Battle of Austerlitz

“ His position would have been hopeless if fifty thousand men had not arrived to reinforce him. The battle of Austerlitz—due to a fault of Weyrother—endangered the Russian army anew, since it was so far from its base. ”

“ Soldiers—I am satisfied with you: in the battle of Austerlitz you have justified all that I expected from your intrepidity. You have decorated your eagles with immortal glory. An army of one hundred thousand men, commanded by the Emperors of Russia and Austria, has been in less than four hours either cut in pieces or dispersed. Those who escaped your weapons are drowned in the lakes.
179“Forty colors, the standards of the imperial guard of Russia, one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, more than thirty thousand prisoners, are the result of this ever-celebrated battle. ”

“ Had the left of the allied army observed the enemy's movements during the battle, and reflected upon his intentions; had it taken advantage of the ground, and seized the means which it presented for again concentrating itself, in order to execute a bold manœuvre by the height on which the chapel above Aujest is situated, and which extends quite to Pratzen. Had this been done, the battle might yet have been prolonged, and at least have given a chance that the event of this day would have been less decisive. The offensive movement on the part of the French disconcerted the attack of the allies ”

“ I have seldom seen a finer morning. The fresh crispness of early October ran through the brilliant sunshine. The earth was bathed in light. It was such a sun as I have heard rose on the morning of the great battle of Austerlitz, fought but recently. A light wind blew from the west. The blood bubbled in my veins.
“It’s lucky that so many of us should have such a fine day for leaving the world,” said Whitestone.
The battle, the final struggle for which we [Pg 133] had been looking so long, was at hand. I had not mistaken the preparations in the British camp the night before. ”

“ The horse-guards valiantly attacked, and were closely engaged with the French horse grenadier guards, who, under the command of General Rapp, had arrived to reinforce the enemy's cavalry. From that moment the Russian guards effected their retreat upon Austerlitz, without farther molestation from the French, who remained on the heights in front of Blasowitz. Prince Repnin, a colonel of the horse-guards, was wounded and made prisoner, with some officers of the same corps. The Russian guards suffered severely, but had few taken prisoners. ”

“ Frustrated in the attempt to invade Great Britain, Napoleon instantly conceived the plan of the campaign of Battle of Austerlitz. Austerlitz, and without delay gave orders for the march of his different armies to (p. 511) the banks of the Danube. The army of England on the shores of the Channel, the forces in Holland, and the troops in Hanover were formed into seven corps, under the command of as many marshals, comprising altogether one hundred and ninety thousand men, while the troops of his allies in Italy and Germany amounted to nearly seventy thousand more. ”

“ The fifth column, by Neuwieslitz, followed the march of the third, and was posted in the valley, in front of Marhoefen.
The Reserve, under the Archduke Constantine, marched to Butschowitz; the advanced corps, under Prince Bagration, to Posorsitz; and pushed on its out-posts upon the causeway, and upon Krug. M. de Kienmayer remained at Austerlitz, and was reinforced by the brigade under General Stutterheim. A little affair of out-posts took place that day; the enemy was employed in reconnoitring, and a few cannon shots were ineffectually exchanged. ”

“ To the want of correctness in the information possessed by the allies, as to the enemy's army; to the bad plan of attack, supposing the enemy to have been entrenched in a position which he did not occupy; to the movements executed the day before the attack, and in sight of the enemy, in order to gain the right flank of the French; to the great interval between the columns when they quitted the heights of Pratzen; and to their want of communication with each other. To these causes may be attributed the first misfortunes of the Austro-Russian army. ”

“ The fourth column of the allies abandoned a part of its artillery. The first, second, and third columns, lost the whole of theirs, with the exception of General Kienmayer's corps, which saved its cannon. The guns were entangled in the sloughs, as before mentioned, and the Russian horses, which are more calculated for speed than for draft, could not drag them out of the deep clay, into which they had sunk. The number of the Russian prisoners may be computed at 15,000 men; while their killed and wounded must have been very considerable ”

“ 'Perhaps the most remarkable incident in Modern History,' says Teufelsdröckh, 'is not the Diet of Worms, still less the Battle of Austerlitz, Waterloo, Peterloo, or any other Battle; but an incident passed carelessly over by most Historians, and treated with some degree of ridicule by others: namely, George Fox's making to himself a suit of Leather. ”

“ Between Aujest and Tellnitz is a considerable plain, on which some squadrons of hussars were advanced, between seven and eight o'clock, to reconnoitre the enemy. On a hill, in front of the village, were posted several companies of infantry, who defended its approach, while some detachments of cavalry were on the right, having the lake of Menitz as their appuy.
M. de Kienmayer ordered a detachment of cavalry to advance against their right, and a Battalion [12] of the first regiment of Szeckler infantry to attack the hill on which the French infantry was posted. ”

“ No computation has been made in this work, as to the loss of the two armies, at the battle of Austerlitz. It is impossible for any one, though actually bearing a part in the action, to calculate with any degree of accuracy the number of killed and wounded on each side. ”

“ General Kienmayer marched upon Austerlitz, which the enemy had evacuated at ten o'clock, [8] on the morning of the 29th; and General Stutterheim arrived at Butschowitz, from whence he kept up the communication by Stanitz, with a detachment under Lieutenant Colonel Scheither, who had driven the enemy's detachments from Gaja. The French army concentrated its forces, the same day, between Turas and Brunn: it occupied the villages of Menitz, Tellnitz, Sokolnitz, Kobelnitz, and Schlapanitz, which covered its front, and placed its out-posts at Aujest, on the heights of Girshikowitz, and near Krug. ”

“ The few Austrian troops there yet remained were not collected on one point; but, as we have seen, conducted themselves every where with constancy and animation. The sixth Battalions of the regiments of Wurtemberg and Reuss-Graitz were the only corps that were in confusion at the time when the fourth column was defeated. The Russians, at the commencement, fought with intrepidity, and the guards and Hulans distinguished themselves for their courage. The French infantry manœuvred with coolness and precision, fought with courage, and executed its bold movements with admirable concert. ”

“ The present state of Europe affords ample scope to the reflections of the statesman. For, though the soldier may account for the loss of a battle, by reasoning on what was done, and what was left undone, the subjugation of states is to be looked for in causes far remote from the scene of action. These are times which not only require superiority of intellect in those who govern, but the conviction on the part of the governed, that they are not mere spectators of the fray; that it is not a mere squabble for power ”

“ At the battle of Austerlitz, if defeated, he had resolved to adopt a line of operations through Bohemia on Passau or Ratisbon, which would have opened a new and rich country to him, instead of returning by Vienna, which route lay through an exhausted country and from which the Archduke Charles was endeavoring to cut him off. ”

“ On the 2nd December, 1805, that great day when "the sun of Austerlitz arose," and eighty thousand Frenchmen, flushed by rapid conquests, by the capitulation of Ulm, and the recent capture of Vienna, met the Austro-Russian army in one of the bloodiest battles on record—a battle, which, as General Rapp has it, "was a veritable butchery, where we fought man to man, and so mingled together, that the infantry on either side dared not fire lest they should kill their own men"—the star of Napoleon bore all before it ”

“ Note by a French officer.—This disposition, of which the Austrian officer makes mention, and which is accurate, shews that the emperor had foreseen, that the enemy might manœuvre on the line of operation from Olmutz, along the March; in this case, the Russian army must pass at Shadish, whence it was farther distant than Marshal Soult, who had some infantry at Gaja, and detachments of cavalry, observing all the route, necessary to this movement.
Whenever the enemy's movement had been known, they would have been allowed to advance. ”

“ After the French had occupied Aujest, the centre and rear of the first column, which was so very strong, fell back under the orders of Lieut.-general Dochtorow, upon the plain between Tellnitz and the lake. This infantry was collected, but not in good order. Lieut.-general Dochtorow succeeded for a moment in re-establishing order, after which he considered only how to effect his retreat. This was very difficult in the execution, and could only be effected across a very narrow dike between the lakes, on which it was not possible to march more than two men in front. ”

“ Note by a French officer.—A general, whose movements are not so combined as to enable him to oppose another manœuvre to that of his enemy, whatever it may be, is a general devoid of talent, and ignorant of the art of war.
If the Russians had assumed the offensive at Wischau, it would have been previous to the arrival of the corps under the Grand Duke Constantine, which would have weakened their army by 10,000 chosen men. ”

“ At the time of the junction of the two Russian armies near Wischau, they had only opposed to them, the corps of Prince Murat, part of which formed the advanced guard, those of Marshals Soult and Lannes, the imperial guards, under Marshal Bessiéres, and a corps of grenadiers, drawn from these different troops, forming a reserve of 15,000 men, under General Duroc. This army, when near Brunn, was composed of eight divisions, each of which was about 7000 strong. ”

“ Here, as in the position, in front of Olmutz, the army was posted on a curtain, behind which massive columns might be posted, ready to act offensively. Its left was secured by the lakes of Menitz and Aujest, while the right was refused. But the taking advantage of this position was never thought of, any more than the possibility of being attacked on these heights, or of finding the enemy on this side the defile. The French emperor took advantage, in a masterly manner, of the faults that were committed. He kept his troops concentrated in massive columns, ready to act according to circumstances. ”