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Battle of Mariazell | |||||||
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Part of the Napoleonic Wars | |||||||
Mariazell as it appeared around 1900 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
France | Austrian Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Étienne Heudelet | 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 |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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