Battle of Teugen-Hausen


The Battle of Teugen-Hausen or the Battle of Thann was an engagement that occurred during the War of the Fifth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was fought on 19 April 1809 between the French III Corps led by Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout and the Austrian III Armeekorps commanded by Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. 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, part of modern-day Germany.
Also on April 19, clashes occurred at Arnhofen near Abensberg, Dünzling, Regensburg, and Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm. Together with the Battle of Teugen-Hausen, the fighting marked the first day of a four-day campaign, culminating in the French victory at the Battle of Eckmühl.
Austria's invasion of the Kingdom of Bavaria caught Emperor Napoleon I of France's Franco-German army by surprise. Though the advance of Archduke Charles's Austrian army was slow, mistakes by Napoleon's subordinate Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier placed Davout's corps in great peril. As Davout withdrew southwest from Regensburg on the south bank of the Danube, Charles tried to intercept the French with three powerful attacking columns.
The first Austrian column missed the French, while Davout's cavalry held off the second column. The third column crashed head-on into one of Davout's infantry divisions in a meeting engagement. Generals of both armies led their troops with courage and skill as the troops fought over two ridges. French reinforcements finally pushed the Austrians off the southern ridge late in the afternoon, and Charles ordered a retreat that night. This opened a clear path for Davout to join the main body of the French army on April 20.

Background

Austrian plans

On 8 February 1809, the Austrian Empire determined to make war on Napoleon. Led by Foreign Minister Johann Philipp Stadion, Count von Warthausen, the diplomat Klemens von Metternich, and Empress Maria Ludovika, the war party pointed to the 1808 French disaster at the Battle of Bailén in Spain. However, Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, wished to put off the war to fully mobilize and find allies.
Image:Archdukecharles1.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.7|alt=Archduke Charles|Archduke Charles
Archduke Charles, appointed generalissimo after the debacle of the War of the Third Coalition in 1805, had tried for three years to improve the Austrian army. Historian David G. Chandler wrote, "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, adopted the corps organization, and revised the infantry drillbook, incorporating more French-style tactical evolutions. Serious deficiencies remained, however, in Austrian staffwork, in the Landwehr organization, 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 and therefore the Landwehr was never fully utilized. In Hungary, the nobles and people were cool toward the war and contributed as little as possible.
Archduke Charles and the Hofkriegsrat sent 50,000 in two corps to Italy under General der Kavallerie Archduke John and 40,000 more in one corps to Galicia under Feldmarschall-Leutnant Archduke Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este. Charles massed the remaining regular army in Bohemia and along the Danube for the main effort.
Charles' 206,906-strong Hauptarmee was organized into six army corps and two reserve corps. The I Armeekorps was led by General der Kavallerie Count Heinrich von Bellegarde and numbered 27,653 men. The II Armeekorps commanded by Feldzeugmeister Johann Kollowrat counted 28,168 soldiers. The III Armeekorps consisted of 29,360 troops under Feldmarschall-Leutnant Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. The IV Armeekorps of Feldmarschall-Leutnant Prince Franz Seraph of Orsini-Rosenberg controlled 27,800 soldiers. The V Armeekorps was commanded by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Archduke Louis and numbered 32,266 men. The VI Armeekorps was made up of 35,693 troops under Feldmarschall-Leutnant Johann von Hiller. The I Reserve-Armeekorps was directed by General der Kavallerie Johann I Joseph, Prince of Liechtenstein and counted 18,063 men. The II Reserve-Armeekorps was directed by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Michael von Kienmayer and controlled 7,975 soldiers. Arnold's strengths are used and are estimated in some cases. They do not include artillerists or sappers.
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; and the V, VI, and II Reserve Armeekorps made up the southern flank guard.

Operations

On 9 April 1809, Archduke Charles gave notice to the French ambassador at Munich and Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre that Austria and France were at war. The next morning, Charles' army began crossing the Inn River in an invasion of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Only Lefebvre's VII Corps of three Bavarian divisions were available to oppose the Austrian onslaught. Fortunately for the Franco-Bavarians, it took six days for their enemies to reach the Isar River near Landshut.
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 15 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 15 April. If, however, his enemies attacked before the deadline, the army was to assemble farther west at Donauwörth. By misfortune, an order that Napoleon sent on 10 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.
Berthier commanded Davout, who had been sensibly concentrating rearward, to collect his corps at Regensburg on the left wing. Meanwhile, the right wing of the Grande Armée was distant, with only a thin line of Bavarians holding the center. On the right wing, General Nicolas Oudinot's II Corps was ordered to move toward Regensburg, while Marshal André Masséna's IV Corps was directed to move from Ulm to Augsburg.
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. He quickly ordered a new concentration near Ingolstadt. To this end, the emperor recalled Davout's III Corps from Regensburg on the south bank of the Danube. Lefebvre's Bavarians must hold the center until Davout gets away.
It was not until April 18 that Napoleon realized that 80,000 Austrians menaced Davout. He decided to send Masséna toward Landshut to threaten Archduke Charles' rear in an attempt to take the pressure off Davout. Meanwhile, the emperor instructed Oudinot to support Lefebvre, and directed Général de Division Dominique Vandamme's small Württemberg corps to march east from Ingolstadt. For his part, Archduke Charles was aware that he had a chance to destroy Davout's corps.

Order of battle

French forces

  • III Corps: Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout
  • *Corps Artillery Reserve: Général de Division Antoine Alexandre Hanicque
  • ** 12 pdr foot batteries
  • *2nd Division: Général de Division Louis Friant
  • **Brigade: Général de Brigade Jacques Laurent Gilly
  • ***10th Light Infantry Regiment
  • ***33rd Line Infantry Regiment
  • **Brigade: Général de Brigade Louis Joseph Grandeau
  • ***108th Line Infantry Regiment
  • **Brigade: Général de Brigade Claude Marie Hervo
  • ***111st Line Infantry Regiment
  • **Brigade: Général de Brigade Joseph Barbanègre
  • ***48th Line Infantry Regiment
  • **Divisional Artillery: 8 pdr foot battery
  • *4th Division: Général de Division Louis Vincent Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire
  • **Brigade: Général de Brigade Guillaume Latrille de Lorencez
  • ***10th Light Infantry Regiment
  • ***3rd Line Infantry Regiment
  • ***57th Line Infantry Regiment
  • **Brigade: Général de Brigade Jean-Marie Eléonore Léopold Destabenrath
  • ***72nd Line Infantry Regiment
  • ***105th Line Infantry Regiment
  • **Divisional Artillery: 8 pdr foot battery, 6 pdr horse battery
  • *3rd Division: Général de Division Charles-Étienne Gudin de La Sablonnière
  • **Brigade: Général de Brigade Claude Petit
  • ***7th Light Infantry Regiment
  • **Brigade: Général de Brigade Pierre François Xavier Boyer
  • ***12th Line Infantry Regiment
  • ***21st Line Infantry Regiment
  • **Brigade: Général de Brigade Jean Duppelin
  • ***25th Line Infantry Regiment
  • ***85th Line Infantry Regiment
  • **Divisional Artillery: 8 pdr foot battery, 4 pdr horse battery

    Austrian forces

  • III Armeekorps: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Friedrich Franz Xaver Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen
  • *Artillery reserve: Oberst Johann Smola
  • **6 pdr position battery
  • ** 12 pdr position batteries
  • *Light division: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Josef Philipp Vukassovich
  • **Brigade: General-Major Moritz Liechentstein
  • ***Erzherzog Karl Legion
  • ***Erzherzog Ferdinand Hussar Regiment No. 3
  • ***3 pdr brigade battery
  • **Brigade: General-Major Josef Pfanzelter
  • ***Peterwardeiner Grenz Infantry Regiment No. 9
  • ***Hessen-Homburg Hussar Regiment No. 4
  • ***3 pdr Grenz brigade battery
  • **Divisional artillery: 6 pdr Cavalry Battery
  • *Division: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz Joseph, Marquis de Lusignan
  • **Brigade: General-Major Nikolaus Kayser
  • ***Schröder Infantry Regiment No. 7
  • ***Wenzel Colloredo Infantry Regiment No. 56
  • ***6 pdr brigade battery
  • **Brigade: General-Major Ludwig Thierry
  • ***Kaiser Infantry Regiment No. 1
  • ***Lindenau Infantry Regiment No. 29
  • ***6 pdr brigade battery
  • **Divisional artillery: 6 pdr position battery
  • *Division: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz Xaver Saint-Julien
  • **Brigade: General-Major Alois Liechentstein
  • ***Manfredini Infantry Regiment No. 12
  • ***Würzburg Infantry Regiment No. 23
  • ***6 pdr brigade battery
  • **Brigade: General-Major Josef Bieber
  • ***Kaunitz Infantry Regiment No. 20
  • ***Württemberg Infantry Regiment No. 38
  • ***6 pdr brigade battery
  • **Divisional artillery: 6 pdr position battery