Napoleon’s greatest work: Battle of Austerlitz
The muskets were firing and the soldiers were yelling. The boom of cannons and screams of pain from troops from both sides sounded across the battlefield. But the violence kept going, and suddenly, the bugle sang the song of war and the sound of hooves thudding against the dirt could be heard for miles. The French were making their attack. The sound of swishing sabres impaling human flesh and the screams of pain came next and the infantry began moving in. They were to charge up the hills with bayonets fixed, straight into the under-defended Russo-Austrian line. Rippling through the lines of the enemy came chaotic sounds of panic, and the Russo-Austrians began to waver as morale dropped.
French soldiers moved north of the main Russo-Austrian force in a flanking maneuver (encircling attack), and they turned southeast to execute their plan. The Russo-Austrians saw the great danger they were in and retreated southward, over the not-totally frozen pond where many died when trying to run over the ice, was shattered by artillery strikes. This was not just any battle in standard military history; this was the battle of Austerlitz, the greatest victory of the French Emperor, vanquishing at low odds the Russo-Austrians. You may ask: “Who was this French Emperor? Didn’t he lose at Waterloo?” My friend, let me introduce you to one of history’s most glorious and influential military leaders: Napoleon Bonaparte.
People know Napoleon as the one who lost at Waterloo, like how Washington was the one who won at Yorktown. No one looks at the 50 or so other battles Napoleon won or the seven battles Washington lost. It is always the last battle that has the everlasting impact in people’s minds. Therefore, to the general (non-French) public, Napoleon is a loser general because of his defeat at Waterloo. However, many people refuse to look deeper into any other of Napoleon’s works to find out that he was a military genius of caliber higher than Julius Caesar. One such example of his genius was the Battle of Austerlitz. The Battle of Austerlitz best exemplifies Napoleon’s great leadership and his military techniques that set him apart from other commanders of his time.
First, let us explore the early life of our hero. Napoleon Bonaparte was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica in 1769. During his childhood, Napoleon was deeply interested in the military careers of other great leaders such as Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Hannibal. He later went into the military academy in France. Almost as soon as he graduated, Napoleon joined the army in an artillery regiment. A few years later, in 1789, the French Revolution started and the French First Republic was born. This Republic was built from radical ideas about the human as a creature with natural born rights and the uselessness of an absolute monarchy interfering with these rights. When Corsica had been taken by the Bourbon Absolute Monarchy in 1768, Corsicans were not pleased, due to the liberties that were restricted by the king. The French First Republic promised greater amounts of civil liberties to all people within France, and Corsica, an administrative region of France.
By receiving more civil liberties, Corsicans could have a greater ability to represent themselves. Napoleon was a strong advocate for Corsican Nationalism (he wanted Corsica to have more representatives in French government) and he supported the First French Republic during its beginning, despite the brutality of its leader Maximilien Robespierre and his execution of anyone for the smallest of all offences. Overall, 17,000 people were executed during the Reign of Terror (1794).
Two wars (Seven Years War, 1756-1763, and American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783) had starved the French peasantry to their breaking point, and the First French Republic was born out of French desire for more liberties, but also to counteract the poor’s starving situation. However, other nations, Britain, Spain, Austria, Prussia and others, concerned at the idea of spreading these radical ideas, of Liberté, égalité, fraternité, began preparing for war.
Napoleon was unknown to many until he took back the key port of Toulon from the British in its namesake siege in 1793. He was only 24 years old at the time and was promoted to brigadier general for his victory. This promotion began Napoleon’s ascension to power as French Emperor and the beginning of the transition from the French Revolutionary Wars to the Napoleonic Wars. Although the French First Republic had drafted a constitution, the constitution became secondary to Robespierre’s ever-growing policies of brutality and terror. The French First Republic, having such promise, inspired perhaps by what was happening across the Atlantic, was now promoting terror as government policy. When Robespierre was executed by the government he created, he gave way to a power vacuum.
The French Revolution changed forever what nationalism meant for the French. Rather than fealty to a monarch, the Republic was founded upon Liberté, égalité, fraternité. However, as French nationalism and anti-monarchy ideas began to spread, other nations were eager to contain it, such as Austria and Prussia, who wanted to restore the recently-deposed king, Louis XVI, back to the throne. The Austro-Prussian army immediately began an invasion of France, at the Austrian Netherlands border (modern-day Belgium). Austria and Prussia both promised to reinstate King Louis XVI back on the throne, which freaked out the French public, adjusting as they were to their new constitution. The First French Republic ordered a conscription law (drafting soldiers) and sent troops to the border, to fight the invasion.
What factor put Napoleon apart from other commanders of the time, given that France had the same weapons as everyone else? Well, Napoleon had the big picture gift – he was a natural leader as he considered the long-term effects of his military strategy, this is what formed his reputation and established his supremacy. Napoleon had also created a new system of organizing his troops.
He divided his army up into divisions that he called Corps. These Corps were controlled by Marshals and often moved independently from each other. One Corps could be refuelling supplies in a city while another could be marching into battle. One Corps could be resting while another could be sending aid. Since the Corps could all go into villages and towns nearby to look for and plunder supplies in conquered villages, there was no need for long and slow wagon trains to supply the army. Without wagon trains, La Grande Armeé was renowned for moving at a speed previously unknown to other armies around Europe, and surprising many. Napoleon also set up numerous artillery batteries (artillery are large-caliber guns, very heavy, such as cannons, mortars, howitzers, etc) within the Corps, knowing that having good artillery meant that it was easier to cut down enemies especially when they were in large numbers and marched slowly into battle. Cavalry (mounted warriors) were included inside the Corps because it was important for speedy charges into the enemy, therefore routing the enemy infantry. Napoleon, for his part, was often seen with an elite Corps called the Imperial Guard, the most powerful infantry in Europe, divided into Old Guards and Young Guards.
The rest of Europe had been brutally humiliated by their inability to defeat the French army, despite having the numerical advantage. Indeed, the land powers of Europe remained ineffective against Napoleon. Austria (then a massive empire that spanned from modern-day Austria to Romania) was humiliated twice by Napoleon himself, most significantly at the Battle of Marengo in July of 1800. Russia’s invasion had been halted in Switzerland by Andre Massena, in 1802, and the Dutch Republic had fallen into a French puppet state called the Batavian Republic.
On December 2, 1804, Napoleon was crowned Emperor, and it was time for Britain, Austria and Russia to rise up. Austria and Russia would march gloriously in the same marching style they had done before, in large and easy-to-pick-off formations moving slowly to the battlefield. The Russo-Austrian forces were led by Russian General Mikhail Kutuzov and Austrian General Mack von Leiberich, and both armies were to face Napoleon. Mack was silently defeated and surrendered at Ulm in October of 1805 while Mikhail Kutuzov retreated to an area in modern day Czech Republic in December of 1805 known as the Pratzen Heights, right outside of the town of Austerlitz.
Kutuzov chose the Pratzen Heights because they could give him a better lookout over Napoleon’s positions.
He stood over the battlefield that he chose to fight his enemy: the Pratzen Heights. Having retreated from Germany to Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic), he was eager to let his troops rest before the French arrived. Raising the telescope to his only good eye, Mikhail Kutuzov saw that there was a deficiency of support in Napoleon’s right flank. Kutuzov looked at his senior officers and shared his plan: to attack Napoleon’s weak right and encircle the La Grande Armeé for a quick victory. He passed the orders to his commanders and said “Скажите это своим войскам и без исключений”.
With his telescope, Kutuzov saw the pale French troops straining under heavy gear wearing blue so bright that he may as well have had two working eyes. Kutuzov was amused at the bright colors that French nationalism sported, but one look at his own soldiers and their bright green uniforms drove his mind to think the contrary: anti-amusement. Kutuzov then recalled the reason they were in Bohemia and feared suffering a humiliation similar to his colleague Mack a few months back. A gentle breeze swept across his tired and weary face and he relaxed, knowing he faced an army with numbers inferior to his own.
Meanwhile, the leader of Kutuzov’s advance guard (division of troop that makes attacks before the main army arrives), the General of the Infantry, Prince Pyotr Bagration, was impatient. He was forty, Georgian, and eager to push the pursuing French back to their homes. However, Kutuzov had put a time restriction on the order, and any disobedience would result in his expulsion from the top office. Prince Bagration’s infantry consisted of a mix of Austrians and Russians, and the need for translation would involve going to the Prince of Liechtenstein, Johann I Joseph; this could delay Kutuzov’s orders from going to all his troops. But, in time, the Prince advanced his troops at the right moment, despite the disadvantages.
Through observation, Kutuzov saw Napoleon’s right wing was rather under-defended, and so he planned for an assault on the right wing. Once the Russo-Austrian forces could break the right wing with his superior force, he could encircle the main force and win a quick and decisive victory. However, Napoleon had relied on his weak right flank to draw in the Russo-Austrian army, expecting his youngest (and iron-willed) Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout to arrive with Third Corps to shore up the weakness. The plan was that the combined force would charge the enemy with the rest of his army at the center.
Napoleon’s forward-thinking capability of luring the enemy in was one part of why this battle was such a devastating blow on the Third Coalition’s morale. The reason Napoleon used this weaker right flank was because he knew that the Russians would take the bait, and that Davout would arrive in time to shore up any breaches, preventing the Russo-Austrians from turning towards the main French force. Therefore, he could concentrate his main attack on the now exposed Allied positions at Pratzen Heights.
Davout’s Third Corps was all the French needed to prevent the Russians from breaking through the French right flank. Napoleon then immediately began his march to the Pratzen Heights in an attempt to cut off the Russo-Austrian retreat.
The Russo-Austrian troops turned and saw Napoleon’s main force behind them and began to run, turning southwards as all other ways of retreat were blocked. They screamed blasphemies at the French troops as a salvo of cannonballs could be seen hurtling from the top of the hill to the frozen body of water. For the troops on the lake’s icy surface, the salvo would be the last rain shower they would ever see before their lives were greeted by the warm welcome of death. The French troops yelled out their victory, as they were too tired to chase the enemy down.
Napoleon’s plan proved successful. Once the French made their attack to the now weakened Russian positions on the Pratzen Heights, the Russo-Austrian armies realized that all was lost and they had no choice but to retreat. However, the French had turned southeast to cut off the Russo-Austrian’s retreat, meaning that the only way remaining was through or over the freezing body of water. Many Russo-Austrian troops drowned in the frozen lake, unable to swim with all the equipment. La Grande Armeé, excluding Davout’s reinforcements, boasted a force consisting of 68,000 troops, a clear majority advantage to General Mikhail Kutuzov.
Napoleon fought a battle in which he held the disadvantage (68,000 French troops to 95,000 Russo-Austrian), but inflicted four times the casualties on the Allies than La Grande Armeé suffered (9,000 French to 36,000 Russo-Austrian).
Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz was in the same league as Alexander the Great’s decisive blow to the Persians at Gaugamela and Hannibal’s destruction of an entire Roman army at Cannae. Napoleon had about two thirds of the men that Kutuzov did, but still managed to beat him, inflicting four times the casualties on the Russo-Austrian army than his own.
Austerlitz was the best example of Napoleon’s genius. It saw Napoleon take a very risky strategy and resulted in one of the most decisive victories of war history, ensuring French military dominance throughout Europe (until Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia against Mikhail Kutuzov in 1812).
This battle occurred on December 2, 1805. Does the date seem perfect to you? It was fought exactly a year after Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France.