After the bloody conflicts of Essling and Aspern, Napoleon remained
stationary for a considerable time. The Archduke, uneasy at the
movements of Marshal Davoust before Presburg, dared not assume the
offensive, and employed himself in fortifying his position between
Aspern and Ebersdorf. Napoleon labored at the reconstruction of the
bridges, and the communication between the island and the right bank was
re-established. Soon afterwards, the Emperor learned that the army of
Italy, under the command of Prince Eugene, had defeated the Austrians,
and that the victors had effected a junction with the army of Germany,
on the heights of Simmering. On the 14th of June, the Prince gained
another victory over the Austrians at Raab. Marmont, after some
successes in Dalmatia, came to re-unite himself with the Grand Army, and
to place himself within the circle of the Emperor’s operations.
Napoleon’s eagle eye saw that the moment for a decisive stroke had
arrived, and he immediately began the advance movement, which led to the
famous battle of Wagram.
About ten o’clock at night, on the 4th of July, the French began to
cross the Danube. Gunboats, prepared for the purpose, silenced some of
the Austrian batteries. Others were avoided by passing the river out of
reach of their fire, which the French were enabled to do by their new
bridges. At daybreak, on the morning of the 5th, the Archduke Charles
was astonished to see the whole French army on the left bank of the
Danube, and so posted as to render the fortifications which he had
constructed with so much labor utterly useless for defence.
Greatly frightened at the progress of the French army, and at the great
results obtained by it, almost without effort, the Archduke ordered all
the troops to march, and at six o’clock in the evening, occupied the
following position:—the right, from Stradelau to Gerasdorf; the centre,
from Gerasdorf to Wagram, and the left, from Wagram to Neusiedel. The
French army had their left at Gros-Aspern, their centre at Rachsdorf,
and their right at Glinzendorf. In this position, the day had almost
closed, and a great battle was expected on the morrow; but this would be
avoided, and the position of the enemy destroyed, by preventing them
from conceiving any system, if, in the night, possession were taken of
Wagram; then their line, already immense, taken by surprise and exposed
to the chances of battle, would allow the different bodies of the army
to err without order or directions, and they would thus become an easy
prey without any serious engagement. The attack on Wagram took place;
the French carried this place; but a column of Saxons and another of
French mistook each other in the obscurity for hostile troops, and so
the operation failed.
When the bloody and indecisive struggle was relinquished for the night,
only one house was left standing of the village of Wagram, which had
been taken and retaken, and at length destroyed by the furious
cannonade.
As the movement designed by the Emperor had failed, it remained to
prepare for the struggle of the next day. It appeared that the
dispositions of the French and Austrian generals was reversed. The
Emperor passed the whole night in strengthening his centre, where he was
in person within cannon-shot of Wagram. To effect this, the lion-hearted
Massena marched to the left of Aderklau, leaving a single division at
Aspern, which had orders to fall back if hard pressed, upon the island
of Lobau. The intrepid and inexorable Davoust received orders to leave
the village of Grosshoffen to approach the centre. The Austrian general,
on the contrary, committed the time-condemned error of weakening his
centre in order to strengthen his wings. All night could be seen the
far-extending lines of the blazing fires, which seemed to join each
other in the distance; and all night could be heard the heavy tread of
the troops, marching to take up positions under the vigilant eye of the
Emperor. Brave, confident hearts, how many of them were destined to be
swept to earth by the storm of the Austrian artillery!
At length, the day of the 6th dawned upon the plain of Wagram, and
exhibited the two vast bodies of men, whose accoutrements glittered in
the light, who were about to be hurled together in deadly conflict. At
the first peep of day, Bernadotte occupied the left, leaving Massena in
the second line. Prince Eugene, with the laurels of Raab freshly
enwreathing his brow, connected him with the centre, where the corps of
Oudinot, Marmont, those of the imperial guard, and the divisions of the
cuirassiers, formed eight lines of battle-scarred veterans, eager for
the fray. Davoust marched from the right in order to reach the centre.
The enemy, on the contrary, ordered the corps of Bellegarde to march
upon Stradelau. The corps of Colowrath, Lichtenstein, and Hiller,
connected this right with the position of Wagram, where the Prince of
Hohenzollern was, and to the extremity of the left, at Neusiedel, to
which extended the corps of Rosemberg, in order to fall upon Davoust.
The corps of Rosemberg and that of Davoust, making an inverse movement,
met with the first rays of the sun, and gave the signal for battle. The
Emperor made immediately for this point, reinforced Davoust with the
divisions of cuirassiers, and took the corps of Rosemberg in flank with
a battery of twelve pieces of General Count Nansouty. In less than three
quarters of an hour, the fine corps of Davoust had defeated Rosemberg’s
troop, and driven it beyond Neusiedel, with great loss.
In the meantime the cannonade commenced throughout the line, and the
dispositions of the enemy became developed every moment; the whole of
their left was studded with artillery; one would have said that the
Austrian general was not fighting for the victory, but that the only
object he had in view, was how to profit by it. This disposition of the
enemy appeared so absurd, that some snare was dreaded, and the Emperor
hesitated some time before ordering the easy dispositions which he had
to make, in order to annul those of the enemy, and render them fatal to
him. He ordered Massena to make an attack on a village occupied by the
foe, and which somewhat pressed the extremity of the centre of the army.
He ordered Davoust to turn the position of Neusiedel, and to push from
thence upon Wagram; and bade Massena and General Macdonald form in
column, in order to carry Wagram the moment Davoust should march upon
it.
While this was going forward, word was brought that the enemy was
furiously attacking the village which Massena had carried; that the left
had advanced about three thousand yards; that a heavy cannonade was
already heard at Gross-Aspern, and that the interval from Gros-Aspern to
Wagram appeared covered by an immense line of artillery. It could no
longer be doubted: the enemy had committed an enormous fault, and it
only remained to profit by it. The Emperor immediately ordered General
Macdonald to dispose the divisions of Broussier and Lamarque in
attacking columns; they were supported by the division of General
Nansouty, by the horse guards, and by a battery of sixty pieces of the
guard and forty pieces of different corps. General Count de Lauriston,
at the head of this battery of a hundred pieces of artillery, galloped
towards the enemy, advanced without firing to within half cannon-shot,
and then commenced a prodigious cannonade which soon silenced that of
the enemy, and carried death into their ranks. General Macdonald marched
forward to the charge. And such a charge had never before been witnessed
upon the field of battle. Macdonald advanced, as it were, in the face of
a volcano pouring forth a red tide of death. Whole squadrons were swept
to the earth, but, led by a man without fear, the guards never even
faltered; but on, on—still on—they advanced, like a decree of fate,
which nothing could check. To sustain them, Bessieres charged with the
cavalry of the old guard, but was hurled from his horse by a
cannon-shot, which damped the enthusiasm of his troops, and rendered
their onset weak. Napoleon, who, riding on a splendid white charger, was
a conspicuous mark for the balls of the enemy, seeing his faithful
Bessieres fall, turned away, saying, “Let us avoid another scene!”
alluding to the incidents attending the death of the illustrious Lannes.
But Macdonald continued his rapid advance, attacked and broke the centre
of the Austrians, and captured their guns. But here he was compelled to
halt; the column which he had led to the charge had been reduced to
between two and three thousand effective men. Its path was piled with
the slain. But the centre of the enemy was broken. Their right, seized
with a panic, fell back in haste, and Massena then attacked in front,
while Davoust, who had carried Neusiedel and Wagram, attacked and
penetrated the left. It was but ten o’clock, and yet the victory already
clung to the eagles of the French. From that time until noon, the
Archduke only fought for a safe retreat. The French continued to gain
ground; until, when the sun had reached the meridian, the dispirited
Austrian general gave the order for retreat. The French pursued. But
Murat, to Napoleon’s regret, was not at the head of the cavalry, and
many of the advantages of such a glorious victory were lost. Long before
night’s shadows descended, the Austrians were out of sight, and the
French encamped upon the field of their victory, although the cavalry
had posts advanced as far as Soukirchen.
At dark, the Emperor could sum up the results of this terrible battle,
in which between three and four hundred thousand men, with from twelve
to fifteen hundred pieces of artillery, did the work of death. Ten
flags, forty pieces of cannon, twenty thousand prisoners, of whom three
or four hundred were officers, were the trophies. Besides these, the
Austrians left upon the field about nine thousand men wounded, and an
immense number of slain. The Archduke himself was wounded in this bloody
struggle. The French had suffered a severe loss. Besides a great number
of brave men who had been swept into the sea of death by the storm of
the Austrian artillery, there were six thousand wounded, among whom were
Marshal Bessieres, and the Generals Sahuc, Seras, Defranc, Grenier,
Vignoble and Frere.
It was a fitting time to do honor to the unrivalled commanders of the
army. Macdonald had been in a kind of disgrace. But the Emperor now
forgot all but his unequalled charge. He advanced to that intrepid
general, and said, “Shake hands, Macdonald; no more animosity between
us: let us henceforth be friends!” That night, by the camp-fire of
Wagram, three new marshals of the empire were created, viz.:—Macdonald,
Oudinot and Marmont.
The troops were excessively fatigued, and were glad when they received
orders from the Emperor to cease the pursuit, and bivouac on the plain
of Wagram. The Emperor then entered his tent to seek repose. But he had
not tasted its sweets more than half an hour, when an aid-de-camp came
in hurriedly, crying, “Up! up! to arms!” This cry was caught up and
repeated throughout the whole army, startling the quiet night. “In five
minutes,” says the author of Travels in Moravia, “the troops were in
position and ready for action, and the Emperor was on horseback, with
all his generals around him. This rapid and regular movement was
unparalleled. And certainly it was an astonishing display of perfect
discipline and promptitude. The cause of this alarm was the approach of
an Austrian corps, numbering three thousand men, under the Archduke
John. But that body, having failed in an attempt at surprise, retreated,
and the French returned to their bivouacs, much amused with the incident
of the night. In a short time, all was silent again upon the bloody
plain of Wagram.
Then followed the treaty of Schœnbrunn, which once more prostrated
the coalition, and secured Maria Louisa, a daughter of the proud house
of Hapsburg-Lorraine, in the place of the beloved Josephine, as Empress
of France. Thus the child of the people had conquered an alliance with
the daughter of emperors.
[Illustration]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: MURAT.]