Battle of Austerlitz

Order of battle, plans of attack, and initial disposition of forces

While Napoleon bivouacked west of the Goldbach, the allies, holding near Austerlitz, formed up in the valleys east of the Pratzen Heights. Napoleon, having determined to fight, called up every available battalion; Marshal Louis Davout’s veteran Third Corps arrived from Vienna late on the night of December 1, after a forced march that had covered nearly 70 miles (112 km) in 48 hours. The allied plan was to attack Napoleon’s right and to cut him off from Vienna, and the allies’ advanced guard began, before dark on December 1, to skirmish toward Telnitz (Telnice). At that moment Napoleon was in the midst of his troops, thousands of whom had made their bivouac straw into torches. Allied scouts observed the glare and took it to be the result of a fire that had been lit to signal a retreat; this confirmed in them the impression which Napoleon’s calculated timidity had given. Thus encouraged, those who desired an immediate battle soon gained the upper hand in the councils of Tsar Alexander I and Emperor Francis I of Austria.

The allied attack orders for December 2 divided the Austro-Russian army into five columns and a reserve and assigned the following tasks: the first and second columns (Russian) to move southwestward behind the Pratzen Heights toward Telnitz and Sokolnitz (Sokolnice); the third (Russian) to cross the southern end of the plateau and come into line on the right of the first two; the fourth (Austrians and Russians under Johann Kolowrat) on the right of the third to advance toward Kobelnitz (Kobylnice). An Austrian advanced guard preceded the first and second columns. Farther still on the right the fifth column (cavalry under Prince John of Liechtenstein) was to hold the northern part of the plateau, south of the Brünn-Olmütz road. Across the road itself was the Russian corps of Prince Bagration, and in rear of Liechtenstein’s corps was the reserve (Russians under the grand duke Constantine). Thus, the farther the four main columns penetrated into the French right wing, the wider would the gap become between Bagration and Kolowrat, and Liechtenstein’s squadrons could not form a serious obstacle to a heavy attack of Napoleon’s center. The whole plan was based upon defective information and preconceived ideas that proved to be wholly incorrect.

Napoleon, displaying immense faith in the capabilities of his troops, entrusted nearly half of his line of battle to a single division (under Claude Legrand) of Marshal Nicolas Soult’s corps, which was to be supported by Davout. The ground which this thin line was to hold against three columns of the enemy was marshy and densely intersected by obstacles. In addition, the Third Corps was arguably the best in the Grande Armée, while its leader—Davout—was perhaps the ablest of all of Napoleon’s marshals. The rest of the army formed in the center and left. In a proclamation issued on the eve of the battle, Napoleon addressed his troops:

Soldiers: The Russian army has presented itself before you to revenge the disasters of the Austrians at Ulm. They are the same men that you conquered at Hollabrunn, and on whose flying trails you have followed. The positions which we occupy are formidable. While they are marching to turn my right, they must present their flank to your blows. Soldiers: I will myself direct all your battalions. I will keep myself at a distance from the fire, if, with your accustomed valor, you carry disorder and confusion into the enemies’ ranks. But should victory appear for a moment uncertain, you will see your Emperor expose himself to the first strokes. Victory must not be doubtful on this occasion.

Napoleon’s great counterstroke was to be delivered against the Pratzen Heights by the French center. This was composed of Soult’s corps, with Bernadotte’s in second line. On the left, around a fortified hill that the French had dubbed the Santon, was Jean Lannes’s corps, supported by the cavalry reserve under Joachim Murat. The general reserve consisted of the Imperial Guard and Nicolas Oudinot’s grenadiers.

Battle of the Three Emperors

Before dawn on December 2, the allied attack was begun by the first three columns, which moved down from their camps behind the Pratzen plateau toward Telnitz and Sokolnitz. The Austrian advanced guard engaged at daybreak, and the French in Telnitz made a vigorous defense. Both parties were reinforced, and Legrand fulfilled his mission of drawing upon himself the whole weight of the allied attack. The contest was long and hard fought, but the Russians gradually drove back Legrand and a part of Davout’s corps. Numerous attacks were made by both of infantry and cavalry, and by the successive arrival of reinforcements each side in turn received fresh initiative. Finally, at about 10:00 am the allies were in possession of the villages on the Goldbach from Sokolnitz southward. Davout’s line of battle had re-formed more than a mile to the rear of its initial position; it still, however, maintained contact with the French center on the Goldbach at Kobelnitz. Between these two lines the fighting continued almost until the close of the battle. With 12,500 troops Davout held in front of him more than 40,000 of the enemy.

In the center, confusion among the allied staff had delayed the fourth column (Kolowrat), the line of march of which was crossed by Liechtenstein’s cavalry moving in the opposite direction. The objective of this column was Kobelnitz, and the two emperors—Francis I of Austria and Alexander I of Russia—and Kutuzov accompanied it. The delay had, however, opened a gap between Kolowrat and the third column on his left. It was toward this gap, and the denuded Pratzen plateau, that Napoleon sent forward Louis Saint-Hilaire’s division of Soult’s corps for the decisive attack. Kutuzov was pursuing this march to the southwest when he was surprised by the swift advance of Soult’s men on the plateau itself. Napoleon had here double the force of the allies; Kutuzov, however, displayed great energy, shifted his forces to his right, and called up his reserves.

The French did not win the plateau without an intense struggle. Saint-Hilaire’s (the right center) division was fiercely engaged by Kolowrat’s column, and Gen. Mikhail Miloradovich opposed the left center attack under Dominique Vandamme. However, the French leaders were two of the best fighting generals in their army. The rearmost troops of the Russian second column, not yet committed to the fight on the Goldbach, made a bold counter stroke against Saint-Hilaire’s right flank but were repulsed, and Soult now turned to relieve the pressure on Davout by attacking Sokolnitz. The Russians in Sokolnitz surrendered, an opportune cavalry charge shook the morale of the allied left, and the Pratzen Heights were now in full possession of the French. Even the Russian Guard failed to shake Vandamme’s hold. In the meanwhile Lannes and Murat had been engaged in the defense of the Santon. Here the allied leaders displayed great vigor, but they were unable to drive back the French. The cavalry charges in this quarter were among the most celebrated of the Napoleonic era, and François-Étienne Kellermann, the hero of Marengo, distinguished himself against the cavalry of Liechtenstein’s command. The French not only held their ground but steadily advanced and eventually forced back the allies on Austerlitz, thereby barring their retreat on Olmütz.

The last serious attempt of the allies in the center led to some of the hardest fighting of the day; the Russian Imperial Guard under the grand duke Constantine pressed closely upon Saint-Hilaire and Vandamme on the plateau and only gave way when the French Guard and the Grenadiers came into action. After the Russian Chevalier Guards had been routed by Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières and the Guard cavalry, the allies had no more hope of victory. Orders had already been sent to Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden, who commanded the three columns engaged against Davout, to retreat on Austerlitz. No further attempt was made on the plateau, which was held by the French from Pratzen to the Olmütz road. The allied army was cut in two, and the confused struggle of the three Russian columns on the Goldbach was one for survival only.

The fighting in Telnitz was perhaps the hardest of the whole battle, but the inevitable retreat, every part of which was now under the fire of the French on the plateau, was terribly costly. Soult now barred the way to Austerlitz, and the allies turned southward toward Satschan. As they retreated, the ice of the Satschan pond was broken up by the French artillery, and many of the fugitives were drowned.