How Napoleon Beat The Odds At Austerlitz
The Battle of the Three Emperors 218 years ago today solidified French rule of Europe
It wasn’t long after Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor of the French that the rest of Europe tried to knock the crown off his head. In 1803, Great Britain declared war on Napoleonic France, but both combatants had a problem: Britain could not challenge France’s overwhelming military on land, and the French navy stood no chance against Britain’s ships, which guarded the English Channel against invasion attempts. While Napoleon’s troops trained for an invasion that would never materialize, Britain searched for allies to fight against her archenemy.
Napoleon the night before the Battle of Austerlitz, Louis-François, Baron Lejeune. Museum of the History of France, Palace of Versailles/Wikimedia.
Britain found willing allies on the continent, most importantly the emperors of Austria and Russia, who saw Napoleon as an illegitimate up-jumped ruler with no true claim to the imperial crown. They also yearned to avenge previous defeats inflicted on them by Revolutionary France and reassert their influence over Europe. To achieve this goal and crush the upstart French emperor, Britain, Austria, and Russia formed the Third Coalition (so named because it followed the failed First and Second Coalitions formed against France).
France’s army, the Grande Armée, was ready for war. Few armies at the time could stand up to it: it was led by Napoleon’s able hand, was devoted to its emperor, and had just spent an intensive period of training at the French port of Boulogne while waiting to invade Britain.
Perhaps most importantly, Napoleon had organized the Grande Armée according to a new and ingenious system. The army was divided into individual corps, each acting as a small army with contingents of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and support troops. This model allowed the corps to march independently of each other across a large area, using a wide network of roads and making it easier to live off the land. Experiencing fewer roadblocks and acquiring supplies on the go (instead of waiting for cumbersome supply wagons) meant Napoleon’s troops could march with an rapidity that frequently astonished their enemies.
Eve of the Battle of Austerlitz, 1805, Louis Albert Guislain Bacler d'Albe, 1808. Wikimedia.
That’s how Napoleon managed to march his troops from Boulogne to the Rhine, covering hundreds of miles in a single month to meet the new coalition’s threat.
The Austrian general Karl Mack von Leiberich, who would go down in history as the “the unfortunate General Mack,” was the first to face Napoleon, meeting him at Ulm in what is today southwestern Germany. Napoleon distracted Mack with cavalry skirmishes to his front while the vast majority of the French army embarked on a massive flanking maneuver behind Mack’s lines. Before the Austrian general knew what was happening, he was surrounded by Napoleon’s troops, his only path of retreat completely cut off.
More than 20,000 Austrian troops surrendered to the French with relatively negligible casualties on both sides, and Napoleon boasted that he “destroyed the Austrian army by simply marching.”
Napoleon continued his lightning campaign into Austrian territory, quickly capturing the Austrian capital of Vienna. But final success still eluded him as the main enemy force retreated east.
The surprise of the Danube bridge, November 14, 1805, Guillaume Guillon-Lethière. Palace of Versailles/Wikimedia.
The French emperor found his opportunity for a final decisive battle near the town of Austerlitz in Bohemia (the modern Czech Republic). The Austrians and Russians, now united into one large force that outnumbered the French, were ready to give battle. Napoleon, though he had eagerly sought out this fight, intentionally projected an image of weakness and hesitation. Before the clash, he not only evacuated his troops from the commanding high ground of the Pratzen Heights, he also signaled his intent to negotiate with the Allies. Napoleon met with an arrogant Russian envoy and deliberately put on a vacillating and cowardly demeanor. As related by the writer Alexander Mikaberidze, the Russian emissary, upon returning to his own lines, “stated all around that Napoleon trembled, and that even our advance guard would be sufficient to defeat him.” The Austrians and Russians took the bait, deciding to attack the French. Only the Russian general Mikhail Kutuzov was wary, urging caution, but his advice was ignored.
The fight began on the misty, cold morning of December 2—coincidentally, exactly a year after Napoleon’s coronation (a fact that raised the French soldiers’ morale).
The Austrians and Russians, having occupied the recently-vacated Pratzen Heights, saw the French army before them, and it seemed a pitiful sight—stretched out, outnumbered, and with a weak right flank. The Allies had only to swarm around the vulnerable French flank and destroy their opponents piecemeal.
The Battle of Austerlitz, 2nd December 1805. François Gérard. Palace of Versailles/Wikimedia.
As the coalition forces launched their attack, they seemed to enjoy some success. The fighting around the French right flank was fierce, and the Allies started making inroads into the French lines.
But they were playing right into Napoleon’s hands. Unbeknownst to the Austrians and Russians, one of Napoleon’s marshals, Louis-Nicolas Davout, had been force-marching his corps from miles away to rush reinforcements to the weakened flank, shoring up the French position. The Allies, expecting to swiftly sweep aside the French troops, found themselves stuck in a quagmire.
Things were about to become even worse. The main part of the French army was concealed in the center of the battle line, hidden from the Allies’ sight by the thick mist of that day. Expecting a beaten enemy, the Austro-Russian army instead suddenly saw thousands of French infantrymen appear seemingly out of nowhere and charge up the Pratzen Heights.
The battle for the high ground was brutal, but the French, wielding total surprise, seized the heights after hard fighting. The Allied position was now split in half: troops in the center fleeing for their lives, the troops on the Allied right flank cut off from their comrades on the other end of the battlefield, and the soldiers attacking the French right flank pinned down even as the Grande Armée troops came closing down like a vice around their back from the Pratzen Heights.
The frozen lake, Thomas Campbell, 19th century. Wikimedia.
As Allied soldiers escaped the carnage, many found themselves fleeing over a frozen lake that soon became the target of French artillery fire. French cannonballs tore through the ice and hundreds of fleeing troops fell into the freezing waters—though this action was not on the large scale sometimes imagined.
As the historian Andrew Roberts concludes, “A masterful plan, an appreciation of terrain, superb timing, a steady nerve, the discipline and training instilled at Boulogne, the corps system, exploitation of a momentary numerical advantage at the decisive point, tremendous esprit de corps . . . had given Napoleon the greatest victory of his career”.
The numbers were staggering. According to Napoleon scholar David Chandler, the Russians and Austrians suffered 27,000 casualties: dead, wounded, and captured. The French suffered roughly 9,000 casualties, which, though a significant toll, was much lower than that of the Allies.
Napoleon and Francis II after the battle, Antoine-Jean Gros, 1812. Palace of Versailles/Wikimedia.
When British prime minister William Pitt heard of Napoleon’s triumph, he pointed to a map of Europe and said: “Roll up that map: it will not be wanted these ten years.”
He was correct. Victory solidified Napoleon’s position as emperor, shattered the Third Coalition, and redrew the map of Europe. Though Russian forces withdrew to fight another day, Austria capitulated, signing a peace treaty that gave up significant Austrian territory as well as Austrian influence over Germany. Napoleon used the opportunity to reform the many German states that existed at that time into the Confederation of the Rhine—essentially a French vassal that acted as a buffer against Napoleon’s eastern enemies.
Napoleon would go on to win many more famous victories, such as Jena, Friedland, Wagram, and Dresden. But the battle of Austerlitz—also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors—is justly remembered as his greatest triumph. Outnumbered and deep within enemy territory, Napoleon still managed to score a crushing victory and prove why he is one of history’s greatest military geniuses.