Situation after Piave River On 8 May 1809, the
Viceroy of Italy,
Eugène de Beauharnais and his Franco-Italian army defeated
General der Kavallerie Archduke John of Austria at the
Battle of Piave River. After the battle, John made the decision to split his army into two parts. He took the troops of
Feldmarschall-Leutnants Albert Gyulai and
Johann Frimont northeast to
Villach and sent Ignaz Gyulai and the IX Armeekorps east toward
Ljubljana (Laibach). This dispersal of the available Austrian military units made Eugène's subsequent invasion of Inner Austria considerably easier. John's purpose in sending Ignaz Gyulai to
Carniola was to raise the Croatian Feudal Ban, which Gyulai in his capacity as the
Ban of Croatia, had the authority to call. On 15 May, the troops reporting to Archduke John were distributed as follows. •
General der Kavallerie Archduke John of Austria at Tarvisio • Feldmarschall-Leutnant Albert Gyulai (8,340, 20 guns)
at Tarvisio • Feldmarschall-Leutnant
Johann Maria Philipp Frimont (13,060, 22 guns)
at Villach • Feldmarschall-Leutnant
Franz Jellacic (10,200, 16 guns)
at Radstadt. Bowden & Tarbox reported that Jellacic was at Salzburg on 15 May, but Petre wrote that he evacuated it on 29 April and moved south to Radstadt. • Feldmarschall-Leutnant
Johann Gabriel Chasteler de Courcelles (17,460, 17 guns)
in Tyrol • Feldmarschall-Leutnant
Ignaz Gyulai (14,880, 26 guns)
at Kranj • General-Major Andreas Stoichevich (8,100, 14 guns)
in Dalmatia On the left flank, Eugène retained the 25,000 soldiers from the corps of
Generals of Division Paul Grenier and
Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, the Royal Italian Guard, and the cavalry of Generals of Division
Emmanuel Grouchy and Louis-Michel Sahuc. On the right flank, General of Division
Jacques MacDonald led two infantry divisions and General of Division Charles Randon de Pully's cavalry, altogether 14,000 troops. General of Division Jean-Baptiste Rusca commanded a flank guard that marched on Eugène's left.
Operations Eugène captured two border forts and defeated Albert Gyulai at the
Battle of Tarvis from 15 to 18 May. Archduke John retreated from Villach toward Graz, where he arrived on 24 May. The next day, Grenier's two divisions crushed Feldmarschall-Leutnant
Franz Jellacic's division in the
Battle of Sankt Michael. Only 2,000 of Jellacic's troops managed to join John at Graz. The rest were killed or captured. On 26 May, Eugène reached
Bruck an der Mur and established contact with Napoleon's main army which had occupied
Vienna on 13 May. (Castle Hill) MacDonald occupied Ljubljana on 23 May, capturing 7,000 muskets, 71 artillery pieces, and large supplies of food and munitions. Another French column occupied
Trieste, seizing 22,000 British-supplied muskets intended for the use of the Hungarian and Croatian militia. Ordered to move closer to Eugène, MacDonald marched northeast to
Maribor (Marburg an der Drau) where he met Grouchy and a cavalry-infantry force. The two then moved north to Graz, arriving on 29 May. As MacDonald and Grouchy approached Graz, Archduke John withdrew to
Körmend in Hungary, leaving a garrison on the Graz Schlossberg (castle hill). At this time Ignaz Gyulai's corps lay at
Zagreb (Agram) while
Archduke Joseph, Palatine of Hungary collected about 10,000 Hungarian
Insurrections militia at
Győr (Raab). MacDonald came to an understanding with Graz's Austrian commander. According to the terms, the Austrians evacuated Graz and pulled back into the citadel, allowing the French to occupy the city. If the French wished to attack the fortress, they would do so from outside the city. On the city side of the fortress, a truce prevailed. In a series of clashes in mid-May, Marmont's XI Corps fought its way north in the
Dalmatian Campaign, capturing Stoichevich and mauling his command. The XI Corps reached
Fiume on 28 May and Ljubljana on 3 June. At the latter place, Marmont paused because Gyulai's force was located to the east at Zagreb while Chasteler's force from the Tyrol was at large to the north. The survivors of Stoichevich's column joined Gyulai at Zagreb. Fearful that Chasteler and Gyulai would combine with Archduke John, Eugène ordered a concentration so that he might defeat John before the other two columns could arrive. Accordingly, he drew together forces under Grenier, Baraguey d'Hilliers, and Grouchy. MacDonald left Broussier's division to continue the siege of Graz and hurried to join Eugène. Aware that Eugène's forces were becoming a danger, Archduke John fell back to the northeast toward Győr to join Archduke Joseph's Hungarian levies. Retreating from the Tyrol with 4,000 to 5,000 troops, Chasteler appeared at
Klagenfurt on 9 June. After being repulsed by Rusca, Chasteler slipped past the French and continued on to Maribor. Napoleon ordered Marmont to march to Graz in case Gyulai and Chasteler moved against Broussier. Chasteler briefly joined Gyulai before separating again in a futile effort to catch up with John's army. On 14 June, Eugène defeated Archduke John's army at the
Battle of Raab. John retreated to
Komárno on the north bank of the Danube. Covered by Eugène's army, General of Division
Jacques Lauriston besieged the fortress of Győr and captured it on 23 June. ==Battle==