split, and disaster loomed. It was fortunate for Napoleon that heavy rain
and inadequate supplies held the Austrians up, so that he was able to
speed to the fr ont and take personal charge. Leaving Paris at 4 a.m. on 13
April, and accompanied by Josephine as far as Strasbourg, he arrived at
Donauworth on the 17th and at once realized that the price for
concentrating his army would have to be the abandonment of Ratisbon.
He then spent five days of continuous fighting, trying to regain the
initiative.
He began his counterstroke by ordering Davout to make a fighting
withdrawal fr om Regensburg and Ingolstadt, drawing the Austrians after
him while Massena and Oudinot struck east round the enemy left flank
and cut communications to Vienna and the Danube. The battles of
Thann, Abensberg, Landshut, Eckmiihl and Ratisbon (r7- 2 3 April) saw
Archduke Charles repulsed and his army badly mauled. But Napoleon
was scarcely at his best at the climactic battle of Abensburg-Eckmiihl on
2o-22 April, where the Austrians brought Davout to bay. After much
vacillation he finally decided to attack Charles there with his entire army
instead of trying to encircle him. He therefore diverted Massena fr om his
outflanking movement and commanded him and Lannes (ordered north
fr om Landshut) to attack the Austrian left before Charles could
overwhelm Davout with superior numbers.
Eckmiihl was a hamlet on the river Raaber, containing a huge baroque
watermill. Napoleon ordered a frontal attack across the Raaber water
meadows, which eventually forced the enemy to retreat. But nightfall and
general weariness in the ranks meant that the French did not pursue their
foe to Ratisbon and, on advancing there next day, Napoleon found it
grimly defended by Charles's rearguard. It was during the unsuccessful
attempt to force this position that Napoleon sustained his one and only
battle wound, being struck on the right foot by a spent cannonball.
Eventually Lannes's division was able to take Ratisbon, but not before
Archduke Charles made good his escape.
Although Charles retreated from Bavaria to Bohemia, Napoleon had
hardly covered himself with laurels. The two decisions - to attack
frontally instead of attempting encirclement, and not to press the pursuit
from Eckmiihl - were both contrary to his own military canons. The
chance of a quick knockout blow, as in r8oo, r8os or r8o6, was gone.
Some have even precisely pinpointed Eckmiihl as marking the decline of
Napoleon as a great captain. Certainly he made a number of miscalcula
tions and unwarranted assumptions and was so far from his usual form
that one is tempted to adduce psychological reasons. It is known that
Napoleon took one of his casual 'one night stand' mistresses during this
marcin
(Marcin)
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