Battle of Wagram

Battle of Wagram, military engagement that ended with a victory for Napoleon I over Austrian forces during the Napoleonic Wars. It was fought at the village of Wagram, Austria, on July 5 and 6, 1809, between an Austrian army of about 155,000 troops led by Archduke Charles Louis John and 170,000 French troops under Napoleon I. The ensuing peace, established by the Treaty of Schönbrunn, brought Napoleon’s empire to its zenith.

The Battle of Wagram temporarily crushed Austrian resistance to Napoleon’s dominance, but it had been preceded by some of Napoleon’s first important military reverses. Napoleon’s military victories from 1805 to 1807 had defeated Austria, Russia, and Prussia and allowed him to redraw the map of central Europe. He also obtained the reluctant alliance of the defeated powers in his continued conflict with Britain. However, Austria’s progressive loss of its empire to Napoleon produced resentment and resulted in a national awakening. As a consequence, Austria attempted to mount a resistance to France under the leadership of Austrian Archduke Charles, younger brother of Emperor Francis II. In April 1809 Austria declared war on France, for the fifth time since 1792, and Austrian forces invaded southern Germany, which was under French protection.

Napoleon countered with a rapid march to the Danube River, the occupation of Vienna, Austria’s capital, and orders for his armies in Italy and Germany to join him. His resultant forces, though larger than ever before, were not as good as those he had led in earlier campaigns in Germany and Poland. The Austrians, under new leadership and inspired by patriotic fervor, were a more formidable foe than before.

Archduke Charles assembled his troops on the north bank of the Danube, almost within sight of Vienna’s ramparts. Napoleon’s army, based on an island in the river, attempted to cross the Danube at the Austrian villages of Aspern and Essling, near Vienna, on May 21 and 22. In this action the French army suffered heavily, with 20,000 casualties, and Napoleon was hemmed in for weeks on the island. This was Napoleon’s first serious reverse, and it had important political repercussions elsewhere, giving comfort to those who wished to throw off the French imperial yoke.

Nevertheless, Napoleon decided to attack the main body of Charles’s army before reinforcements, expected from his brother Archduke John, could be brought up to join him. In the middle of a thunderstorm on July 5, Napoleon crossed the river. The French army advanced on a front 22.5 km (14 mi) long, the left wing under André Masséna, the right led by Louis Nicolas Davout, and the center under Jacques-Alexandre Macdonald. The French troops faced stiff opposition, and on July 5 the Austrians counterattacked Masséna’s wing, forcing him back to the river and threatening to cut off the main French thrust in the middle. At the same time Macdonald’s infantry advanced with leveled bayonets against the center of the Austrian line, near the village of Wagram. Despite suffering great losses, Macdonald’s forces held their ground in the decisive moment of the battle. During the night, with Archduke John’s forces still some 16 km (10 mi) distant, the main Austrian army withdrew in good order.

Both sides had deployed huge numbers of troops at Wagram, and their losses were correspondingly great. The French lost 30,000 combatants; the Austrians, 26,000. Francis realized that further resistance was pointless and concluded the Treaty of Schönbrunn in October 1809. Austria surrendered more territory and entered an alliance with France that was sealed by the marriage of Francis’s daughter Marie Louise with Napoleon. Not until Napoleon’s failed offensive in Russia in 1812 did Austria break free from his rule and join Britain and the other allies in his eventual defeat.