Date and place
- July 5th and 6th, 1809 at Wagram, around the Lobau Island, fifteen kilometers north of Vienna, Austria.
Involved forces
- French army (131,000 men) under Emperor Napoleon the First.
- Austrian army (139,000 men) under Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen.
Casualties and losses
- Grande Armée: around 37,000 men (5,000 killed, 28,000 injured, 3000 to 4000 prisoners) including General Lasalle.
- Austrian army: probably more than 40,000 men, including several generals, 10 flags, 40 guns.
The battlefield was a relatively flat, sprawling field: the Marchfeld plain
July 5
Napoleon had been looking for a new passage on the left bank of the Danube
The two armies, who had been in contact throughout the night, faced one another in earnest the next day, observed at the telescope by the Emperor of Austria, who for the occasion left his retirement in Wolkersdorf
André Masséna, confined by an injury to a carriage, was in command of the left flank of the French troops in front of Aspern and Essling, while Louis-Nicolas Davout was on the right, around Glinzendorf
However, Napoleon was surprised by the square formation adopted by Archduke Charles in the plain
Macdonald broke through the enemy lines and Bernadotte managed to enter the village, but Archduke Charles rallied his forces and successfully pushed back the attack. In Baumersdorf [today Parbarsdorf
Enlarge
July 6
During the night, the two sides reversed their formations. While Napoleon gathered his forces together, Archduke Charles spread his out along the two flanks, convinced that the troops on the Wagram plateau were capable of resisting any attack.
The next morning the Austrians went on the offensive. General Rosenberg tried to overwhelm Davout on his right while on the other wing, Generals Klenau and Kollowrat followed the Danube to get around the Duke de Rivoli. In the centre, the French came under heavy artillery fire as they began to retreat to the village of Rassdorf.
By 9 a.m. this situation was developing rapidly. The French Army had been forced into a semi-circle between Aspern and Groshofen
Napoleon decided to send his central force into the battle. He ordered Macdonald's troops to march in battalion columns with the support of the Imperial Guard cavalry, Nansouty's cuirassiers and about 100 artillery canons. Thanks to the artillery, under the command of Jacques Alexandre Law de Lauriston, the Austrian advance was stopped and their fire contained. The French continued to advance but the enemy's central force resisted. The two armies, unable to move, exchanged heavy blows with little effect.
However, Napoleon still had reserves to call upon while the Austrians had already committed all their forces to the battle. On the left, Masséna began to advance after receiving reinforcements. On the right, Davout launched an attack on the heights around the village of Markgrafneusiedl
Seeing the Duke d'Auerstaedt's success, Napoleon ordered Generals Etienne Macdonald and Nicolas Oudinot to launch a central attack at noon. Macdonal advanced toward Süssenbrünn
By 2 p.m. the French offensive had largely succeeded and the Austrian left flank had begun to pull back toward the road to Vienna at Znaïm
Tried and disorganized, the French cavalry was unable to give chase. The Austrian withdrawal proceeded without incident despite the best efforts of Jean Baptiste Bessières which ended when the Marshal was wounded by a stray bullet and those of General Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle who was killed in the confusion. However, the Austrian defeat did not turn into a rout.
At 5 p.m. Archduke Jean, who had been expected by the Austrians throughout the day, arrived with his army but was too late to influence the outcome of the battle. The French victory was confirmed and the Archduke had no choice but to follow his brother on the road to Vienna.