MARSHAL LOUIS N. DAVOUT AND THE ART OF COMMAND A ...

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oad toward Hausen. When they moved to the top of the ridge just beyond Teugen they could see the white coated Austrian's to their front. Davout took a great chance by attacking forward with only two divisions of infantry. This column had to fight throughout most of the day with no artillery or cavalry support. Hohenzollern also knew that Davout was moving down on his flank. He turned his Corps north through the village of Hausen and sent Field Marshal Philip Vukassovich*~division forward. They set up just past the woods on the open terrain of the first ridge. Davout realized that Hohenzollern had a superior force and was already in battle formation. Davoutls forces were still in column and the regiments were not yet in supporting distances of each other. The conservative course of action available was to set up a defense in front of Teugen Davout would have none of that, a defense would give the initiative over to the Austrians. He immediately sent the 3rd Ligne forward to halt the Austrian advance. They advanced forward in skirmish order. Davoutls Corps (being the last remnant of the Grand Armee unspoiled by Spain) was capable of fighting in this open order.3 Two-thousand French attacking down then uphill against six- thousand Austrians supported by twelve guns could not carry the day, however, they did serve their purpose very
well. They bought Davout the necessary time to bring forward the remainder of his forces. Davout's fight on this day was not typical of the normal battles of this period in history. Normally units would maneuver, bringing all of their forces together, then fight each other with the forces they had arrayed. This was the way the French achieved victories at Jena, Friedland, and Austerlitz. However, Davout was fighting a new type of warfare, one in which he would be bringing units up from a column and committing them to battle as they arrived. This is a very difficult way to fight a battle even today with all the sophisticated command and control systems the modern commander has available. This type of fighting would only become more widely used as warfare evolved during the latter part of the century. As the 3rd Ligne fell back Davout followed them upwith the 57th Ligne. This was a particularly good unitthat had achieved the sobriquet, "Terrible 57thm, fromtheir performance in Italy in 1800. The reformed 3rdLigne and the 10th Legere soon came forward to support the57th (see Appendix A, Figure 3). A short lull in theaction took place as the Austrians began to push forwardmore forces. Davout took the time to reorganize hisforces as the 72nd Ligne arrived in front of Teugen. TheFrench had formed themselves into a TJtt shape with theopen end facing the ~ustrians. Although stabilized, the
Page 3 and 4:
ABSTRACT MARSHAL LOUIS N. DAVOUT AN
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ?&%slsAPPROVALPAG
Page 7 and 8:
CHAPTER 1 BUT WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERS
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the study of simple strategy and ta
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This fact becomes even more obvious
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the grand tactic. Operational warfa
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Burgundian countryside. He was born
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In1803 Davout was given command of
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then launch a major offensive into
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This attack'then ensured victory fo
Page 23 and 24: would actually go to war. However,
Page 25 and 26: Bluecher made four unsuccessful att
Page 27 and 28: fight entirely on his own. The batt
Page 29 and 30: title until two years after the bat
Page 31 and 32: Without hesitation Davout pushed fo
Page 33 and 34: most of his marshals, generals, the
Page 35 and 36: CHAPTER 3 THE AUSTRIANS ARE OUR WOR
Page 37 and 38: Finally, with Davout's information
Page 39 and 40: Austrian influence in Germany and I
Page 41 and 42: organization, always slow to act. M
Page 43 and 44: course of action. They now had a be
Page 45 and 46: elieved Prince Eugene and Marshal A
Page 47 and 48: 22 March Davout had sent a message
Page 49 and 50: were designated VII Corps and consi
Page 51 and 52: and intelligence at the strategic l
Page 53 and 54: across the Danube. The Austrians al
Page 55 and 56: transmitted from Napoleon to Berthi
Page 57 and 58: Normally, the message dispatched by
Page 59 and 60: me that the best maneuver would be
Page 61 and 62: Berthier chose to overlook this cor
Page 63 and 64: Landshut were only one corps and no
Page 65 and 66: destroy him. On the eighteenth Char
Page 67 and 68: critical for the French. Napoleon r
Page 69 and 70: Throughout these ten days before th
Page 71 and 72: CHAPTER 5 YOU ONLY HAVE A CURTAIN O
Page 73: Gudin to support the movement of hi
Page 77 and 78: The remainder of the Austrians then
Page 79 and 80: His tactical leadership was at its
Page 81 and 82: Napoleon's vision of the battlefiel
Page 83 and 84: against the French. His troops succ
Page 85 and 86: to surrender at 5:00 P.M. Now Charl
Page 87 and 88: pursuit on two parallel roads leadi
Page 89 and 90: important part in Davout's decision
Page 91 and 92: orders and directions. While Davout
Page 93 and 94: Corps. He received no reply from th
Page 95 and 96: convinced he was being attacked by
Page 97 and 98: CHAPTER 6 THE DUKE OF AUERSTAEDT IS
Page 99 and 100: eginning to feel the fatigue of con
Page 101 and 102: Just as the Austrians began to move
Page 103 and 104: effect, Davoutfs forces became the
Page 105 and 106: The French carabiniers fired a volZ
Page 107 and 108: Charles would lose his desire to st
Page 109 and 110: The ~re'nch prevailed over the Aust
Page 111 and 112: CHAPTER 7 IN BATTLE MEN ARE NOTHING
Page 113 and 114: counter orders did nothing but conf
Page 115 and 116: doctrine, and most importantly the
Page 117 and 118: The art of war on land is an art of
Page 119 and 120: Maintaining this vision or coup d'o
Page 121 and 122: internal fears rather than obstinac
Page 123 and 124: who never made a mistake. The key i
Page 125 and 126:
too seemed only to be small diversi
Page 127 and 128:
helped to provide definition to the
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Figure 1.Theater of Operations.
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INITIALACTIONSABOUT 1500Counteratta
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Figure 5.Davout's Running Fight on
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N1- 'LABER RIVER' SCHlERLlNGLANNESI
Page 137 and 138:
Reserve Division: Demont' (3,215) 2
Page 139 and 140:
APPENDIX C ORDER OF BATTLE CHANGES
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ll~avidG. Chandler, The Cam~aians o
Page 143 and 144:
3~hisis noted in Napoleon's corresp
Page 145 and 146:
20~his is from correspondence numbe
Page 147 and 148:
WORKS CITED Primarv Sources Bonapar
Page 149 and 150:
Arnold, James R. Crisis on The Danu
Page 151 and 152:
ackground material and specifics on
Page 153 and 154:
secondary source but all informatio
Page 155 and 156:
INITIAL DISTRIBUTION LIST 1. , Comb
Page 157:
STATEMENT A: Approved for public re
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