Battle of Abensberg
The Battle of Abensberg ended on the 20th of April 1809 in a complete victory for Emperor Napoleon I of France. His Franco-German force had faced a reinforced Austrian corps led by Archduke Louis. The fighting rolled across country southeast of the Bavarian town of Abensberg, with clashes at Offenstetten, Biburg-Siegenburg, Rohr in Niederbayern, and Rottenburg an der Laaber. How did Napoleon turn a campaign that opened in Austria's favor into a one-day rout? Why did the Austrian supreme commander go quiet for most of that day? And what happened at Regensburg, where a French garrison was under siege while all of this unfolded?
On the 10th of April 1809, Archduke Charles led an Austrian army into the Kingdom of Bavaria and caught Napoleon unprepared. The army took six days to creep from the Inn River at the frontier to the Isar River. Even so, its advance put the French and their German allies in grave danger. Napoleon's deputy, Marshal Louis Alexandre Berthier, mismanaged the gathering of the Grande Armée. Its units ended up scattered across a broad front in a confused state.
The central mass of Charles' 209,600-man host crossed the Isar at Landshut on the 16th of April. Napoleon reached the front from Paris the next day and set about wresting the initiative back. He ordered Marshal André Masséna's IV Corps and General of Division Nicolas Oudinot's II Corps, on the right flank, to march on Landshut and cut the Austrian line of communications. Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre's Bavarian VII Corps would hold the center at Abensberg. Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout's III Corps, on the left, would withdraw west to avoid being trapped against the Danube.
On the 19th of April, Charles saw a chance to destroy Davout as the marshal attempted a flank march across his front. He launched 65,000 troops northwest in three powerful columns. Luckily for the French, General of Cavalry Johann I Joseph, Prince of Liechtenstein's 20,000 troops on the Austrian right found no opposition. In the center, General of Division Louis-Pierre Montbrun's 3,800 cavalry and infantry held off a much stronger Austrian IV Armeekorps for most of the day.
On the left, Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen's III Armeekorps crashed into General of Division Louis Vincent Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire's division at Teugen-Hausen. The infantry of both sides battled over a pair of parallel ridges, and each fed in reinforcements. In the late afternoon, Davout brought superior forces to bear and pushed the Austrians back a short way. That night, Charles ordered Hohenzollern to withdraw a little to the east, closer to the main body.
Early on the 19th of April, Charles asked Hohenzollern for a link between the III and V Armeekorps. Hohenzollern detached General-Major Ludwig Thierry's 6,000-man infantry brigade to his left. As a further link he sent General-Major Joseph Freiherr von Pfanzelter, with a Grenz infantry battalion and two squadrons of hussars, about 1,000 men. While Teugen-Hausen raged, Thierry clashed with Bavarian troops near Arnhofen and fell back to Offenstetten.
Charles' main body, the III, IV, and I Reserve Armeekorps, stood near Dünzling and Eckmühl. North of the Danube, Feldzeugmeister Johann Kollowrat's II Armeekorps spent the 19th attacking Regensburg. General of Cavalry Count Heinrich von Bellegarde's I Armeekorps also remained on the north bank.
Archduke Louis spread his V Armeekorps behind the Abens River, facing west. Feldmarschall-Leutnant Karl Friedrich von Lindenau's division had gone to Liechtenstein, so only the divisions of Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen and Vincenz Freiherr von Schustekh-Herve remained. Feldmarschall-Leutnant Michael von Kienmayer's II Reserve Armeekorps, nominally 7,975 strong, waited in support at Ludmannsdorf.
The bulk of Feldmarschall-Leutnant Johann von Hiller's VI Armeekorps reached Mainburg, to the south, on the evening of the 19th. Charles had sent Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz Jellacic's division to hold Munich at the start of the war, and it stayed there. Hiller also posted General-Major Armand von Nordmann at Moosburg an der Isar to watch his south flank. The official returns of the three corps totalled 75,880 troops, but after detachments the left wing numbered only 42,000.
Charles sent orders to Louis at 7:30 AM on the 20th. He told his brother to fall back to Rottenburg and defend behind the Große Laber, with Hiller taking position on Louis' left at Pfeffenhausen. Charles erred in sending the orders so late. He also failed to tell Louis about Hohenzollern's withdrawal, which left the V Armeekorps' right flank exposed.
When Marshal Jean Lannes arrived at the front, Napoleon immediately gave him a provisional corps. It drew largely on III Corps units that had escaped Charles' trap, including General of Division Charles Antoine Morand's 1st Division and General of Division Charles-Étienne Gudin de La Sablonnière's 3rd Division. It also held General of Division Raymond-Gaspard de Bonardi de Saint-Sulpice's 2nd Heavy Cavalry Division and General of Brigade Charles Claude Jacquinot's light cavalry brigade, taken from Montbrun's division. General of Division Etienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty's 1st Heavy Cavalry Division joined from the cavalry reserve. One of Saint-Sulpice's brigades guarded Saal an der Donau, a defile between Lannes and Davout.
Napoleon mistakenly assumed that the bulk of Charles' army lay in front of him. He ordered a drive southeast toward Landshut. Lannes would turn the Austrian right flank by pushing south toward Rohr, while General of Division Dominique Vandamme attacked Siegenburg with his small Kingdom of Württemberg corps. Masséna was to seize Landshut and the Isar crossings. The Bavarians and Württembergers would strike across the Abens from the west.
Accounts of the fighting around Bachl, a village on the Austrian right flank, differ on almost every detail. In one version, Lannes' advance guard approached Bachl in the late morning and forced Pfanzelter's small detachment eastward. Crown Prince Ludwig's 1st Bavarian Division and Lieutenant General Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy's 3rd Bavarian Division, with a III Corps division under General of Division Joseph Laurent Demont, advanced on Offenstetten. Around 10:00 AM they beat Thierry's brigade and pushed it back toward Bachl as Lannes came down from the north. Thierry hurried on to Rohr, which he reached at 2:00 PM.
Historian James R. Arnold tells it differently. He writes that Hohenzollern ordered Pfanzelter away, leaving the north-south road through Bachl wide open. Thierry's attached dragoons found the roads around Abensberg alive with enemy columns. Around 8:00 AM, Thierry fell back on Bachl and discovered French cavalry already in the village. Jacquinot's horsemen chased his men into the woods, and from there the Austrians hiked cross-country toward Rohr.
Author Francis Loraine Petre has a third version. He says Gudin met Pfanzelter north of Bachl and brushed him aside about 9:00 AM. The 1st Bavarian Division and Hügel's Württemberg brigade then drove Thierry out of Offenstetten around 10:00 AM. At Bachl, Jacquinot attacked the Austrians and they "scattered through the woods". Pfanzelter marched east to Langquaid and rejoined Hohenzollern's corps.
Lannes feared that the woods on his left might hold Austrians, so he slowed his march to scout the terrain to the east. Even so, his column reached Rohr before Thierry's infantry did. With Pfanzelter gone to give warning, Lannes' arrival surprised Schustekh. He threw four squadrons of hussars at Jacquinot's advance guard, and Jacquinot soon committed his whole brigade. The hussars were pressed back onto a supporting battalion and one-third of a Grenz battalion south of Rohr.
Thierry's winded infantry then appeared. With Gudin's 17th Light Infantry and a battery of artillery, Jacquinot's chasseurs broke them and hounded them into the woods again. To relieve the infantry, Schustekh charged a second time, just as Thierry's lost dragoons showed up. At first the attack went well, but then the Austrian horsemen met a mass of cuirassiers. The Habsburg cavalry broke and rode through the ranks of its own foot soldiers.
French chasseurs and cuirassiers cut down the fugitives from the commands of Thierry and General-Major Joseph, Baron von Mesko de Felsö-Kubiny. Over 3,000 Austrians were taken prisoner, Thierry among them, and four cannon were lost. News of the collapse would soon reach Hiller and shape his choices for the rest of the day.
Only 13 kilometers of direct road separated Hiller at Mainburg from Louis' left flank at Siegenburg. Hiller chose a roundabout march by way of Pfeffenhausen instead. On arrival he was authorized to command all three left wing corps, and around midday he conferred with Louis at Siegenburg. Troubling reports from the right flank led him to send Feldmarschall-Leutnant Karl von Vincent toward Rottenburg. Vincent took the line brigades of Generals-Major Josef Hoffmeister and Nikolaus Weissenwolf, plus four squadrons of the Rosenberg Chevauxlegers Regiment # 6.
At Siegenburg, Louis posted Prince Reuss and General-Major Joseph Radetzky von Radetz with four battalions and 12 cavalry squadrons. General-Major Frederick Bianchi, Duke of Casalanza, held the east bank of the Abens opposite Biburg. Lieutenant-General Karl Philipp von Wrede probed at Siegenburg, but Radetzky and a battery of 12-pdr cannon easily fended off his 2nd Bavarian Division. When Louis heard that the French had attacked Thierry, he ordered Radetzky to send two battalions to the right and called up Kienmayer from Ludmannsdorf.
Wrede moved north to Biburg and tried again to cross. Bianchi then withdrew to Kirchdorf, which let the 2nd Bavarian Division reach the east bank. Vandamme's Württembergers replaced Wrede at Siegenburg and soon judged a crossing there futile. He marched north, crossed at Abensberg, and moved south to Kirchdorf. There the Bavarians and Württembergers met Bianchi's reinforced brigade. Reuss arrived with Radetzky's two battalions, and around 2:00 PM a sharp combat ended with the Austrians retreating to the southeast. According to one account, General of Division Jean Victor Tharreau's cavalry of the II Corps also took part.
Wrede's Bavarian 7th Infantry Regiment and two Württemberg battalions pressed Radetzky, who conducted an orderly retreat along the Siegenburg road. The Grenz infantry and General-Major Konstantin Ghilian Karl d'Aspré's grenadiers covered him. He shepherded the V Armeekorps baggage trains safely through Pfeffenhausen before the Bavarians cut him off. Wrede pursued hard and gathered many prisoners but failed to seize the bridge, which the Austrians burned. The Bavarians crossed the shallow Große Laber at 11:00 PM to attack anyway. Radetzky fell back to a hill called the Hornbach, where his rear guard skirmished into the early morning.
Near Rottenburg, Vincent found the road jammed with the III Armeekorps baggage trains. A charge by the Rosenberg Chevauxlegers held off the French cuirassiers long enough for his infantry to take solid positions east of the Große Laber. Hiller arrived in the late afternoon and ordered a counterattack for 7:00 PM. Vincent's left brigade swiftly overran a Bavarian unit and captured 300 troops. Then the Deutschmeister Infantry Regiment # 4 fought a vicious firefight with Bavarian and French infantry. In the twilight, superior numbers drove the Austrians back at a cost of 600 casualties, but the advance had finally been halted.
Colonel Louis Coutard's 2,000-man 65th Line Infantry Regiment held Regensburg against Kollowrat's attacks and ran dangerously low on small-arms ammunition. At 8:00 AM on the 20th, Austrian cavalry ambushed a French convoy sent to resupply it. With the last cartridges gone, Coutard asked Kollowrat for a 24-hour truce and promised to surrender if no relief came. Kollowrat foolishly accepted these terms.
Liechtenstein's column then appeared from the south. He pointed out that the truce did not bind him and demanded an immediate surrender. Coutard capitulated at 5:00 PM. French sappers had found the sturdily built Regensburg bridge impossible to demolish. That intact bridge later became a key factor in the escape of Charles' army.
In two days of fighting, the French lost 11 officers and about 200 soldiers killed and wounded, plus 1,988 captured. Austrian losses were 73 dead, 220 wounded, and 85 missing, a total of 378 casualties. During the struggle the French captured 75 troops and one color, but all were recovered. Kollowrat reported his II Armeekorps available that evening, and headquarters sent it on an overnight march west to Hemau on the north bank of the Danube. The tired troops were called back to Regensburg in the morning from a pointless ramble.
From 11:00 AM until 6:30 PM on the 20th, the Austrian generalissimo issued no orders at all. Earlier he had been with Prince Rosenberg at 6:00 AM, and he had written a letter to Emperor Francis I of Austria. After that, nothing came from his headquarters while Napoleon savaged the left wing. The account offers two explanations. Charles may have become obsessed with capturing Regensburg, or he may have had an epileptic seizure and locked himself in his quarters. The seizure is judged probable, though it may also be a cover story for his failure to command.
What is known is that the Austrian III, IV, and I Reserve Armeekorps left Davout's remaining three divisions alone that day. Those divisions were commanded by Generals of Division Louis Friant, Saint-Hilaire, and Montbrun.
As the extent of the disaster of Thierry and Schustekh became clear that evening, Hiller resolved to pull his three corps behind the Isar at Landshut. Masséna's move against his left rear and unfavorable reports from Louis also weighed on him. The decision meant the left wing would soon operate independently of Charles' main body. Hiller would not rejoin his army commander until the 15th of May, north of Vienna.
Napoleon had 113,000 troops, not counting the 57,000 of Masséna and Oudinot. The Austrians numbered 161,000, strung out across the theater. Even so, he split them into two forces. Charles held five corps to the north, including 48,000 additional troops of the I and II Armeekorps north of Regensburg. Hiller's three corps fell back to Landshut. Each force would fight a second major battle, Hiller at Landshut on the 21st of April and Charles at Eckmühl on the 22nd.
James R. Arnold lists 1,107 casualties for the French and their German allies, 746 of them Bavarians. He gives Austrian losses as 492 killed, 2,219 wounded, and nearly 4,000 captured, a total of 6,711. The French also took eight colors and 12 cannons.
Digby Smith counts only 34 dead and 438 wounded among the allies, though this seems to cover just the German troops. His Austrian total is 6,872, including 3,000 to 4,000 prisoners. The 2nd battalion of the Broder Grenz, part of Mesko's brigade, was annihilated, with 18 officers and 1,040 rank and file lost. Smith's breakdown of killed, wounded, captured, and missing adds up to only 5,824, so those figures are not listed. Petre records 2,710 Austrians killed and wounded plus about 4,000 captured.
The 42,000 troops of Hiller's left wing faced 55,000 French and their allies. Only about 25,000 Austrians and an equal number of French and allied troops were actually engaged. More recent work by John H. Gill assigns the Austrians 7,200 men and 12 guns lost, against 1,000 for the French and their allies.
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Common questions
When was the Battle of Abensberg fought?
The Battle of Abensberg was fought on the 20th of April 1809. It ended in a complete Franco-German victory over a reinforced Austrian corps.
Who commanded the forces at the Battle of Abensberg?
Emperor Napoleon I of France commanded the Franco-German force. Archduke Louis led the reinforced Austrian corps, and Feldmarschall-Leutnant Johann von Hiller arrived with reinforcements to take command of the Austrian left wing.
Where did the Battle of Abensberg take place?
The battlefield lay southeast of Abensberg in Bavaria. It included clashes at Offenstetten, Biburg-Siegenburg, Rohr in Niederbayern, and Rottenburg an der Laaber.
What happened at Rohr during the Battle of Abensberg?
Marshal Jean Lannes' provisional corps routed the Austrian right flank at Rohr. French chasseurs and cuirassiers broke the Austrian cavalry and infantry, and over 3,000 Austrians were captured, including General-Major Ludwig Thierry, with four cannon lost.
Why did Archduke Charles fail to act during the Battle of Abensberg?
Archduke Charles issued no orders from 11:00 AM until 6:30 PM on the 20th of April 1809. He may have become obsessed with capturing Regensburg, or he may have had an epileptic seizure, which is judged probable but could be a cover story.
What happened at Regensburg during the Battle of Abensberg?
The French garrison at Regensburg under Colonel Louis Coutard surrendered at 5:00 PM on the 20th of April 1809 after running out of ammunition. The bridge there stayed intact and later helped Archduke Charles' army escape.
What were the results of the Battle of Abensberg?
Napoleon's army split the Austrian forces in two. Hiller withdrew to Landshut and fought the Battle of Landshut on the 21st of April, while Archduke Charles fought the Battle of Eckmühl on the 22nd.
How many casualties did the Battle of Abensberg cause?
Estimates vary by historian. Arnold gives 6,711 Austrian losses and 1,107 French and allied casualties, while John H. Gill attributes 7,200 men and 12 guns to the Austrians and 1,000 to the French and their allies.
All sources
8 references cited across the entry
- 1BookCrisis on the Danube: Napoleon's Austrian Campaign of 1809James R. Arnold — Paragon House — 1990
- 2BookMilitär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905)Gaston Bodart — 1908
- 3BookArmies on the Danube 1809Scotty Bowden et al. — The Emperor's Press — 1989
- 4BookEggmühl 1809: Storm over BavariaIan Castle — Osprey — 1998
- 5BookThe Campaigns of NapoleonDavid Chandler — Macmillan — 1966
- 6Book1809: Thunder on the Danube – Napoleon's Defeat of the Habsburgs, Vol. 1John H. Gill — Frontline Books — 2014
- 7BookNapoleon and the Archduke CharlesF. Loraine Petre — Hippocrene Books — 1976
- 8BookThe Napoleonic Wars Data BookDigby Smith — Greenhill — 1998