Generalissimo Schwarzenberg: he also defeated Napoleon
Schwarzenberg Family Coat of Arms
Name and title oblige
12 failures by Napoleon Bonaparte. He was two years younger than the French emperor, was born in 1771. And he died a year earlier than Napoleon - in 1820. If your last name is Schwarzenberg, then you simply must take a worthy place in life and make a brilliant career. In the diplomatic, and preferably in the military field.
The genealogy of the Bohemian, that is, Czech, but actually German Schwarzenbergs, is perhaps older than the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns, and even more so than the Romanovs. One of them, Prince Carl Philip, had to fight repeatedly against Napoleon, the greatest commander of the era, and once, in the Russian campaign, to stand under his banner. But this circumstance did not prevent the appointment of Schwarzenberg as commander in chief of the allied armies in the campaigns of 1813-1814.
Moreover, the appointment with the assignment of the title of Generalissimo, to which for some reason the Austrian monarchs were surprisingly generous. It is noteworthy that for a long time Schwarzenberg was not even shined with the rank of Field Marshal, but none other than Napoleon insisted on his assignment. Evil tongues said that this was done in gratitude for the merits of the prince during the matchmaking of the French emperor to Princess Maria Louise.
A military career was actually intended for him from the cradle, and the upbringing of the young man was appropriate - with physical exercises and a special selection of subjects during training. The young Schwarzenberg was lucky with the tutors, including field marshals Laudon and Lassi, as well as with friends, especially with Josef Ponyatovsky.
This nephew of the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stanislav, better known as one of Catherine II’s lovers, turned out to be a subject of the Habsburg crown as a result of three divisions of Poland. But he spent most of his military career under the command of the French emperor. However, two comrades received their first military experiments in battles with the Turks.
This was one of the last acts of confrontation between Western Europe and the great empire of the East in the Balkans. Further, the Ottomans were mainly Russian. In one of the battles on the territory of Slavonia (now this is the region in the east of Croatia) Poniatowski and Schwarzenberg took part in the capture of the Turkish convoy. Schwarzenberg was able to disarm one of the natives of the spag, leading the prisoner to Field Marshal Lassi.
At another time, only the help of huntsmen rescued two comrades who entered into an unequal battle with the Albanian robbers. Both young men managed to distinguish themselves during the assault on Šabac, and Schwarzenberg, who received a post at the headquarters, valiantly fought in the battle of Bebar and the assault on Belgrade.
Siege of Belgrade 1787
Schwarzenberg was only 19 years old when he received the rank of major, and the first wahmist in the ranks of the Life Guards took part in the coronation of Leopold II. This emperor of the Holy Roman Empire managed to rule it for only a year and a half, but he managed to get involved in a war with revolutionary France.
Almost the entire future career of Prince Karl Philip Schwarzenberg was somehow connected with the opposition of the Habsburgs to the French republic and the empire.
Against France and ... together with France
He was on the battlefield lost by the Austrians near Jémappe, where for the first time he was able to get acquainted directly with the power of deep French shock columns in battle. Subsequently, this experience helped Schwarzenberg in a number of battles, when he had to double, sometimes up to three times, thin Austrian lines in order to only withstand the pressure of the French.
In the battle of Gemappe, everyone noted the French commander Jourdan. Nobody knew about Schwarzenberg yet.
However, the deep structures even before Schwarzenberg were inscribed in the Austrian charters by Archduke Karl, who only after the war of 1809 ceded to the prince the vacant seat of commander in chief. But under the leadership of the most talented Austrian commander, Schwarzenberg did not fight as often as it is surprising.
Archduke Karl ceded as commander in chief Schwarzenberg
No less surprising is the fact that Schwarzenberg earned a reputation as a “master of retreats” only in his last campaigns, and before that, many had condemned him for his tendency to undue risk. A fall from a horse in one of the first French campaigns almost made the prince disabled, and it is possible that it was precisely because of the injury that Schwarzenberg became overweight very early. Is it because some memoirists considered Schwarzenberg to be too slow for the cavalry commander.
However, the first time Prussian General Blucher, who had encountered him on French soil, who was a quarter century older than Schwarzenberg, for a long time generally mistook him for one of the upstart aristocrats. However, at first there was no talk of any enmity or personal hostility, so characteristic of their relationship later. They just knew about each other, nothing more.
The prince showed his personal courage shortly after he almost broke up with the cavalryman’s career. In the case of Kato on April 26, Schwarzenberg, who was supported by the English squadrons, rushed at the head of his cuirassiers to the enemy column, bypassing the left flank of the allies. The horse attack decided the outcome of the battle, and the 23-year-old hero on the battlefield received from the hands of the Kaiser the cross of St. Theresa.
Schwarzenberg’s role in the 1796 campaign, when General Bonaparte marched victoriously across Italy and Archduke Karl drove two French armies out of the Rhine, was modest. However, he managed to distinguish himself in the composition of the arms of the Archduke near Amberg, and almost out of the blue to get the first general rank.
A major general from a noble family soon married, and for some time was busy with family affairs. He very successfully launched the next campaign in 1799, capturing the first French prisoners of war on the Rhine. Schwarzenberg, 28, had already become Field Marshal Lieutenant, but could not help out the army of Archduke Karl in the battle of Hohenlinden.
General Moreau at the Battle of Hohenlinden
His right flank was nearly cut off by General Moreau, but managed to get out of the attack. During the retreat, Schwarzenberg first showed his best qualities at the head of a rearguard, literally knocked together from disparate parts.
The Austrian commander wrote about the actions of the prince to the emperor Franz: "he turned a wild erratic escape into an organized retreat and provided the main army with a possible rest until, with his efforts, the purpose of the enemy was only to conclude a truce."
A few more peaceful years, received by Austria in the Luneville world, allowed Schwarzenberg to prove himself in the diplomatic field. He went to St. Petersburg for the coronation of the young Russian emperor Alexander. It is believed that it was he who managed to begin the restoration of friendly relations between the two powers, which almost put an end to Emperor Paul I.
A few years later, Schwarzenberg's diplomatic talents will be claimed twice more - when he had to act as a peacemaker after the war of 1809, and when Austria returned to the ranks of the anti-Napoleonic coalition after the collapse of the Russian campaign. Before going to Russia, Schwarzenberg took part in the wars of 1805 and 1809, but both general battles - at Austerlitz and Wagram, did without the direct participation of the prince.
Schwarzenberg’s regiments weren’t on the Austerlitz field due to the fact that, having escaped from the encirclement near Ulm, he took his division to Moravia, from where Murat never released it. Schwarzenberg himself arrived in the main apartment of the Allies, ardently opposed the battle, for which he paid, not having received even a regiment under command.
Four years later, from St. Petersburg, where he was again the ambassador, Schwarzenberg with great difficulty managed to get to the blood-drenched Bizamberg heights near Wagram. But he had time only by the beginning of the retreat of the army of Archduke Charles, who had suffered a serious defeat. The prince, who took command of the rearguard, again had to prove himself a "master of retreat."
He nevertheless got the opportunity to fight with the French - near Znaim, but this half-victory could no longer change anything, since Austria actually turned into a vassal of Napoleonic France. Moreover, the Habsburgs finally lost the title of emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, formally abolished by Napoleon and the Pope three years earlier.
After 1809, Schwarzenberg still had a continuation of his diplomatic career - already in Paris, and there was a terrible fire on his estate at a celebration in honor of Maria Louise, which claimed the life of his brother’s wife.
In Russia they were not expected
In the campaign of 1812, fate finally paradoxically brought two old comrades — Schwarzenberg and Poniatowski under Napoleonic banners. The Poles of Poniatowski made up the 5th Corps of the Great Army, the Austrians of Schwarzenberg - the 12th.
But at least somehow they practically did not have to interact, except for the most recent battles associated with crossing the Berezina. But by that time, Polish troops could only be considered a real stretch with a stretch.
On the school map of the campaign of 1812, the "exchange of light figures" is clearly visible
Napoleon in the Russian campaign assigned General Rainier to the Schwarzenberg with the French division, but the prince managed the almost impossible - first of all, to maintain his corps almost in full strength. But not only - the prince was able to conduct military operations so as not to set up against himself and Napoleon and, by and large, the Russians.
If you follow the chess terminology, something like a change of light pieces took place, but the confrontation with the army of Tormasov, who later gave way to Admiral Chichagov, was by no means bloodless. There were even a few almost battles, although at the walls of Kobrin the Russians did not split the Austrians, but only the Saxons.
However, the real Austrian army, that is, the 12th Corps, could not prevent the Russians from practically driving Napoleon into a trap on the banks of the Berezina. Volumes were written about how Napoleon managed to escape, more than once it was written about in Military Review ( "Berezina-1812: the last" victory "of the French in Russia").
Surprisingly, it was precisely at the end of the Russian campaign that the French emperor literally demanded a field marshal’s baton for Prince Schwarzenberg from his father-in-law, Franz I. It is possible that, acting in this way, he seriously counted on the fact that his Austrian subordinate did not dare to do anything to return Austria to the ranks of the old allies.
But the beginning of all this was laid back by the appeal of the Commander-in-Chief Prince Schwarzenberg to the Austrian army on the eve of the campaign in Russia. The text itself, how pretentious, so meaningless, as would suggest the course of action that the commander of the 1812th Corps of the Great Army chose for himself in the 12 campaign.
“The monarch’s constant desire to take care of the welfare of his subjects prompted him to order me and you to fight for the common goal with other powers. These powers are our allies, we fight along with them, but not for them. We fight for ourselves. This elected corps, entrusted entirely and exclusively to our generals, remains inseparable, I guarantee you, your commander in chief.
The best of all military virtues - devotion to the sovereign and homeland - can be experienced by unconditional self-sacrifice in the name of what, according to the circumstances of the time, the monarch considers the best to take. We can compete with all nations in courage, courage, endurance and endurance in any struggle. Even where the treachery of the Allies inflicted severe wounds on us, we acted with dignity and restored our strength. In this commitment, "we have always surpassed all our contemporaries to the emperor and the fatherland, and even in misfortune inspired them with respect."
The best of all military virtues - devotion to the sovereign and homeland - can be experienced by unconditional self-sacrifice in the name of what, according to the circumstances of the time, the monarch considers the best to take. We can compete with all nations in courage, courage, endurance and endurance in any struggle. Even where the treachery of the Allies inflicted severe wounds on us, we acted with dignity and restored our strength. In this commitment, "we have always surpassed all our contemporaries to the emperor and the fatherland, and even in misfortune inspired them with respect."
Well, the Russians that year did not expect at all on their land such conquerors as the Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs and other subjects of the Habsburgs. As, however, did not expect the Prussians and the Saxons, and many others ...
... But, it seems, they were waiting in Paris
The troops of Schwarzenberg, one of the few who preserved the combat effectiveness of the formations of the former Great Army, had to cover Warsaw when the Russians nevertheless decided to continue the campaign against Napoleon. Prince’s friend, General Poniatowski, received time to form fresh Polish units, and Schwarzenberg, taking the corps near Krakow, surrendered the command to General Frimon and departed for Paris.
Prince Karl-Philippe really wanted to persuade Napoleon to peace, but in the end everything turned upside down and after the Pleiswitz truce, Austria was already an enemy of France. The Allied monarchs did not dare to appoint the commander in chief of one of the Russian generals, they looked across the ocean, from where they wrote out General Moreau, the old enemy and Schwarzenberg and Napoleon.
However, Moreau fell near Dresden from the French core, and quite unexpectedly, the post of commander in chief went to Schwarzenberg. However, initially he headed only the largest of the allied armies - the Bohemian, which later became the Main.
At the same time, the prince received seniority over the Prussian general Blucher, and over the Russians Barclay and Bennigsen, and even over the Swedish crown prince, former Napoleonic marshal Bernadotte. But Schwarzenberg lost to Napoleon his very first battle as commander.
Under Dresden, where Moreau fell, Schwarzenberg was unable to oppose the fire of French batteries with anything but massive, but extremely sluggish and fragmented attacks by infantry and cavalry. After the defeat, the Bohemian army retreated to Bohemia along the passes of the Ore Mountains, but the attempt to circumvent it from the flank ended for the French by defeating the detachment of General Vandamm near Kulm.
After this, Napoleon chose not to push Schwarzenberg’s army, trying to maneuver it out of the narrow mountain defile. All the efforts of the emperor were turned to the Silesian army of Blucher, who deftly departed from him, but regularly snarled against individual French corps. As a result, Blucher and the Russian Tsar Alexander eventually pushed out of the Ore Mountains of Schwarzenberg.
The campaign of 1813 ended with the grand Battle of the Peoples near Leipzig, for which Schwarzenberg worked out a very intricate plan to circumvent the French positions, but in the end everything was decided by a series of grandiose clashes, and after the approach of all the allied armies - a heavy retreat of the French. During it, in the waters of Elster, an old friend of Schwarzenberg - Jozef Poniatowski, who had just received a marshal's baton from Napoleon, died.
The next campaign (1814), the prince and Generalissimo Schwarzenberg actually conducted in the same spirit as the previous one, but this did not deprive him of the glory of the winner of Napoleon. Although he won, by and large, only one battle - at Arcy-sur-Ob. When the Allies entered Paris, the Commander-in-Chief was in the background after the august persons.
By the end of the wars with Napoleon, Schwarzenberg was still quite young, but not too healthy. He still managed to lead the Hofkrigsrat (Higher Military Council of Austria), but soon received a stroke, and after he visited Dresden, Kulm and Leipzig, he died. The monument to Generalissimo in Vienna is certainly beautiful and elegant, but still slightly remote from the center of the capital and other monuments of military glory.
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