Battle of Teugen-Hausen

• 1. War Of The Fifth Coalition

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  On the 8th of February 1809, the Austrian Empire determined to make war on Napoleon. Foreign Minister Johann Philipp Stadion and diplomat Klemens von Metternich pointed to the 1808 French disaster at the Battle of Bailén in Spain as justification for their decision. Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, wished to put off the war to fully mobilize and find allies. He had tried for three years to improve the Austrian army after the debacle of the War of the Third Coalition in 1805. Historian David G. Chandler wrote that Charles was the very best man available to Austria to lead the army. He expanded the number of regular soldiers to 340,000 and created a large body of 240,000 Landwehr troops. He upgraded the artillery corps and adopted the corps organization. Serious deficiencies remained, however, in Austrian staffwork and among the non-German nationalities. At the start, only 15,000 of the best Landwehr formations were added to the field army while the rest were relegated to garrison duty or the reserves. The Habsburgs did not wish to arm the population for fear of an insurrection. In Hungary, the nobles and people were cool toward the war and contributed as little as possible.

• 2. Napoleon's Strategic Errors

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  On the 9th of April 1809, Archduke Charles gave notice to the French ambassador at Munich and Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre that Austria and France were at war. Napoleon did not expect the Austrians to declare war, but when it became obvious that war was imminent, he believed that hostilities would start after the 15th of April. From Paris, Napoleon ordered Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier to form the Armée d'Allemagne from French and Allied units located on the Danube front. To Berthier he sent orders to concentrate at Regensburg if the Austrians invaded Bavaria after the 15th of April. If his enemies attacked before the deadline, the army was to assemble farther west at Donauwörth. By misfortune, an order that Napoleon sent on the 10th of April did not arrive until the 16th. A second order, elaborating on the first order, arrived late on the 13th. Berthier was an excellent chief of staff to Napoleon, but as an army commander he was out of his element. In the confusion, he misinterpreted the out-of-sequence instructions and ordered a forward concentration at Regensburg. On April 16, the Austrians forced a crossing over the Isar at Landshut. Early the next morning, Napoleon reached the front to take over from his harried subordinate Berthier.

• 3. Austrian Army Reforms And Deployment

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  Archduke Charles massed the remaining regular army in Bohemia and along the Danube for the main effort. His 206,906-strong Hauptarmee was organized into six army corps and two reserve corps. The III Armeekorps consisted of 29,360 troops under Feldmarschall-Leutnant Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. Originally, Archduke Charles deployed six corps in Bohemia with only two corps south of the Danube. This proved to be too ambitious for the Austrian high command, so four corps were transferred south of the Danube. Accordingly, the I and II Armeekorps remained in Bohemia. The III, IV, and I Reserve-Armeekorps formed a central mass under Charles. The V, VI, and II Reserve Armeekorps made up the southern flank guard. Charles directed three major columns to intercept the French on the 19th of April. He sent the right and center columns northeast toward Langquaid. From there, the right column would pass near Eckmühl and turn north for Regensburg. The center column would go left in the direction of Dünzling. Charles instructed the left column to march via Bachel, Hausen, Teugn, and Bad Abbach.

• 4. The Battle On Two Ridges

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  Sometime after 9:00 am, Saint-Hilaire's advance elements blundered into the III Armeekorps marching column at Hausen. Feldmarschall-Leutnant Vukassovich quickly deployed two battalions of light infantry and flushed the French from the village. By the time the French commanders reacted, Vukassovich installed Moritz Liechtenstein's brigade on a wooded ridge approximately halfway between Hausen and Teugn. Davout hurled the 2,000 troops of the 3rd Line Infantry Regiment at Vukassovich and Lusignan's 6,000 soldiers and 12 cannon. The entire 3rd Line deployed into a skirmish formation and swarmed uphill. Its attack failed to dislodge the Austrians, but it allowed time for the 57th Line Infantry Regiment to organize a second assault. The 57th Line's charge carried the first ridge but stalled before a second ridge. In the teeth of intense musketry and cannon fire, the highly trained French infantry deployed into line and returned fire. Further to the right, the 10th Light Infantry surged forward against the Austrian left flank.

• 5. Casualties And Leadership Losses

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  According to historian James R. Arnold, the Austrians admitted 527 killed, 2,470 wounded, and 466 captured, for a total of 3,463. The French reported 2,345 casualties, mostly in Saint-Hilaire's division. Digby Smith puts Austrian casualties at 3,862 and French losses at about 4,000. Francis Loraine Petre gives Austrian casualties as 3,846 and French losses as 4,376. The latter total includes French losses at Dünzling. Austrian general officers suffered unusually heavy losses, attesting to front-line leadership that heretofore had been rare. The brothers Alois and Moritz Liechtenstein, Bieber, and Lusignan were all wounded. Lusignan sustained a dangerous head wound which forced his permanent retirement from military service. At 5:00 pm a violent thunderstorm swept across the area, ending the battle. Archduke Charles ordered Hohenzollern to retreat after receiving an unfavorable report of the battle. This act conceded the victory to Davout since it gave the French Marshal a clear line of communication with his Bavarian allies.

• 6. Legacy Of The Teugen-Hausen Engagement

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  Napoleon's name for the battle of the 19th was Thann. Francis Loraine Petre remarked that the battle of Hausen-Teugen would have been more appropriate. Herrnwahlthann or Thann is two kilometers southwest of Haugen. When the Austrians withdrew that evening, the French won a hard-fought victory over their opponents. The site of the battle is a wooded height approximately halfway between the villages of Teugn and Hausen in Lower Bavaria. Together with the Battle of Teugen-Hausen, the fighting marked the first day of a four-day campaign. The campaign culminated in the French victory at the Battle of Eckmühl. To the Emperor, this meant that the III Corps had escaped entrapment. The Battle of Abensberg was fought the next day. On April 20, Davout joined the main body of the French army.