Slavkov u Brna - Austerlitz
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Slavkov u Brna - Austerlitz |
[Prologue] [Three armies,
two strategies] [Description of the armies] [Before the Battle]
[The Battle] [Tradition]
The battle ended and night descended upon the battlefield. In the course of their flight, the Austrian Emperor and the Russian Tzar arrived at Zarosice, where they were forced to spend the night. The Emperor Francis I resignedly accepted the catastrophe at Austerlitz and sent his general, Prince John, the Duke of Liechtenstein, to Napoleon with an offer of surrender. The Russian Tzar, however, had no intention of negotiating with the victor. What was important for the Tzar was to get his army as quickly as possible on to Hungarian soil and to just as quickly forget this disgraceful defeat. The following day, the Tzar retreated beyond the Morava River as far as Holic, where he met with his generals, including Kutuzov. The Austrian emperor, who was in a situation which required negotiation with the victor, set up camp in Cejc and waited for the results of the Duke of Liechtenstein's negotiations.
Nightfall reached Napoleon on the battlefield near Ujezd. After the last shots had echoed, the French emperor, together with the marshals Soult and Berthier and accompained by his retinue, set off on his return journey across the battlefield towards the Olomouc Road. During this night ride across the field of dead and wounded, he ordered his soldiers to light fires and gather the wounded together around these fires. The squadron which was accompanying him, spent the whole night taking coats off the dead Russians and covering the wounded with them.
Later that night, or rather in the early morning hours, Napoleon arrived at the post office in Pozorice, which had only shortly before been taken from Bagration by Murat and Lannes. Here the emperor fell, exhausted, on a bale of straw and immediately went to sleep. He was, however, soon awakened by his aide-de-camp, who informed him of the arrival of the Duke of Liechtenstein. Napoleon listened to the Austrian negotiator and accepted his capitulation. Liechtenstein said, "Your Highness, there is nothing more to conquer. Your victory is so complete, that there is nothing more to add to it. Only peace can add to your further glory."
Napoleon lay down and fell asleep for another couple of hours. He got up at seven o'clock, received the latest reports on the situation and gave new orders to Marshal Berthier. That morning, the emperor decided to relocate his headquarters to the nearby chateau at Austerlitz, which belonged to the Kounitz family. He had decided to do this for both practical and prestigous reasons. He had been informed by Liechtenstein that both the Russian and Austrian emperors had slept in the chateau before the battle. This was another reason for Napoleon to set up camp there. The chateau is a large, presentable, baroque building with a park, which offered sufficient comfort for him and his entire headquarters staff.
Beginning on Tuesday, December 3rd, Napoleon stayed in Austerlitz, where he would maintain his headquarters for several days. Finally, he put his sword aside and exchanged it for a pen, in order to conduct diplomacy for a while. His first worry was what to call the battle, which he had only shortly before won.
It will be the bataille d'Austerlitz [the Battle of Slavkov] , and no one will ever change it, in spite of the fact that the battlefield is actually located in front of Brno, while Austerlitz is situated to one side. Soon, it was the sun of Austerlitz which began to be talked about. This would become the symbol of victory for the French.
In Austerlitz, Napoleon also dictated the first official news for Paris and instructions and orders for his generals and diplomats. Here, he also finished a proclamation for his soldiers, which would soon be pronounced:
"Soldiers! I am pleased with you. That day at Austerlitz you met the expectations which I had placed upon your dautlessness. You have crowned your battalions in eternal glory. An army of a hundred thousand men, commanded by the Russian and Austrian emperors, was shattered in less than four hours. Those who escaped your weapons, drowned in the lakes. The results of this most glorious day has brought us forty battalions, the standards of the Russian Imperial Guard, a 120 cannons, twenty generals and over thirty thousand prisoners of war. The highly reputed Russian cavalry failed, in spite of their numerical superiority, to halt your onslaught. There are now no enemies which you should fear. The third coallition has been defeated and destroyed in two months. Peace is near. But, as I had promised to my people before I crossed the Rhine, I will only agree to such a peace, which will guarantee for me and my allies satisfactory reparations.
Soldiers! When the French Nation put the emperor's crown on my head, I had hoped that you would continue its glory, which is, for me, its only value. However, at the same time, our enemies wanted to destroy and humiliate this crown. They wanted to force me to put this iron crown, which was acquired only with the blood of so many French people, on the head of our cruelist enemy. But you have stopped and thwarted their arrogant and nonsensical intentions on the very day of the anniversary of your emperor's coronation. You have shown that it is easier to be disdainful and threaten us than it is to defeat us. Soldiers! When I have completed all that is necessary to ensure the happiness and welfare of our Motherland, I will lead you back to France. There you will be the object of my kindest care. My nation will welcome you with joy. It will be enough for you to say: "I fought at Austerlitz," and everyone will respond: "There is a hero!"
At our Imperial Headquarters, Austerlitz, 12 Frimair, Year XIV
Napoleon".
This proclamation is a typical example of Napoleon's style: lofty phrasing and words resounding like bells. However, a person looking for historical facts in his proclamation, would be on thin ice. The number of enemy killed, imprisoned and drowned in the lakes (or rather in the two shallow ponds) are not statistical data but propagandistic slogans.
The dating of the event is also worth notice. In 1805 , France was still using the revolutionary calendar dating from 1793. The revolution had ended and its remnants were the tricouleur and this calendar. According to this calendar, the victorious Battle of Austerlitz was fought on the 11th of Frimair in the year XIV. Napoleon, however, would abandon even this revolutionary survival and beginning on January 1, 1806, France went back to the traditional calendar. It is also worth mentioning that the Russians, who were still using the Julian calendar, dated the battle November 20, 1805. This meant that it was only the Austrian army, which observed the Gregorian calendar, who fought the battle on December 2, 1805.
The losses at the Battle of Austerlitz were uncountable. In the course of a short, winter day, some 15 ,000 men, on both sides, died. This is, however, just a rough estimate. The exact numbers are not available. And even if they were, they would be distorted because hundreds and thousands of the wounded died during the following days from lack of proper care and assistance. Moreover, a typhoid epidemic began to spread, which affected both the soldiers and the civilian population. The winter was very mild at the beginning of December and as a result, the epidemic spread rapidly and afflicted Brno and a wide, surrounding region. The epidemic only receded around Christmastime, when frosts finally began.
It was the Russians who suffered the heaviest losses. In February, 1806 , General Kutuzov personally reported, in detail, the heavy losses to the Tzar Alexander. According to the report, the Russian army lost at the battle 55 senior officers, 437 junior officers, 954 non-commissioned officers, 432 musicians, 17,493 soldiers and 515 members of non-combat units, for a total of 19,886 men. This total represents, however, the dead, wounded, imprisioned and missing, that is to say, not only those who had been killed. Data on the losses of the Imperial Guard are missing.
The Austrian army had a total of 5,922 men killed, wounded, captured or missing.
Precise information on French losses is also available. The French General Headquarters, counted the losses at 8,694 men, of which 1,389 had been killed and 7,260 wounded.
After the Austrian capitulation, offered to the French emperor by the Duke of Liechtenstein, intense peace negotiations began. First, it was necessary to negotiate an armistice and that is why, two days after the battle, on Wednesday, December 4, Napoleon and the Austrian Emperor Francis met. The meeting place was Spaleny mlyn (Burnt Mill), near Nasedlovice, on the road from Austerlitz to Hodonin. The two emperors met under an old linden tree and spent approximately an hour in confidential conversation, during which they decided the basic conditions for peace. Privy to this conversation, for the Austrians was the Duke of Liechtenstein and for the French was Marshal Berthier, who two days later, in the great hall of the chateau at Austerlitz, signed the Franco-Austrian armistice. This armistice delimited the demarcation line which would divide the French and Austrian armies in Moravia and other lands of the monarchy. The Russians, who did not participate in the negotiations, were ordered to clear out within 15 days, from the Austrian states, especially from Moravia and Hungary and within one month from Halic. The conditions for peace would be negotiated later and in a different place.
Diplomatic negotiations went on during the following days in Brno and were then transferred to Bratislava when the typhoid epidemic struck Brno. So it happened, that the peace treaty which ended the war of the third anti-French coallition, was signed on December 26 , 1805 , at the Primate's palace in Bratislava. The conditions of the treaty were very hard on Austria. Austria was required to give up Venice, Istria and Dalmatia to Napoleon. The French allies, Bavaria and Wurttemberg, were elevated to the status of kingdoms and Baden to a Grand Duchy. The French also gained the scattered Habsburg holdings in Swabia, the whole of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The Austrian emperor lost, as a result, 63,000 square kilometers of territory and almost three million subjects. In addition, Austria had to pay 140 million francs in war reparations.
Napoleon, who had proclaimed himself the guarantor of the sovereignity of Bavaria, Wurttemberg and Baden, thus took over the functions of the Habsburgs in the German reich. As a consequence, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist and its place was soon taken by the Confederation of the Rhine, which was dependent on France. The peace treaty signed in Bratislava gave Europe a new form.
This first news of the victorious battle arrived in Paris on December 9. First it was Paris which rejoiced in the victory and soon bells all over France pealed and cannonades thundered in honor of the great triumph. In the capitol, which until this moment, had had an atmosphere of strain, awaiting developments, a sigh of relief was breathed. The name of the battle was enscribed onto the stone face of this city on the Seine. A new bridge across the river was named Pont d'Austerlitz and the same name was given to the adjacent embankment (Quai d'Austerlitz) and to the railway station (Gare d'Austerlitz) which was later constructed in the vicinity. These names remain the same today. The two senior French officers who were killed at Austerlitz also have their places here: the square in front of the railway station is the Place Valhubert and across the river, is Boulevard Morland, which leads towards the center of the city. Shortly after the battle, the sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet created a monumental column commemorating Austerlitz in the Place Vendomme, which was cast from cannons captured during the Campaign of 1805.
The Battle of Austerlitz went down as a battle unprecedented in military history. One could hardly find a battle prior to 1805 where a 170,000 men encountered each other at the same time. Napoleon, however, broke his own records. Austerlitz was followed by Borodino, Leipzig and Waterloo. Even more soldiers and even more casualties. However, the Battle of Austerlitz ranks first among Napoleon's battles for one reason, i.e., it is a textbook example of Napoleonic strategy and tactics. The French emperor played out, over a comparatively large area, a tactical game with a stronger adversary, initiating a chess match, in which every move had a premeditated significance and forced the enemy to react within the limits of Napoleon's plan. This game went almost perfectly according to plan. Ten years later, at Waterloo, Napoleon encountered an adversary who had mastered his methods and had become an equal in terms of strategy and tactics. Waterloo was a battle in which absolutely everything was in play and in which both parties wagered everything on one play of the cards. Victory or death. In an area smaller than the battlefield at Austerlitz, twice as many men met. There was no place for tactical play. The battle rather resembled the collision of two fast moving trains. It was, symbolically, the last stop on the bloody track of the Napoleonic wars.