Austrian General Assault At 6 P.M., Karl completed his new dispositions for a general assault. He told Hiller and Bellegarde to capture Aspern regardless of the cost while Hohenzollern and the cavalry reserve supported them on their left. To date during the campaign, Bellegarde's Corps had failed to fulfill its potential. Their repulse of Marulaz's cavalry had been the first time many had fired their muskets. Yet included in their ranks were some of the finest units in the entire army. Bellegarde selected General Wacquant and his brigade to lead the attack. Eager to prove themselves they advanced with great vigor joined by units from the First and Third Columns. No one surpassed the courage of Captain Komadina of the Reuss-Plauen Infantry [17th] Regiment. A French cannonball took off his feet while he marched at the front of his regiment. The captain shouted, "Long live Austria! Advance comrades, the enemy is escaping, the victory is ours!" When soldiers tried to assist Komadina to an aid station, he sternly reminded them of their duty, telling them to leave him alone and keep up with the assault troops. Supported by an enormous artillery, the terrific Austrian assault, in which the 3,000 some men of the Vogelsang [47th] Infantry Regiment particularly distinguished themselves, drove Molitor out of Aspern. Most generals would have committed their reserves to rectify any of the number of earlier crises. Massena had exhibited a masterful tactical feel, drawing the last ounce of strength from his front line soldiers in Molitor's division. These men had conducted an epic five-hour defense and lost nearly half their strength in the process. Now, around 8 P.M. in this final emergency, Massena summoned his reserve, two regiments of General Legrand's division. He massed all of his available artillery to deliver a preparatory shock bombardment. Fifteen minutes before their assault, Napoleon and Berthier inspected Legrand's men. As intended, this put them on fighting edge. Then, Legrand hurled his 4,000 men in a counterattack against Aspern. The redoubtable Colonel Pouget's 26th Legere advanced in line on the village outskirts. Pouget saw an Austrian column marching obliquely across his front toward the village. French musketry fire took the Austrians in flank and caused frightful losses. To Pouget's amazement, the enemy column neither broke nor turned to confront his fire. Instead it kept marching to reinforce its comrades in Aspern. Legrand's other regiment, the 18th Line, confronted similar Austrian tenacity. The 18th advanced in column up the street until it reached the cemetery. Here, withering fire drove it back to shelter in the nearby houses. Larrey took one glance As the battle faded out, Hapsburg canister fire knocked Colonel Pouget from his saddle. His regiment's surgeon and its music chief carried him back to the tete de pont where Surgeon Dominique Larrey, the army's senior medical officer, had established a field hospital. Larrey took one glance at Pouget's wound and said, "Well my dear colonel, there is a leg for me!" Napoleon's soldiers considered Larrey infallible. The army's medical community did not share this opinion. As soon as his porters conveyed Pouget out of Larrey's hearing, his regimental surgeon said that although he could not question his superior to his face, he believed Pouget could recover without amputation. So they carried the wounded colonel across the bridge to Lobau. Although Pouget would contract lockjaw and fever, and the wound would continue to pain him for the next 30 years, he recovered without losing his leg. Aspern Captured Encouraged by the capture of Aspern, at 7 P.M. Karl ordered Hohenzollern and the cavalry to advance against the French center and complete the victory. To counter this advance, Bessieres demanded that Espagne's weary cavalrymen charge again. So fearfully had the enemy's canister ravaged their ranks, that Espagne's cuirassiers could form but a single rank for the charge. The men of iron battled heroically, but were bested.
French chasseurs, as at left, coupled with a stubborn infantry defense and a poor Austrian plan, averted a French debacle at Aspern. Sketch © Keith Rocco.
To their aid came Marulaz's light cavalry, spearheaded by the only uncommitted French cavalry unit on the field, the 23rd Chasseurs a Cheval. Marulaz's troopers overcame Hohenzollern's cavalry screen only to become enmeshed in the solid Austrian battalion masses. Marulaz tumbled to the ground with another horse shot out from under him. While the balance of his troopers withdrew, a handful rallied to his calls for help. Although Marulaz lay nearly under the bayonets of the enemy masses, a gallant chasseur lieutenant rode to him, dismounted, and gave the general his horse thereby allowing Marulaz to escape.
Nearby, Lasalle mustered his troopers for a charge as well. Lasalle managed to defeat the first Hapsburg line, but the Blankenstein Hussars and Riesch Dragoons took Bruyere's brigade in flank, drove them back in fearful disorder, and captured numerous chasseurs of the 24th Regiment.
Displaying great tenacity, Bessieres rallied the remnants of his cavalry reserve and prepared to charge again. Fortunately, at this point, around 7 P.M., elements of Saint-Germain's fresh cuirassier brigadeŠthe first men to cross the repaired bridgeŠarrived to join him. Napoleon ordered his cavalry marshal to take all the surviving horsemen, form them into three columns, and charge. Bessieres used Saint-Germain's units to spearhead the effort. As had occurred repeatedly, this final charge overcame the first two Austrian lines only to run into the invincible Austrian battalion masses. Brought up short before the solid infantry masses, the French horse presented vulnerable flanks to Liechtenstein's troopers. The Austrian cavalry took advantage and sent the French reeling once more. Although defeated, Bessieres' charge had accomplished the task of checking the Austrian advance against the French middle.
The Battles Ebbs
Although several hours of twilight remained, both sides were fought out. Slowly the firing petered out. And so the first day's conflicts ended with Legrand holding the lower portion of Aspern while General Wacquant's two regiments held the church and cemetery.
It had been an extraordinary day, In Essling, Lannes's men had repulsed three more Austrian attacks and managed to cling to the upper village. All along the front, both sides withdrew a slight distance to cook rations and reform. So close were the rival positions in the two towns that fitful musket fire between outposts, and annoying Austrian howitzer fire, kept most from resting well. It had been an extraordinary day, the greatest battlefield peril Napoleon had encountered since Marengo. During the day's fighting Napoleon had exhibited signs both of genius and of a leader past his prime. He attended to important details, such as personally correcting the line of the bridgehead's fortifications, that lesser men would have overlooked. Yet he recklessly sent his army across a single insecure bridge and compounded this error by allowing it to be caught by a surprise assault in broad daylight. At Marengo, as on the Marchfeld, overconfidence had placed the army in a near untenable position, a situation narrowly retrieved by his men's devoted, tenacious fighting. On 21 May, as on that distant June day in Italy, Napoleon's soldiers had bought just enough time for reinforcements to arrive and save the day. The comparison to Marengo in 1800 applies to the Austrians as well. During that battle, as on this first day of Aspern-Essling, the inability of the Austrian high command to coordinate their attacks robbed the Hapsburg soldiers of the victory their gallant conduct deserved. Much of the blame was due to Karl's overly detailed attack plan, with its five columns and five advance guards. Moreover, there was little tradition of subordinate initiative in the Karl's army. Thus, while the infantry battered away against Aspern and Essling, Liechtenstein performed his duty of linking the Austrian Third and Fourth Columns, fended off Bessieres' periodic eruptions, but otherwise sat passive with his great cavalry reserve. Had he charged the French middle at the same time the infantry attacked the wings, the French could not have withstood the onslaught. As Karl retired to his headquarters at Breitenlee, he did not dwell on what might have been. Instead, he was well-pleased with the day's effort. Surely tomorrow would complete the victory. He issued orders to re-stock ammunition and bring up food and forage, and he demanded that his cavalry remain alert (the troopers were not to unsaddle their mounts, a painfully fatiguing experience for the horses), and told his scouts to watch carefully for the expected French retreat back to Lobau. Unbeknownst to Karl, Napoleon had no intention of retiring from the field. Overnight, substantial French reinforcements joined their battered comrades on the far shore: Lannes' 13,150-man corps, commanded by General Oudinot, consisting of Ebelsberg survivors and Saint-Hilaire's magnificent division; Demont's 4,264-man conscript division; Saint-Sulpice's cuirassier division with 2,462 men; another 86 artillery pieces; and best of all the 7,800 infantry of the Imperial Guard. Napoleon had hoped for more, but, during the night the bridge had again broken, leaving Davout's Corps, half of Nansouty's division, most of the Imperial Guard horse, and the allied formations stranded on the right bank. Still, these reinforcements gave the Emperor a total strength of about 58,000 infantry and cavalry and 144 artillery pieces. He judged that this would be enough. Allowing his men a mere three hours of repose before their sergeants dragged them back to the ranks, Napoleon ordered the Army of Germany to prepare a battle-winning offensive. End ExcerptPost Battle The Battle of Aspern-Essling raged on for another full day. Napoleon's morning offensive, on the 22nd, after gaining ground, lost momentum against a determined Austrian defense. Napoleon found himself in a dire position with his attack halted and the bridges behind him effectively cut. Sensing an unparalleled opportunity, the Austrians hammered at the precarious French position. The French suffered a terrible pounding on that long day, but held on and avoided complete disaster as they withdrew that night. This marked Napoleon's first defeat, and it was an expensive one. Among the thousands of casualties was Lannes, Napoleon's friend and possibly the best of his Marshals, who was mortally wounded.
The Austrian monument at Aspern church today shows alion with a French eagle dead under its claws, but the lion, too, has succumbed (a sword tip protrudes from its chest). An inscription reads: "In memory of the glorious Austrian warriors who fell on the 21st and 22nd of May, 1809."
With Napoleon's reputation as invincible now broken, the monarchies in Europe who celebrated his defeat looked for further proof of his decline. Napoleon, however, was far from defeated, and would furnish his enemies no further cause for optimism. He recovered from the setback at Aspern-Essling and re-crossed the Danube six weeks later, winning a decisive victory at Wagram on 5-6 July, 1809. This victory led directly to the armistice at Znaim and the Second Peace of Schonbrunn. Napoleon was again, for all intents, master of Europe.
About the Author:
Author of ten books on military history, James R. Arnold's previous book Crisis on the Danube was well-received. This excerpt, from his sequel Napoleon Conquers Austria, has also been highly praised [see review]. Taken in tandem, Arnold's two works provide a compelling narrative of the important 1809 campaign.
Part I: Flirting With Disaster More About Aspern
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