Battle of Mariazell

Last updated

Battle of Mariazell
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
Mariazell-09587u.jpg
Mariazell as it appeared around 1900
Date8 November 1805
Location 47°46′23″N15°18′59″E / 47.7731°N 15.3164°E / 47.7731; 15.3164
Result French victory
Belligerents
Flag of France.svg France Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy.svg  Austrian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Flag of France.svg Étienne Heudelet Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor (after 1400).svg Count of Merveldt
Units involved
III Corps (Grande Armée) Merveldt's Corps
Strength
3,800 4,000
Casualties and losses
Light 4,000 [1]
16 guns
Battle of Mariazell
Invisible Square.svg
Invisible Square.svg
Mapscaleline.svg
100km
62miles
Austerlitz
7
Invisible Square.svg
6
Invisible Square.svg
5
Invisible Square.svg
4
Invisible Square.svg
3
2
Invisible Square.svg
  current battle
  Napoleon in command
  Napoleon not in command

The Battle of Mariazell or Battle of Grossraming (8 November 1805) saw the advance guard of the French III Corps attack a retreating Austrian force led by Maximilian, Count of Merveldt. The action occurred during the War of the Third Coalition, which is part of the Napoleonic Wars. Mariazell is located in the Austrian province of Styria, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of St. Pölten.

Contents

Battle

The advance guard, led by Étienne Heudelet de Bierre, overwhelmed their demoralized enemies, capturing about half of them. Marshal Louis Davout commanded the III Corps.

The 1805 war began with the Ulm Campaign, which was disastrous for Austria, with only the corps of Michael von Kienmayer and Franz Jellacic escaping envelopment by the Grande Armée of Napoleon. As Kienmayer's columns fled to the east, they joined with elements of the Russian Empire's army in a rear guard action at the Battle of Amstetten on 5 November. Davout's III Corps caught up with Merveldt's division at Mariazell a few days later. The Austrian soldiers, their morale shaken by continuous retreating, were routed after a brief struggle.

Aftermath

On 12 November, Austria's capital Vienna fell to the French without a fight. The Battle of Austerlitz would decide the war's outcome in early December.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Austerlitz</span> 1805 battle of the Napoleonic Wars

The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in the Austrian Empire. Around 158,000 troops were involved, of which around 24,000 were killed or wounded. The battle is often cited by military historians as one of Napoleon's tactical masterpieces, in the same league as other historic engagements like Cannae or Gaugamela. The military victory of Napoleon's Grande Armée at Austerlitz brought the War of the Third Coalition to an end, with the Peace of Pressburg signed by the French and Austrians later in the month. These achievements did not establish a lasting peace on the continent. Austerlitz had driven neither Russia nor Britain, whose armies protected Sicily from a French invasion, to settle. Prussian resistance to the growing power of French military invasions in Central Europe led to the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Eckmühl</span> 1809 battle of the War of the Fifth Coalition

The Battle of Eckmühl fought on 22 April 1809, was the turning point of the 1809 Campaign, also known as the War of the Fifth Coalition. Napoleon I had been unprepared for the start of hostilities on 10 April 1809, by the Austrians under Archduke Charles of Austria and for the first time since assuming the French Imperial Crown had been forced to give up the strategic initiative to an opponent. Thanks to the dogged defense waged by the III Corps, commanded by Marshal Davout, and the Bavarian VII Corps, commanded by Marshal Lefebvre, Napoleon was able to defeat the principal Austrian army and wrest the strategic initiative for the remainder of the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War of the Third Coalition</span> 1805–1806 conflict during the Napoleonic Wars

The War of the Third Coalition was a European conflict lasting from 1805 to 1806 and was the first conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. During the war, France and its client states under Napoleon I and its ally Spain opposed an alliance, the Third Coalition, which was made up of the United Kingdom, the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire, Naples, Sicily, and Sweden. Prussia remained neutral during the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Jena–Auerstedt</span> 1806 pair of battles during the War of the Fourth Coalition

The twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt were fought on 14 October 1806 on the plateau west of the river Saale in today's Germany, between the forces of Napoleon I of France and Frederick William III of Prussia, at the outset of the War of the Fourth Coalition during the Napoleonic Wars. The defeat suffered by the Prussian Army subjugated the Kingdom of Prussia to the French Empire until the Sixth Coalition was formed in 1813.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ulm</span> 1805 battle during the War of the Third Coalition

The Battle of Ulm on 16–19 October 1805 was a series of skirmishes, at the end of the Ulm Campaign, which allowed Napoleon I to trap an entire Austrian army under the command of Karl Freiherr Mack von Leiberich with minimal losses and to force its surrender near Ulm in the Electorate of Bavaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Caldiero (1805)</span> 1805 Battle during the War of the Third Coalition

The Battle of Caldiero took place on 30 October 1805, pitting the French Armée d'Italie under Marshal André Masséna against an Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. The French engaged only some of their forces, around 33,000 men, but Archduke Charles engaged the bulk of his army, 49,000 men, leaving out Paul Davidovich's corps to defend the lower Adige and Franz Seraph of Orsini-Rosenberg's corps to cover the Austrian right against any flanking maneuvers. The fighting took place at Caldiero, 15 kilometres east of Verona, during the War of the Third Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War of the Fifth Coalition</span> 1809 conflict during the Napoleonic Wars

The War of the Fifth Coalition was a European conflict in 1809 that was part of the Napoleonic Wars and the Coalition Wars. The main conflict took place in Central Europe between the Austrian Empire of Francis I and Napoleon's French Empire. The French were supported by their client states—the Kingdom of Italy, the Confederation of the Rhine and the Duchy of Warsaw. Austria was supported by the Fifth Coalition which included the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, and the Kingdoms of Sardinia and Sicily, although the latter two took no part in the fighting. By the start of 1809 much of the French army was committed to the Peninsular War against Britain, Spain and Portugal. After France withdrew 108,000 soldiers from Germany, Austria attacked France to seek the recovery of territories lost in the 1803–1806 War of the Third Coalition. The Austrians hoped Prussia would support them, having recently been defeated by France, but Prussia chose to remain neutral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Teugen-Hausen</span> 1809 battle during the War of the Fifth Coalition

The Battle of Teugen-Hausen or the Battle of Thann was an engagement that occurred during the War of the Fifth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was fought on 19 April 1809 between the French III Corps led by Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout and the Austrian III Armeekorps commanded by Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. When the Austrians withdrew that evening, the French won a hard-fought victory over their opponents. The site of the battle is a wooded height approximately halfway between the villages of Teugn and Hausen in Lower Bavaria, part of modern-day Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Haslach-Jungingen</span> 1805 Battle during the War of the Third Coalition

The Battle of Haslach-Jungingen, also known as the Battle of Albeck, fought on 11 October 1805 at Ulm-Jungingen north of Ulm at the Danube between French and Austrian forces, was part of the War of the Third Coalition, which was a part of the greater Napoleonic Wars. The outcome of this battle was a French victory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ebelsberg</span> 1809 battle of the War of the Fifth Coalition

The Battle of Ebelsberg, known in French accounts as the Battle of Ebersberg, was fought on 3 May 1809 during the War of the Fifth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The Austrian left wing under the command of Johann von Hiller took up positions at Ebersberg on the Traun river. The French under André Masséna attacked, crossing a heavily defended 550-meter-long bridge and subsequently conquering the local castle, thus forcing Hiller to withdraw. Ebelsberg is now a southern suburb of Linz, situated on the south bank of the Traun, a short distance above the place where that stream flows into the Danube River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Dürenstein</span> 1805 battle of the Napoleonic Wars

The Battle of Dürenstein or the Battle of Krems, on 11 November 1805, was an engagement in the Napoleonic Wars during the War of the Third Coalition. Dürenstein, Austria, is located in the Wachau valley, on the river Danube, 73 kilometers (45 mi) upstream from Vienna, Austria. The river makes a crescent-shaped curve between Dürnstein and nearby Krems an der Donau, and the battle was fought in the flood plain between the river and the mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulm campaign</span> 1805 campaign during the War of the Third Coalition

The Ulm campaign was a series of French and Bavarian military maneuvers and battles to outflank and capture an Austrian army in 1805 during the War of the Third Coalition. It took place in the vicinity of and inside the Swabian city of Ulm. The French Grande Armée, led by Napoleon, had 210,000 troops organized into seven corps and hoped to knock out the Austrian army in the Danube before Russian reinforcements could arrive. Rapid marching let Napoleon conduct a large wheeling maneuver, which captured an Austrian army of 60,000 under General Mack on 20 October at Ulm. The campaign is by some military historians regarded as a strategic masterpiece and was influential in the development of the Schlieffen Plan in the late 19th century. Napoleon himself wrote:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Schöngrabern</span> 1805 Battle during the War of the Third Coalition

The Battle of Schöngrabern, also known as the Battle of Hollabrunn, was an engagement in the Napoleonic Wars during the War of the Third Coalition, fought on 16 November 1805 near Hollabrunn in Lower Austria, four weeks after the Battle of Ulm and two weeks before the Battle of Austerlitz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael von Kienmayer</span> Austrian general (1756–1828)

Michael von Kienmayer was an Austrian general. Kienmayer joined the army of the Habsburg monarchy and fought against the Kingdom of Prussia and Ottoman Turkey. During the French Revolutionary Wars, he continued to make his reputation in the cavalry and became a general officer. In the War of the Second Coalition and the Napoleonic Wars he commanded both divisions and corps. He was appointed Proprietor (Inhaber) of an Austrian cavalry regiment in 1802 and held this honor until his death. Later he was the governor of Galicia, Transylvania, and Moravia.

The I Corps of the Grande Armée was a French military unit that existed during the Napoleonic Wars. Though disbanded in 1814, following the Treaty of Fontainebleau, it was reformed in April 1815 following the return of Napoléon during the Hundred Days. During the Hundred Days, the corps formed part of the quickly re-formed Army of the North.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maximilian, Count of Merveldt</span> Austrian diplomat and general (1764–1815)

Maximilian, Count von Merveldt, among the most famous of an illustrious old Westphalian family, entered Habsburg military service, rose to the rank of General of Cavalry, served as Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor's ambassador to Russia, and became special envoy extraordinaire to the Court of St. James's. He fought with distinction in the wars between the Habsburg and the Ottoman empires, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Günzburg</span> 1805 battle during the War of the Third Coalition

The Battle of Günzburg on 9 October 1805 saw General of Division Jean-Pierre Firmin Malher's French division attempt to seize a crossing over the Danube River at Günzburg in the face of a Habsburg Austrian army led by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Karl Mack von Lieberich. Malher's division managed to capture a bridge and hold it against Austrian counterattacks. The battle occurred during the War of the Third Coalition, part of the larger Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Antoine de Beaumont</span> French nobleman

Marc-Antoine de Beaumont a French nobleman, became a page to the king and joined the army of the Old Regime. He stayed in the army during the French Revolution and narrowly escaped being executed. During the French Revolutionary Wars he fought in the 1796 Italian campaign under Napoleon Bonaparte, leading the cavalry at Lodi and Castiglione. In 1799 he was wounded in Italy but fought there again in late 1800.

Karl Daniel Gottfried Wilhelm von Stutterheim, born 6 August 1770 – died 13 December 1811, served in the Prussian and Saxon armies during the French Revolutionary Wars, leaving the latter service in 1798. He spent most of his career in the army of Habsburg Austria and the Austrian Empire. He commanded a brigade in combat against the First French Empire during the 1805 and 1809 wars. In the latter conflict, he led his troops with dash and competence. He authored two histories about the wars; the second work remained unfinished due to his suicide in 1811.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capitulation of Dornbirn</span> 1805 battle during the War of the Third Coalition

The Capitulation of Dornbirn saw the French VII Corps under Marshal Pierre Augereau face an Austrian force led by Franz Jellacic. Isolated near Lake Constance (Bodensee) by superior numbers of French troops, Jellacic surrendered his command. The event occurred during the War of the Third Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Dornbirn is located in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg, about 12 kilometres (7 mi) south of Bregenz at the eastern end of Lake Constance.

References

Notes

  1. Bodart 1908, p. 368.

Cited and general sources