The Battle of Dürenstein (German: Schlacht bei Dürnstein; also known as Dürrenstein, Dürnstein and Diernstein) or the Battle of Krems (Russian: Сражение при Кремсе), on 11 November 1805, was an engagement in the Napoleonic Wars during the War of the Third Coalition. Dürenstein (modern Dürnstein), Austria, is located in the Wachau valley, on the river Danube, 73 kilometers (45 mi) upstream from Vienna, Austria. The river makes a crescent-shaped curve between Dürnstein and nearby Krems an der Donau, and the battle was fought in the flood plain between the river and the mountains.
At Dürenstein, a combined force of Russian and Austrian troops trapped a French division commanded by Théodore Maxime Gazan. The French division was part of the newly created VIII Corps, the so-called Corps Mortier, under command of Édouard Mortier. In pursuing the Austrian retreat from Bavaria, Mortier had over-extended his three divisions along the north bank of the Danube. Mikhail Kutuzov, commander of the Coalition force, enticed Mortier to send Gazan's division into a trap and French troops were caught in a valley between two Russian columns. They were rescued by the timely arrival of a second division, under command of Pierre Dupont de l'Étang. The battle extended well into the night, after which both sides claimed victory. The French lost more than a third of their participants, and Gazan's division experienced over 40 percent losses. The Austrians and Russians also had heavy losses—close to 16 percent—but perhaps the most significant was the death in action of Johann Heinrich von Schmitt, one of Austria's most capable chiefs of staff.
The battle was fought three weeks after the surrender of one Austrian army at the Battle of Ulm and three weeks before the Russo-Austrian defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz. After Austerlitz, Austria withdrew from the war. The French demanded a high indemnity, and Francis II abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor, releasing the German states from their allegiance to the Holy Roman Empire.
Background
In a series of conflicts in 1803–15 known as the Napoleonic Wars, various European powers formed five coalitions against the First French Empire. Like the wars sparked by the French Revolution (1789), these further revolutionized the formation, organization and training of European armies and led to an unprecedented militarization, mainly due to mass conscription. Under the leadership of Napoleon, French power rose quickly as the Grande Armée conquered most of Europe, and collapsed rapidly after the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat in the 1813–14 campaigns, resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France. Although Napoleon made a spectacular return in 1815, known as the Hundred Days, his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the pursuit of his army and himself, his abdication and banishment to the Island of Saint Helena concluded the Napoleonic Wars.
Danube campaign
During 1803–06 the Third Coalition fought the First French Empire and its client states (see table at right). Although several naval battles determined control of the seas, the outcome of the war was decided on the continent, predominantly in two major land operations in the Danube valley: the Ulm campaign in the upper Danube and the Vienna campaign, in the middle Danube valley.
Political conflicts in Vienna delayed Austria's entry into the Third Coalition until 1805. After hostilities of the War of the Second Coalition ended in 1801, Archduke Charles—the emperor's brother—took advantage of the subsequent years of peace to develop a military restructuring plan. He carefully put this plan into effect beginning in 1803–04, but implementation was incomplete in 1805 when Karl Mack, Lieutenant Field Marshal and Quartermaster-General of the Army, implemented his own restructuring. Mack bypassed Charles' methodical approach. Occurring in the field, Mack's plan also undermined the overall command and organizational structure. Regardless, Mack sent an enthusiastic report to Vienna on the military's readiness. Furthermore, after misreading Napoleon's maneuvers in Württemberg, Mack reported to Vienna on the weakness of French dispositions. His reports convinced the war party advising the emperor, Francis II, to enter the conflict against France, despite Charles' own advice to the contrary. Responding to the report and rampant anti-French fever in Vienna, Francis dismissed Charles from his post as generalissimo and appointed his Francophobic brother-in-law, Archduke Ferdinand, as commander.
The inexperienced Ferdinand was a poor choice of replacement for the capable Charles, having neither maturity nor aptitude for the assignment. Although Ferdinand retained nominal command, day-to-day decisions were placed in the hands of Mack, equally ill-suited for such an important assignment. When Mack was wounded early in the campaign, he was unable to take full charge of the army. Consequently, command further devolved to Lieutenant Field Marshal Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, an able cavalry officer but inexperienced in the command of such a large army.
Road to Ulm
The campaign in the upper Danube valley began in October, with several clashes in Swabia. Near the Bavarian town of Wertingen, 40 kilometers (25 mi) northwest of Augsburg, on 8 October the 1st Regiment of dragoons, part of Murat's Reserve Cavalry Corps, and grenadiers of Lannes' V Corps surprised an Austrian force half its size. The Austrians were arrayed in a line and unable to form their defensive squares quickly enough to protect themselves from the 4,000 dragoons and 8,000 grenadiers. Nearly 3,000 Austrians were captured and over 400 were killed or wounded. A day later, at another small town, Günzburg—immediately south of the Danube river—the French 59th Regiment of the Line stormed a bridge over the Danube and, humiliatingly, chased two large Austrian columns toward Ulm.
The campaign was not entirely bad news for Vienna. At Haslach, Johann von Klenau arranged his 25,000 infantry and cavalry in a prime defensive position and, on 11 October, the overly confident General of Division Pierre Dupont de l'Étang attacked Klenau's force with fewer than 8,000 men. The French lost 1,500 men killed and wounded. Aside from taking the Imperial Eagles and guidons of the 15th and 17th Dragoons, Klenau's force also captured 900 men, 11 guns and 18 ammunition wagons.
Klenau's victory was the singular success. On 14 October Mack sent two columns out of Ulm in preparation for a breakout to the north: one under Johann Sigismund Riesch headed toward Elchingen to secure the bridge there, and the other under Franz von Werneck went north with most of the heavy artillery. Recognizing the opportunity, Marshal Michel Ney hurried the rest of his VI Corps forward to re-establish contact with Dupont, who was still north of the Danube. In a two-pronged attack Ney sent one division to the south of Elchingen on the right bank of the Danube. This division began the assault at Elchingen. At the same time another division crossed the river to the east and moved west against Riesch's position. After clearing Austrian pickets from a bridge, the French attacked and captured a strategically located abbey at the top of the hill at bayonet point. The Austrian cavalry unsuccessfully tried to fend off the French, but the Austrian infantry broke and ran. In this engagement alone, the Austrians lost more than half their reserve artillery park, 6,000 (out of 8,000 total participants) dead, wounded or captured and four colors. Reisch's column also failed to destroy the bridges across the Danube.
Napoleon's lightning campaign exposed the Austrian indecisive command structure and poor supply apparatus. Mack completely misread the French dispositions and scattered his forces; as the French defeated each unit separately, the surviving Austrians withdrew toward the Ulm fortifications. Napoleon arrived to take personal command of close to 80,000 men. At Ulm on 16 October Karl Mack surrendered his encircled army of 20,000 infantry and 3,273 cavalry. The officers were released on the condition that they not serve against France until formally exchanged for French officers captured by the Austrians, an agreement to which they held.
Prelude to battle
The few Austrian corps not trapped at Ulm withdrew toward Vienna, with the French in close pursuit. A Russian army under Gen. Mikhail Kutuzov also maneuvered away from the French, withdrawing to the east. At the Ill river on 22 October it joined with the retreating Austrian corps commanded by Michael von Kienmayer. On 5 November the Coalition forces held a successful rearguard action in Amstetten. On 7 November the Russians arrived in St. Pölten and crossed the Danube river the next day. Late on 9 November they destroyed the bridges across the Danube, holding the last one at the hamlet of Stein, near the village of Krems, until the late afternoon.
Battlefield
To the east of Stein, 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) down an old road, lay Krems, with its small population of a few hundred, at the confluence of the stream of that name and the Danube. To the west of Stein the Danube made a large curve, creating a crescent-shaped floodplain between it and the mountains. At the far western end of the floodplain, where the mountains came down almost to the river's edge, was Dürenstein with its castle, known as Schloss Dürenstein. The castle had served as a prison for Richard I of England in 1193. In 1645–46, during the Thirty Years' War, the Swedes had fortified the castle and then demolished it when they withdrew. It stands at 159 meters (522 ft), on the highest ridge of a mountain fissured with clefts and pinnacles of granite. Because the mountain was sparsely vegetated, it was difficult to distinguish the ruins from the rocks. Narrow canyons cut through the mountain, and widen into the plain below. Between Dürenstein and Stein, on the flood plain, lay the hamlets of Oberloiben and Unterloiben. Near the hamlets, the Loiben flood plain was at its widest, extending at the most 762 meters (2,500 ft) from the base of the Loibenberg mountain to the bank of the river.
The region was known for its wine. Since the 15th century the local inhabitants practiced viticulture and the wine producers formed St. Paul Vintners' Guild in 1447, the oldest such guild in the German-speaking world. Terraced vineyards extended up the sides of the Krems River until it became a mountain stream and terrain was unsuitable for cultivation. The Loiben plain supported both viticulture and agriculture. As the terrain became steeper, the vines grew in terraces built from the dark Urgestein, primordial rock. From Dürenstein to Krems the river makes its wide curve; the mountains and the steeply terraced slopes prevent clear line-of-sight between the two towns.
Dispositions
Napoleon had calculated that Kutuzov, expecting reinforcements from Russia to defend its political allies, would withdraw toward Vienna; he envisioned that his and Kutuzov's armies would engage in a great battle at Vienna, and that this battle would decide the war. Consequently, Napoleon drew divisions from four of the other seven corps of the Grande Armée to create a new VIII Corps. This corps was to secure the north shore of the Danube, block any of the Austrian or Russian groups from reinforcing one another and, more importantly, prevent Kutuzov from crossing the river and escaping to Russia.
The new VIII Corps, under the overall command of Édouard Mortier, included three infantry divisions and a division of cavalry (see Order of Battle below). Corps Mortier, as it was known, crossed the Danube at Linz and Passau in early November 1805 and marched east, on the north bank of the Danube. Operating independently, the corp's cavalry conducted reconnaissance ahead of them and on the flanks. Gen. Gazan's division (about 6,000 men) took the lead; Mortier was with them. They were followed by Dupont's division (another 4,000) about one day's march behind. Jean-Baptiste Dumonceau's division (another 4,000), marching another day behind Dupont, brought up the rear. A flotilla of 50 boats acquired at Passau provided communications across the Danube. Before sending Mortier on his mission, Napoleon instructed him to protect his north flank at all times against possible Russian reinforcements, advice he reiterated in subsequent written orders. Napoleon also advised Mortier to secure all crossings of the Danube between Linz and Vienna.
On 9 November Gazan's division reached Marbach an der Donau and covered the 50 kilometers (31 mi) to Dürenstein by early on the following afternoon. Here it skirmished with some Russian patrols to the east of the town and expelled them. Feeling confident, the French established a forward post just upstream from Stein. In Dürenstein itself, Mortier established his command post and directed the construction of a small field hospital. Although the position seemed secure, Mortier ignored Napoleon's strict instructions and neglected to protect his left (north) flank.