the French at the Austrian rear while launching cavalry attacks through the Black Forest, which kept the Austrians at bay. The Ulm Maneuver was well-executed, and on 20 October, 23,000 Austrian troops surrendered at Ulm, bringing the number of Austrian prisoners of the campaign to 60,000. Although this spectacular victory was soured by the defeat of a Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar the following day, French success on land continued as Vienna fell in November. The French gained 100,000 muskets, 500 cannons, and intact bridges across the Danube.

Delays prevented the Russians from saving the Austrian armies; they withdrew to the northeast to await reinforcements and link up with surviving Austrian units. Tsar Alexander I appointed General Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov commander-in-chief of the combined Russo-Austrian force. On 9 September 1805, Kutuzov arrived at the battlefield, quickly contacting Francis I of Austria and his courtiers to discuss strategy and logistics. Under pressure from Kutuzov, the Austrians agreed to supply munitions and weapons promptly. Kutuzov also spotted shortcomings in the Austrian defense plan, which he called "very dogmatic". He objected to the Austrian annexation of the land recently under Napoleon's control because this would make the local people distrust the allied force. attacked the castle of Sokolnitz. The French, however, counterattacked and regained the village, only to be thrown out again. Conflict in this area ended temporarily when Friant's division (part of III Corps) retook the village. Sokolnitz was perhaps the most contested area on the battlefield and would change hands several times as the day progressed.

While the Allied troops attacked the French right flank, Kutuzov's IV Corps stopped at the Pratzen Heights and stayed still. Just like Napoleon, Kutuzov realized the importance of Pratzen and decided to protect the position. But the young Tsar did not, so he ordered the IV Corps to withdraw from the Heights. This act quickly pushed the Allied army into its grave.

Endgame

thumb|upright=1.5|alt=Map showing the French advance in blue lines and the defeated Allied armies in red lines, moving away (to the east) from the battlefield. |By 1400 hours, the Allied army had been dangerously separated. Napoleon now had the option to strike at one of the wings, and he chose the Allied left since other enemy sectors had already been cleared or were conducting fighting retreats.

Meanwhile, the northernmost part of the battlefield also witnessed heavy fighting. The Prince of Liechtenstein's heavy cavalry began to assault Kellermann's lighter cavalry forces after eventually arriving at the correct position in the field. The fighting initially went well for the French, but Kellerman's forces took cover behind General Caffarelli's infantry division once it became clear that Russian numbers were too great. Caffarelli's men halted the Russian assaults and permitted Murat to send two cuirassier divisions (one commanded by d'Hautpoul and the other one by Nansouty) into the fray to finish off the Russian cavalry for good. The ensuing mêlée was bitter and long, but the French ultimately prevailed. On Napoleon's orders, Lannes then led his V Corps against Bagration's men and, after hard fighting, drove the skilled Russian commander off the field. He wanted to pursue, but Murat, who was in control of this sector on the battlefield, was against the idea; Napoleon ultimately called off the attack.

Napoleon's focus shifted towards the southern end of the battlefield, where the French and the Allies were still fighting over Sokolnitz and Telnitz. In an effective double-pronged assault, St. Hilaire's division and part of Davout's III Corps smashed through the enemy at Sokolnitz, which persuaded the commanders of the first two columns, Generals Kienmayer and Langeron, to flee as fast as they could. Buxhoeveden was completely drunk and fled as well. Kienmayer covered his withdrawal with the O'Reilly light cavalry, who managed to defeat five of six French cavalry regiments before they had to retreat.

General panic seized the Allied army, and it abandoned the field in all possible directions. A famous, albeit disputed, episode occurred during this retreat: defeated Russian forces withdrew south towards Vienna via the frozen Satschan ponds. Napoleon deployed cannons on the heights of Augezd (now Újezd), which decimated the troops now under Dmitry Dokhturov, Buxhoeveden's replacement. French artillery pounded towards the men, and the ice was broken by the bombardment. The fleeing men drowned in the cold ponds, dozens of Russian artillery pieces going down with them. Estimates of how many guns were captured differ: there may have been as few as 38 or more than 100. Sources also differ about casualties, with figures ranging between 200 and 2,000 dead. Thanks to Dokhturov's coolness and resourcefulness, the troops were assembled near Neudorf (now Nová Ves) by nightfall, but with "heavy" losses, as the Russian data confirms without clarifying a specific number. Many drowning Russians were saved by their victorious foes. However, local evidence later made public suggests that Napoleon's account of the catastrophe may have been exaggerated; on his instructions, the lakes were drained a few days after the battle, and the corpses of only two or three men, with some 150 horses, were found. On the other hand, Tsar Alexander I attested to the incident after the wars.

Military and political results

Allied casualties stood at about 36,000 out of an army of 89,000, representing about 38% of their effective forces. The French were not unscathed in the battle, losing around 9,000 out of an army of 66,000, or about 13% of their forces. The Allies also lost some 180 guns and about 50 standards. As per more recent data, 186 guns (cannons) and 45 standards. The victory was met by sheer amazement and delirium in Paris, where the nation had been teetering on the brink of financial collapse just days earlier. Napoleon wrote to Josephine, "I have beaten the Austro-Russian army commanded by the two emperors. I am a little weary. ... I embrace you." Napoleon's comments in this letter led to the battle's other famous designation, "Battle of the Three Emperors". However, Napoleon was mistaken as Emperor Francis of Austria was not present on the battlefield. Tsar Alexander perhaps best summed up the harsh times for the Allies by stating, "We are babies in the hands of a giant." After hearing the news of Austerlitz, Pitt said of a map of Europe, "Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these ten years."

France and Austria signed a truce on 4 December, and the Treaty of Pressburg, 22 days later, took the latter out of the war. Austria agreed to recognize French territory captured by the treaties of Campo Formio (1797) and Lunéville (1801), cede land to Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden, which were Napoleon's German allies, pay 40 million francs in war indemnities and cede Venice to the Kingdom of Italy. It was a harsh end for Austria, but certainly not a catastrophic peace. The Russian army was allowed to withdraw to its home territory, and the French ensconced themselves in Southern Germany. The Holy Roman Empire was extinguished, 1806 being seen as its final year. Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, a string of German states meant to serve as a buffer between France and Prussia. Prussia saw these and other moves as an affront to its status as the main power of Central Europe, and it went to war with France in 1806.

Rewards

Napoleon's words to his troops after the battle were full of praise: ().

Napoleon wrote to his victorious army on the night of Austerlitz with his customary rhetoric:

The Emperor provided two million golden francs to the higher officers and 200 francs to each soldier, with large pensions for the widows of the fallen, also providing 6,000 francs for the widows of fallen generals. Orphaned children were adopted by Napoleon personally and were allowed to add "Napoleon" to their baptismal and family names. He could afford this, and much else besides, thanks to the return of financial confidence that swept the country as government bonds leaped from 45% to 66% of their face value on the news of victory.

This battle is one of four for which Napoleon never awarded a victory title, the others being Marengo, Jena, and Friedland.

In popular culture

thumb|The Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805 by [[Joseph Swebach-Desfontaines]]

Artists and musicians on the side of France and her conquests expressed their sentiments in the popular and elite art of the time. Prussian music critic E. T. A. Hoffmann, in his famous review of Beethoven's 5th Symphony,

<blockquote>singles out for special abuse a certain Bataille des trois Empereurs, a French battle symphony by Louis Jadin celebrating Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz.</blockquote>

Leo Tolstoy dramatized the battle as the conclusion of Book 3 and Volume 1 of War and Peace, making it a crucial moment in the lives of both Andrei Bolkonsky, who is badly wounded, and of Nikolai Rostov.

Archibald Alison in his History of Europe (1836) offers the first recorded telling of the apocryphal story that when the Allies descended the Pratzen Heights to attack Napoleon's supposedly weak flank,

<blockquote>The marshals who surrounded Napoleon saw the advantage, and eagerly besought him to give the signal for action; but he restrained their ardour ... "when the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him."</blockquote>

In subsequent accounts, this Napoleonic quote would undergo various changes until it became: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

Historical views

thumb|[[Interview Between Napoleon and Francis II after the Battle of Austerlitz|Interview Between Napoleon and Francis II by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1812. Napoleon and Francis I after the Battle of Austerlitz]]

Napoleon did not succeed in defeating the Allied army as thoroughly as he wanted, but historians and enthusiasts alike recognize that the original plan provided a significant victory, comparable to other great tactical battles such as Cannae. Some historians suggest that Napoleon was so successful at Austerlitz that he lost touch with reality, and what used to be French foreign policy became a "personal Napoleonic one" after the battle. In French history, Austerlitz is acknowledged as an impressive military victory, and in the 19th century, when fascination with the First French Empire was at its height, the battle was revered by French authors such as Victor Hugo, who wrote of the "sound of heavy cannons rolling towards Austerlitz" echoing in the "depths of [his] thoughts". In the 2005 bicentennial, however, controversy erupted when neither French President Jacques Chirac nor Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin attended any functions commemorating the battle. On the other hand, some residents of France's overseas departments protested against what they viewed as the "official commemoration of Napoleon", arguing that Austerlitz should not be celebrated since they believed that Napoleon committed genocide against colonial people.

Blažovice
Holubice
Hostěrádky-Rešov
Jiříkovice
Kobylnice
Křenovice
Podolí
Ponětovice
Prace
Sivice
Šlapanice
Slavkov u Brna
Sokolnice
Telnice
Tvarožná
Újezd u Brna
Velatice
Žatčany
Zbýšov

Near Prace is the Cairn of Peace Memorial, claimed to be the first peace memorial in Europe. It was designed and built in the Art Nouveau style by Josef Fanta in 1910–1912. World War I postponed the monument's dedication until 1923. It is high, square, with four female statues symbolizing France, Austria, Russia, and Moravia. Within is a chapel with an ossuary. A nearby small museum commemorates the battle. Every year, the events of the Battle of Austerlitz are commemorated in a ceremony.

thumb|Pyramid of Austerlitz near Utrecht

Other memorials located in the monument zone include, among others:

The Staré Vinohrady height near Zbýšov saw the bloody collision of the French and Russian guards. In 2005, the Monument to the Three Emperors was erected here.
Stará Pošta ("Old Post") in Kovalovice is an original building from 1785, which now serves as a hotel and restaurant. On 28 November 1805, the French cavalry general Murat set up his headquarters here. On the day of the battle, the Russian general Bagration had his headquarters here. After the battle, Napoleon slept in this house and held preliminary negotiations about an armistice. A small museum commemorates these events.
On in Tvarožná is a small white chapel. The hill was a mainstay of the French position and allowed the French artillery to dominate the northern portion of the battlefield. Below the hill, the yearly historical reenactments take place.
On Žuráň Hill, where Napoleon was headquartered, a granite monument depicts the battlefield positions.
Slavkov Castle, where an armistice was signed between Austria and France after the battle on 6 December 1805. There is a small historical museum and a multimedia presentation about the battle.

Several monuments to the battle can be found far beyond the battle area. A notable monument is the Pyramid of Austerlitz, built by French soldiers stationed there to commemorate the 1805 campaign near Utrecht in the Netherlands. In Paris, the 44-metre-high bronze Colonne Vendôme, a celebration of Napoleon, also stands on the Place Vendôme. The monument was initially called the Column of Austerlitz and, according to propaganda, was cast from the melted-down barrels of Allied guns from the Battle of Austerlitz. Several other sites and public buildings commemorate the encounter in Paris, such as Pont d'Austerlitz and nearby Gare d'Austerlitz. A scene from the battle is also depicted on the bas-relief of the eastern pillar of the Arc de Triomphe and Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.

Explanatory notes

Citations

General references

Dupuy, Trevor N. (1990). Understanding Defeat: How to Recover from Loss in Battle to Gain Victory in War. Paragon House. .
Farwell, Byron (2001). The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Land Warfare: An Illustrated World View. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. .
Goetz, Robert. 1805: Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Destruction of the Third Coalition (Greenhill Books, 2005). .
Marbot, Jean-Baptiste Antoine Marcelin. "The Battle of Austerlitz", Napoleon: Symbol for an Age, A Brief History with Documents, ed. Rafe Blaufarb (New York: Bedford/St Martin's, 2008), 122–123.
Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace. London: Penguin Group, 1982.