The news of Magdeburg spread through Europe like wild-fire. The once mighty Prussians had been crushed in the field defending what had been considered an impregnable position. It appeared that unless Britain could form some sort of cohesive coalition against Napoleon the French would destroy Prussia and leave Britain alone.

With this in mind the overworked Lord Chamberlain was sent to Berlin to go door knocking at the local embassies in the hope of canvassing a bit of support. This unfortunately coincided with vicious rumours from the Russian camp of the existence of a painting of one of Lord Chamberlain's descendants - Earl Chamberlain of Clagheaton - at Isandlwana (remember folks, this is wargaming) who having predicted the disaster to his C/O Colonel Pullein three days before - he was a noted clairvoyant - spent the entire battle with his horse's reins in one hand and his service revolver in his mouth ready to deny the Zulus such a respected prize. The painting, at the height of the battle alleges to show the Earl in such a pose whilst giving the order to the quartermaster to get more ammunition. Naturally with a revolver rendering him inarticulate the order was never carried out. The rest is history...

Ironically it was this vicious rumour which caused the Russians to temporarily lose their senses and in the heat of much chortling and reminiscing over the battle from a different age that had really happened the previous week the Czar's representative blinded himself to the newly discovered fact the Prussian High Command was to war what Hortense de Beauhamais was to street fighting. It was agreed that Russia would declare war on France on the first of March, the official date of the creation of the First Coalition.

Meanwhile the Prussians had actually been moving and in an attempt to halt the French advance on Berlin a small Corps of 4000 men marched into Hanover, destroyed the Grande Armee's principal depot which Davout had foolishly left unguarded and effectively cut the French supply line. At the same time the Hessians went from neutrality to secretly joining the First Coalition and they joined up with the Saxon Corps of General Ruchel in pillaging stray French supply columns running through Hesse. These two actions would buy Prussia time to defend Berlin and force Davout to either split the Grande Armee or move back along his line of march. It appeared to be a master stroke on the part of whoever advised the Prussians to do it.

On March 1st, 1805 Russia duly declared war on Prussia and to the Czar's surprise Austria remained neutral. However what Alexander considered to be a mistake turned out to be Napoleon's greatest political machination. Bennigsen's Russians were poised in Northern Italy clearly intending to honour their agreement with Austria by marching straight into French Lombardy in conjunction with a British corps which was to perform a naval landing at Toulon. This was part of the Coalition's Grand Strategy which the Allies were convinced would force the French on to the defensive and subsequently attain a parity of numbers for a conclusive field battle in Germany.

As well as the manoeuvres described, the Czar himself land at Hull with 20000 men and Bagration sailed for die North German coast with a further 15000. This was all.the Russians felt they could spare as Austria was beginning to make growling noises and showing interest in Prussian territory. Luckily for the Coalition the Austrian Army was still in disgrace at home and public confidence would not support taking on so many enemies.

Plan

The Coalition plan was thus to provide Napoleon with more targets than he had armies and so force him to split the Grande Armee itself. At die same the British landing at Toulon and another similar force at Brest would attempt to force out the French fleets in those two ports into the hands of the conveniently placed British squadrons who were waiting in blockade. It struck Russia that this was really a personal scheme of Britain to weaken the French fleet for her own future benefit and both the Czar and Prussia secretly agreed that this would not be a good idea. Indeed at one stage it was even suggested that the French might be tipped- off about this part of the plan. After all, one day Britain could be the enemy!

However in the end it was decided to let fate run its course and this it did. The British corps at Toulon failed to storm the city and thus the Southern Fleet was saved. In the north at Brest, however, all went according to plan and the French fleet was obliged to make a run for it to avoid having Brest's own guns turned on them. The 14 French ships of the line led by the newly commissioned 100 gun Bonaparte attempted to navigate the narrow channel, into the Atlantic against a fresh headwind which allowed the British squadron of 16 ships to bear down upon them. In the ensuing action Droits del Homme, 74, was sunk and partially blocked the channel. Two other French ships collided and subsequently scuttled themselves to avoid capture. Three other Frenchmen , all 74s, deliberately ran themselves onto rocks before the wind changed and the remainder escaped.

No British ships were seriously damaged apart from the Shannon, 36, whose Captain, Sir Maltravers Chamberlain of Rosyth, had been smoking cocaine the previous evening and refused a squadron signal to reduce sail. However, his single handed attack on three French 74's and the Bonaparte herself, plus the fact that he was the nephew of the British special envoy convinced the government to make him a Baronet rather than hang him. It is interesting to note that this inherent drug addiction subsequently brought up suggestions of clairvoyance and second-sight in later generations of the family.

This naval success coincided with the news the coalition had been waiting for - the retreat of the Grande Armee to secure its lines of communications. Davout had withdrawn the army back to Kassel where he besieged the Saxons and Hessians although an attempt to breach the walls failed due to a lack of heavy siege artillery. Some slight compensation was achieved by the capture of 2000 Hessian infantry, part of the Allied rear- guard. The Coalition successes came to an abrupt end however by Napoleon's aforementioned master-stroke.

As Bennigsen's Russians prepared to enter Lombardy and devastate French-controlled Italy they were cordially informed by the Austrian government that French Lombardy was now Austrian Lombardy and that as the two nations were at peace no right of passage would be given. By this totally unforeseen move Napoleon had written 15000 Russians out of the immediate action and consigned them to a two month sea voyage around Italy before a landing on French soil could be effected. It was the turning point of the campaign, and the Coalition had been completely outwitted.

Strategic Initiative

This now left Napoleon with the strategic initiative and he made use of it brilliantly. He turned VI Corps around at Metz and force marched back to Toulon. Outnumbering the 7000 British infantry nearly 3:1 he obliged them to surrender and in doing so convinced the wily Bennigsen that the only place worth landing at was Corsica (which in due course would become a Russian pawn against France).

Murat slowly moved towards Brest with the result that the British government panicked as it could not afford the loss of another 9000 infantry and they promptly took to their ships. To compound the Coalition's problems Davout received orders to leave a screen of Baden troops around Kassel supported by Bernadotte's Dutch whilst the Grande Armee would move past Hohenlohe contemptuously showing him their right flank and attack the Duke of Brunswick at Berlin before Bagration could land at Stettin to reinforce him. This was a huge gamble for the Emperor for if the Prussians nerves held, and Hohenlohe moved on Davout's flank then they would be cut to pieces.

However, Napoleon had correctly surmised that Hohenlohe had lost his courage as well as his army and as the French marched within 10 miles of Hohenlohe's camp the geriatric Prussian did nothing to hinder them. This was too much for Brunswick and appropriately on April Ist he surrendered the capital to Davout along with Prussia's last field army.

The ramifications for Prussia were dear. Saxony and Hesse were ceded along with the province of Magdeburg (whose city gave Davout his title Duc de Magdeburg). Prussia also came out of the First Coalition and signed a 24 month enforced peace treaty with France. This left the Coalition in tatters. Alexander's trip to Hull had proved a total disaster. Not only had he wasted a lot of time and expense on the aborted expedition but his allergy to whelks had again reared its ugly head and he sailed for St. Petersburg with the new Nom de Guerre of Alexander the Rash. He was also left thinking that Russia was in a damned tricky situation. Although technically still allied to Britain it was obvious that their only interest was self preservation and the systematic reduction of French naval capacity.

And so the Spring Campaign of 1805 ended, with France jubilantly victorious and hungrily looking east at Russia with its abettor Austria looking like a willing accomplice on a trip to Moscow. Prussia was already reduced to the status of a secondary power and Britain was sitting back planning on how she could take Portugal back from the Spanish. The Dons, in their turn were beginning to send out archaeologists to the newly conquered Egypt where they would undoubtedly carry on their great tradition.for treating ancient cultures with kindness and respect. The Turks too were back in North Africa, with Morocco set to be the first piece in plans for a reconstituted Ottoman Empire.

More 1805

Campaign of 1805 Wargame: Part 1
Campaign of 1805 Wargame: Part 2
Campaign of 1805 Wargame: Part 3
Campaign of 1805 Wargame: Part 4