And the renewed people
You humbled the young riot, Newborn freedom
Suddenly numb, she lost her strength;
Among the slaves to rapture
You quenched your thirst for power
He rushed to the battles of their militia.
I wrapped laurels around their chains.
Napoleon. A. S. Pushkin
Greatest battles in history. Our previous material was devoted to the analysis of the forces of the Allied army, which was preparing to give battle to the army of the Emperor Napoleon at Austerlitz. Today we have to consider the forces that he could oppose two other emperors - his opponents, and leading them, either win or fall!
Napoleon also divided the army into several corps, each of which was subordinate to its own marshal. So, the 1st corps was commanded by Marshal Bernadotte. It numbered only 11,346 infantry and artillerymen with 22 guns. He also had cavalry, but she obeyed Murat and was withdrawn from the corps. Bernadotte did not like this attitude towards him, and during the battle on December 2, he was rather passive.
The 3rd corps of Marshal Davout on the morning of December 2 numbered 6387 infantry and 6 guns. True, Friant's division came to his aid, passing 36 leagues in just 40 hours. However, on the way, many fell behind, and only 3200 people came to the battlefield out of more than 5000, with 9 guns.
The 4th Corps was commanded by Marshal Soult. In total, it consisted of 24,333 infantrymen and 924 cavalrymen and artillery servants, that is, more than 25 thousand people and 35 guns.
5th Corps was commanded by Marshal Lann. In total, there were 13,284 people, 20 cannons and 640 horsemen, subordinate, however, to Murat.
In the cavalry reserve, which he commanded, powerful forces were involved: carabinier, cuirassier and dragoon regiments, which had their own horse artillery: only about 8,000 horsemen, excluding artillery servants. In total, as is customary today in modern Russian historiography, it is believed that under Napoleon's command there were 72,100 (72,300) people and 139 cannons. True, he had 18 more guns from a large artillery fleet, but it was difficult to use them in a field battle due to their heavy weight. The Allied army was larger in number, and most importantly, it had almost twice as many guns: 279 against 139 for the French.
At the same time, Napoleon had many advantages that the Allied armies did not have.
So, the French emperor, on the eve of the battle, both on horseback and on foot, studied the field of the future battle for two days. As a result, according to Savary, Napoleon's adjutant general, the plains of Austerlitz became as familiar to Napoleon as the environs of Paris. In the evenings, the emperor walked around the camp of the soldiers: he simply sat by the soldiers' bonfires, exchanged jokes with the soldiers, greeted old acquaintances, veterans of the guard, which, of course, neither the Austrian nor the Russian emperors did. The appearance of Napoleon instilled in the soldiers courage and confidence in the coming victory. There was another very important circumstance that increased the combat effectiveness of the French army, namely, conscious discipline.
If in the Russian imperial army discipline was stick, and soldiers had to fight with a spanking ass, then Napoleon did not allow corporal punishment in his army at all. For serious misconduct a soldier was tried by a military court, which sentenced him either to death and hard labor, or to imprisonment in a military prison. However, there was another court in Napoleon's army - a comradely one, not indicated either in documents or in laws, but with the tacit approval of Napoleon in the Great Army. Those accused of cowardice or some other misdemeanor were judged by their company comrades. Moreover, in the event of a serious offense, the company could immediately shoot them. The officers, of course, knew about what had happened, but they did not interfere in the soldiers' affairs. Moreover, none of the officers should not only participate in this court, but even know (at least officially) that he was and to what punishment whom he sentenced, even if it was about execution.
In the Russian Imperial Army … there seemed to be no death penalty for the lower ranks at all. The soldiers were simply chased through the line and at the same time beaten to death with sticks, ripping the meat off the back from the back to the bone. It is difficult to imagine anything more savage and crippling to the psyche of a soldier than this "punishment". Moreover, punches with gauntlets were prescribed for almost everything: for negligence in drill exercises, for admitted untidiness and inaccuracy in clothing (100 blows or more), drunkenness was punished with 300-500 blows, 500 blows were given for theft from comrades, for the first escape from the army, a fugitive received 1500 hits, for the second 2500-3000, and for the third - 4000-5000. So soldiers shot in the Russian army very rarely, but they listened to the cries of the punished every day. And they also drove the soldiers to someone who knows where, to foreign lands, who knows why, they were poorly fed on the way, and the road itself was full of mud … So show courage and heroism in these conditions.
It was not so in Napoleon's army. Yes, problems with feeding existed here, but he managed to convince the soldiers that even here, in Austria, they are defending their home and native France from the encroachments of foreigners who are trying to take away from them the most precious thing - the conquest of the revolution. Bulletins were regularly distributed in the army, which were edited by Napoleon. They explained in a simple and accessible form the goals and objectives of the campaign, that is, everything was done so that "every soldier understood his maneuver!"
On the other hand, it was on the field of Austerlitz that Napoleon proved himself not only a great commander, but also … a psychologist! A subtle connoisseur of human souls, or rather, the souls of his two opponents - the emperors! He needed to convince them that it would be especially easy to defeat his army right now, and thus make them the first to launch an attack. To do this, he ordered his troops to start withdrawing and sent Adjutant General Savary to Alexander, offering to start negotiations on an armistice, and then on peace. Moreover, the general had to ask Alexander for a personal meeting. Well, in the event that the Russian emperor would respond with a refusal, send his trusted representative for negotiations. All this could be perceived by people of a small natural mind as evidence of his, Napoleon's, weakness and … this is exactly how everything that happens by the two emperors was perceived.
As expected, Alexander refused a personal meeting with Napoleon and sent to him the young prince Pyotr Dolgorukov, one of his courtiers, whom Napoleon later called "heliport" even in official publications. Although Napoleon met him very kindly, the prince, being a supporter of the war and being confident in the invincibility of the Russian troops, behaved proudly and arrogantly with him, rejected all Napoleon's proposals, while presenting his own in a very decisive and uncontested form.
After negotiations, Dolgorukov told Emperor Alexander I that Napoleon was afraid of a battle with the Russian army, and, contrary to the opinion of the infantry general M. I. -Austrian army). Dolgorukov behaved unreasonably, disrespectfully and spoke to Napoleon like this, "" - the emperor later commented on this meeting. Of course, for the insolence shown by him, Napoleon could well have given the order to interrupt his convoy, and take the prince himself prisoner and whip him on the buttocks for the amusement of his soldiers - the desire to avenge this shame of his favorite could well provoke the Emperor Alexander to attack, but … Napoleon he did not do this, but pretended to be embarrassed and confused in front of the prince. Apparently, he understood that even the stupidity of Prince Dolgorukov has its limits, and therefore, although he rejected all his proposals, the refusal was made in such a form that only strengthened the opinion of his opponents about Napoleon's “timidity” and his “lack of confidence” in his abilities …
It is interesting that when Dolgoruky was later reproached for the fact that it was through his fault that the Allies lost the Battle of Austerlitz, the prince, with the permission of Alexander I, issued two whole brochures in French, in which he tried to justify himself. But … for some reason, Emperor Alexander himself after that began to keep him away from his court, although he sent him on various kinds of diplomatic missions. He died a year later, after the Battle of Austerlitz, and it is possible that it was this tragedy that left its fatal stamp on his future fate.
The funny thing is that among the French marshals there were people, moreover, they were Murat, Soult and Lannes, who, on November 29, considered retreating the best solution. Lann was asked to compose a note for Napoleon, who, after reading it, was very surprised that his fearless Lann suddenly advised for something to retreat. He turned to Soult, and he … immediately stated that "", although he himself had just advised Lann to offer the emperor a retreat. For such hypocrisy, Lannes wanted to immediately challenge Soult to a duel, and did not call it only because Napoleon himself ordered a retreat from Austerlitz, leaving him to the enemy, and placing all his troops between Brunn and Pratzen Heights. Napoleon personally prepared a proclamation, which said that the position of the French army is difficult to crush, and when the enemy starts "".
In the evening, seeing that the allies were occupying the Pratsen heights left by him, the emperor went on reconnaissance, encountered the Cossacks, but escaped from them thanks to his escort. Leaving his horse, he went out to his soldiers, and they, under the shouts of "", rushed to light his way to the headquarters with torches. The shouts and fires caused concern in the Allied camp, but soon everything was quiet there, but Napoleon, returning to the headquarters, corrected the text of the proclamation, writing down that: "", and in this form sent it to the headquarters.
On December 1, on the eve of the battle, Napoleon gathered all the corps commanders and explained to them the essence of his plan. He realized that the main blow of the Allies was to be expected on the right flank, that their goal was to cut it off from the roads to Vienna and deprive it of supplies. Therefore, he decided to counterattack the enemy in the center and cut the allied army into pieces, which would inevitably cause panic in its ranks. To this end, the center of the French troops was reinforced as much as possible by the corps of Marshal Soult, the left wing was commanded by two Marshals Bernadotte and Lannes, but the right flank was placed under the command of Marshal Davout, from whom only one thing was required - to hold on at all costs! The Imperial Guard was in reserve in the center.
In fact, Napoleon in this way could completely neutralize Weyrother's plan, as if he personally looked into it. But … like any of the plans, Napoleon's plan contained many very risky elements that could easily lead him not to victory, but to defeat. The fact is that the success of the entire operation depended on whether Davout was able to hold out until the allies fell on him with most of their forces and descended onto the plain from the Prazen Heights. It was not difficult to occupy these heights after that. But the troops who occupied them, the purpose of which was to strike the flank and rear of the allies attacking Davout, in turn, could be subjected to a flank attack by the Russian imperial guard and parts of Bagration. They should have been tied down in battle, but this had to be done in time. That is, the success and failure of the battle depended on just a few minutes, as well as … on the initiative and enterprise of the commanders of the allied army. But Napoleon believed that he was dealing with mediocrity, incapable of such actions, and … the future showed how much he was right in this assessment of his opponents!
