Battle of Aspern-Essling

Background

On 10 April 1809 Austrian troops under Archduke Charles crossed into Bavaria, a French client state, without a declaration of war. Napoleon arrived on 17 April and, in the Landshut manoeuvre and the battles of Abensberg, Eckmühl and Ratisbon, drove Charles back north of the Danube towards Bohemia. Hiller's corps fell back along the south bank, and the French entered Vienna on 12–13 May.

The river now lay between the armies. Charles marched to the Marchfeld, the plain on the north bank opposite Vienna, and joined Hiller there with about 115,000 men. Napoleon could muster only about 82,000 near the city: Davout's corps and others were spread out guarding his communications, watching an Austrian corps near Linz and dealing with risings in the Tyrol. He wanted an early battle, before Archduke John's army could come up or Prussia intervene, and he believed Charles's army was retreating into Moravia and in no state to fight.

A first attempt to cross at the Schwarze Lackenau was repulsed with about 700 French losses. Napoleon chose instead Lobau, one of the many islands that split the river below Vienna. From 19 May his engineers bridged the wide main arm from Kaiser-Ebersdorf by way of two smaller islands; on 20 May a boat and floating debris broke the long bridge, costing hours. That evening the last, narrower arm to the north bank was bridged, and Masséna's corps crossed and drove in the Austrian outposts. Charles did not resist the passage. He meant to let enough French cross, then attack them before the rest could follow.

The armies

Charles's Hauptarmee had about 98,000 men, some 84,000 infantry and 14,250 cavalry, with roughly 290 guns. It attacked in five columns: Hiller's VI Korps, Bellegarde's I, Hohenzollern's II, and two from Rosenberg's IV Korps, one under Dedovich. Liechtenstein's Reserve Corps of heavy cavalry and grenadiers stood in the centre. The army had been reformed since its catastrophic defeats of 1800 and 1805, and Charles, its generalissimo, had concentrated it north of the river while Napoleon thought it in retreat.

Napoleon's Armée d'Allemagne committed about 77,000 to 80,000 men and 150 guns over the two days, but only what the bridges could carry was ever on the north bank: about 25,000 when the fighting began, some 62,000 with 144 guns by the next morning. Masséna's IV Corps held Aspern with the divisions of Molitor, Legrand and Carra Saint-Cyr, and Boudet's division held Essling. Bessières led the cavalry in the centre: Lasalle's and Marulaz's light horse and the cuirassiers of Nansouty, Espagne and Saint-Sulpice. Lannes, with Saint-Hilaire's division and Oudinot's grenadiers, and the Imperial Guard crossed overnight. Davout's III Corps, about 35,000 men, never got over. The Austrians had far more guns throughout, and artillery caused most of the losses, especially among officers.

The battle

21 May. The French bridgehead faced north, its left in Aspern, on the bank of a river channel, its right in Essling, with open ground between. Both villages lay close to the river and could not be turned. Bessières's patrols had failed to find the main Austrian army, Lannes expected no more than 8,000 Austrians, and only Masséna suspected the enemy was near in force.

At about 13:00, hidden by a low ridge and a dust storm, Hiller's leading troops drove Molitor's outposts into Aspern (one account puts the first assault at about 14:45). Molitor got all four of his regiments into the village and held. The Austrian columns arrived piecemeal, the last some two hours after the first, but by 17:00 they had formed a half-circle round Aspern and Charles ordered a general assault. Attacked from three directions, the village changed hands perhaps six times until Legrand and Carra Saint-Cyr reinforced Molitor; at nightfall the Austrians held its northern part and the French the southern.

In the centre Bessières's 7,000 sabres fought a long, inconclusive cavalry battle and charged Hohenzollern's infantry without breaking it. Essling was not seriously attacked until Rosenberg's columns came up in the evening; from about 18:00 Boudet's men beat off three assaults, and fighting there went on until late at night. Behind the French the bridges broke and were repaired more than once.

Night. The bridge held for most of the night. By about 04:00 Lannes's command, Saint-Hilaire's division and Oudinot's grenadiers under Tharreau and Claparède, had crossed with more cavalry and artillery, and two divisions of the Guard stood in the bridgehead. Napoleon now had about 50,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and 144 guns against more than 100,000 Austrians with at least 260 guns.

22 May, morning. Fighting resumed in Aspern between 04:00 and 05:00, in darkness and mist, and by 07:00 Masséna had retaken the whole village. Dedovich's and Rosenberg's attacks on Essling were held. Napoleon, probably expecting Davout to follow, struck at the Austrian centre. Shortly after 07:00 Lannes advanced in echelon, Saint-Hilaire on the right, Claparède and Tharreau to his left, through heavy artillery fire. The Austrian front wavered; Charles took up a standard himself to steady his men and sent his reserve grenadiers forward, and the French were stopped. Bessières's charges were beaten off too, and by about 09:00 the attack had stalled.

Then a boat smashed a large breach in the main bridge. With Davout cut off on the south bank, Napoleon ordered a gradual withdrawal to the line of the villages; sources time the order between about 08:00 and 11:00. Saint-Hilaire was mortally wounded as his division fell back.

22 May, afternoon. Hearing at about 10:00 that the bridge had gone again, Charles renewed the attack everywhere. Hiller and Bellegarde stormed Aspern once more, and the exhausted French gave it up, at about 13:00 in one account, after 17:00 in another, falling back to a brickyard. Rosenberg, with Charles at the head of the grenadiers, drove Boudet out of Essling except for its granary, where a few hundred men held on. Mouton took in battalions of the Young Guard; Rapp, sent with two more Guard battalions, urged him to ignore his orders and counter-attack, and the Austrians were driven out of Essling with the bayonet.

Charles massed about 150 guns against the French centre. In this bombardment a roundshot smashed one of Lannes's knees and tore the other leg; Larrey amputated his left leg at the bridgehead. Sources place the wound between early afternoon and 18:00. Short of ammunition and reinforcements, Napoleon withdrew his army across the repaired bridge to Lobau overnight. Charles did not pursue, and the last French left the north bank early on 23 May.

Aftermath

Each side lost roughly 20,000 men or more: the French about 20,000 to 26,000 killed, wounded and captured, the Austrians about 20,000 to 27,000, with 23,000 the usual Austrian figure. The French generals Saint-Hilaire, Espagne and Pouzet were killed; on the Austrian side thirteen generals were lost, among them Hohenzollern and Liechtenstein wounded. Lannes died at Kaiserebersdorf on 31 May. He had been one of Napoleon's closest friends and one of the few marshals capable of independent command.

The Tenth Bulletin, dated 23 May, admitted 1,100 killed and 3,000 wounded, blamed a sudden rise of the Danube for carrying the bridges away, and called the battle a new monument to French firmness: the nearest Napoleon came to admitting defeat. It was his first personal defeat in a major battle in ten years, and unlike Eylau it could not be hidden from Europe. Emperor Francis wrote to Charles that he had been the first to break the enemy's long run of success, and Austrian propaganda made the most of it. Masséna was later made Prince of Essling.

How much it mattered is argued over. Charles won the symbolic success he wanted but did not destroy his enemy, and let the French recover on Lobau; the French army was not badly weakened. Critics blame Napoleon's poor reconnaissance and the risk of crossing on a single line of bridges. Six weeks later, with far stronger bridges, he crossed again and won at Wagram.

Wargaming it

Aspern-Essling is a compact battle with a simple, cruel shape: two villages, open ground between them and a river at the French back. It suits a grand-tactical game at brigade or division level for both days, or a battalion-level game of the village fights alone, with the Essling granary as a natural set piece.

The core mechanic is the bridge. French reinforcements should enter through a single crossing point on a schedule the bridge can interrupt, whether at random or as the river rises and the Austrians float boats and debris down onto it, so the French player never knows when Lannes, the Guard or the next ammunition will arrive. Davout's 35,000 men waiting on the far bank are the great what-if: a variant in which the bridge holds on the morning of 22 May tests whether Lannes's attack could have broken the Austrian centre.

Villages need rules that let them change hands again and again while wearing garrisons down. The open centre is cavalry country, but massed artillery must be deadly, since guns caused most of the losses. Austrian columns should arrive staggered, up to two hours apart on the first afternoon, and the French begin outnumbered roughly four to one. Victory conditions should reward the French for holding both villages and the bridgehead, and the Austrians for forcing them back onto Lobau rather than for destroying them.

Maps and pictures

Paintings and prints

Paintings and prints of the battle, from the time and the century after, by year: free-to-use pictures from the battle's category on Wikimedia Commons. Each opens its file page there, with the full caption and source.