means Davout's, Oudinot’s and Lefebvre’s commands were augmented, whilst in February and March new corps were formed and rapidly pushed towards the front.
On his return from Spain, seeing war imminent, he issued a series of march orders (which deserve the closest study in detail) by which on the 15th of April his whole army was to be concentrated for manœuvres between Regensburg, Landshut, Augsburg and Donauworth, and sending on the Guard in wagons to Strassburg, he despatched Berthier to act as commander-in-chief until his own arrival.
28. Austrian Offensive.—The position of assembly was excellently chosen, but unfortunately the Austrians took the initiative. On the 9th of April their main body of six corps crossed the Inn between Braunau and Passau, and simultaneously two additional corps moved from Pilsen in Bohemia on Regensburg. At this moment Davout was entering Regensburg with his leading troops, the remainder still some marches in rear, and it was evident that the whole concentration could no longer be carried out before the Austrians would be in a position to intervene. Berthier received the news while still on his way to the front, and quite failed to grasp the situation. Reaching Donauwörth at 8 p.m. on the 13th of April, he ordered Davout and Oudinot to remain at Regensburg, whilst Lefebvre and Wrede (Bavarians) who had fallen back before the Austrians were directed to reoccupy Landshut. This was in direct contradiction with the instructions Napoleon had given him on the 28th of March in view of this very emergency. Davout obeyed, but remonstrated. On the 16th Berthier went on to Augsburg, where he learnt that Lefebvre’s advanced troops had been driven out of Landshut, thus opening a great gap seventy-six miles wide between the two wings of the French army. Meanwhile Napoleon, who had left Paris at 4 a.m. on the 13th of April, was hastening towards the front, but remained still in ignorance of Berthier’s doings until on the 16th at Stuttgart he received a letter from the Marshal dated the 13th, which threw him into consternation. In reply he immediately wrote: “You do not inform me what has rendered necessary such an extraordinary measure which weakens and divides my troops”—and—“I cannot quite grasp the meaning of your letter yet, I should have preferred to see my army concentrated between Ingolstadt and Augsburg, the Bavarians in the first line, with the duke of Danzig in his old position, until we know what the enemy is going to do. Everything would be excellent if the duke of Auerstädt had been at Ingolstadt and the duke of Rivoli with the Württernbergers and Oudinot’s corps at Augsburg, . . . so that just the opposite of what should have been done has been done” (C. N. to Berthier, Ludwigsburg, 16th April).
29. Napoleon takes command.—Having despatched this severe reprimand he hastened on to Donauwdörth, where he arrived at 4 a.m. on the 17th, hoping to find Berthier, but the latter was at Augsburg. Nevertheless, at 10 a.m. he ordered Davout and Oudinot to withdraw at once to Ingolstadt; and Lefebvre and Wrede on the right to support the movement. About noon Berthier returned and after hearing his explanation Massena received orders to move from Augsburg towards Ingolstadt. “To-morrow will be a day of preparation spent in drawing closer together, and I expect to be able by Wednesday to manœuvre against the enemy’s columns according to circumstances.”
Meanwhile the Austrians had approached so near that by a single day’s march it would have been possible to fall upon and crush by superior numbers either wing of the French army, but though the Austrian light cavalry successfully covered the operations of the following troops they had not yet risen to a conception of their reconnoitring mission, and the archduke, in ignorance of his opportunity and possessed, moreover, with the preconceived idea of uniting at Regensburg with the two corps coming from Bohemia, moved the bulk of his forces in that direction, leaving only a covering body against Davout altogether insufficient to retain him. Davout, however, had left a garrison of 1800 men in Regensburg, who delayed the junction of the Austrian wings until the 20th inst., and on the same day the emperor, having now reunited his whole right wing and centre, overwhelmed the covering detachments facing him in a long series of disconnected engagements lasting forty-eight hours, and the archduke now found himself in danger of being forced back into the Danube. But with the Bohemian reinforcements he had still four corps in hand, and Napoleon, whose intelligence service in the difficult and intersected country had lamentably failed him, had weakened his army by detaching a portion of his force in pursuit of the beaten right wing, and against the archduke’s communications.
30. Eckmühl.—When, therefore, the latter, on the 22nd, marched southward to reopen his communications by the defeat of the enemy’s army, always the surest means of solving this difficulty, he actually reached the neighborhood of Eckmühl with a sufficient numerical superiority had he only been prompt enough to seize his opportunity. But the French had been beforehand with him. Napoleon, who had personally taken part in the fighting of the previous day, and followed the pursuit as far as Landshut, whence he had despatched Massena to follow the retreating Austrians along the Isar, seems to have realized about 3 a.m. in. the morning that it was not the main body of the enemy he had had before him, but only its left wing, and that the main. body itself must still be northward towards Regensburg. Issuing orders to Davout, Oudinot and his cavalry to concentrate with all speed towards Eckmühl, he himself rode back along the Regensburg road and reached the battle-field just as the engagement between the advance troops had commenced. Had the Austrians possessed mobility equal to that of the French the latter should have been overwhelmed in detail, but whilst the French covered 17 and 19 m. the Austrians only marched 10, and, owing to the defect in their tactical training alluded to above, the troops actually on the ground could not hold out long enough for their reserves to arrive. The retreat of the front lines involved the following ones in confusion, and presently the whole mass was driven back in considerable disorder. It seemed as if nothing could save the Austrians from complete disaster, but at the critical moment the emperor, yielding to the protestations of his corps commanders, who represented the excessive fatigue of their troops, stopped the pursuit, and the archduke made the most of his opportunity to restore order amongst his demoralized men, and crossed to the north bank of the Danube during the night.
31. Austrian Retreat.—On the following morning the French reached Regensburg and at once proceeded to assault its medieval walls, but the Austrian garrison bravely defended it till the last of the stragglers was safely across on the north bank. It was here that for the only time in his career Napoleon was slightly wounded. Then, leaving Davout to observe the archduke’s retreat, the emperor himself rode after Massena, who with the major portion of the French army was following the Austrian weaker wing under Hiller. The latter was not so shaken as Napoleon believed, and turning to bay inflicted a severe check on its pursuers, who at Ebelsberg lost 4000 men in three
