Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Eagles of Europe (36 page)

With the threat posed by the lancers removed, Kellermann’s men returned to their position in front of the infantry. But before they were all in place, Liechtenstein’s three remaining Russian cavalry regiments were now formed and General Leitenant Uvarov led forward the Elisavetgrad Hussars and Kharkov Dragoons, holding the Chernigov Dragoons in reserve. The Russian attack caught the French 4ème Hussards and inflicted numerous casualties before the other three regiments of Kellermann’s division swarmed forward hacking and slashing all around the Russians. Then a brigade from Walther’s dragoon division, commanded by GB Sébastiani, swung into the mêlée, causing complete confusion in the Russian ranks, forcing them to extricate themselves as best they could and fall back on the Chernigov Dragoons, but losing a number of men as prisoners.

Kellermann and Sébastiani also pulled back to reform. While both sides prepared to resume the cavalry contest, Bagration, following his orders to secure the high ground flanking the Brünn-Olmütz road – the Santon – began his attack. Far out on the right flank the 5. Jäger advanced rapidly towards Siwitz, supported by the Mariupol Hussars and a detachment of Cossacks. The
jäger
drove back the French outposts, but as they drew closer to the Santon, the captured Austrian guns placed on the summit opened on them. The
jäger
, with the Cossacks following, turned into the village of Bosenitz and pushed out the surprised occupants. There does not appear to have been any serious attempt to defend the village, with the Austrian history of the campaign describing the French encountered in the village merely as ‘a mob of marauders’.

However, between the village and the Santon the 1/17ème Légère were drawn up. The
jäger
and five squadrons of Mariupol Hussars pressed forward forcing this battalion to fall back and defend itself against a number of determined cavalry attacks. But as it drew closer to the Santon, the artillery again belched forth and the 2/17ème Légère added to the weight of fire falling
on the Russian attack. Against this volume of fire the advance stalled and then the mixed force began to retire back on Bosenitz. Sensing the moment had arrived, the 2/17ème Légère descended from the Santon and pressed towards the village. The attack by 5. Jäger had failed, and far from support, they withdrew through Bosenitz with the 17ème Légère swiftly reclaiming the village. The Mariupol Hussars did their best to protect the retreating
jäger
and Cossacks from the menace presented by the cavalry of Treillard and Milhaud, but eventually they were driven off and the threat to the French left completely removed.

While the battle for Bosenitz was being fought, the main cavalry contest resumed. A confusing series of charges and counter-charges followed, in which all Liechtenstein’s Russian cavalry – as well as Bagration’s horsemen – engaged Kellermann’s and Walther’s divisions. Podpolkovnik Ermolov, an eyewitness, watched this passage of the battle unfold but recorded that the situation was ‘so strange that I could not form any connection between the different incidents’.
²⁷
Regiments attacked, fell back, regrouped and charged again. But as Ermolov observed, ‘In our cavalry, as in the rest of the army, the majority of actions were uncoordinated, without any consideration of support.’
²⁸

On the French side the attacks were far more unified, with cavalry, infantry and artillery all working in support of one another. In an attempt to bring an end to the constant stinging Allied cavalry attacks, Murat ordered forward his heavy cavalry: the
cuirassier
and
carabinier
regiments of Nansouty and d’Hautpoul. As these two divisions moved into position south of Caffarelli’s infantry, Kellermann and Walther, with Murat in person, attacked the Russian cavalry again. And again the fighting was inconclusive: but with both sides tiring, the French began to pull back once more to reform, at which point Murat ordered forward Nansouty’s division with d’Hautpoul in support. The timing was perfect, and leading with his two
carabinier
regiments, Nansouty smashed into the leading Russian unit, the Tver Dragoons. Against these fresh troops the dragoons crumbled and fell back, but the
carabiniers
continued and attacked Uvarov’s Elisavetgrad Hussars and Chernigov Dragoons. Nansouty’s second line – 2ème and 3ème Cuirassier – quickly joined in the mêlée and together they drove Uvarov’s men back once more.

Nansouty now retired to reform his men behind Caffarelli’s infantry, but as he did so a part of 3ème Cuirassier experienced some difficulty extricating itself from the Russian hussars. Taking advantage of this confusion, a Russian cavalry regiment attacked the 13ème Légère, holding the right-hand end of Caffarelli’s line. However, the two battalions received the charge in line and blasted the Russian horseman at close-range. Then, as Nansouty reappeared, they galloped off to the protection of their own lines. The Russian cavalry facing Lannes and Murat was now seriously weakened, worn down by rising casualties and the constant uncoordinated efforts to stem the French tide.

Some time after 10.30, as the urgency of the Russian cavalry attacks waned, Lannes could see that Vandamme was pressing forward on the Pratzen Plateau and so ordered Caffarelli to recapture Blasowitz from the Russian Guard Jäger. He sent forward the 13ème Légère, with four companies leading the way as skirmishers, supported by 51ème Ligne. The Guard Jäger waited until the French moved into range and then opened a steady fire on them, which they were unable to penetrate. The French then attacked with the 1/13ème Légère, but as they pressed closer, Colonel Castex, commander of the regiment, fell dead and again the attack faltered. Finally, when the 2/13ème Légère joined the attack, the
jäger
were overwhelmed and poured back on the main body of the Guard, coming under fire from the 2/51ème Ligne as they retreated. The battalion of Semeyonovsk Guards, formed behind Blasowitz supporting the
jäger
, quickly attracted the attention of Caffarelli’s victorious men and was forced back too.

While this attack had developed, Rivaud’s division appeared to be ready to advance from Jirzikowitz, presenting a new threat to the flank of IV Column, already under great pressure on the plateau. In an effort to prevent this, Liechtenstein ordered Hohenlohe to take the Austrian 1. Kaiser-Kürassiere and 5. Nassau-Kürassiere over to a position south-east of Blasowitz to support 7. Lotheringen-Kürassiere. Then, with their brigade commander, Generalmajor Caramelli, at their head, the 7. Lotheringen charged towards Rivaud’s infantry. Caramelli’s horse was shot from under him during the advance, but the attack served its purpose, as it checked Rivaud’s movement for a while. The Austrian cavalry launched other spoiling attacks on Rivaud’s men, in an effort to keep them from entering the fray, but the horsemen soon attracted artillery fire from Vandamme on the Pratzen Plateau and were forced back out of range.

Up on the plateau, above the cavalry battles, Vandamme’s assault continued to meet with success. After destroying Miloradovich’s first line, Vandamme pressed on towards a second line formed by the Austrian brigade, anchored on the high point of Staré Vinohrady. Originally ascribed to GM Rottermund, the brigade was now commanded by Oberst Sterndahl of IR23 Salzburg. Rottermund in fact disappears from the accounts of the fighting on the plateau and may have been directed to command the troops attacking the Pratzeberg following Jurczik’s wounding early on, while Kolowrat remained with Sterndahl on Staré Vinohrady. The main strength of this force was found in Sterndahl’s six battalions of IR23 Salzburg, backed up by a battalion each from IR20 and IR24. While Miloradovich fought his losing battle with the attacking French, the Austrians completed their arrangements, forming their men in two lines with IR23 to the front.

Vandamme initially sent Schiner’s single regiment brigade against the Austrian position, while his other brigades reformed. The two battalions of 24ème Légère broke down into skirmishers and swarmed towards the solid
line formed by IR23, attempting to work around the flanks and disrupt the formation. However, even as the Austrians first took up their position, it appears the grenadier battalion, led by Oberstleutnant Hubler, pushed ahead of the rest of IR23 on the right, and became embroiled in a bayonet attack against Vandamme’s men during their initial advance on Miloradovich’s line. They succeeded in driving the French back but were attacked in turn by cavalry, probably from Boyé’s brigade attached to IV Corps. The grenadiers, without support, suffered and it seems they lost a number of men as prisoners, led off towards Blasowitz. Despite the grenadiers’ losses and mounting casualties in the firefight with 24ème Légère, the Austrian regiment, which started the battle with about 2,800 men, stood its ground. The powerful controlled volleys it poured back at the French kept their attackers at a respectful distance. After half an hour of these exchanges Vandamme pulled the 24ème Légère back – or IR23 pushed them – and prepared to make a concerted assault on the position.

Vandamme placed Ferey’s brigade (4ème and 28ème Ligne) in the centre of his line, regrouping the 24ème Légère on the left and placing the 55ème Ligne from Varé’s supporting brigade on the right. Varé’s other regiment, the 43ème Ligne, remained close to Pratze, forming the link with Saint-Hilaire and Candras’ brigade, which was still reforming after the battle with Miloradovich’s men. In all, Vandamme ordered about 6,000 men against the Austrian line. Oberst Sterndahl plugged the gap in his line caused when the grenadier battalion became separated earlier in the action with the depot battalion of IR24 Auersperg. He now opposed Vandamme with a little over 3,000 men.

Vandamme moved forward under an intense barrage of artillery and musket fire, gaining ground in the centre and against the flanks of the Austrian line. Then, at a distance of about eighty paces, the whole French line unleashed its full firepower. Oberst Sterndahl did the best he could, but outnumbered, outflanked, and having already seen Miloradovich’s Russians flee past, the line began to falter, then break. The regimental history of IR23 states their losses at twenty-seven dead, 160 wounded, 245 taken as prisoners and 797 missing, leaving 1,543 to escape from the plateau. Behind them, the battalion of IR20 (and possibly some troops separated from Jurczik’s brigade) fell back in good order, preventing Vandamme inflicting even greater losses. The time was probably a little after 11.00am. Chaos was all around.

The tsar, bewildered by this dramatic turn of events, shouted desperate pleas of encouragement to his soldiers as they fled past him. He had hoped to lead his army to a great victory over Napoleon, but now his army was disintegrating before his eyes. Others, including Miloradovich, Kolowrat, Czartoryski and Weyrother, attempted to stem the haemorrhage of men from the front line, but to no avail. Even as the disaster unfolded, many Russian officers were already heaping the blame on the Austrian chief of staff, Generaleutnant Weyrother. Czartoryski later wrote: ‘I also saw the unfortunate Weyrother, who had
wandered from point to point and by bravely exposing his life strove to remedy the evil of which he had been one of the chief causes.’
²⁹

A final line of allies stood before Vandamme’s victorious men: the battalion of Izmailovsk Guards, the rallied remnants from Miloradovich’s Russian troops, possibly now joined by the battalion of IR20. The allies had lost much of their artillery, their horses, weak from lack of forage, unable to pull them through the sticky soil churned by the passage of thousands of men. Vandamme had no such problem and soon began to bombard this last line of defence. The determination of the Guard battalion alone could not hold the line intact. Miloradovich’s battalions had already seen much close-quarter fighting over the previous two hours and now they had little left to offer. Once the main Austrian line broke, the resolve of this third position evaporated, and these last troops abandoned the high ground around 11.30, at about the time Miloradovich observed Constantine with the Imperial Guard leaving his position east of Blasowitz.
³⁰

From the confusion of this lost encounter Kutuzov later wrote:

‘I realised in this moment that the force of the enemy, directed against our centre, was four to five times more considerable than ours and that it would end up, despite all the intrepidity of our troops, by breaking the line and seizing the heights (which would have given him the means of attacking the left wing of our army in the rear). I went there at once, in order to take the necessary measures to foil the enemy’s plan.’
³¹

As Kutuzov galloped away towards the southern end of the plateau, accompanied by Kolowrat and with Weyrother in attendance, the tsar found himself almost alone. Gone was the great entourage that rode with him to battle, despatched on urgent missions or swept away in the general confusion. His high hopes of victory fading fast, the tsar abandoned the plateau in the company of just his physician, an equerry, his groom and two Cossacks.
³²

Napoleon, still at his headquarters on Zuran Hill, far from the front line, sat at the centre of a web of communications. Reports and orders passed in and out keeping him constantly informed on the ebb and flow of battle. Everything he received appeared to assure him that the battle was generally following the path he had hoped for. Lannes and Murat were slowly pressing forward, exerting pressure on the unexpectedly strong force before them in the north. He had also not anticipated significant resistance on the Pratzen Plateau, but while Saint-Hilaire was embroiled in a tough battle south of Pratze village, the news of success from Soult’s other divisional commander, Vandamme, was a great relief. Along the Goldbach, the combined effort of Legrand’s division with Davout’s hurriedly advanced men was proving even more successful than he
had hoped for, as the great mass of Allies remained along the stream, unable to break out beyond the villages of Telnitz and Sokolnitz.