Wagram—Macdonald’s Square

The Austrians had repulsed the French late day attacks on July 5th but Charles knew he was still outnumbered. He chose the audacious course of an early morning double envelopment attack to defeat Napoleon before the superior French numbers made …

1809-07-06

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The Austrians had repulsed the French late day attacks on July 5th but Charles knew he was still outnumbered. He chose the audacious course of an early morning double envelopment attack to defeat Napoleon before the superior French numbers made Austrian defeat inevitable. Coordination, the Austrian Achilles heel, again bedeviled Charles. Rosenberg’s attack against Davout failed, and even though the attack against the French left came very close to succeeding, Napoleon contained it without using his reserves. Now, with Davout advancing inexorably against the Austrian left, Napoleon knew the time had come to split the Austrian center and crush the Austrians once and for all. Napoleon ordered Macdonald to attack the Austrian center, supported by a massed French battery that had already inflicted massive Austrian losses. Although the French giant hollow square attack formation was somewhat unusual, it slowly gained momentum, even though the Austrian artillery and infantry responded by laying down an intense fire against the advancing infantry. Charles then ordered the Austrian cavalry to attack Macdonald’s flank, but the French cavalry rode forward to counter. Massive casualties reduced the 8,000 man hollow square to 1,500 men by the time they closed with the Austrian Grenadiers at bayonet point, Although Macdonald’s infantry could not break the Austrian battle line, it did prevent Charles from reinforcing his own attacks or supporting Rosenberg against Davout. Seeing his left flank was lost, Charles knew the battle had turned against him and ordered his army to withdraw. The exhausted French army could only follow, rather than stage a strong pursuit.

Wagram, Austria

The Battle of Wagram was a military engagement of the Napoleonic Wars that ended in a costly but decisive victory for Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's French and allied army against the Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen. The battle led to the breakup of the Fifth Coalition, the Austrian and British-led alliance against France.

Wikipedia: Battle of Wagram

French

Austrians

Fifth Coalition