Battle of Wertingen

Battle of Wertingen

Part of: Third Coalition War

date	October 8, 1805
place	Wertingen , Germany
output	French victory

Parties to the conflict
France	Austria
Commander
Joachim Murat Jean Lannes	Franz Auffenberg
Troop strength
12,000 men	5,500 men
losses
319 dead and injured	400 dead and injured 2,900 prisoners

In the Battle of Wertingen on October 8, 1805, French troops under the command of Joachim Murat and Jean Lannes rubbed out a small Austrian army under the command of Franz Xaver von Auffenberg, southwest of Wertingen . The Battle of Wertingen was one of the opening battles of the Battle of Ulm and the first act of the Third Coalition War . The French succeeded in a strategic coup that almost completely eliminated an Austrian army at the beginning of the war.

background

After Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had led his army of over 200,000 men across the Rhine , he crossed the Danube and met an Austrian army under Karl Mack von Leiberich near Ulm. Unaware of the strength of the approaching troops, he held his position while the French troops took up positions in the Danube region and blocked the routes from Ulm to Vienna.

troops

Murat's forces included the heavy cavalry units led by Louis Klein and Marc Antoine de Beaumont and light cavalry units led by Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle . These were supported by grenadiers under the command of Charles Nicolas Oudinot and light infantry.

Auffenberg had a diverse mixture of cavalry, cannons and infantry available, led by Maximilian Baillet von Latour and Friedrich Franz Xaver von Hohenzollern-Hechingen .

Course of the battle

The position of the French (blue) and Austrian (yellow) troops at the start of the battle.

Since Auffenberg's troops were taken by surprise by the advancing French, Auffenberg seems to have mobilized only a small part of his army, around 5,500 men. The course of the battle, however, is controversial. One historian says that individual Austrian battalions were wiped out or surrounded by cavalry attacks and therefore surrendered. Another author writes that the Austrian grenadiers formed a square and withstood cavalry attacks until French grenadiers attacked.

The French casualties are given as 319 dead and wounded. The Austrians suffered 400 dead and wounded. In addition, 2,900 men were captured and six cannons were captured by the French. One historian speaks of 2,000 captured Austrians. Since the supply routes were cut off, the Austrians withdrew to their base in Ulm.

Commemoration

In the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quarter of the 6th arrondissement of Paris , a street, today's "Rue de Furstemberg", was named "Rue de Wertingen" to commemorate the battle of 1806 - 1815. On the Arc de Triomphe in Paris , the site of the battle is engraved on the inside of the large arches. In Wertingen a memorial stone on Judenberg and since 1905 the "Napoleon Fir" in Wertingen- Gottmannshofen remind of the battle. The battle painting from the Berthier cycle by Wilhelm von Kobell from 1807 shows the battlefield in front of the city.

literature

• Jürgen Fiedler: The battle of Wertingen 1805/2005 - a double year of commemoration for Wertingen . City of Wertingen, 2004
• Scott Bowden: Napoleon and Austerlitz . The Emperor's Press, Chicago 1997, ISBN 0-9626655-7-6
• David Chandler: Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars . Macmillan, New York 1979, ISBN 0-02-523670-9
• HD Emmert: Wargamers Digest Magazine . "A History of Broken Squares 1798-1915, 1979.
• Digby Smith: The Napoleonic Wars Data Book . Greenhill, London 1998, ISBN 1-85367-276-9

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chandler, p. 489.
2. ^ Smith, p. 203.
3. ↑ Emmert, p. 14.
4. ↑ Bowden, p. 185.
5. ^ Smith, p. 203.

Web links

• Wertingen 1805 (English)
• Overview of Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars (English)