From Napoleon magazine No.110:
In mid-November 1805, the situation of the Russian army, which had come to aid the Austrians in their struggle against Napoleon, was far from brilliant. It must sacrifice its rearguard to gain at least a day's march in full retreat. The French thought they would make short work of them, but they reckoned without the courage and firmness of their leader, the charismatic Prince Bagration.
Natalia Griffon de Pleineville / Historian
On October 20, 1805, a large part of the Austrian troops, surrounded by the Grande Armée, surrendered at Ulm. This surrender embarrasses the Russian army, commanded by the old general Mikhail Kutuzov, who marches to their aid. Turning back, the Russians hastily retreat. Putting the Danube between them and the French pursuing them, Koutouzov's men fiercely fight at Dürrenstein (Krems), on the left bank, against the isolated corps of Marshal Édouard Mortier. The capture of the Vienna bridges without a fight by Napoleon's marshals allows the Grande Armée to cross the river. This event prompts Koutouzov to evacuate Krems and move northeast towards Brünn and Olmütz, where reinforcements are expected. A long line of convoys accompanies his army. To cover his movement and gain time, the commander-in-chief sends a strong rearguard towards Hollabrunn, which lies at the crossroads of the poorly maintained Krems road and the much more passable Vienna road. Aware of the danger this detachment faces, Koutouzov later writes to Alexander I that its destruction seemed inevitable due to its proximity to French outposts and the extreme fatigue of the fighters following forced marches and bivouacs.
Clever tactics
Trudging painfully along muddy, empty-bellied paths, the Tsar soldiers reach Hollabrunn on the morning of November 15, just as the vanguard of the Grande Armée approaches from the opposite side. It is the fiery Joachim Murat who leads it. Koutouzov's army is in great danger because the "maneuver on Hollabrunn," conceived by Napoleon, aims to outflank it to cut off its route to Brünn. This operation can only succeed through a combined action of several marshals. Murat, Lannes, and Soult advance from Vienna. They are supposed to be supported by Bernadotte, whose corps must cross the Danube and threaten the enemy from the west, with the support of the greatly diminished troops of Mortier. However, to Napoleon's dismay, Bernadotte delays executing the orders received. As a result, the Russians are currently only threatened by the French corps arriving from the south.
The man commanding the Russian rearguard is no novice. Major General Prince Petr Bagration, of Georgian origin, has earned a solid reputation during campaigns in Italy and Switzerland under the famous Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov and has learned a great deal under his tutelage. He is a towering figure with an eagle-eyed gaze, possessing unwavering bravery and adored by his subordinates. He accepted without hesitation the suicidal mission entrusted to him by the commander-in-chief: to delay the French at all costs. As Koutouzov bid farewell to Bagration, he made the cross sign on his forehead as if on a condemned man.
The terrain around Hollabrunn is unfavorable for defense, so the detachment falls back a few kilometers to the northwest. During a survey, the prince spots, a few hundred meters north of the village of Schöngrabern, behind a stream, a terrain feature that provides a good position for artillery. His first line, deployed amidst the vineyards that offer protection against Murat's numerous cavalry, includes the Cossacks and the infantry under the command of General Karl Oulanious. One kilometer behind them, his second line takes position on a succession of heights, with cannons in the center and cavalry on the flanks.
On November 15, Murat's cavalry and the elite grenadiers of General Oudinot, accompanied by Jean Lannes himself, form the spearhead. The 5th corps is slightly behind, followed by Soult's 4th. A detachment of light cavalry leads the way, created ad hoc and led by General Horace Sébastiani. They encounter six squadrons of hussars and a handful of Austrian infantry accompanying the Russians at Hollabrunn. Their leader, General Johann von Nostitz, prudently retreats before the French hussars and cavalry. At this point, Murat, thinking he has the entire Russian army before him, sends an officer from his staff to propose a ceasefire and to delay matters while the corps of Lannes and Soult join the vanguard.
The Frenchman spins a tale to Bagration, invented by his superior: an armistice concluded with the Austrians, peace could not be far off. The prince gives it no credence but decides to inform Koutouzov. Alexandre-Louis Andrault de Langeron, a French émigré in Russian service, asserts: "Murat dared first to propose to Bagration to lay down arms. This proposal was rejected with indignation, and he then limited himself to asking the Russians to withdraw. Bagration pleaded the necessity of obtaining orders from Koutouzov." The old commander-in-chief, well-versed in diplomacy, immediately understands the advantage he could gain. With his army needing to move as far away as possible, he dispatches two generals, aides-de-camp to the Tsar, Wintzingerode, and Dolgorukov, to Napoleon's brother-in-law. Displaying incredible arrogance that shocks General Belliard, Murat's chief of staff, but not Murat himself, they manage to lull the marshal's vigilance by flattering him opportunistically and secure a ceasefire on the assurance that negotiators are already discussing peace terms in Vienna. Pending Napoleon's ratification of the document, the adversaries agree not to move from their positions and to inform each other four hours before hostilities resume. Pleased with himself, Murat boasts in his report: "I was informed of Mr. de Wintzingerode's arrival. I received him; he asked to capitulate [sic]. I should accept his proposals, subject to Your Majesty's approval. Here are approximately the conditions: I consent to no longer pursue the Russian army, on condition that it leaves immediately and by stage the territories of the Austrian monarchy. The armies will remain in position until Your Majesty's approval, and in case of non-acceptance, notice will be given four hours in advance."
While the French regiments chomp at the bit a few hundred meters from Bagration's detachment, which forms a curtain masking the bulk of the Russian army, Koutouzov quickens his pace, determined not to accept any truce, let alone a capitulation. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the rearguard mingle with the French in cellars filled with barrels of wine while the prince pays a courtesy visit to Murat. He converses and asks questions, especially to Lannes, whose reputation has crossed borders. The latter, unimpressed, tells Bagration that if he were alone, they would be fighting instead of exchanging compliments. The French officers share the euphoria of the Emperor's brother-in-law and dream of a swift return to Paris.
Napoleon flies into a terrible rage upon learning of Murat's mistake. He sharply rebukes him in a letter dictated on the morning of November 16 at 8 a.m.: "My cousin, it is impossible for me to find words to express my dissatisfaction. You command only my vanguard and have no right to make an armistice without my order; you are making me lose the fruit of a campaign." After informing him that only Emperor Alexander had the right to sign conventions and that it was only a ruse intended to deceive him, Napoleon orders the marshal to break the truce and attack the enemy immediately: "March and destroy the Russian army; you are in a position to take all its baggage and artillery."
Fierce Battle
Despite the apparent calm, Bagration remains uneasy and expects to be attacked at any moment. He has under his command only 7,000 men: fourteen infantry battalions, fifteen squadrons of understaffed dragoons and hussars, two regiments of Cossacks, and twelve artillery pieces. Count von Nostitz has left with his men, taking Murat's assurance of a truce between the French and Austrians at face value. Only a small contingent of Prince Friedrich von Hohenlohe, refusing to leave, remains with the Russians.
According to French writers, Napoleon's message, brought by his aide-de-camp Jean Lemarois, reached its recipient around noon. Ashamed of being deceived, Murat decides to take matters into his own hands. In the late afternoon, he orders the battle to sweep away the Russian detachment before pursuing Koutouzov's army. Lannes reportedly warned Bagration at 1 p.m. that the truce was broken and hostilities would resume in four hours, as stipulated by the convention. However, historian Oleg Sokolov casts doubt on this version; based on the memories of a few witnesses and the distance between the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, where Napoleon resides, and Hollabrunn (about 60 km), he asserts that Murat attacked the Russians immediately after receiving the imperial letter, immediately after informing them of the truce's rupture. More cautious, Jean de Dieu Soult tries to reason with his colleague and suggests waiting until the next day since there is not enough daylight left to hope for great success. Still, the Emperor's brother-in-law, blaming himself for his gullibility, fears that the Russians will quietly withdraw during the night.
The French deployment revolves around Schöngrabern. The vineyards pose a serious obstacle to the artillery's advance, so that of the 4th and 5th corps is consolidated into a giant battery north of the village, 800 meters from the enemy's front line—Soult's Legrand division advances on the left, and Lannes's Suchet division on the right. Oudinot's grenadiers are south of the village; behind them stands the reserve: the formidable divisions of dragoons (Walther) and cuirassiers (Nansouty and d'Hautpoul), along with Vandamme's division from the 4th corps. In total, Murat commands around 35,000 men.
The battle begins around 4 p.m., in the growing twilight. The French artillery opens fire, countered by the enemy battery firing over the first line. Shells from the Russian unicorns set fire to the village of Schöngrabern. Half an hour later, French foot soldiers advance through the vineyards. Bagration doesn't await the clash but withdraws his first line to the second, as he had anticipated. His left-wing proves vulnerable since General Alexeï Sélékhov allowed for wood and water details; the men sent won't return for the battle, and several falls into French hands.
The ten battalions of the reserve grenadiers are the first to engage the Tsar's soldiers. They are led by the intrepid General Nicolas-Charles Oudinot, a veteran with over twenty wounds - he will receive many more in the years to come. At the same time, some Russian cannons continue their duel with the French artillery, an action immortalized by Léon Tolstoy in War and Peace, four rain projectiles down on the grenadiers. They continue their advance and sow confusion among the musketeers, who are inexperienced and suffering from thirst. Oudinot attempts to consolidate his success by enveloping his opponents on the flanks, but the Russians hold firm and engage in fierce hand-to-hand combat. D'Héralde recounts: "They fought in the streets with bayonets. It was almost dark, a strong wind blowing snowflakes in our faces and carrying the cries of the fighters in the village: they were the assembled grenadiers." General Frédéric-Henri Walther's dragoons engage the enemy infantry, blocking their path. On open ground, Russian hussars clash with Sébastiani's light cavalry. Both Lannes and Bagration throw more soldiers into the fray; point-blank gunfire exchanges give way to bayonet charges and counter-charges. The 40th Line Regiment (Suchet's division) reportedly lost a battalion flag and eagle. However, the heavy cavalry didn't engage, as Colonel Pierre-François Lataye of the 10th Cuirassiers notes in his march journal: "The division couldn't do anything; it remained in the plain the whole time, to the left of the road and at a very short distance from the fire."
Lieutenant Sibelet of the 11th Hussars claims that the Tsar's infantry resorted to a common ruse at the time: "Having crossed to the other side of the road to pursue the enemies who were in a position to resist, we found, charging as skirmishers and groping our way, some Russian soldiers in groups of ten to twelve. As we approached, they threw themselves to the ground with their rifles beside them, and as we passed, they seemed to be among the dead, but as soon as we passed them, they got up and fired at us from behind. Informed of this maneuver, we turned around: the soldiers who had fired lay down again, but they were all pierced with saber thrusts in the back, one might say like toads."
The nature of the terrain, dotted with ravines, prevents the marshals from deploying all their forces. Embers and sparks threaten to ignite the ammunition wagons. The bright light cast by the fire illuminates the French position to the Russians, while the wind, carrying thick clouds of smoke, sometimes obscures the movements of Murat's men. His infantry, cavalry, and artillery, forced to navigate around the flaming Schöngrabern through the ravines, lose valuable time. Despite the danger, artillery lieutenant Octave Levavasseur decides to pass through the village: "I gallop into the blazing street. I reached the city's outskirts after a thousand obstacles where my chest might have exploded. I continue running two hundred paces ahead; I see the enemy to the right. I try to turn to set up my battery on the road: a discharge from the Austrian artillery knocks down my gunners, injures six of them, and shatters my cannon, which I am forced to abandon."
Finally, judging that the battle has lasted long enough against numerically superior opponents, Bagration orders a retreat to the north. He conducts it orderly, as if on a training ground, constantly turning to show his teeth to his pursuers and keep them at bay. The Russians encounter some difficulty crossing a deep ditch behind their position. Meanwhile, the 4th corps progresses very slowly due to the vineyards' density, so only Legrand's division engages with Bagration's men. Soult recounts in his report that one of the two columns of this division "approached the enemy with arms at the ready," only opening fire when the Russian flank was utterly exposed and the village of Grund, located behind the enemy line, was flanked. Claude Legrand then deploys his two brigades; leaving Levasseur's brigade in reserve, he advances with the center one, "composed of the 3rd regiment, to attack the enemy still holding the head of the village. The Russians had garrisoned all the houses of Grund with part of their infantry. As the column advanced, General Legrand had to clear these makeshift fortifications before engaging to the end of the village. Otherwise, he would have lost many men. When the 3rd Line reached two-thirds of this passage, it was attacked by the entire Russian column, pushed forward by the grenadier division."
A fierce battle unfolds around the eagle of the 3rd Line. Battalion commander Paul-Marie Horiot, wounded by three bayonet thrusts, finds himself a prisoner. The standard bearer is shot down; three quartermasters successively replace him, but all are gravely wounded. The Russians are on the verge of seizing the precious standard when quartermaster Daigrond rushes forward, seizes it, and, without taking a step back, wields the staff like a club, knocking down all who try to wrest it from him before being freed by his comrades. He was promoted to sergeant-major and awarded the Legion of Honor in March 1806.
Nighttime skirmishes
After passing through the village of Guntersdorf, French attacks become increasingly disordered, as reported in the Journal of Oudinot's division: "The darkness of the night threw confusion among the combatants: from then on, the best dispositions fail; we fight hesitantly, fearing to fire on our own, we march aimlessly." Each battalion or squadron commander acts according to their inspiration; any unity of command becomes impossible. Sibelet speaks of extreme disorder, with soldiers shooting at each other: "French battalions and squadrons found themselves amid the Russians, and the Russians amid the French; our cannons were firing at us, and Russian cannons were firing at the Russians. It was truly complete confusion." Captain Louis-Florimond Fantin des Odoards, of Oudinot's grenadiers, observed the next day, "amidst the mixture of corpses and wounded clad in blue and green," that the combat was extremely close "and such as is rarely seen since gunpowder gave men the art of killing each other without coming into contact," but also that "very unfortunately, during the action, Frenchmen had been opposed to other Frenchmen, and had killed each other, thinking, in the darkness, that they were dealing with the enemy; a deplorable mistake that is all too common in night battles."
Bloody bayonet melees unfold during the evening. The voices of the leaders are drowned out by cannon fire and gunfire, the cries of the wounded crushed by horses. Oudinot has his right thigh pierced by a bullet fired from a window and loses a lot of blood, but it takes more than that for him to leave the ranks of the combatants. The massacre only stops around 11 p.m., when the French regiments finally halt, unable to organize pursuit in total darkness.
Soult recounts in his report: "The streets of Grund, the courtyards of houses, the stables, the gardens, all this space remained strewn with their corpses. A huge number were wounded; the rest were entirely captured when the enemy, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, led at the head of a column that he managed to form several of his own who spoke French and twenty prisoners we had taken. Marching thus within range of the column commanded by General Levasseur, he shouted: 'Cease fire! You're shooting at your people!' This ruse succeeded, and he managed to save 7 to 800 men. General Legrand retained only 500 prisoners and 300 wounded, mixed in with the dead." Most Russian officers speak French perfectly, and this ruse is employed more than once during that night.
In their retreat, the Russians abandon eight completely dismantled artillery pieces, which the French only discover in daylight. French cannons captured by the enemy were also abandoned. The cold claims several wounded; according to Sibelet, "the dead were frozen stiff on the ground. Several had done like foxes. By scratching, they had made burrows to bury themselves." Colonel François-René Cailloux, Pouget, of the 26th Light Infantry Regiment, remembered: "We bivouacked on the field on a wonderful but freezing night; it froze to six or seven degrees. The carbineers of the 1st battalion prepared a bivouac for me on Russian bodies killed by bringing them very close together, face down, on which they spread hay."
A Phalanx of Heroes
French witnesses are unanimous in their praise. Captain Pierre de Pelleport of Legrand's division writes: "Prince Bagration showed great resolution supported by great courage, and his soldiers were admirable." Fantin des Odoards is enthusiastic: "He [Bagration] cunningly bought the time he needed; his troops, attacked by superior forces, behaved bravely, and he then managed to escape us so well that we couldn't catch up to him, and in his hasty march, he did not abandon either artillery or baggage. I am beginning to think there is more glory in defeating Russians than Austrians." D'Héralde echoes him: "This deadly combat for both sides, but especially for the Russians, was, according to experts, very poorly directed by our commander, Murat; it gave our soldiers and leaders a high idea of the value of our enemies and especially of their tenacity not to surrender. It was understood there that killing them was easier than taking them." Lieutenant Alfred de Saint-Chamans, Soult's aide-de-camp, expresses the same sentiment: "The Russians fought, in my opinion, better than us; we were indeed under the command of Murat, the saddest chief general I have ever known." Austrian military writers call Bagration's detachment "a phalanx of heroes" (Heldenschaar).
In this "battle that could have been called a battle," to borrow Pouget's expression, Bagration held off 16,000 Frenchmen with 7,000 men (minus one regiment held in reserve and not engaged in combat) for several hours, at the cost of 768 killed, 737 wounded left on the field, 711 missing (or captured), plus around 200 wounded remaining within their units. Contemporaries compare this confrontation to the immortal exploit of King Leonidas' Spartans at Thermopylae. It allowed Koutouzov's army to gain two marches, enough to arrive at Brünn without being disturbed. This exceptional feat of arms earned Bagration the Order of St. George, 2nd Class (skipping the 4th and 3rd classes), a very prestigious decoration, the Commander's Cross of the Austrian Order of Maria Theresa, and the rank of lieutenant-general. On November 18, the entire army welcomed the survivors with repeated cheers. Koutouzov warmly embraced the prince and thanked him, declaring that he had no intention of asking him to account for the losses suffered, as seeing him return alive was enough.
This battle, known in the literature under the double name of Hollabrunn among the French and Schöngrabern among the Russians (with the spelling "Schöngraben"), would later be enveloped in legends, especially regarding the forces engaged. Koutouzov gave substance to these fantastic accounts by asserting that Bagration fought against 30,000 adversaries with only 6,000 men. The regiments that distinguished themselves in this battle of giants were awarded the St. George's banners or silver trumpets (for the 6th foot hunters), which were significant collective rewards. In cinema, the Battle of Hollabrunn is depicted in all its grandeur in the epic "War and Peace" by Sergei Bondarchuk and in other adaptations of Tolstoy's masterpiece.
The sacrifice of Bagration's rearguard was not in vain. Having gained two marches on the French, Koutouzov's army arrived safely at Olmütz, where reinforcements awaited. But the French had the last word of the war on December 2, 1805, at Austerlitz.
A Vision of Horror
Auguste Petiet, aide-de-camp to Marshal Soult, describes an apocalyptic scene: "The darkest night covers the earth. The entire village is on fire and presents the most beautiful and deplorable spectacle at once. The cottages fall into torrents of flames, and the sheaves piled up in the barns serve as rapid fuel to the gradually increasing fire." He returns to it after the battle: "The fire had left intact only the church and the priest's house as well as two or three cottages located at the other end of Schöngrabern, which served as an ambulance for our wounded. The venerable clergyman with whom we rested had not for a moment left this scene of horror. He told us that more than three hundred inhabitants had lost their lives; that most of them, at the beginning of the battle, frightened by the noise of the cannon, had carefully locked themselves in after descending into their cellars where they had soon been crushed and consumed." Fantin des Odoards remembers "a long line of inhabitants driven out by the fire from the cellars where they had taken refuge, of grieving women carrying their children, of elderly people, dragging themselves with difficulty and casting a painful glance towards their blazing roof." Petiet notes that Schöngrabern "is composed of two words meaning beautiful tomb. It then deserved the ominous name it bore."
Bibliography
Marius Bourgue, Historique du 3e régiment d’infanterie, ex-Piémont, 1589-1891, Paris-Limoges, Henri Charles-Lavauzelle, 1894. Scott Bowden, Napoleon and Austerlitz, Chicago, The Emperor’s Press, 1997. Mikhaïlovski-Danilevski, Relation de la campagne de 1805, Paris, J. Dumaine, 1846.
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