Battle of the Piave

Battle of the Piave

Part of: Fifth Coalition War

date	May 8, 1809
place	Piave river, Nervesa della Battaglia
output	French victory

Parties to the conflict
France Italy	Austria
Commander
Eugène de Beauharnais	Archduke Johann
Troop strength
44,800 men	24,120 men to 28,000 men
losses
2,000 men	3,896 men 15 guns

Eugène de Beauharnais by Andrea Appiani , 1810

The Battle of the Piave took place on May 8, 1809 between the Franco-Italian troops under the command of Eugène de Beauharnais and the Austrian army under Archduke Johann during the Fifth Coalition War . Although the Austrians had taken their positions on the opposite bank of the river, they suffered defeat against the outnumbered Franco-Italian troops.

Slaughter process

Battle sketch

The far superior French troops came from the south to the river Piave and planned the attack on the Austrian army, which had taken position north of the river.

Eugène believed that the majority of the Austrian contingents were much further away from the river bank, namely at Conegliano. Little did he know that Archduke Johann's army was only four kilometers from the river, and he was planning a large-scale attack. Eugène rallied his troops and planned a mock attack on his left wing on the Fort of Nervesa. At the same time he ordered Dessaix to launch the main attack in the center on Priula Fort. To support Dessaix, he placed several batteries of artillery on the south bank of the Piave and let Gouchy cross the river on the right flank at San Nichiol with three divisions of cavalry.

At seven o'clock Dessaix crossed the river with 5000 men. Archduke Johann advanced at this point. The 8th Army Corps formed the right wing in the west and the 11th the left in the east.

At eight o'clock the French under Dessaix had advanced to just before the Austrian lines, so that Johann gathered his entire cavalry under Christian Freiherr Wolfskeel von Reichenberg and sent them into the assault.

However, since the cavalry could not do anything against Dessaix, who set up his troops in two large squares , 24 Austrian cannons opened fire on Dessaix. This suffered great losses under this massive bombardment. So the French themselves raised 24 cannons in front of their infantry and returned fire.

During this battle, Grouchy's troops crossed the river in the east, fighting back Kalnássy's corps to Cimadolmo. By nine o'clock they had completely crossed the river. At ten o'clock these troops, light cavalry under Sahuc and Dragoons under Pully, met the Austrian cavalry under Wolfskeel. But when he was killed in close combat, the Austrian attack broke up and the cavalry fled. Sahuc and Pully stormed the positions of the artillery - the Austrians could only save ten cannons - but were unsuccessful against the Austrian infantry , which in turn formed squares.

At that time, the level of the river had risen so high that Eugène could not cross any more troops, which is why the fighting between 1 and 3 p.m. came to a standstill. 27,000 to 30,000 of his soldiers were now cut off. Archduke Johann, however, did not dare to attack his infantry on a large scale, as he did not want to expose them to cavalry attacks and he knew that his own cavalry could no longer provide sufficient cover.

In the late afternoon, the French attacks began again: On the right wing Greniers and Pully's cavalry with Abbé's infantry stormed the lines of the 11th Army Corps. The counterattacks by Archduke Joseph's Hussars did little and Kalnássy had to withdraw from San Michele and Cimadolmo.

A 24-gun bombardment and MacDonald's attacks eventually broke the lines of the 11th Army Corps . Even the Austrian elite troops , Kleinmayer's Grenadier Brigade , which had been kept in reserve , were no longer able to repel the attacks. Archduke Johann's lines broke. He had to admit defeat and move back to Conegliano.

literature

• James R. Arnold: Napoleon Conquers Austria . Praeger Publishers, Westport, Conn. 1995, ISBN 0-275-94694-0 .
• Scotty Bowden & Charlie Tarbox: Armies on the Danube 1809 . Emperor's Press, Chicago 1989, ISBN 0-913037-08-7 (EA Arlington, Tx 1980).
• David G. Chandler : The campaigns of Napoleon . Weidenfeld, London 1993, ISBN 0-297-81367-6 (reprint of the London 1966 edition)
• Robert M. Epstein: Napoleon's Last Victory and the Emergence of Modern War . University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kn 1994, ISBN 0-7006-0664-5 .
• Gunther Rothenberg : Napoleon's Great Adversaries. The Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army, 1792-1814 . Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Ind. 1982, ISBN 0-253-33969-3 .
• Frederick C. Schneid: Napoleon's Italian Campaigns. 1805-1815 . Praeger Publishers, Westport, Conn. 2002, ISBN 0-275-96875-8 .