Slavkov u Brna - Austerlitz
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Slavkov u Brna - Austerlitz |
[Prologue] [Three armies,
two strategies] [Description of the armies] [Before the Battle]
[After the Battle] [Tradition]
The thin cordon of French riflemen on Zlaty potok, in spite of all the advantages of the terrain, would not have been able to hold their positions against the attack of more than fifty thousand men coming down into the valley from Prace Hill. In order to ensure that the front was not breached, it was crucial that the reinforcements, Marshal Davout's Third Corp, arrive in time. The Third Corp were hurrying to the battlefield from Vienna and according to the plan should have arrived in the early morning hours. At the last possible moment, Davout arrived and prevented a catastrophe.
The first clashes between the French and the Austrian vanguard under Kienmayer broke out before dawn near the village of Telnice. Kienmayer's corp began to march from near Ujezd, and before arriving in Telnice, ran in to the French picket-line. Thus the flames of battle were first lit in the southernmost corner of the battlefield. At that moment when Kienmayer was already fiercely engaged in the struggle for Telnice, the four columns were only just preparing to go down into the valley from the hill-top. Sometime after seven o'clock, Dokhturov's First Column went down the hill, followed Langeron's Second and Przybyszewski's Third Columns. As they went behind the wall of the pheasantry at the chateau of Sokolnice, they were welcomed by heavy fire from Legrand's infantry division. During the course of the battle, ownership of the chateau and pheasantry changed hands several times. Heavy fighting also took place for the village of Sokolnice, as well as for the nearby village of Telnice. It seemed that the Russian columns would break through the French lines, when shortly before ten o'clock, Friant's divison of Davout's corp arrived on the scene. This division arrived after an exhausting, two day march and immediately entered the battle. Thus, the Allied columns along Zlaty potok did not break through.
Only as this play unfolded and the attention of the Allies, including the Allied commander Kutuzov, who was watching the battle with both emperors from the Old Vineyard, was focused on Zlaty potok, could Napoleon give the command to launch the main attack from the Olomouc Road. The two remaining divisions of Soult's corp, Saint-Hilaire's and Vandamme's were waiting below Zuran Hill, in vicinity of Blazovice and Jirikovice, to begin a maneuver, which was later called the "lion's leap". These two divisions were to act as a wedge in the flank of the unsuspecting enemy. Coincidentally, the surprise of the Allies was even greater. That morning, a thick fog hung over the landscape, covering, until the last possible moment, the core of the French forces in the valley. When, shortly after seven o'clock, the first three Russian columns began to move, no one remotely suspected the danger threatening from the right. But when Soult's infantry appeared out of the fog, there was not time to change the orders and instructions. The whole mass of the three columns was on the march towards the valley and no one was able to stop them. The first units encountered Legrand's riflemen, supported by Margaron's light cavalry, near Sokolnice and Telnice.
Witnesses report that the command to attack Prace Hill was given after a brief meeting between the French emperor and the commanders of the nearest corps. This happened around half past seven, when Napoleon proposed a question to Marshal Soult, who was standing nearby: "Marshal, how much time do you need to get your forces to the top of Prace Hill?" Soult answered: "Twenty minutes is more than enough time, Sir." As Napoleon listened to the answer, he was observing with binoculars the blurry, barely distinguishable movements of the Allied forces on top of the hill. "All right, we can wait another quarter of an hour," concluded Napoleon. During this quarter of an hour, Napoleon wanted to make sure that the enemy was actually coming down to Zlaty potok. He was waiting until his formations on the march would become looser and more spread out and therefore the attack on the flank would have a greater impact and a greater level of surprise.
At that moment, when Napoleon was standing with his marshals on top of Zuran Hill, the firey red ball of the sun leapt above the eastern horizon beyond Holubice and continued to rise through the foggy haze. This winter sun over Austerlitz would soon burn off the remnants of the fog above the battlefield and become legendary. Beginning on this day, Napoleon associated the sun with his success and the glory of his armies. It was his Austerlitz sun, "le Soleil d'Austerlitz", which would warm Napoleon with its favor for the next ten years. The same sun which he would hope for in vain on that June morning, ten years later, on the wet plain of Waterloo. The same sun which he would remember with great sentimentality during his exile on the island of St. Helena.
The precious experience of seeing the sun rise above Austerlitz was, however, immediately interrupted by the call of duty. " Gentlemen, in half an hour, the whole front will be on fire" said Napoleon as he outlined the last variant of his battle plan, because, contrary to his original supposition, the enemy attack was heading more to the south, towards Sokolnice and Telnice. This is why a courier sent to look for Marshal Davout was bearing instructions for him to reinforce the French front at that point. Each of the marshals then set off from Zuran in the direction of his own corp. It was only then that Napoleon gave the command to Marshal Soult to start the attack. "Let us finish this war with a thunderbolt!" The floodgates opened and a rush of blue uniforms began to move towards the foot of Prace Hill.
The French attack on the hill-top was not as easy as some French historians have tried to suggest. In spite of the surprise in the Allied columns caused by Soult's attack, a defense was quickly organized and the French faced determined resistance. The fact that the French appeared near Prace was a surprise to the Allied commanders, however their reaction was not one of chaos. The Allied Fourth Column, composed of Austrian and Russian regiments, was just about to descend to Zlaty potok when the French appeared on their flank. General Kutuzov, who, together with the two emperors, was observing the attack of this column, ordered them to form up and turn to face the arrival of this unexpected danger. He gave an order to occupy the village of Prace and the slopes around it. Soon, reinforcements from Langeron's Second Column arrived. The spearhead of this column had already encountered the French in front of Solkonice. When General Langeron heard shooting behind him, he, quite surprised, returned from Sokolnice to the hill-top to find out what was happening. He took stock of the situation and when he saw the enemy at the rear, he turned one of his brigades (under General Kamenskij ) in that direction and ordered it to defend the hill-top. A desperate fight lasting several hours broke out here. The soldiers were fighting mostly with bayonets and as a result casulties on both sides were heavy. The Russians defended themselves with great courage. Accounts have been preserved which indicate that captured Russian soldiers threw themselves on their conquerers with only their bare hands and were able to disarm their French guards. This made the French, who were used to observing certain rules of combat, so outraged that they almost stopped taking prisoners and instead mercilessly slaughtered entire Russian units. The poet Dyenis Davydov, a witness of the Napoleonic Wars wrote:
"The hatred of the French for the Russians and the Russians for the French began at exactly this moment. Both armies began the habit of stripping off the last piece of clothing from their prisoners, taking their boots and allowing them to die from hunger, exhaustion, cold or beatings. The commanders did not specifically order such actions, but neither did they punish anyone for them."
It was early afternoon. The heart of the Allied army, which had been involved in combat along Zlaty potok, near the villages of Telnice, Sokolnice, Kobylnice, was now under fire from two sides. In front was Davout's corp and at the rear were two divisions of Soult's Fourth Corp, coming down from the hill-top which they had only shortly before occupied. Behind them, the reserve, the First Corp of Marshal Bernadotte, was advancing.
At the same time, east of Prace, around the Old Vineyard, the most spectacular part of the battle was taking place. Napoleon, together with Soult's units, moved his headquarters from Zuran Hill to the top of Prace Hill. He located his headquarters on approximately the same spot, where General Kutuzov and the two emperors had stood only two hours earlier. Napoleon was accompanied by his Imperial Guard, over 5000 elite soldiers, who were the flower of the French army and enjoyed the Emperor's special favor.