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Battle of Znaim
Part of the War of the Fifth Coalition
Date10–11 July 1809
Location
Znojmo, South Moravian Region
Result Armistice
Belligerents
Austrian Empire Austrian Empire France First French Empire
Commanders and leaders
Archduke Charles of Austria
Strength
40,000[1]–47,000
  • 10,000 initially
  • Reinforced to 30,000
Casualties and losses
5,300 3,100

Following defeat at the Battle of Wagram, Archduke Charles retreated north into Bohemia hoping to regroup his battered forces. The French army had also suffered in the battle and did not give immediate pursuit. But two days after the battle, Napoleon ordered his troops north intending to defeat the Austrians once and for all. The French eventually caught up the Austrians at Znaim (now Znojmo, Czech Republic) on 10 July 1809. Realising they were in no position to give battle, the Austrians proposed a ceasefire as Archduke Charles went to begin peace negotiations with Napoleon. However, Marshal Auguste de Marmont refused to observe the ceasefire and committed his XI Corps of around 10,000 men into battle. With Marmont greatly outnumbered, André Masséna had no choice but to support him. By 11 July, Masséna's corps had joined Marmont's in battle but the Austrians had also reinforced their position around Znaim. After two days of futile fighting, with both sides suffering similar casualties and neither side gaining any advantage, Napoleon finally arrived with news of an armistice and ordered Marmont to end the battle. The Battle of Znaim was the last action between Austria and France in the war.

Background

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Context

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The strategic situation in Europe in 1809

In 1809, the First French Empire, ruled by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, held a dominant position on the European continent. Resounding victories during the 1805 to 1807 wars had ensured almost undisputed continental hegemony. However, Napoleon did not manage to make peace with Britain after the Treaty of Amiens collapsed in 1803. With the British in control of the seas, Napoleon opted for an economic war, imposing the Continental System in a bid to dry up British commercial relations with the continent. To ensure the effectiveness of the Continental System, he sought to force Portugal, a traditional British trading partner, to observe it; when diplomatic means failed in 1808, Napoleon had the country occupied. Napoleon also opted to change the ruling dynasty of Spain, replacing King Charles IV with his own brother, Joseph, which triggered a bloody war throughout the country.[2][3] The French position in the Iberian peninsula was rendered more difficult after their defeat at Battle of Bailen.[4] Napoleon was driven to intervene personally and commit significant forces to Spain; the French military position in central Europe was correspondingly weakened.[2]

France's main adversary in central Europe was the Austrian Empire, ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. Defeated in 1805 and forced to conclude the humiliating Peace of Pressburg, Austria still possessed a formidable army. Encouraged by Napoleon's Iberian difficulties, British subsidies and the promise of a British military intervention in northern Europe, the Austrians decided that the situation offered them an opportunity to retake provinces lost in 1805. By 1809 Austria had managed to reform its military and build a relatively modern and well trained army, which it placed in the hands of their best commander, Archduke Charles, brother of Emperor Francis I.[5]

Opening campaign

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By March 1809, it was clear that war between Austria and France was imminent and the Habsburg army, 200,000 men strong, massed in western Austria.[6][7]

Opening moves: strategic situation on 15 April

On 9 April 1809, without any declaration of war, the main Austrian army crossed the Inn River into Bavaria, one of France's main allies, while secondary Austrian armies launched offensives of their own[8] On 17 April Napoleon arrived in person and began concentrating his available troops to meet the Austrian onslaught. The Austrians coming off worse in several battles, but Charles succeeded in avoiding a decisive defeat, preserving a combat-ready army which he directed north of the Danube to await Napoleon's next move.[8]

Battles of Eckmühl and Ratisbon

The French occupied Vienna, the Austrian capital, on 12 May, to find the city's bridges over the Danube blown up. Charles brought the bulk of his remaining force on the northern bank of the river, close to Vienna, which lured Napoleon into attacking them right away, crossing the river on fragile, hastily built pontoon bridges. This resulted in the Battle of Aspern-Essling, on 21–22 May. The Austrian army concentrated against just the French advance guard as Napoleon slowly pushed troops across the bridges. Charles's attempt to drive this French failed as the French led a skilful combined-arms defence. On the 22nd the main bridge broke, cutting off reinforcements and supplies of ammunition. The French retreated with difficulty the island of Lobau in the Danbue. Napoleon had suffered the first significant defeat of his career.[9][10][11] The battle was costly for both sides, resulting in some 53,000 casualties, almost equally divided between the two armies.[12]

Prelude

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Towards another battle

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A triumphant Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen led the Austrians to victory at the Battle of Aspern-Essling.

In the weeks following the battle, Archduke Charles became increasingly skeptical about his chances of winning the war. His analysis of the battle was that he had been unable to capitalise on his overwhelming numerical superiority and had thus failed to achieve more than a tactical victory.[13][14][Note 1] Charles also felt that none of the strategic prerequisites for an Austrian victory in the war had materialised. He came to believe that his country's best option was to open negotiations with Napoleon but, despite his warning that "the first battle lost is a death sentence for the monarchy", his brother, Emperor Francis repeatedly refused to consider the option.[15]

Archduke Charles did make considerable efforts to rebuild his army and, despite the slow arrival of reinforcements, by the end of June, it was close to full strength again. Overall, Archduke Charles was well aware that he did not possess the means necessary to carry out any offensive actions.[16] By the end of June, Archduke Charles was still hoping that Napoleon might opt to negotiate, a misapprehension that the latter encouraged through a series of ruses. In the event that a battle would indeed occur, Charles planned to remain on the defensive and thus his actions depended on the moves of the enemy. A member of the House of Habsburg, Archduke Charles saw the army as an invaluable tool, meant to protect the existence of the Monarchy. He was thus a cautious commander, never willing to risk it all in order to obtain a decisive victory.[17]

Napoleon reckoned that he would need careful planning and superior forces, before he could attempt another crossing of the Danube. In order to achieve that, he needed to secure his island-base at Lobau.[18]

Pursuit

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By nightfall on 6 July, the Austrians, still capable of action, had broken contact with their pursuers and Charles had managed to reestablish a cohesive front. The remarkable combat-worthiness shown during the evening fighting left Napoleon wondering whether the Austrians would actually renew battle the next day. The Emperor rose early on 7 July and reconnoitred the battlefield in person, noting the huge losses in men on both sides and seeing that the Austrians had withdrawn. The French resumed their pursuit towards 14:00, as the extreme exhaustion of the army prevented an early start. Their artillery had fired somewhere between 90,000 and 100,000 rounds during the battle, which left the caissons empty and it took some time before they could be refilled.[19] Among the rank and file, there were even instances of severe breakdown in troop discipline, as the army moved through county packed with vines and wine cellars. When an incensed Oudinot, sabre in hand, tried to restore discipline among a group of drunken cavalrymen from his army corps, he was almost attacked by his own men.[20] Pursuit was further complicated by the absence of reliable information about the exact direction of the Austrian retreat. Contradictory intelligence collected by the various Corps confusingly stated that the Austrians were retreating either towards to Brünn or to Znaim and other reports were actually indicating a retreat towards Moravia. The French tried to close the gap through sustained march. Spearheading the pursuit were the army corps of Masséna to the west, Marmont in the centre and Davout to the east, while the "Army of Italy" was detailed to keep an eye on Archduke John's army.[21][22]

The Austrians were actually retreating towards Znaim in Bohemia. The Austrian army had suffered greatly during the Battle of Wagram and had to leave behind their wounded, but did make off with thousands of French prisoners, a couple of dozen guns and a few eagles. Making good use of night marches, Archduke Charles had the bulk of his forces assembled at Korneuburg on 7 July.[23] Charles and his senior commanders had considered various plans to continue the campaign, but in the end, Charles was not positioning his army for a continuation of the campaign. The Austrian commander's view well before the Battle of Wagram had been that Austria's best option was to make peace and, in order to achieve that, the Empire needed to have a large, battle-worthy army, which they could use as leverage during the peace talks. Between 9 and 12 August, the French from Eugène's "Army of Italy" clashed with Archduke John's forces in a series of skirmishes and pushed them back into Hungary, while Masséna caught up with and fought the Austrian rearguard in several actions, most notable of which was the one at Hollabrunn. By now, Napoleon had largely understood Charles's intentions and manoeuvred against them. Marmont and his small XI Corps was the first to engage the Austrian army at the Battle of Znaim and was momentarily largely outnumbered. His 10,000 men faced some 60,000 massed enemy troops, but, in the typical style of Napoleonic warfare, Marmont decided to attack in order to pin down the enemy. He could reasonably expect to be reinforced soon and at 22:00, Napoleon arrived with reinforcements. The battle raged on the next day, with some bloody fighting going on around Znaim. The Austrians took heavy casualties, some 6,200 men, during the battle and, as time passed, the French force was set to be augmented to some 84,000 men, following the imminent arrival of Davout and Oudinot. Recognising the futility of another battle, Charles decided to ask for an armistice. He did so on his own responsibility, as he did not have permission to do so from Emperor Francis I. Ignoring the advice of his senior commanders – Maréchal Berthier was vocal in advising the continuation of hostilities and destruction of the Austrian Empire – Napoleon accepted. The Armistice of Znaim marked the end of the active phase of the 1809 war between France and Austria.[24][25][26]

Prelude

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The immediate cause of the two-day Battle of Znaim was the decision of the Austrian commander in chief, Archduke Charles, to stage a rearguard action near the town of Znaim, about 80 kilometers north of Vienna, in order to give his army time to withdraw its baggage train in safety toward Moravia. Marmont’s two combined French and Bavarian corps were the first of Napoleon’s troops to arrive on the field following the course of the river Thaya. Believing that he faced only a rear guard, Marmont ordered his Bavarian troops to take the village of Tesswitz south of Znaim, while the rest of his troops attacked the village of Zuckerhandl.[27]

Battle

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The Bavarians succeeded in storming Tesswitz but were then thrown out by Austrian reinforcements. Marmont renewed the Bavarian attack, and Tesswitz was retaken, only to be lost soon after. The village changed hands a number of times during the day, this contest constituting the heaviest fighting the Bavarians saw in the whole campaign. Marmont had hoped to swing his cavalry in behind the Austrian rear guard, but on reaching high ground above Tesswitz, they were faced with five enemy corps. The French cavalry was forced to withdraw in the face of a large body of Austrian cuirassiers.[1]

Marmont was now engaged by 40,000 Austrian troops and was heavily outnumbered. His men nevertheless managed to hold on to both Tesswitz and Zuckerhandl overnight. Archduke Charles withdrew his forces into a strong defensive position situated so as to hold the north bank of the Thaya and Znaim. Napoleon arrived at Tesswitz at 10:00 A.M., and despite the fact that he had brought with him reinforcements of cavalry and artillery, he believed that his force was too weak to launch a full-scale attack. His plan therefore was to employ Masséna’s corps to pin the Austrians throughout the day and to await the corps of marshals Louis-Nicolas Davout and Nicolas Oudinot, which would be able to arrive early on the twelfth. Masséna launched his attack on the extreme right of the Austrian position during midmorning and quickly seized the main bridge across the Thaya south of Znaim. His troops took two small villages and then advanced directly on Znaim. Charles meanwhile reinforced the Austrian position with two grenadier brigades, which advanced during a thunderstorm and initially threw the French back.[1]

The situation was stabilized by a body of French cavalry at approximately 7:00 P.M., when French and Austrian staff officers rode along the opposing lines announcing a cease-fire, which led to the signature of an armistice on the twelfth. Znaim was to prove the last action of the 1809 campaign. The two sides signed a treaty of peace at the Schönbrunn Palace on 14 October.[1]

Citations and sources

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b c d Ralph Baker in The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars by Gregory Fremont-Barnes (main editor) (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006) 1112.
  2. ^ a b Castle 7.
  3. ^ Rothenberg 39–61.
  4. ^ Chandler, p. 663.
  5. ^ Chandler, p. 665-666.
  6. ^ Rothenberg 62–63.
  7. ^ Fierro, Palluel-Guillard, Tulard 131–137 and 586.
  8. ^ a b Rothenberg 65–82.
  9. ^ Rothenberg 85–129.
  10. ^ Castle 29–55.
  11. ^ Fierro, Palluel-Guillard, Tulard 138–139 and 586.
  12. ^ Rothenberg 127
  13. ^ Rothenberg 127–129.
  14. ^ Castle 54–55.
  15. ^ Rothenberg 145.
  16. ^ Rothenberg 143–147.
  17. ^ Rothenberg 144–145.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference Roth131-143 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Rothenberg 204–206.
  20. ^ Arnold 170.
  21. ^ Naulet 77.
  22. ^ Rothenberg 206–207.
  23. ^ Rothenberg 207.
  24. ^ Rothenberg 207–210.
  25. ^ Castle 90.
  26. ^ Naulet 76–77.
  27. ^ Ralph Baker in The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars by Gregory Fremont-Barnes (main editor) (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006) 1111-1112.

Sources

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  • Chandler, David (1998). Napoleon's Marshals. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 9780297842750.
  • Gill, John H. (2010). 1809: Thunder on the Danube: Napoleon's defeat of the Habsburgs. Vol. III Wagram and Znaim. London: Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1-84832-547-0.
  • Rothenberg, Gunther Erich (1976). The Army of Francis Joseph. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press. ISBN 9780911198416.
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