things and that if he, Bernadotte, were in command he could have forced
Charles to surrender without firing a single shot. He followed this up by
abandoning his position outside Aderklaa at 4 a.m. on the 6th, pleading
the necessity of shortening his line by linking with Eugene on the right
and Massena on the left. This was reported to Napoleon, who finally
snapped after a decade of ingratitude and treachery from the Gascon.
Furiously countermanding Bernadotte's movements, he ordered him and
Massena to take the village regardless of casualties.
Bernadotte then committed the error of galloping right into the
Emperor's path. Napoleon raged at him. 'Is this the type of "telling
manoeuvre" with which you will force Archduke Charles to lay down his
arms?' he thundered. Seeing Bernadotte lost for words, he continued: 'I
hereby remove you fr om command of the corps which you have handled
so consistently badly. Leave my presence immediately, and quit the
Grande Armee within twenty-four hours.' But the contumacious Gascon
had not finished. Before he left for Paris he issued a bulletin, praising his
men for their part in the battle and claiming they had stood 'like bronze'.
The only thing brazen about Bernadotte's corps was its marshal's
effrontery. Napoleon was obliged to publish an official rebuke, stating
that Bernadotte's order of the day was contrary to truth, policy and
national honour.
On the morning of the 6th Napoleon tried again. His tactics were for
Massena to hold while Davout and Oudinot made a frontal attack; the
Army of Italy would be held back for the moment of breakthrough. But
Charles upset the Emperor's plans by attacking first, aiming for a double
envelopment of the French: with the anvil of his operations at Wagram,
he sent his right wing to seize Aspern and cut Napoleon off from the
Danube in that sector while his left threw the French right back against
the river. Two Austrian corps accordingly attacked Massena, hoping to
roll him up and seize the Danube bridges in the rear.
By I I a.m. things seemed to be going the Austrians' way: on their right
they were forcing the French back to Aspern while in the centre they
were forcing the Saxons to give ground. Fearing that Massena's corps
was on the point of buckling under the onslaught, and therefore that a
gap might open up enabling Charles to use the 'centre position' against
him, Napoleon ordered Massena to disengage and shift to the left. This
involved marching Massena south across the fr ont of the enemy lines,
screened by cavalry. To take the pressure off, the Emperor ordered the
cavalry reserve to charge and Davout to press his attack with even greater
vigour. MacDonald and the cavalry performed brilliantly but took heavy
losses. To some extent these were offset by the accuracy of the massed
marcin
(Marcin)
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