The Battle of Austerlitz took place on 2 December 1805 between the army of the French emperor Napoleon I and the combined Austro-Russian forces in the area between Šlapanice and Slavkov u Brna.
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The Battle of Austerlitz took place on 2 December 1805 in the area between Šlapanice and Slavkov u Brna, where the army of the French emperor Napoleon I met the combined forces of the Austrian emperor Francis I and the Russian tsar Alexander I. [1] In the wider world the battle is known as Austerlitz, after the German name of Slavkov. [1]
Circumstances and date of the clash
The battle was preceded by a two-month campaign in which Napoleon forced the Austrian army in Bavaria to capitulate and pushed its remnants, joined with Russian units, across Lower Austria as far as Moravia near Olomouc. [1] At Olomouc further Russian troops joined the Austro-Russian forces, and their numbers led the monarchs present to decide to go on the attack, even though the army of Archduke Charles was approaching from northern Italy to help Napoleon. [1] The allies advanced from Olomouc towards Brno, and on 2 December 1805, the anniversary of Napoleon's coronation, the two armies clashed. [1] The allied troops took up a line from the area north of the Olomouc road through Staré Vinohrady and the Pratzen Heights to Telnice, with the aim of breaking the right wing of the French army and cutting it off from communication with Vienna. [1] The allied forces numbered about 90,000 men; the French army was weaker by roughly 15,000 men but, according to the source, more experienced in military terms. [1]
Course of the battle
Napoleon met the attacks of the allied left wing on Telnice and Sokolnice with only smaller detachments and kept most of the army in reserve. [1] The decisive blow came at the moment when the allies had almost abandoned the Pratzen Heights and concentrated their forces on an attack against Sokolnice. [1] The corps of Marshal Soult, covered by fog, moved unnoticed towards Prace, attacked Staré Vinohrady and the Pratzen Heights and, after fighting with Austrian and Russian units, seized them. [1] Even the deployment of the Russian imperial guard did not change the situation, and the allied troops had to leave the battlefield and withdraw towards Slavkov. [1] The Austro-Russian units around Sokolnice were largely surrounded and forced to surrender; only some managed to escape across the dams of the frozen ponds. [1] The Russian corps of General Bagration fought separately against the corps of Marshal Lannes near Tvarožná and along the Olomouc road; Bagration suffered losses but was the only one to withdraw his corps in good order. [1]
Result and consequences
The source states that almost fifty thousand dead soldiers are associated with the battle. [1] Napoleon announced the victory to the surviving French soldiers from the balcony of Slavkov Castle on the day after the battle. [1] The remaining allied troops were no longer capable of further fighting and retreated towards Hodonín into Hungary. [1] On 6 December 1805 an armistice was signed at Slavkov Castle, followed by the Peace of Pressburg, which, according to the source, brought Austria considerable territorial losses. [1]
The legend of the frozen ponds
The battle is linked with a legend, spread according to the source by Napoleon himself and persisting to the present, according to which thousands of Russian soldiers were supposed to have perished in the ponds near Sokolnice. [1] The draining of the ponds ordered after the battle, however, according to surviving records found only drowned horses and lost military equipment, not soldiers. [1]