Until this 1809 battle, Napoleon hadn't lost an engagement in over a decade. Special guest Nick Kramer joins the show to discuss this important setback in Napoleon's career and how the Emperor and his opponents reacted to it.
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(00:00):
Welcome back to Generals and Napoleon.
We have an esteemed returning guest.
Once again we have my good friend Nick Cramer.
How are you, Nick? Good, John, how are you?
Good, good. Thanks for having me on again.
Love, love. Any opportunity to talk about
Napoleon? Yeah, and Nick just got back
from a whirlwind tour of Napoleonic battlefield near
Vienna, right? Which ones did you see, Nick?
(00:21):
Got to see Leipzig, Dresden, Ashburn and Esling.
Funnily enough, a Vog room and Ialso got to see Ousterless from
the road, which was pretty cool.The most fun one though was calm
going into the the the the woods, marching on that, getting
to see where Van Damme was captured, the plaque and all
that. So it was fun.
(00:42):
Unfortunately, those civilization has taken over a
lot of the battlefields, so they're not as preserved as one
would like. It's not like Waterloo or some
of the other battlefields, whichare the major ones, are
preserved, but a lot of them unfortunately are taken over by
towns and cities. Yeah, that is unfortunate.
You know, like here in America, like, you know, we have
(01:02):
Gettysburg and Antietam. You can still visit those.
And. But you're right.
I mean, civilization expands andsometimes the battlefields get
taken over. And that is unfortunate.
Coleman, that'd be interesting to see where Van Damme, I had to
surrender after being cut off. That would be a new one to see.
It's very nice to go because we lead read a lot of books and you
read about like where the divisions, mustard and all that.
But it's always good to see you know the terrain.
(01:25):
I give you an appreciation, especially like, you know,
studying the Austrians, everybody always like, well,
they always move so slow. But then you drive through the
areas where they March through and it's like, wow, like, how
could you fit 200,000 in this area and March them officially,
you know, with woods and terrainand all that sort.
So gives you a better appreciation for what armies
went through back then. And imagining there's no roads
(01:49):
like a highway or anything marching up and down.
So it's always nice to see battlefields in person.
Yeah, indeed. And.
We're going to talk about a battle today, the battle of
Aspirin Essling. I just want to give you a little
background on Nick first. He is a PhD student at the
University of North Texas, and he's working on his dissertation
on Napoleonic studies. And if you'd like to follow
Nick, he has a great little Twitter page.
(02:10):
You can find him on North KramerKramer 5812.
That's Ben Kramer 5812 on X Twitter.
So if you want to say hello, Nick, that's where he is.
And yeah, I thought we'd talk about the battle of aspirin
esling today. It took place not far from where
you were there in Vienna in May 1809, and it represents a number
(02:31):
of firsts. A Napoleon's first defeat in 10
years as commander since the siege of Acre in 1799, his first
set back as emperor, and his first loss to the Austrians in a
long time. Which of these is the most
significant in your opinion? Well, Asburn is very significant
in the fact that it destroys thewhole aura of invincibility
(02:52):
surrounding Napoleon in the Grand Army.
So, you know, four years before,you know, at Ousterlitz and you
know, all the Austrian were absolutely, you know, destroyed,
you know, very easily by Napoleon in the Grand Army and
Austria had to reform afterwardsand nobody ever thought that he
would lose, especially after, you know, Yan Auerstadt in
(03:14):
eighteen O 6 the Emperor was unbeatable.
And now after Asper nestling, itshows that, you know, he can be
beaten. And it should have shown
Napoleon in theory that these aren't the same bunglers that he
faced in eighteen O 5 and 18 O 6.
But you know, he'll still alwayshold this contempt for the
Austrians that'll even play him in 1813.
(03:35):
Right, right. Well, let's discuss the
background a little bit. It's eighteen O 9 as the year.
And as you mentioned, Austria was humiliated in eighteen O 5
at their OM and Austria. So they spent those years kind
of licking the ruins, rebuildingtheir army, reforming it.
I'm waiting for the right momentto challenge Napoleon again.
What do you think spurred the Austrians to do this again?
(03:56):
Because like you said, they lostin Italy to Napoleon, and
Marengo to Napoleon, and again in Austerlitz.
Was it the French defeat at the 1808 Battle of Bailen in Spain?
Or was it the loss of their territory after Austerlitz?
Or was it something else? Well, there's a lot.
I have 7 here for why they offerwar in 1809.
(04:16):
Obviously, the insurrection in Spain is important, but there's
a lot of other things going on behind the scenes.
Look, the Spanish, Spanish one'simportant because a lot of the
Grande RMA is going to be in Spain fighting the Spanish.
So that's going to tie down a lot of soldiers.
But we can actually go back in time to 1808 in October at the
(04:37):
year for conference, where Napoleon calls all these
monarchs of Europe together. Not necessarily to talk about
much, but basically just to, like, make sure that he's got
his political stability in orderbefore he goes off the spade to
crush the insurrection there. However, the main reason he
calls that is to talk to Tsar Alexander to make sure that he
(04:57):
keeps an eye on the Austrians because Napoleon had always
feared that the Austrians would want to get back at him for, you
know, taking territory in Italy.He wanted to make sure that Alex
would honor the treaty that he signed a Tilsit.
And Alex to his face is like, yeah, you know, I'm loyal to the
treaty, all that. However, what Napoleon doesn't
know is that behind the scenes, Alexander had told the Austrians
(05:19):
that he would remain neutral in a war between Austria and
France. So they have, I don't want to
say like a blank check, like, you know, the Austrians get in
World War One. But they have, you know, kind of
freedom to do what they want andmake sure that the Russians
don't invade. So in Spain now, you know, it's
been a couple months to pull, you know, January, they start
(05:39):
mobilizing. The Spanish ulcers already
taking its toll on France. And Wellesley, who's not
Wellington yet, was defeating French subordinates left and
right. And you know, with the Spanish
guerrillas time for down there, it's a good time to strike.
Also, Napoleon and the French had a nasty habit of not
honoring treaties and being way too aggressive in their foreign
(06:01):
policy. So Francis, the Emperor of
Austria, Francis the First was really fearful that Napoleon,
Napoleon was going to just eliminate has her monarchy
altogether. Why would he think that?
He did the same thing to the Holy Roman Empire, an empire
that lasted 1000 years. Napoleon just signed away with
the pen. The other critical factor is
(06:22):
Medernick. Clemens von Medernick, who is
the ambassador to France now, will become foreign minister
after this. He persuades Francis that the
time is right now because Franceuses conscription heavily, and
he is convinced that the French are getting sick and tired of
the war, that conscription is taking its toll.
Remember, this is a country that's been at war constantly
(06:44):
since 1792, and they started theLe'veon Moss on August 10th,
1793. So millions of men have been
enrolled in the army. And Medrick's convinced that,
you know, they're sick and tiredof the war.
Just keep pressing them. They'll give up.
Fourthly, we talked about this briefly is that the Austrian
army had been reformed after Alman Auscholitz.
(07:06):
Now, these reforms hadn't been tested yet, but in theory they
were going to perform very well,led by Arch Duke Charles, who is
the best commander of the Austrians had, and other than
Wellesley and Wellington and Blucher, probably the best
opponent Napoleon face. They'd adopted the core systems
and they adopted what's called aland fair, which is a citizen
(07:27):
militia to enroll mass numbers in the army and also provide
sort of a civilian defense forceto drastically increase the size
of the Austrian army. So not battle tested yet, but a
lot, a lot of reformers within the Austrian army think that
this force can now maybe defeat Napoleon.
Fifth point you, you hit the nail on the head.
(07:48):
You know, they lost a lot of territory.
So you know, revenge, you know, revenge is obviously something
very important here because theyhaven't beat the French in a
long time. So they're sick of losing.
So now they see a time to strike. 6th is they also take
another example from the Spanish.
The Spanish is a lot of our listeners may know we're very
good because of a civilian insurrection, popular uprising
(08:11):
that had been done yet in the territories in Austria and
modern day Germany. However, they are convinced that
they can take a page out of the Spanish playbook.
Count Philip Stadion, their foreign minister at this point
raised the idea of a nationalistic uprising or the
German term, a bolkskrieg People's War in the states of
the Confederation of the Rhine, the territories that are forced
(08:34):
into a military alliance againstFrance.
He's convinced that, you know, just a little bit of force and a
little bit of propaganda, you know, Stadion starts
distributing pamphlets in placeslike Brunswick and Hess Kessel
to cast off the French yoke, youknow, these foreign dominators.
What he doesn't realize is that a lot of people actually benefit
(08:55):
from French rule and that the Princess who rule these
territories, you know, they get a lot of benefit, you know, like
Vertenberg or one of these territories where the Prince,
you know, double S his territoryand his dominion.
So why would he want to give that up?
But they think in theory that, you know, you appeal to the they
will just obviously go after theFrench.
And this is bolstered by, you know, my last point is that
(09:17):
there was an uprising in the tieroll under Andreas Hoffer, which
convinced many that, you know, this could work.
And it's also important to know that the British threw a lot of
money at them. Like the British always do.
They promise to invade somewherein North Germany.
And the British actually do uphold this promise.
And their invasion takes place at a place called of Walgren.
(09:38):
And but that's a disaster. I'll let somebody else an
episode on the British military talk about Walgren fever and the
disaster that was that. So there's a lot of reasons
going for why the Austrians declare war.
But if you wanted to boil it down to one, it's that
Napoleon's occupied. So if not now, when?
Yeah, I think of all your points, the second one's the
(09:59):
most intriguing one to me. I never really thought about it,
just the literal survival of theHapsburg Empire and their
throne. You mentioned the whole Roman
Empire, but also the Venetian Republic was, you know, gotten
rid of or at least eliminated. Napoleon just said, no, we're
not doing that anymore. Also, the Spanish House of
Bourbon, they were in prison basically in France.
(10:19):
And the Portuguese royal family had to flee to Brazil.
Yeah. Maybe Francis is just looking at
it like, all right, well, we're next on the chopping block, so
maybe we should just try our, our, our chances again at war
with Napoleon before our, our empire is gone.
And at Tilsit, Napoleon was on the verge of eliminating
negotiating it away before Alexander stepped in and saved
(10:42):
them a little bit. But the Habsburgs and you know,
the territory, the Austrian Empire, you know, they're very
kind of behind the times, but they're very reliant on treaties
and honor and tradition to keep alive.
This is a multi ethnic polity. You know, there's hundreds of
cultures and ethnicities. So there's a lot of flimsiness
holding it together. And you know, just one strong
(11:02):
kick in the door might knock down the whole foundation.
All right, let's get to the Ballam aspirin and how we get
there in the campaigning. So after some initial trouble at
the start of the war when Marshall Bertier was de facto in
charge because Napoleon was in Paris, Napoleon shows up, the
French defeat the Austrians in aseries of battles at Abensburg,
Ekmol and Raddespahn and others.So how do we get to aspirin
(11:25):
esling, which is it's just a suburb, right?
Like right outside of Vienna. Yeah, it's just a couple miles
east. It's very, very small.
It's bigger now than it was backthen, but yeah, it's on the
other side of the Daniel River. So it must be noted that, you
know, Marshall birthday, Napoleon's wife, whatever
nickname you want to use for him.
Great chief of staff, great hand, very good at taking
(11:46):
Napoleon's long winded orders and diffusing them down into,
you know, a coherent, a piece ofpaper.
Very bad, very bad independent commander.
And he's lucky that Marshall Davu is as good as he is.
We'll get to that. So Charles, you know, launches
the Radish Vaughn campaign and the Austrians get lucky.
Napoleon thought that they wouldn't be ready until 17 April
(12:10):
to launch an attack, but the Austrians were actually a week
ahead of schedule. They launched a surprise attack,
occupy Bavaria, Munich in circlealmost Marshall Dabu, because
Berthier was so slow in getting orders out and he didn't know
the strategic situation. So he gets lucky.
Dabu was sitting there, you know, at Regensburg about to get
(12:34):
in circle before Napoleon arrived and kind of saved the
whole thing. And also, you know, taboo at the
battle of what's called Toygenhausen fights off the
Austrians, you know, miraculously and saves his core.
Then Napoleon launches this brilliant four day campaign
where he tries to develop a double envelopment of the
Austrian army, which doesn't quite succeed because Napoleon
(12:56):
makes a mistake. He thought that General Hiller's
force, the one he faced, was themain Austrian army.
It wasn't so Debu once again is isolated at EKMU with only
20,000 men facing Charles and 70,000.
Debu is again up against it muchlike he was at our shot.
(13:17):
Saves his core from destruction because of its hard fighting and
also because Napoleon quickly realizes his mistake.
You know, Owen Connelly, the greatest story you know said
Napoleon blundered in this case,which he does.
He makes a mistake. But this shows the, you know,
the power of the military systemis that he quickly realizes a
mistake and dispatches lawn to help Daboo.
(13:39):
They forced March 22 miles and saved Daboos core at Ekmal.
So because of Daboos heroic actions here, that's why he
becomes the Prince of Ekmal from1809 onwards.
Something else worth noting though, another mistake that
Napoleon makes. After actual Charles is going to
(14:00):
retreat, Napoleon has two options, one, seek and destroy,
pursue Charles's army, wipe themout.
Or he can March on Vienna. He can March on Vienna, take the
capital. He thought Charles would defend
it, so that could be a chance todestroy his army there.
And he chooses option to March on Vienna.
But we're getting to that. It's a very controversial
(14:20):
decision. Yeah, but why?
Why is it important to talk about?
In the old days of the Grand Army, 18 O five and six, No, no
doubt would have sent him after Charles, would have wiped him
out. However, this is not the same
Grand Army that it was in eighteen O 5 and 6.
They're either all dead at Ilao,you know, after that bloodbath
(14:44):
in the snow, or they're in Spain.
So these are conscripts from theGerman territory.
Yeah. And.
And his army's exhausted, so he can't conduct the same type of
maneuvers that he used to in 1805, six and seven.
So he kind of just sends it after Vienna, hoping that'll end
(15:04):
the war. Charles abandons it after a
small artillery bombardment and then retreats across the Danube
River and is waiting for Napoleon on the other side with
115,000 men do. You wonder if it and I don't
want to get into that doctrine too much because you're right.
Napoleon's early years who just find the enemy army, seek it out
and destroy it. In his later years, maybe
starting with this, he's more focused on capturing capitals
(15:27):
and cities like Vienna and Moscow and Berlin later in 1813,
instead of just seeking out and destroying the army like he did
in his early years. So yeah, it's a little bit of a
dynamic change. So like you said, Charles and
our shoot Charles and the Austrian army kind of retreat
out of Vienna. They just make it an open city
without destroying the city. Napoleon takes over Vienna, so
(15:47):
he's in possession, but the bridges over the Danube, which
is a huge river, have been broken by the retreating
Austrians. Why is this going to be a big
problem for Napoleon? Well, I mean, having been to
that area, the Danube is not affordable.
You have to build a bridge. And like I said, the Austrians
have retreated to the other sideof the river and they've
destroyed a lot of the bridges over the Danube.
(16:09):
So if Napoleon wants to go attack them, which in hindsight
probably not the best idea to doright away because he remember,
he takes Vienna on 14 May and hedecides to immediately,
immediately go after him. OK, in hindsight, probably
should have waited a little bit because he's going to wait at
Bagram and do some maneuvers to bamboozle Charles.
(16:33):
But again, he he just makes the decision to go after him right
away. It's strategic consumption has
taken hold. He has to dispatch forces to the
TIE roll. And he's also fearful that
Archduke John, who's operating against Newton Napoleon's
stepson, Eugene de Beauharney inItaly, and he's worried that
Archduke John will reinforce Charles.
(16:55):
So he seizes now or never. Well, there's only one bridge.
It's destroyed, so they need to hastily build a new one.
And because they build it so hastily, they're not going to
put up Palisades and barriers toprotect it.
So it's going to be very I don'twant to say flimsy because it
can easily get the men across, but it's not protected by a wall
(17:15):
to protect it from being destroyed.
And this puts his army in great danger because he builds it so
quickly trying to get across theriver that he's not going to
have time to deceive the enemy like he will Evagram.
So if this bridge is destroyed, you know, looking ahead, news
flash, if it's destroyed, he's not going to be able to mass his
(17:35):
entire army. So he and this is going to put
his army in great danger. But he also doesn't know is that
Charles knows his every move because there's an observatory
in that has been reporting all of the French movements for the
past couple days. So the fact that he decides to
go after them so quickly leads him to not take the necessary
precautions to ensure that his army has a 100% chance of
(17:57):
success. And we'll come back to that
because speed is like the numberone thing in Napoleon's army.
So if the bridges are broken andhe can't get to Charles unless
it's a piece meal fashion like 1core at a time, that huge
advantage of speed kind of goes away from Napoleon.
Well, and another thing that theNapoleonic army relies on
heavily is mutual support. So the core is you're they're
small but quick, but the benefitto them is that you can take,
(18:21):
you know, 30,000 men from 20 miles away and all converge at
once. If there's no mutual support,
then they're in trouble. He'll find this out at Gross
Barren in 1813. Well, let's discuss the sizes of
each army for the battle of Aspirin, Estling and some of the
famous commanders on each side. So the Austrians have 115,000
available in pretty good order. They suffered 35,000 casualties
(18:42):
during the Ratz Bond campaign. They've retreated in good order
and I can't exercise. It's not there in a very good
defensive position on the other side of the river.
The French have only 85,000. OK, so they're outnumbered now.
They had more at the beginning of the campaign, but due to
strategic consumption, you know,dispatching forces to the tie
roll, protecting lines of communication.
(19:03):
Also, you know, during campaign,I know if we haven't been on
campaign, you know, in the Napoleonic army, it's it's
tough. You know, people are going to
fall. I'll people are going to run
away. So the strategic consumption has
started to take his toll on Napoleon and the French.
So that's why he comes to the conclusion to win the war now.
(19:25):
Now both sides, they're vainly conscript forces, ironically
enough, you know, it's going to be Germans fighting Germans in a
lot of ways. The Austrians have a lot of
Germans in their since the French do as well, unlike in
1806 and seven where it's a lot of Frenchmen, now it's a lot of
men from the Confederation of the Rhine.
So the famous commander have obviously the best commander of
(19:46):
their time, Archduke Charles, Count Belgard, who has fought
since the war, the first coalition.
We also have Prince Lichtenstein, who was Emperor
Francis's fourth son, who was very experienced.
He fought at the Battle of La Rue in 1794, Ho and Linden, and
also at Austerlitz. Now, a lot of our viewers
(20:07):
probably haven't heard those names because Austrian
commanders don't. Get the attention and they're
nowhere near the quality of the French commanders like it.
For the French, you have a Marshall Messena before his
reputation goes in the toilet and Spain in 1810 and 11, the
infant child of Victory as he was known.
Marshall LON will have an occasion to talk about him in
(20:27):
this battle. Dabu and Bernadotte are also on
this campaign. They do not partake in this
battle, though. Dabu was at Acme Old, but he'll
be stuck here and also Bernadotte.
He's going to be commanded Saxons, the Saxon Corps.
You also have Marshall Bessier, the famous commander of the
Calvary. You also have Mira as well.
(20:48):
And you also have General Saint Hilaire, who's not a Marshall
but still a very famous French commander who was a hero of
Austerlitz and Yana. Yeah, definitely got some big
names in this one. Yeah, and the French quality of
commander is way better than anything the Austrians have, it
must be noted. Yeah, yeah.
It's interesting, though. The battle begins as Napoleon
(21:10):
sent troops under Marshalls Messena, LAN and Bessier from
the island of is it Labao or Labo?
I don't know. Lobao.
Lobao. OK in the Danube and over
towards the Austrian army at theHamlets of Aspirin Essling.
Can you kind of describe the topography of the battlefield?
Because I know these French troops are going to have the
Danube now at their back, right?And they're facing the Austrians
(21:33):
on this. Is it like a plane?
It's kind of a plane. These villages are very dense,
but they're spread out by a couple miles.
I was able to tour these two areas where the battles took
place. There's a very small museum.
It was only open on Sundays fromthe hours of 11:50 at Esley.
The Bagram Museum is huge, though, so I got to view that.
(21:53):
But unfortunately, I was hoping to be able to see, you know, the
battlefields. But civilization has taken over.
Yeah, but it's May and the Danube had flooded a lot in
1809, so the ground was marshy and the Danube was overflowing
in a lot of areas. So the ground was semi soft.
It wasn't like, you know, waterloose off.
(22:15):
But the important thing is, you know, fighting with the river at
your back is always a disaster. You know, it's going to be a
fight to the death, just as the Russians at Friedland how it was
having the river at your back. Yep.
So yeah, the there's a couple little islands that span you can
get across the Danube, but yeah,the very, there's only one
bridge getting over that that's going to be hastily built.
(22:37):
But it's topography is not goingto be like as much of a factor
as other battles you've talked about in your channel.
OK. Well, the battle begins first
day. The town of Asburn changes hands
several times as Archduke Charles force all available
troops to knock Marshall Massena's core into the river.
Meanwhile, there's Savage fighting over at Esling, where
(22:59):
Marshall LON holds the town withhis single division against the
onslaught of the Austrian army. And I think in between the two
towns is Marshall Bessia and hiscavalry troopers.
Why is Marshall LON becoming upset with Marshall Bessia?
All right, so I don't know if you or your listeners watch the
Kardashians or any sort of like reality TV show, but buckle up
(23:22):
because this is interesting. The not the sound improper, but
the French marshals, they are some of the cattiest people you
will ever be in your life for the note that they're people and
they have personalities and there's rivalries amongst the
French Marshall it they're not always looking to, you know, do
what's best because especially in the case of like birth the A,
(23:44):
everybody hates him. Everybody hates birth the A
because he was like, you know, Napoleon's like right-handed man
and a lot of people hated that, OK, they hated that he got
preferential treatment. So the Marshalls are not like
this, you know, congruent, very homogeneous together group that
all loves each other. They actually all really hate
each other. So the beef between Bessier and
(24:07):
LON actually goes way back. I did not know a lot about this.
I did some research on this the past couple of days and it goes,
it's interesting. OK, so they're originally from
Gascony. They're from the same region in
France, and they were relativelythe same age, so they knew each
other pretty well. Bessier was even a witness to
Lon's second wedding. So that pretty good
(24:29):
relationship. However, Napoleon after he
became First Consul and after the battle of Marengo in 1800,
where LON, who was just a general at this point, won't be
a Marshall till eighteen O 4 wasappointed the head of the
Consular Guard. Think of it like, you know, the
Praetorian Guard was for the Emperor of Rome.
So, you know, kind of like the bodyguards.
(24:49):
OK, so that's a very prestigiousposition what LON has because,
you know, we'll talk about this.You know, LON and Napoleon were
very close friends and he was given carte blanche to, you
know, make the Consular Guard fitting of the position, you
know, get them new uniforms, outfit them better, make sure
they're well taken care of. Napoleon also tells LON to buy
(25:10):
himself a house that is fitting of his position.
Yeah. So LON, you know, I can't say I
blame him. He's told by his nice house.
So he buys himself a very luxurious palace on the route to
Saint Dominique in Paris, which is, you know, well, now it's
right next to the Eiffel Tower, so very nice Rd. in France.
He then after buying himself, you know, a Kardashian type
(25:33):
mansion, turns his attention to the consular guard and basically
bears no expense in getting themnew uniforms, new beds, you
know, 1 consular guard member said he thanked LON proficiently
because he had a bed so big now that more than two people can
sleep in it. It was so nice.
So he's going to run up quite a tab 300,003 then the tab is
(25:57):
300,000. Yeah.
So Napoleon is pretty furious that he ran up such a tab.
And there's going to be a group of commanders who get plot to
make sure that Napoleon knew exactly what the expenses were.
That would be Bessie and Mira. So Mira and Bessie Hare get LON
removed from the Consular Guard.Lon's lucky Napoleon was going
(26:23):
to have him shot if he didn't pay the whole entire 300,000
francs back within 8 days. He's bailed out by one of his
other friends, I forget which. Marshall.
It was Marshall. Ojiro yes thank you.
Ojiro bails him out, basically spares LON a court martial.
So LON is sent in semi disgrace to Portugal to be the
(26:46):
ambassador. But people have long memories
and LON will not forget what Bessie A did to him.
So that's all going to come to ahead at Essling, where after LON
overhears Bessie A complaining about him to Colonel Mabo, LON
is going to accuse Bessie A of holding back.
Now let's give LON a little bit of grace.
(27:08):
He had fought the whole entire day with one division holding S
Link by himself with no support,had to repel 3 Austrian attacks.
So I think he was A. He was definitely a little bit
annoyed that he was kind of leftout on an island and thought
Bessie A could support him. He doesn't know is that Bessier
was actually very heroic during the battle, launching several
(27:29):
Calvary attacks to thwart the Austrian advance.
You know LON doesn't care, so they are going to have their
words later on. Yeah, and and you mentioned the
role of commander of the Councillor Guard, which goes on
to be the Imperial Guard. Basically, you're controlling
the best troops in the French army and the troops that control
access to Napoleons. It's a very prestigious
(27:49):
position. And after LON is sent off to
Portugal, guess who becomes commander of the Imperial Guard?
Especia. Yeah, Yeah, now.
I was looking online because a lot of people are torn which
side of it, you know, which sideof this debate do you fall on?
Are you Team LON or Team Bessier?
You know, do you think that LON got screwed over?
Sure. But also Bessier thought that,
(28:13):
you know, in his mind that, you know, Juan was spending
unnecessary money that wasn't going towards the troops, right?
Because, like, Bessier didn't have a palace on Rue St.
Dominique, so I think there was definitely a little bit of
contention there. But he also thought that funds
for the army should not be spentWilly nilly.
Right. Which I can, I can see I can get
(28:35):
on board with that. We'll come back to that.
So the first day ends and only nightfall really brings a halt
to the fighting. And the two forces sleep within
pistol shot of each other. What were Napoleon's engineers
doing to repair the bridges? And how did the Austrians thwart
these repairs? Because I know Marshall de Vue's
corps is kind of like standing by the whole day waiting for
these bridges to be done. So they can rush over and help
(28:56):
it ask for nestling, but. So the French engineers after
the bridge had been destroyed. So what the Austrians did
several times was they sent, youknow, flotillas and ships or
whatever barges that were on fire and they sent them at the
bridge to destroy, catching on fire.
So the French had the rebuild a couple times.
So it's after, during the night after the first day of the
(29:17):
Battle of Second Corps made it across to reinforce Napoleon,
and then Daboo, who's always commands 3 core, is summoned to
the bridgehead to start marching.
It's at that point, it's around between 5:00 and 7:00 AM that
the bridge is destroyed. It had been destroyed several
times before. The French engineers who were
some of the best, had rebuilt it.
The problem is the bridge is destroyed at 7 and that's when
(29:40):
Napoleon launches his attack. So Daboo Score is literally
yeah, just sitting there waitingfor the bridge to be repaired,
watching the battle take place, and they're just stuck on the
wrong side of the river. Also during the evening,
Marshall and Marshall Bessier getting to a shouting match
which leads them to basically draw swords on each other.
What happens there? I said this briefly, but LON is
(30:02):
going to overhear Bessier complaining about him to, you
know, behind his back to ColonelMevo.
He's Bessier is going to accuse LON of being incompetent, that
he needed to, you know, help himout because Bessier was, you
know, fighting his fighting hardas well, repelling several
attacks. He's like, hey, where's where's
the LON? And LON thinks the same thing.
So they're just go. So LON, who had an hack for
(30:26):
being hot headed and exploding at the wrong time, basically
challenges Bezier to duel. In some cases they draw swords
on each other, but Marshall MissSanta steps in and cool heads
prevail. I don't want to say it was a
long time coming, but these guys, they weren't fast friends.
They have a long history of beefand men have a tendency in the
(30:47):
heat of battle to get over getting worked up about stuff.
So I think they were just very animated and hot because of what
happened during the day. I don't really think they would
have slashed at each other, but I think there is just a lot of
emotional oceans running high inthe heat of the moment.
Yeah, and they're both competitive individuals.
They're both friends of Napoleon, they're both
(31:07):
Marshalls. So I think you're right.
I think it's just the heat of the moment type of thing.
And it must be noted that they are not the only Marshalls who
had beef with each other. That's true.
Well, the second day leads to more desperate fighting in both
Aspirin and Esling. How do you think Messena and LAN
kept their footholds in these two towns?
Well, they get lucky in the factthat the Austrians are their
(31:27):
timing is slightly off. The attacks aren't as
coordinated as they can be. So again, pretty much raw
conscripts. And the Austrians are still
reforming in a lot of ways, So they're not quite there yet.
So the timing's slightly off, but also must be noted, like,
let's give credit to the French.Their determination was
incredible, rugged determination.
Their leadership is great. It also must be.
(31:50):
No, it's not easy to take cities, you know, close quarters
combat. So fighting over a little
villages and all that, it's going to be very hard to take.
But the French fight really, really hard.
In a lot of ways, they are stillway better trained, way better
LED than their Austrian counterparts.
The other thing is the French, the, you know, let's return to
(32:10):
Marshall Bessier, the French Calvary support.
Oh God, on the other side of theriver.
So Calvary is used in the Pullianic warfare.
It was used to blunt attacks a lot.
So Bessier did a great job of realizing where the weaknesses
were and where the momentum was and launching attacks and
thwarting Austrian advances. So Essling actually falls at one
(32:31):
point, but the young guard is sent in at the last second.
And due to their bravery taking the town at bayonet point, they
take Essling. So a lot of hard will
determination, skillful fightingby the French, that's what holds
it against the Austrians. And also the Austrians make
mistakes, you know, the timing slightly off.
They don't coordinate as well and their leadership is not
(32:55):
great. Yeah, compared to the French.
Well, the French are still holding the towns, both towns
barely, but the bridges are again knocked down by heavy
barges and windmills sent downstream by the Austrians,
like you said. And I guess at this point
Napoleon is just like, I have tocut my losses, right?
Because I cannot get more, not only truth, but, you know,
ammunition, food, supplies. I can't get anything over this,
this Daniel. So he has to pull the neck
(33:17):
right? Yeah.
So by 4:00 PM, there's roll likethere's a lot of reports that
like most men are down to like maybe a shot or two.
So there's no, they don't have any ammo left so that you have
to get out now. They're also very much
overwhelmed numerically. And there's no reinforces
coming. Like you said, the bridge has
(33:38):
been destroyed. So, you know, this is basically
just, you know, a meat grinder at this point.
So you have to get out now to avoid further losses, OK.
Because if you lose the entire army now, then, you know, the
war is, you know, you could losethe war.
And also he wants to, you know, live the fight another day.
The other thing is, you know, men are men.
(33:58):
They're people. And they are exhausted.
They've been fighting for two days.
Those who aren't dead are probably begging for death at
this point. It's been, they've been fighting
so hard, you couldn't ask any more out of them.
And we've talked about this a couple times, but these aren't
the same, you know, warriors that were in eighteen O 5 and 6.
These are raw conscripts that you just can't ask the same
(34:22):
level out of them. They aren't as well trained.
And you know, he realized that the men are just absolutely
exhausted, as the saying goes, you know, maybe lose 1 battle to
win the war later on. And that's what he realizes that
I mean, he had no chance of winning.
He wasn't going to win so. Right, right.
He just. Has to pull out and save what he
can to launch an attack later on.
(34:43):
Well, other than the pulling something in his first defeat in
10 years, the worst part of the day was yet to come.
Marshall LON is generally considered one of his best
independent commanders, was among the last Frenchman to
retreat, and he's in mid conversation with his friend and
mentor General Pousse, who is decapitated by a cannonball
shot. What happens to LON after that?
So, yeah, very unfortunate story.
(35:05):
Tragic. So LON, you know, has been
defending holding S Ling for thebetter part of two days and
they're they're walking away andhe's having, you know, a
conversation with General Pousse.
I don't think we can really put in the words how that probably
felt for LON, who is his friend is just, you know, his head is
cannon. You know, cannonball takes his
head off. So blood sprays all over
Marshall lawn from he then walksaway to compose himself because
(35:31):
obviously he just saw what he saw.
He sits down, crosses his legs underneath a tree to compose
himself, puts his head in his hands.
It's at that point that a cannonball smashes through his
knees, both his knees, causing great damage.
He tries to get up, tries to getup, says, oh, I'm wounded, help
me up, can't get up. So he's immediately rushed off
(35:54):
the battlefield and within the span of two minutes, his he they
amputate his right leg because, you know, it was powder at this
point, and then the other ones left to heal.
But LON is going to die eight days later on the 31st of May of
an infection. He's the first Marshall to die
in a battle. And also it was he was
(36:16):
Napoleon's close friend, Napoleon famously remarked
afterwards quote. What a loss for France, what a
loss for me. But Blonde was, in my opinion,
his second best in defendant Commander other than Devu
wherever long when he inspired, you know, patriotism and, you
know, inspired the men to fight harder than they ever could have
(36:38):
imagined. So this is a great loss for the
French army. And then Napoleon personally,
you know, now the war is really starting to take a personal toll
on him. And ironically enough, the
second Marshall to die in battlewill be SCA couple years later.
What are the chances? Yeah, I think.
Does Saint Hilaire perish as well?
He gets a cannonball that takes his foot off and that's going to
(37:00):
kill him later on. So what are the casualty numbers
on both sides? So the French lost 20,000, that
was 33% of their force that was available for the battle, and
the Austrians lost 23,000. When you say lost though, that's
killed, wounded and captured. Killed, wounded, captured go
away. So just in total casualties not
(37:21):
dead, not 20,000 debt, but 20,000 that will not be
available for service in the near future.
So Napoleon regroups and later defeats the Austrians at the
Battle of Agram 6 weeks later. So I guess in theory, aspirin
wrestling isn't a huge setback, but it kind of is in Europe for
Napoleon. Do you think the legacy of this
(37:41):
battle is? Well, it was the first loss for
him. That aura of invincibility is
gone. He had lost until that point, so
nobody really knew if it was possible to beat him.
But now that aura of invincibility and infallibility
was gone for the Austrians. It also proves that the reforms
are working. But it must be noted that this
(38:02):
Prince army in 1809 is they are not in the same league as the
Grand Army of 1805. There's a lot of raw conscripts
from the German speaking territories.
They are trained a lot of times,you know, like on the
battlefield. And a lot of people criticize
Napoleon's tactics from here on out.
You'll see it like, you know, Borodino with mass frontal
(38:24):
assaults. And a lot of historians will say
that he was, you know, just someblood letter who was just
sacrificing young men. He doesn't have the men to
conduct, you know, expert movement.
So from here on out, you're going to see Napoleon
drastically change his art of war because he can't rely on
these complex flanky maneuvers. He's going to, it's going to be
a lot of go right at the enemy and hopefully they lose.
(38:46):
OK, Hopefully you overwhelm the enemy because the composition of
the German of the French army isjust nowhere near what it used
to be. However, it also must be
remembered that Napoleon is still the best general time at
this point and this campaign still shows a lot of his
versatility. For Medernick though, who in
1813 will become the the Prime Minister of the Coalition, this
(39:09):
eighteen O 9 war teaches him several lessons.
Firstly is that, you know you need alliances to win wars
because the Austrians were on their own and they lost.
But he's also going to remember that you're going to have to be
wary of your alliance partners on 1813.
You know he's going to be wary of getting into alliance, but he
(39:30):
wants Austria to win. So it shows that you need
alliances in order to win. Yeah, and I've seen Bonapartist
and Napoleonic fans say, well, he didn't lose, he just
retreated and then beat him six weeks later.
And I'm like, yeah, he lost. Like, I mean, yeah, he didn't
surrender at the battle or anything like that, but it was
still a set back for him. Well, and it also well because
(39:51):
he learns a lot from this one. He learns, you know, six weeks
later he's like, hey, let's let's build up the army and
let's do some deceptive movements.
So he takes a lot of lessons from aspirin estling and he's
not going to make the same mistakes again if.
He's going to absolutely annihilate the Austrians if
Agram and then it's deny him a couple of days after.
Yeah, that's an interesting legacy for sure.
(40:12):
Well, thank you as always for that, Nick.
That was fantastic. Again, my friend Nick is on X
Twitter, which you can find at NKramer 5812.
And yeah, great stuff, man. Always a pleasure having you on
the show. Oh yeah, that's great, John.
Look forward to doing this againin the future.
It's always great talking to you.
Welcome back to Generals and Napoleon.
We have an esteemed returning guest.
Once again we have my good friend Nick Cramer.
How are you, Nick? Good, John, how are you?
Good, good. Thanks for having me on again.
Love, love. Any opportunity to talk about
Napoleon? Yeah, and Nick just got back
from a whirlwind tour of Napoleonic battlefield near
Vienna, right? Which ones did you see, Nick?
(00:21):
Got to see Leipzig, Dresden, Ashburn and Esling.
Funnily enough, a Vog room and Ialso got to see Ousterless from
the road, which was pretty cool.The most fun one though was calm
going into the the the the woods, marching on that, getting
to see where Van Damme was captured, the plaque and all
that. So it was fun.
(00:42):
Unfortunately, those civilization has taken over a
lot of the battlefields, so they're not as preserved as one
would like. It's not like Waterloo or some
of the other battlefields, whichare the major ones, are
preserved, but a lot of them unfortunately are taken over by
towns and cities. Yeah, that is unfortunate.
You know, like here in America, like, you know, we have
(01:02):
Gettysburg and Antietam. You can still visit those.
And. But you're right.
I mean, civilization expands andsometimes the battlefields get
taken over. And that is unfortunate.
Coleman, that'd be interesting to see where Van Damme, I had to
surrender after being cut off. That would be a new one to see.
It's very nice to go because we lead read a lot of books and you
read about like where the divisions, mustard and all that.
But it's always good to see you know the terrain.
(01:25):
I give you an appreciation, especially like, you know,
studying the Austrians, everybody always like, well,
they always move so slow. But then you drive through the
areas where they March through and it's like, wow, like, how
could you fit 200,000 in this area and March them officially,
you know, with woods and terrainand all that sort.
So gives you a better appreciation for what armies
went through back then. And imagining there's no roads
(01:49):
like a highway or anything marching up and down.
So it's always nice to see battlefields in person.
Yeah, indeed. And.
We're going to talk about a battle today, the battle of
Aspirin Essling. I just want to give you a little
background on Nick first. He is a PhD student at the
University of North Texas, and he's working on his dissertation
on Napoleonic studies. And if you'd like to follow
Nick, he has a great little Twitter page.
(02:10):
You can find him on North KramerKramer 5812.
That's Ben Kramer 5812 on X Twitter.
So if you want to say hello, Nick, that's where he is.
And yeah, I thought we'd talk about the battle of aspirin
esling today. It took place not far from where
you were there in Vienna in May 1809, and it represents a number
(02:31):
of firsts. A Napoleon's first defeat in 10
years as commander since the siege of Acre in 1799, his first
set back as emperor, and his first loss to the Austrians in a
long time. Which of these is the most
significant in your opinion? Well, Asburn is very significant
in the fact that it destroys thewhole aura of invincibility
(02:52):
surrounding Napoleon in the Grand Army.
So, you know, four years before,you know, at Ousterlitz and you
know, all the Austrian were absolutely, you know, destroyed,
you know, very easily by Napoleon in the Grand Army and
Austria had to reform afterwardsand nobody ever thought that he
would lose, especially after, you know, Yan Auerstadt in
(03:14):
eighteen O 6 the Emperor was unbeatable.
And now after Asper nestling, itshows that, you know, he can be
beaten. And it should have shown
Napoleon in theory that these aren't the same bunglers that he
faced in eighteen O 5 and 18 O 6.
But you know, he'll still alwayshold this contempt for the
Austrians that'll even play him in 1813.
(03:35):
Right, right. Well, let's discuss the
background a little bit. It's eighteen O 9 as the year.
And as you mentioned, Austria was humiliated in eighteen O 5
at their OM and Austria. So they spent those years kind
of licking the ruins, rebuildingtheir army, reforming it.
I'm waiting for the right momentto challenge Napoleon again.
What do you think spurred the Austrians to do this again?
(03:56):
Because like you said, they lostin Italy to Napoleon, and
Marengo to Napoleon, and again in Austerlitz.
Was it the French defeat at the 1808 Battle of Bailen in Spain?
Or was it the loss of their territory after Austerlitz?
Or was it something else? Well, there's a lot.
I have 7 here for why they offerwar in 1809.
(04:16):
Obviously, the insurrection in Spain is important, but there's
a lot of other things going on behind the scenes.
Look, the Spanish, Spanish one'simportant because a lot of the
Grande RMA is going to be in Spain fighting the Spanish.
So that's going to tie down a lot of soldiers.
But we can actually go back in time to 1808 in October at the
(04:37):
year for conference, where Napoleon calls all these
monarchs of Europe together. Not necessarily to talk about
much, but basically just to, like, make sure that he's got
his political stability in orderbefore he goes off the spade to
crush the insurrection there. However, the main reason he
calls that is to talk to Tsar Alexander to make sure that he
(04:57):
keeps an eye on the Austrians because Napoleon had always
feared that the Austrians would want to get back at him for, you
know, taking territory in Italy.He wanted to make sure that Alex
would honor the treaty that he signed a Tilsit.
And Alex to his face is like, yeah, you know, I'm loyal to the
treaty, all that. However, what Napoleon doesn't
know is that behind the scenes, Alexander had told the Austrians
(05:19):
that he would remain neutral in a war between Austria and
France. So they have, I don't want to
say like a blank check, like, you know, the Austrians get in
World War One. But they have, you know, kind of
freedom to do what they want andmake sure that the Russians
don't invade. So in Spain now, you know, it's
been a couple months to pull, you know, January, they start
(05:39):
mobilizing. The Spanish ulcers already
taking its toll on France. And Wellesley, who's not
Wellington yet, was defeating French subordinates left and
right. And you know, with the Spanish
guerrillas time for down there, it's a good time to strike.
Also, Napoleon and the French had a nasty habit of not
honoring treaties and being way too aggressive in their foreign
(06:01):
policy. So Francis, the Emperor of
Austria, Francis the First was really fearful that Napoleon,
Napoleon was going to just eliminate has her monarchy
altogether. Why would he think that?
He did the same thing to the Holy Roman Empire, an empire
that lasted 1000 years. Napoleon just signed away with
the pen. The other critical factor is
(06:22):
Medernick. Clemens von Medernick, who is
the ambassador to France now, will become foreign minister
after this. He persuades Francis that the
time is right now because Franceuses conscription heavily, and
he is convinced that the French are getting sick and tired of
the war, that conscription is taking its toll.
Remember, this is a country that's been at war constantly
(06:44):
since 1792, and they started theLe'veon Moss on August 10th,
1793. So millions of men have been
enrolled in the army. And Medrick's convinced that,
you know, they're sick and tiredof the war.
Just keep pressing them. They'll give up.
Fourthly, we talked about this briefly is that the Austrian
army had been reformed after Alman Auscholitz.
(07:06):
Now, these reforms hadn't been tested yet, but in theory they
were going to perform very well,led by Arch Duke Charles, who is
the best commander of the Austrians had, and other than
Wellesley and Wellington and Blucher, probably the best
opponent Napoleon face. They'd adopted the core systems
and they adopted what's called aland fair, which is a citizen
(07:27):
militia to enroll mass numbers in the army and also provide
sort of a civilian defense forceto drastically increase the size
of the Austrian army. So not battle tested yet, but a
lot, a lot of reformers within the Austrian army think that
this force can now maybe defeat Napoleon.
Fifth point you, you hit the nail on the head.
(07:48):
You know, they lost a lot of territory.
So you know, revenge, you know, revenge is obviously something
very important here because theyhaven't beat the French in a
long time. So they're sick of losing.
So now they see a time to strike. 6th is they also take
another example from the Spanish.
The Spanish is a lot of our listeners may know we're very
good because of a civilian insurrection, popular uprising
(08:11):
that had been done yet in the territories in Austria and
modern day Germany. However, they are convinced that
they can take a page out of the Spanish playbook.
Count Philip Stadion, their foreign minister at this point
raised the idea of a nationalistic uprising or the
German term, a bolkskrieg People's War in the states of
the Confederation of the Rhine, the territories that are forced
(08:34):
into a military alliance againstFrance.
He's convinced that, you know, just a little bit of force and a
little bit of propaganda, you know, Stadion starts
distributing pamphlets in placeslike Brunswick and Hess Kessel
to cast off the French yoke, youknow, these foreign dominators.
What he doesn't realize is that a lot of people actually benefit
(08:55):
from French rule and that the Princess who rule these
territories, you know, they get a lot of benefit, you know, like
Vertenberg or one of these territories where the Prince,
you know, double S his territoryand his dominion.
So why would he want to give that up?
But they think in theory that, you know, you appeal to the they
will just obviously go after theFrench.
And this is bolstered by, you know, my last point is that
(09:17):
there was an uprising in the tieroll under Andreas Hoffer, which
convinced many that, you know, this could work.
And it's also important to know that the British threw a lot of
money at them. Like the British always do.
They promise to invade somewherein North Germany.
And the British actually do uphold this promise.
And their invasion takes place at a place called of Walgren.
(09:38):
And but that's a disaster. I'll let somebody else an
episode on the British military talk about Walgren fever and the
disaster that was that. So there's a lot of reasons
going for why the Austrians declare war.
But if you wanted to boil it down to one, it's that
Napoleon's occupied. So if not now, when?
Yeah, I think of all your points, the second one's the
(09:59):
most intriguing one to me. I never really thought about it,
just the literal survival of theHapsburg Empire and their
throne. You mentioned the whole Roman
Empire, but also the Venetian Republic was, you know, gotten
rid of or at least eliminated. Napoleon just said, no, we're
not doing that anymore. Also, the Spanish House of
Bourbon, they were in prison basically in France.
(10:19):
And the Portuguese royal family had to flee to Brazil.
Yeah. Maybe Francis is just looking at
it like, all right, well, we're next on the chopping block, so
maybe we should just try our, our, our chances again at war
with Napoleon before our, our empire is gone.
And at Tilsit, Napoleon was on the verge of eliminating
negotiating it away before Alexander stepped in and saved
(10:42):
them a little bit. But the Habsburgs and you know,
the territory, the Austrian Empire, you know, they're very
kind of behind the times, but they're very reliant on treaties
and honor and tradition to keep alive.
This is a multi ethnic polity. You know, there's hundreds of
cultures and ethnicities. So there's a lot of flimsiness
holding it together. And you know, just one strong
(11:02):
kick in the door might knock down the whole foundation.
All right, let's get to the Ballam aspirin and how we get
there in the campaigning. So after some initial trouble at
the start of the war when Marshall Bertier was de facto in
charge because Napoleon was in Paris, Napoleon shows up, the
French defeat the Austrians in aseries of battles at Abensburg,
Ekmol and Raddespahn and others.So how do we get to aspirin
(11:25):
esling, which is it's just a suburb, right?
Like right outside of Vienna. Yeah, it's just a couple miles
east. It's very, very small.
It's bigger now than it was backthen, but yeah, it's on the
other side of the Daniel River. So it must be noted that, you
know, Marshall birthday, Napoleon's wife, whatever
nickname you want to use for him.
Great chief of staff, great hand, very good at taking
(11:46):
Napoleon's long winded orders and diffusing them down into,
you know, a coherent, a piece ofpaper.
Very bad, very bad independent commander.
And he's lucky that Marshall Davu is as good as he is.
We'll get to that. So Charles, you know, launches
the Radish Vaughn campaign and the Austrians get lucky.
Napoleon thought that they wouldn't be ready until 17 April
(12:10):
to launch an attack, but the Austrians were actually a week
ahead of schedule. They launched a surprise attack,
occupy Bavaria, Munich in circlealmost Marshall Dabu, because
Berthier was so slow in getting orders out and he didn't know
the strategic situation. So he gets lucky.
Dabu was sitting there, you know, at Regensburg about to get
(12:34):
in circle before Napoleon arrived and kind of saved the
whole thing. And also, you know, taboo at the
battle of what's called Toygenhausen fights off the
Austrians, you know, miraculously and saves his core.
Then Napoleon launches this brilliant four day campaign
where he tries to develop a double envelopment of the
Austrian army, which doesn't quite succeed because Napoleon
(12:56):
makes a mistake. He thought that General Hiller's
force, the one he faced, was themain Austrian army.
It wasn't so Debu once again is isolated at EKMU with only
20,000 men facing Charles and 70,000.
Debu is again up against it muchlike he was at our shot.
(13:17):
Saves his core from destruction because of its hard fighting and
also because Napoleon quickly realizes his mistake.
You know, Owen Connelly, the greatest story you know said
Napoleon blundered in this case,which he does.
He makes a mistake. But this shows the, you know,
the power of the military systemis that he quickly realizes a
mistake and dispatches lawn to help Daboo.
(13:39):
They forced March 22 miles and saved Daboos core at Ekmal.
So because of Daboos heroic actions here, that's why he
becomes the Prince of Ekmal from1809 onwards.
Something else worth noting though, another mistake that
Napoleon makes. After actual Charles is going to
(14:00):
retreat, Napoleon has two options, one, seek and destroy,
pursue Charles's army, wipe themout.
Or he can March on Vienna. He can March on Vienna, take the
capital. He thought Charles would defend
it, so that could be a chance todestroy his army there.
And he chooses option to March on Vienna.
But we're getting to that. It's a very controversial
(14:20):
decision. Yeah, but why?
Why is it important to talk about?
In the old days of the Grand Army, 18 O five and six, No, no
doubt would have sent him after Charles, would have wiped him
out. However, this is not the same
Grand Army that it was in eighteen O 5 and 6.
They're either all dead at Ilao,you know, after that bloodbath
(14:44):
in the snow, or they're in Spain.
So these are conscripts from theGerman territory.
Yeah. And.
And his army's exhausted, so he can't conduct the same type of
maneuvers that he used to in 1805, six and seven.
So he kind of just sends it after Vienna, hoping that'll end
(15:04):
the war. Charles abandons it after a
small artillery bombardment and then retreats across the Danube
River and is waiting for Napoleon on the other side with
115,000 men do. You wonder if it and I don't
want to get into that doctrine too much because you're right.
Napoleon's early years who just find the enemy army, seek it out
and destroy it. In his later years, maybe
starting with this, he's more focused on capturing capitals
(15:27):
and cities like Vienna and Moscow and Berlin later in 1813,
instead of just seeking out and destroying the army like he did
in his early years. So yeah, it's a little bit of a
dynamic change. So like you said, Charles and
our shoot Charles and the Austrian army kind of retreat
out of Vienna. They just make it an open city
without destroying the city. Napoleon takes over Vienna, so
(15:47):
he's in possession, but the bridges over the Danube, which
is a huge river, have been broken by the retreating
Austrians. Why is this going to be a big
problem for Napoleon? Well, I mean, having been to
that area, the Danube is not affordable.
You have to build a bridge. And like I said, the Austrians
have retreated to the other sideof the river and they've
destroyed a lot of the bridges over the Danube.
(16:09):
So if Napoleon wants to go attack them, which in hindsight
probably not the best idea to doright away because he remember,
he takes Vienna on 14 May and hedecides to immediately,
immediately go after him. OK, in hindsight, probably
should have waited a little bit because he's going to wait at
Bagram and do some maneuvers to bamboozle Charles.
(16:33):
But again, he he just makes the decision to go after him right
away. It's strategic consumption has
taken hold. He has to dispatch forces to the
TIE roll. And he's also fearful that
Archduke John, who's operating against Newton Napoleon's
stepson, Eugene de Beauharney inItaly, and he's worried that
Archduke John will reinforce Charles.
(16:55):
So he seizes now or never. Well, there's only one bridge.
It's destroyed, so they need to hastily build a new one.
And because they build it so hastily, they're not going to
put up Palisades and barriers toprotect it.
So it's going to be very I don'twant to say flimsy because it
can easily get the men across, but it's not protected by a wall
(17:15):
to protect it from being destroyed.
And this puts his army in great danger because he builds it so
quickly trying to get across theriver that he's not going to
have time to deceive the enemy like he will Evagram.
So if this bridge is destroyed, you know, looking ahead, news
flash, if it's destroyed, he's not going to be able to mass his
(17:35):
entire army. So he and this is going to put
his army in great danger. But he also doesn't know is that
Charles knows his every move because there's an observatory
in that has been reporting all of the French movements for the
past couple days. So the fact that he decides to
go after them so quickly leads him to not take the necessary
precautions to ensure that his army has a 100% chance of
(17:57):
success. And we'll come back to that
because speed is like the numberone thing in Napoleon's army.
So if the bridges are broken andhe can't get to Charles unless
it's a piece meal fashion like 1core at a time, that huge
advantage of speed kind of goes away from Napoleon.
Well, and another thing that theNapoleonic army relies on
heavily is mutual support. So the core is you're they're
small but quick, but the benefitto them is that you can take,
(18:21):
you know, 30,000 men from 20 miles away and all converge at
once. If there's no mutual support,
then they're in trouble. He'll find this out at Gross
Barren in 1813. Well, let's discuss the sizes of
each army for the battle of Aspirin, Estling and some of the
famous commanders on each side. So the Austrians have 115,000
available in pretty good order. They suffered 35,000 casualties
(18:42):
during the Ratz Bond campaign. They've retreated in good order
and I can't exercise. It's not there in a very good
defensive position on the other side of the river.
The French have only 85,000. OK, so they're outnumbered now.
They had more at the beginning of the campaign, but due to
strategic consumption, you know,dispatching forces to the tie
roll, protecting lines of communication.
(19:03):
Also, you know, during campaign,I know if we haven't been on
campaign, you know, in the Napoleonic army, it's it's
tough. You know, people are going to
fall. I'll people are going to run
away. So the strategic consumption has
started to take his toll on Napoleon and the French.
So that's why he comes to the conclusion to win the war now.
(19:25):
Now both sides, they're vainly conscript forces, ironically
enough, you know, it's going to be Germans fighting Germans in a
lot of ways. The Austrians have a lot of
Germans in their since the French do as well, unlike in
1806 and seven where it's a lot of Frenchmen, now it's a lot of
men from the Confederation of the Rhine.
So the famous commander have obviously the best commander of
(19:46):
their time, Archduke Charles, Count Belgard, who has fought
since the war, the first coalition.
We also have Prince Lichtenstein, who was Emperor
Francis's fourth son, who was very experienced.
He fought at the Battle of La Rue in 1794, Ho and Linden, and
also at Austerlitz. Now, a lot of our viewers
(20:07):
probably haven't heard those names because Austrian
commanders don't. Get the attention and they're
nowhere near the quality of the French commanders like it.
For the French, you have a Marshall Messena before his
reputation goes in the toilet and Spain in 1810 and 11, the
infant child of Victory as he was known.
Marshall LON will have an occasion to talk about him in
(20:27):
this battle. Dabu and Bernadotte are also on
this campaign. They do not partake in this
battle, though. Dabu was at Acme Old, but he'll
be stuck here and also Bernadotte.
He's going to be commanded Saxons, the Saxon Corps.
You also have Marshall Bessier, the famous commander of the
Calvary. You also have Mira as well.
(20:48):
And you also have General Saint Hilaire, who's not a Marshall
but still a very famous French commander who was a hero of
Austerlitz and Yana. Yeah, definitely got some big
names in this one. Yeah, and the French quality of
commander is way better than anything the Austrians have, it
must be noted. Yeah, yeah.
It's interesting, though. The battle begins as Napoleon
(21:10):
sent troops under Marshalls Messena, LAN and Bessier from
the island of is it Labao or Labo?
I don't know. Lobao.
Lobao. OK in the Danube and over
towards the Austrian army at theHamlets of Aspirin Essling.
Can you kind of describe the topography of the battlefield?
Because I know these French troops are going to have the
Danube now at their back, right?And they're facing the Austrians
(21:33):
on this. Is it like a plane?
It's kind of a plane. These villages are very dense,
but they're spread out by a couple miles.
I was able to tour these two areas where the battles took
place. There's a very small museum.
It was only open on Sundays fromthe hours of 11:50 at Esley.
The Bagram Museum is huge, though, so I got to view that.
(21:53):
But unfortunately, I was hoping to be able to see, you know, the
battlefields. But civilization has taken over.
Yeah, but it's May and the Danube had flooded a lot in
1809, so the ground was marshy and the Danube was overflowing
in a lot of areas. So the ground was semi soft.
It wasn't like, you know, waterloose off.
(22:15):
But the important thing is, you know, fighting with the river at
your back is always a disaster. You know, it's going to be a
fight to the death, just as the Russians at Friedland how it was
having the river at your back. Yep.
So yeah, the there's a couple little islands that span you can
get across the Danube, but yeah,the very, there's only one
bridge getting over that that's going to be hastily built.
(22:37):
But it's topography is not goingto be like as much of a factor
as other battles you've talked about in your channel.
OK. Well, the battle begins first
day. The town of Asburn changes hands
several times as Archduke Charles force all available
troops to knock Marshall Massena's core into the river.
Meanwhile, there's Savage fighting over at Esling, where
(22:59):
Marshall LON holds the town withhis single division against the
onslaught of the Austrian army. And I think in between the two
towns is Marshall Bessia and hiscavalry troopers.
Why is Marshall LON becoming upset with Marshall Bessia?
All right, so I don't know if you or your listeners watch the
Kardashians or any sort of like reality TV show, but buckle up
(23:22):
because this is interesting. The not the sound improper, but
the French marshals, they are some of the cattiest people you
will ever be in your life for the note that they're people and
they have personalities and there's rivalries amongst the
French Marshall it they're not always looking to, you know, do
what's best because especially in the case of like birth the A,
(23:44):
everybody hates him. Everybody hates birth the A
because he was like, you know, Napoleon's like right-handed man
and a lot of people hated that, OK, they hated that he got
preferential treatment. So the Marshalls are not like
this, you know, congruent, very homogeneous together group that
all loves each other. They actually all really hate
each other. So the beef between Bessier and
(24:07):
LON actually goes way back. I did not know a lot about this.
I did some research on this the past couple of days and it goes,
it's interesting. OK, so they're originally from
Gascony. They're from the same region in
France, and they were relativelythe same age, so they knew each
other pretty well. Bessier was even a witness to
Lon's second wedding. So that pretty good
(24:29):
relationship. However, Napoleon after he
became First Consul and after the battle of Marengo in 1800,
where LON, who was just a general at this point, won't be
a Marshall till eighteen O 4 wasappointed the head of the
Consular Guard. Think of it like, you know, the
Praetorian Guard was for the Emperor of Rome.
So, you know, kind of like the bodyguards.
(24:49):
OK, so that's a very prestigiousposition what LON has because,
you know, we'll talk about this.You know, LON and Napoleon were
very close friends and he was given carte blanche to, you
know, make the Consular Guard fitting of the position, you
know, get them new uniforms, outfit them better, make sure
they're well taken care of. Napoleon also tells LON to buy
(25:10):
himself a house that is fitting of his position.
Yeah. So LON, you know, I can't say I
blame him. He's told by his nice house.
So he buys himself a very luxurious palace on the route to
Saint Dominique in Paris, which is, you know, well, now it's
right next to the Eiffel Tower, so very nice Rd. in France.
He then after buying himself, you know, a Kardashian type
(25:33):
mansion, turns his attention to the consular guard and basically
bears no expense in getting themnew uniforms, new beds, you
know, 1 consular guard member said he thanked LON proficiently
because he had a bed so big now that more than two people can
sleep in it. It was so nice.
So he's going to run up quite a tab 300,003 then the tab is
(25:57):
300,000. Yeah.
So Napoleon is pretty furious that he ran up such a tab.
And there's going to be a group of commanders who get plot to
make sure that Napoleon knew exactly what the expenses were.
That would be Bessie and Mira. So Mira and Bessie Hare get LON
removed from the Consular Guard.Lon's lucky Napoleon was going
(26:23):
to have him shot if he didn't pay the whole entire 300,000
francs back within 8 days. He's bailed out by one of his
other friends, I forget which. Marshall.
It was Marshall. Ojiro yes thank you.
Ojiro bails him out, basically spares LON a court martial.
So LON is sent in semi disgrace to Portugal to be the
(26:46):
ambassador. But people have long memories
and LON will not forget what Bessie A did to him.
So that's all going to come to ahead at Essling, where after LON
overhears Bessie A complaining about him to Colonel Mabo, LON
is going to accuse Bessie A of holding back.
Now let's give LON a little bit of grace.
(27:08):
He had fought the whole entire day with one division holding S
Link by himself with no support,had to repel 3 Austrian attacks.
So I think he was A. He was definitely a little bit
annoyed that he was kind of leftout on an island and thought
Bessie A could support him. He doesn't know is that Bessier
was actually very heroic during the battle, launching several
(27:29):
Calvary attacks to thwart the Austrian advance.
You know LON doesn't care, so they are going to have their
words later on. Yeah, and and you mentioned the
role of commander of the Councillor Guard, which goes on
to be the Imperial Guard. Basically, you're controlling
the best troops in the French army and the troops that control
access to Napoleons. It's a very prestigious
(27:49):
position. And after LON is sent off to
Portugal, guess who becomes commander of the Imperial Guard?
Especia. Yeah, Yeah, now.
I was looking online because a lot of people are torn which
side of it, you know, which sideof this debate do you fall on?
Are you Team LON or Team Bessier?
You know, do you think that LON got screwed over?
Sure. But also Bessier thought that,
(28:13):
you know, in his mind that, you know, Juan was spending
unnecessary money that wasn't going towards the troops, right?
Because, like, Bessier didn't have a palace on Rue St.
Dominique, so I think there was definitely a little bit of
contention there. But he also thought that funds
for the army should not be spentWilly nilly.
Right. Which I can, I can see I can get
(28:35):
on board with that. We'll come back to that.
So the first day ends and only nightfall really brings a halt
to the fighting. And the two forces sleep within
pistol shot of each other. What were Napoleon's engineers
doing to repair the bridges? And how did the Austrians thwart
these repairs? Because I know Marshall de Vue's
corps is kind of like standing by the whole day waiting for
these bridges to be done. So they can rush over and help
(28:56):
it ask for nestling, but. So the French engineers after
the bridge had been destroyed. So what the Austrians did
several times was they sent, youknow, flotillas and ships or
whatever barges that were on fire and they sent them at the
bridge to destroy, catching on fire.
So the French had the rebuild a couple times.
So it's after, during the night after the first day of the
(29:17):
Battle of Second Corps made it across to reinforce Napoleon,
and then Daboo, who's always commands 3 core, is summoned to
the bridgehead to start marching.
It's at that point, it's around between 5:00 and 7:00 AM that
the bridge is destroyed. It had been destroyed several
times before. The French engineers who were
some of the best, had rebuilt it.
The problem is the bridge is destroyed at 7 and that's when
(29:40):
Napoleon launches his attack. So Daboo Score is literally
yeah, just sitting there waitingfor the bridge to be repaired,
watching the battle take place, and they're just stuck on the
wrong side of the river. Also during the evening,
Marshall and Marshall Bessier getting to a shouting match
which leads them to basically draw swords on each other.
What happens there? I said this briefly, but LON is
(30:02):
going to overhear Bessier complaining about him to, you
know, behind his back to ColonelMevo.
He's Bessier is going to accuse LON of being incompetent, that
he needed to, you know, help himout because Bessier was, you
know, fighting his fighting hardas well, repelling several
attacks. He's like, hey, where's where's
the LON? And LON thinks the same thing.
So they're just go. So LON, who had an hack for
(30:26):
being hot headed and exploding at the wrong time, basically
challenges Bezier to duel. In some cases they draw swords
on each other, but Marshall MissSanta steps in and cool heads
prevail. I don't want to say it was a
long time coming, but these guys, they weren't fast friends.
They have a long history of beefand men have a tendency in the
(30:47):
heat of battle to get over getting worked up about stuff.
So I think they were just very animated and hot because of what
happened during the day. I don't really think they would
have slashed at each other, but I think there is just a lot of
emotional oceans running high inthe heat of the moment.
Yeah, and they're both competitive individuals.
They're both friends of Napoleon, they're both
(31:07):
Marshalls. So I think you're right.
I think it's just the heat of the moment type of thing.
And it must be noted that they are not the only Marshalls who
had beef with each other. That's true.
Well, the second day leads to more desperate fighting in both
Aspirin and Esling. How do you think Messena and LAN
kept their footholds in these two towns?
Well, they get lucky in the factthat the Austrians are their
(31:27):
timing is slightly off. The attacks aren't as
coordinated as they can be. So again, pretty much raw
conscripts. And the Austrians are still
reforming in a lot of ways, So they're not quite there yet.
So the timing's slightly off, but also must be noted, like,
let's give credit to the French.Their determination was
incredible, rugged determination.
Their leadership is great. It also must be.
(31:50):
No, it's not easy to take cities, you know, close quarters
combat. So fighting over a little
villages and all that, it's going to be very hard to take.
But the French fight really, really hard.
In a lot of ways, they are stillway better trained, way better
LED than their Austrian counterparts.
The other thing is the French, the, you know, let's return to
(32:10):
Marshall Bessier, the French Calvary support.
Oh God, on the other side of theriver.
So Calvary is used in the Pullianic warfare.
It was used to blunt attacks a lot.
So Bessier did a great job of realizing where the weaknesses
were and where the momentum was and launching attacks and
thwarting Austrian advances. So Essling actually falls at one
(32:31):
point, but the young guard is sent in at the last second.
And due to their bravery taking the town at bayonet point, they
take Essling. So a lot of hard will
determination, skillful fightingby the French, that's what holds
it against the Austrians. And also the Austrians make
mistakes, you know, the timing slightly off.
They don't coordinate as well and their leadership is not
(32:55):
great. Yeah, compared to the French.
Well, the French are still holding the towns, both towns
barely, but the bridges are again knocked down by heavy
barges and windmills sent downstream by the Austrians,
like you said. And I guess at this point
Napoleon is just like, I have tocut my losses, right?
Because I cannot get more, not only truth, but, you know,
ammunition, food, supplies. I can't get anything over this,
this Daniel. So he has to pull the neck
(33:17):
right? Yeah.
So by 4:00 PM, there's roll likethere's a lot of reports that
like most men are down to like maybe a shot or two.
So there's no, they don't have any ammo left so that you have
to get out now. They're also very much
overwhelmed numerically. And there's no reinforces
coming. Like you said, the bridge has
(33:38):
been destroyed. So, you know, this is basically
just, you know, a meat grinder at this point.
So you have to get out now to avoid further losses, OK.
Because if you lose the entire army now, then, you know, the
war is, you know, you could losethe war.
And also he wants to, you know, live the fight another day.
The other thing is, you know, men are men.
(33:58):
They're people. And they are exhausted.
They've been fighting for two days.
Those who aren't dead are probably begging for death at
this point. It's been, they've been fighting
so hard, you couldn't ask any more out of them.
And we've talked about this a couple times, but these aren't
the same, you know, warriors that were in eighteen O 5 and 6.
These are raw conscripts that you just can't ask the same
(34:22):
level out of them. They aren't as well trained.
And you know, he realized that the men are just absolutely
exhausted, as the saying goes, you know, maybe lose 1 battle to
win the war later on. And that's what he realizes that
I mean, he had no chance of winning.
He wasn't going to win so. Right, right.
He just. Has to pull out and save what he
can to launch an attack later on.
(34:43):
Well, other than the pulling something in his first defeat in
10 years, the worst part of the day was yet to come.
Marshall LON is generally considered one of his best
independent commanders, was among the last Frenchman to
retreat, and he's in mid conversation with his friend and
mentor General Pousse, who is decapitated by a cannonball
shot. What happens to LON after that?
So, yeah, very unfortunate story.
(35:05):
Tragic. So LON, you know, has been
defending holding S Ling for thebetter part of two days and
they're they're walking away andhe's having, you know, a
conversation with General Pousse.
I don't think we can really put in the words how that probably
felt for LON, who is his friend is just, you know, his head is
cannon. You know, cannonball takes his
head off. So blood sprays all over
Marshall lawn from he then walksaway to compose himself because
(35:31):
obviously he just saw what he saw.
He sits down, crosses his legs underneath a tree to compose
himself, puts his head in his hands.
It's at that point that a cannonball smashes through his
knees, both his knees, causing great damage.
He tries to get up, tries to getup, says, oh, I'm wounded, help
me up, can't get up. So he's immediately rushed off
(35:54):
the battlefield and within the span of two minutes, his he they
amputate his right leg because, you know, it was powder at this
point, and then the other ones left to heal.
But LON is going to die eight days later on the 31st of May of
an infection. He's the first Marshall to die
in a battle. And also it was he was
(36:16):
Napoleon's close friend, Napoleon famously remarked
afterwards quote. What a loss for France, what a
loss for me. But Blonde was, in my opinion,
his second best in defendant Commander other than Devu
wherever long when he inspired, you know, patriotism and, you
know, inspired the men to fight harder than they ever could have
(36:38):
imagined. So this is a great loss for the
French army. And then Napoleon personally,
you know, now the war is really starting to take a personal toll
on him. And ironically enough, the
second Marshall to die in battlewill be SCA couple years later.
What are the chances? Yeah, I think.
Does Saint Hilaire perish as well?
He gets a cannonball that takes his foot off and that's going to
(37:00):
kill him later on. So what are the casualty numbers
on both sides? So the French lost 20,000, that
was 33% of their force that was available for the battle, and
the Austrians lost 23,000. When you say lost though, that's
killed, wounded and captured. Killed, wounded, captured go
away. So just in total casualties not
(37:21):
dead, not 20,000 debt, but 20,000 that will not be
available for service in the near future.
So Napoleon regroups and later defeats the Austrians at the
Battle of Agram 6 weeks later. So I guess in theory, aspirin
wrestling isn't a huge setback, but it kind of is in Europe for
Napoleon. Do you think the legacy of this
(37:41):
battle is? Well, it was the first loss for
him. That aura of invincibility is
gone. He had lost until that point, so
nobody really knew if it was possible to beat him.
But now that aura of invincibility and infallibility
was gone for the Austrians. It also proves that the reforms
are working. But it must be noted that this
(38:02):
Prince army in 1809 is they are not in the same league as the
Grand Army of 1805. There's a lot of raw conscripts
from the German speaking territories.
They are trained a lot of times,you know, like on the
battlefield. And a lot of people criticize
Napoleon's tactics from here on out.
You'll see it like, you know, Borodino with mass frontal
(38:24):
assaults. And a lot of historians will say
that he was, you know, just someblood letter who was just
sacrificing young men. He doesn't have the men to
conduct, you know, expert movement.
So from here on out, you're going to see Napoleon
drastically change his art of war because he can't rely on
these complex flanky maneuvers. He's going to, it's going to be
a lot of go right at the enemy and hopefully they lose.
(38:46):
OK, Hopefully you overwhelm the enemy because the composition of
the German of the French army isjust nowhere near what it used
to be. However, it also must be
remembered that Napoleon is still the best general time at
this point and this campaign still shows a lot of his
versatility. For Medernick though, who in
1813 will become the the Prime Minister of the Coalition, this
(39:09):
eighteen O 9 war teaches him several lessons.
Firstly is that, you know you need alliances to win wars
because the Austrians were on their own and they lost.
But he's also going to remember that you're going to have to be
wary of your alliance partners on 1813.
You know he's going to be wary of getting into alliance, but he
(39:30):
wants Austria to win. So it shows that you need
alliances in order to win. Yeah, and I've seen Bonapartist
and Napoleonic fans say, well, he didn't lose, he just
retreated and then beat him six weeks later.
And I'm like, yeah, he lost. Like, I mean, yeah, he didn't
surrender at the battle or anything like that, but it was
still a set back for him. Well, and it also well because
(39:51):
he learns a lot from this one. He learns, you know, six weeks
later he's like, hey, let's let's build up the army and
let's do some deceptive movements.
So he takes a lot of lessons from aspirin estling and he's
not going to make the same mistakes again if.
He's going to absolutely annihilate the Austrians if
Agram and then it's deny him a couple of days after.
Yeah, that's an interesting legacy for sure.
(40:12):
Well, thank you as always for that, Nick.
That was fantastic. Again, my friend Nick is on X
Twitter, which you can find at NKramer 5812.
And yeah, great stuff, man. Always a pleasure having you on
the show. Oh yeah, that's great, John.
Look forward to doing this againin the future.
It's always great talking to you.
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