Battle of Wagram

Background

Austria went to war in 1809 hoping to recover its position in Germany and Italy while much of the French army was tied down in Spain. Archduke Charles had reformed the army, and on 9–10 April it crossed the Inn into Bavaria, a French ally, without a declaration of war. Napoleon took personal command on 17 April and in a few days won at Abensberg, Landshut, Eckmühl and Ratisbon. Charles fell back north of the Danube, and the French entered Vienna on 12–13 May, but the Austrians had blown the city's bridges.

Napoleon's first attempt to cross, from the island of Lobau to Aspern and Essling on 21–22 May, failed when the swollen river kept breaking his bridges and Davout's corps could not join the fight. It was his first personal defeat in a major battle, and it cost him Marshal Lannes, mortally wounded, and some 20,000 men.

This time he prepared for six weeks. From 1 June General Bertrand built solid bridges from the south bank to Lobau, protected by palisades upstream, with pivoting bridges and landing craft ready for the north arm; captured Austrian boats and new patrol craft guarded them, and more than a hundred guns were dug in on the island. Napoleon also called in Eugène's Army of Italy, Marmont from Dalmatia and Bernadotte's Saxons.

Charles chose not to fight on the riverbank. On 3 July he pulled his army back from the redoubts facing Lobau to the Bisamberg and the low Wagram plateau behind the Russbach stream, leaving an advance guard on the Marchfeld, and sent for his brother Archduke John's army at Pressburg.

The armies

Napoleon brought the largest army he had yet commanded in a single battle: about 148,000 men on 5 July, rising to some 170,000 as Marmont's corps, Wrede's Bavarians and further divisions of the Army of Italy came up, with roughly 475 to 600 guns. The main French corps were Oudinot's II, Davout's III and Masséna's IV, Bernadotte's IX (mostly Saxons), Eugène's Army of Italy, including Macdonald's corps, and the Imperial Guard. Losses in 1809 had thinned the veteran cadres, and Wikipedia's analysis notes the declining experience of the French infantry, and Masséna, though injured, insisted on keeping his command.

Charles had about 136,000 men and 390 to 410 guns, organised in corps under Bellegarde (I), Hohenzollern (II), Kollowrat (III), Rosenberg (IV), Klenau (VI), Liechtenstein's Reserve Korps of grenadiers and cuirassiers, and Nordmann's advance guard. The rank and file had recovered their morale after Aspern-Essling, but senior officers had not; Hiller, commander of VI Korps, resigned on 4 July. The Austrian staff was slow to turn orders into movement. Austrian infantry in dense masses resisted cavalry well but suffered badly under artillery, and both sides fielded artillery on an unprecedented scale.

The battle

The crossing, night of 4–5 July. At about 21:00, under a violent thunderstorm, French infantry crossed the north-eastern arm of the Danube from Lobau in boats, landing east of the old Aspern crossing, which Napoleon had feinted to repeat. Oudinot's leading troops were across by about 21:30 and Masséna's by 23:00; the first pivoting bridge was in place before midnight, and Davout's corps began crossing at about 02:00. Groß-Enzersdorf fell after a bombardment of some 1,000 shells, and the Sachsengang castle garrison surrendered at about 08:00. By midday nearly 140,000 French troops were over.

The Marchfeld, 5 July. From about 13:00 the French fanned out north and north-east across the plain, Masséna on the left, Bernadotte and Eugène in the centre and Davout on the right towards Glinzendorf. Nordmann's advance guard and Liechtenstein's cavalry fell back after failing to stop Davout near Glinzendorf and Raasdorf at about 15:00. Bernadotte halted near Aderklaa.

The evening assault (CDB90 engagement 127 begins here). At 18:00 Napoleon ordered an immediate attack on the Russbach line. At about 19:30 Oudinot struck Hohenzollern at Baumersdorf and was thrown back. Dupas and Lamarque crossed the Russbach towards Deutsch-Wagram, only for Charles in person to restore the line. At about 21:00 Bernadotte's Saxons attacked Wagram itself; in the dusk and smoke, and in uniforms like the Austrians', they were fired on by their own side and fell back to Aderklaa demoralised. Davout's attack on Markgrafneusiedl stalled and he called it off at 22:00.

Charles strikes, morning of 6 July. Charles planned a dawn attack along the whole line, aiming to turn the French left and cut them off from Lobau. Rosenberg's IV Korps attacked Davout at about 04:00 but was back on its start line by 06:00. Bernadotte had abandoned Aderklaa overnight; Bellegarde took it, and Masséna's counter-attacks fought over the village for much of the morning. On the Austrian right, Klenau and Kollowrat, whose orders had arrived about two hours late, came into action from 07:30. Klenau retook Aspern, routed Boudet's division and pushed towards Essling and the Lobau bridges.

The grand battery and the turning movement. Napoleon sent Masséna's corps marching south across the front to save the bridges, and filled the gap with cavalry and guns. Bessières's cuirassiers charged at about 11:00, and Lauriston massed the Guard and Army of Italy artillery near Aderklaa: estimates run from 72 to 112 guns, with recent research favouring about 84. Meanwhile Davout, from about 10:00, swung round the Austrian left and stormed Markgrafneusiedl, its church tower falling about noon.

Macdonald's column. Around noon to 13:00 Macdonald advanced on the Austrian centre near Süssenbrunn with a huge hollow formation of about 23 battalions, roughly 8,000 men, eight battalions in line at front and rear and the rest in column on the flanks. Austrian fire tore it apart and it stalled by about 14:00, but Wrede's Bavarians, the Young Guard and other divisions came up behind it, and Oudinot took Baumersdorf.

Retreat (CDB90 engagement 127 ends here). With his left turned and his centre under pressure, Charles ordered a phased withdrawal at about 14:30. Masséna retook Essling around 14:00 and then Aspern. By 16:00 the Austrians were in orderly retreat north and north-west; Lasalle was killed in the pursuit near Leopoldau. Archduke John's army reached the field at about 17:00, too late to influence the result, and soon withdrew east.

Aftermath

Wagram put more than 300,000 men on the field and cost at least 72,000 casualties, the bloodiest engagement of the Napoleonic Wars to that date. The French lost about 35,000 men, including five generals killed, among them the cavalry leader Lasalle; Austrian losses were about 39,000 to 41,000, with four generals killed or mortally wounded. The French guns fired some 90,000 to 100,000 rounds and emptied their caissons, which held up the pursuit, and the Austrians retreated in good order with thousands of French prisoners and several eagles.

Napoleon caught up with them at Znaim on 10–11 July, where Charles sought an armistice, without his emperor's approval. He resigned his command on 23 July. By the Treaty of Schönbrunn in October Austria lost its access to the sea and some 3.5 million subjects, and its army was limited to 150,000 men; the Fifth Coalition was at an end.

Macdonald was made a marshal on the field on 7 July, and Oudinot and Marmont were promoted soon after; Berthier became Prince of Wagram. Bernadotte was dismissed after his Saxons broke, a quarrel that later mattered when he became crown prince of Sweden and joined Napoleon's enemies. Historians argue over what Wagram showed: a victory won by artillery and mass rather than manoeuvre, by an army of declining quality against an Austrian army that had learned a great deal, at a price only slightly lower than the loser's.

Wargaming it

Wagram is enormous: around 300,000 men and something approaching 1,000 guns on a front stretching from the Bisamberg to Markgrafneusiedl. As a whole it suits a grand-tactical game at corps and division level, ideally with each of the two days as a separate session. It also breaks into strong smaller scenarios: the night assault on the Russbach, with Saxons firing on Saxons in the dark; the seesaw fight for Aderklaa; Davout's storm of Markgrafneusiedl; and Macdonald's column against the Austrian centre.

The terrain is simple but decisive. The Marchfeld is flat and open, good cavalry country, so the Russbach stream and the low plateau behind it are the only real defensive line, anchored on villages that change hands repeatedly. Rules need to make massed artillery deadly against dense formations, since both the grand battery and Macdonald's losses turn on it.

Timing gives the game its tension. The French must get a whole army over the bridges and across the plain before Charles can react; on 6 July the Austrians are racing to cut the bridges before Davout turns their left. The great what-if is Archduke John: ordered to march on 4 July, his message delayed 23 hours by storms, he arrived at about 17:00. A variant that brings him on at midday, or lets Klenau's and Kollowrat's orders arrive on time, tests whether Charles's double envelopment could have worked. Victory conditions should reward holding or cutting the Lobau bridges, not just taking villages.

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.