Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Eagles of Europe (39 page)

When Ermolov returned and crossed the Rausnitz stream he found Uvarov’s command still in great disarray at the foot of the hill held by the Russian Guard Grenadiers. With them now stood the tsar, prompting Ermolov to observe that ‘there were no confidants present, on his face there was a look of supreme grief, and his eyes were filled with tears.’

Bagration continued his withdrawal in the face of ceaseless French cavalry attacks and artillery bombardment, drawing back across the Brünn-Olmütz road onto high ground overlooking it between Welleschowitz and Rausnitz. The Pavlograd Hussars suffered at the hands of the French cavalry as they protected this final move, but their sacrifice gained enough time for Bagration to take up this new position. Lannes and Murat now advanced to occupy the position abandoned by Bagration north of the Posoritz post house and found themselves in possession of row upon row of Russian knapsacks. It was the habit of the Russian soldier to take off his knapsack before entering battle to allow more freedom of movement, leaving behind him all his meagre personal belongings.
¹⁷
But if the French soldiers expected to find luxuries and warm clothing they were disappointed. Captaine Lejeune, Berthier’s ADC, reported that each bag contained only:

‘triptych reliquaries, each containing an image of St Christopher carrying the infant Saviour over the water, with an equal number of pieces of black bread containing a good deal more straw and bran than barley or wheat. Such was the sacred and simple baggage of the Russians!’
¹⁸

Bagration must have been wondering just how long he could continue to hold his force together against these constant French attacks when help arrived. Advancing down the road from Olmütz with all speed appeared an Austrian artillery officer, Major Frierenberger, at the head of a column of twelve guns. As he came level with Welleschowitz he turned off and positioned his guns on the high ground rising to the north of the road. The official Austrian account of the incident continues the story:

‘The army he faced was a victorious one. It had deployed at the Posoritz post house, and was now in full advance, firing with its powerful artillery against whatever Russian troops and batteries came into view. The Austrian battery now opened up in its turn
against the main battery of the French and their leading troops. The Austrians shot with such extraordinary skill that they compelled the enemy to pull back their batteries in a matter of minutes. Some of the hostile pieces were silenced altogether, and the advance of the whole French left wing was held back.’
¹⁹

The battle on the northern flank now ground to a halt. Lannes and Murat had expected an almost unopposed advance but became embroiled in a lengthy and costly duel that had lasted almost three hours. In the face of the resolute defence now offered by these fresh Austrian guns, with their own ammunition supplies almost completely expended and their cavalry exhausted, the two corps forming the French left wing halted, and like Bernadotte’s I Corps, awaited developments elsewhere on the battlefield.

Granted this unexpected respite, the survivors of Bagration’s Army Advance Guard and to the south, IV and V Columns, and the Russian Guard, did what they could to instil some sense of order in their greatly depleted ranks. These latter formations nervously occupied the eastern bank of the Rausnitz stream, anticipating a renewed French assault at any moment, but it never came. Napoleon saw a greater prize elsewhere.

_________

*
Captured Russian cavalry officer to Lieutenant Octave Levasseur, of the French horse artillery, 2 December 1805.

Chapter 16

The Legend of the Lakes

‘a horrible spectacle was seen …
twenty thousand men throwing
themselves in the water and
drowning in the lakes.’
*

Général de division Legrand and Maréchal Davout, fighting along the Goldbach, had performed far better than even Napoleon had hoped. Although heavily outnumbered their aggressive tactics had contained the Allied left wing, while Soult’s IV Corps cleared the Pratzen Plateau. Having witnessed the defeat of the Russian Imperial Guard, Napoleon now issued new orders to Soult’s corps and to Davout, as he switched his attention southwards. Saint-Hilaire’s division was to descend from the plateau, march towards Sokolnitz and attack the rear of the Allied forces engaged there, supported by Candras’ brigade from Vandamme’s division. Lavasseur’s brigade of Legrand’s division was to advance on Saint-Hilaire’s right. A brigade of the Reserve Grenadier Division, which had also made its way up onto the plateau, received orders to support the attack on Sokolnitz via Kobelnitz ‘and ensure that not one escapes’.
¹
Vandamme was to lead his division to the southern end of the Pratzen Plateau in an attempt to cut off the retreat of any Allied formations that escaped this crushing attack. Also joining this exodus to the south were two brigades of Beaumont’s dragoon division, riding to reunite with Boyé’s brigade. Napoleon sent Berthier’s ADC, Lejeune, to Davout, asking him to renew his assault on Sokolnitz in conjunction with Saint-Hilaire’s attack. Napoleon then set off himself towards the southern end of the plateau, riding through the debris of IV Column, followed by the Garde Impériale and the rest of the Reserve Grenadiers. It was about 2.00pm when Saint-Hilaire resumed command of his division, having had his wound treated, and ordered the march on Sokolnitz.

In fact, Davout did not need an order from Napoleon to encourage him to attack Sokolnitz. Having regrouped and rallied the various formations at his disposal, he had just thrown them in once more as Saint-Hilaire’s division began to descend from the plateau. The 33ème Ligne launched itself against the western entrance to the village, while 48ème Ligne attacked the southwest.

Langeron chose this moment to make one last effort to extricate the Permsk Musketeer Regiment and the remaining battalion of the Kursk Regiment. With General Maior Olsufiev at his side, Langeron led a single battalion of the Vyborg Musketeers back into Sokolnitz, the main street of which was now ‘literally choked up with the dead and wounded of both armies, piled one on top of another, and it was all but impossible to ride over the heaps of mutilated bodies and weapons’.
²
They came under ‘a dreadful fire’ from French troops occupying the houses and were then attacked with the bayonet. With casualties mounting and no hope of reaching his men, Langeron reluctantly withdrew from the village. Forming the battalion guns of the Vyborg Musketeers into a battery covering the bridge at the exit of the village, he positioned 8. Jäger to their left and the Vyborg Musketeers to the right of the guns. It was enough to deter pursuit for the moment, and once all was in place, Langeron rode off to Buxhöwden, who remained firmly anchored to the hillock he had occupied since early morning.
³

To the north of the village of Sokolnitz, Davout sent 15ème Légère and 111ème Ligne forward in clouds of skirmishers against the castle and the massive barns and outhouses of its complex. As this attack gathered pace from the west, Général de brigade Thiébault arrived at the head of 36ème Ligne from the east side of the castle, leading the approach of Saint-Hilaire’s division, which extended to the right, or north, heading towards the Pheasantry. To their right, Lavasseur’s brigade reformed after an encounter with the 700 men of the Podolsk Musketeers. After an exchange that lasted half an hour, Lavasseur’s two regiments (18ème and 75ème Ligne), some 3,000 men, drove the Russian regiment back to the Pheasantry. Lavasseur now prepared to march on the walled Pheasantry, while behind him a brigade of the Reserve Grenadiers headed for Kobelnitz. Opposing them, Przhebishevsky’s frontline troops extended over a wide area. Some, mixed up with Langeron’s missing men, were defending the north end of Sokolnitz village, while others occupied the castle and outbuildings. Further to the north, Przhebishevsky extended his command into the Pheasantry, drawing the defenders mainly from the Butyrsk and Galicia Musketeer Regiments. General Leitenant Wimpffen remained on the east bank of the Goldbach, close to the Pheasantry with Przhebishevsky’s reserve, the Azov Musketeer Regiment and a battalion of Narva, now rejoined by the Podolsk battalions. The sudden appearance of Saint-Hilaire’s division descending on his rear caused Przhebishevsky immediate consternation. He attempted to send a message to Langeron and
Buxhöwden but found to his dismay that the advance of 36ème Ligne had cut his line of communication to the south.

Thiébault wasted no time in sending 36ème Ligne in to attack the castle and the surrounding buildings. As his men closed they encountered stiff resistance:

‘The avenues, stables, barns, outhouses, the main manor, served them well for hideouts, and they fought up to the very end everywhere. They made a great slaughter there. All had to be beaten, man by man. I saw individuals defend themselves as if they were in the midst of their battalions. I saw others, badly wounded and ready to fall, load their weapon as coolly as on exercise.’
⁴

While the 36ème Ligne closed in on the castle, with their two
voltigeurs
companies leading, the rest of Saint-Hilaire’s division began to exert pressure on III Column reserve. The seven battalions of the reserve numbered only about 2,100 men in total, the Azov and Podolsk Regiments having lost heavily at Schöngrabern just over two weeks earlier, but Saint-Hilaire’s men had already suffered heavy casualties on the plateau. The battalion artillery kept the French at a respectful distance but an attempt to break through to Sokolnitz village failed. Wimpffen, at the head of part of the Narva battalion, became separated from the rest of the reserve and found it impossible to clear a path through streets clogged by ‘an appalling mob’. General Maior Selekhov attempted to pull the men out, and reunited with Przhebishevsky, who had been fighting in the defence of the village, headed back towards the Pheasantry, still resolutely defended by the men of the Butyrsk and Galicia Regiments. From here they hoped to break through the tightening French noose and head towards Kobelnitz where Przhebishevsky, who had no knowledge of developments on the plateau, hoped to find IV Column.
⁵

Meanwhile, the isolated and bewildered Wimpffen, with his detachment of the Narva Regiment, saw a group of about twenty French horseman riding towards him. Wimpffen attempted to obstruct their path but the leading Frenchman – the ADC, Capitaine Lejeune, returning to Napoleon after carrying orders to Davout – rode straight into the crowd, thrust his sword into Wimpffen’s arm and took him prisoner.
⁶

The castle was now finally back in French hands after a stout defence by the Russian garrison. Amongst the prisoners was General Maior Müller III, wounded in the left thigh during one of the first assaults on the castle in the morning. With the castle captured, the 36ème Ligne, according to their wounded colonel, Houdard de Lamotte, continued to clear the surrounding buildings: ‘In this way, Sokolnitz was taken and became the theatre of a horrible massacre of Russians that had held firm in the barns and in the houses: only death stopped them firing.’
⁷

Thiébault then attempted to reform the 36ème Ligne but noticed that a group of about 120 men were detached on the right, firing ineffectively at a pair of Russian guns on high ground overlooking the castle. Thiébault brought their firing to a halt, but unable to find an officer to lead the men in a charge against the guns, he placed himself at their head and attacked. At a range of fifty paces the guns unleashed a storm of canister fire, which scythed down about twenty of his men and smashed Thiébault’s shoulder and breastbone, but left him sitting dazed in the saddle. The charge pressed home and almost subconsciously he saw his ‘men taking the battery and slaughtering all the gunners who had served it, then the Russian troops which supported it surrendered’.
⁸
Other disorganised groups of Russian soldiers tried to escape from the slaughter in Sokolnitz but they stood little chance.

Przhebishevsky’s attempt to break out to the north was also doomed to fail. Supported by General Maior Strik and Selekhov, he pushed his desperate men past the Pheasantry, constantly under fire and with casualties falling all the time. On one flank, Lavasseur’s brigade fired into this ‘mass of men in confusion’,
⁹
on the other, the 10ème Légère added to the destruction, while to their rear some of the 36ème Ligne joined the tightening cordon. Then, as the fugitive Russians drew closer to Kobelnitz, another formation loomed into view: GB Dupas’ brigade of the Grenadier Reserve. With his forlorn command now forced towards Kobelnitz’s frozen lake, Prebyshevsky realised the end was close. In his report sent to the tsar he recounted how they:

‘were reduced to confusion by the vicious salvoes of canister which came in from three sides. We ran out of cartridges, and we had no hope of support. With all this we fought on against the enemy to the limit of our strength, according to the loyalty we owe to Your Imperial Highness.’
¹⁰

Przhebishevsky’s ordeal finally ended when Colonel Franceschi, at the head of about eighty men of 8ème Hussards, galloped into the milling mass of Russian infantry to demand and receive the surrender of the commander of III Column and his remaining men. In the final moments a few determined men tore regimental standards from their poles and wrapped them around their bodies in a last defiant gesture to prevent them falling into French hands. The total losses of III Column amounted to 5,280 or 70 per cent of their starting strength.
¹¹