Deployments Archduke Charles hoped that April 19 would bring great success. His orders for that morning were for the center of his army to attack Davout to trap the French III Corps against the Danube. By a stroke of luck Charles obtained a copy of Davout's marching orders for the 19th. By 5:00 AM, the Austrian commander issued the marching orders for the day from his headquarters in
Rohr in Niederbayern. Charles directed three major columns to intercept the French. He sent the right and center columns northeast toward
Langquaid. From there, the right column would pass near
Eckmühl (Eggmühl) and turn north for Regensburg, where it would rendezvous with
General-Major Peter von Vécsey's II
Armeekorps brigade. The center column would go left in the direction of Dünzling. Charles instructed the left column to march via Bachel,
Hausen,
Teugn, and
Bad Abbach. On the right marched the Prince of Liechtenstein with the three heavy cavalry brigades of his I
Reserve-Armeekorps. Attached to this command was
General-Major Andreas Schneller's II
Reserve-Armeekorps cuirassier brigade and
Feldmarschall-Leutnant Karl Friedrich von Lindenau's V
Armeekorps infantry division. In the center,
Feldmarschall-Leutnant Prince Franz Seraph of Rosenberg-Orsini led the IV
Armeekorps, followed by
General-Major Prince Victor Rohan's division-sized 13,904-man grenadier brigade belonging to the I
Reserve-Armeekorps. On the left, Hohenzollern advanced with his III
Armeekorps, minus two detachments of about 7,000 troops. Altogether, the Archduke committed 65,000 soldiers to destroy the French III Corps. Liechtenstein's right column moved north on the main road to
Regensburg. Rosenberg advanced toward the hamlet of Dünzling, while Hohenzollern's proposed route went through the villages of Haugen and
Saal an der Donau. At Saal, the Feking stream emptied into the Danube, creating a potential bottleneck. If the Austrians held the Saal defile, Davout's escape route would be cut off. North of the Danube, Bellegarde's I
Armeekorps was still distant. Kollowrat's II
Armeekorps assembled on the Danube's north bank, opposite Regensburg, which was defended by a small French garrison. South of III
Armeekorps, Archduke Louis' V
Armeekorps, minus Lindenau's division, had orders to contain Marshal
François Joseph Lefebvre's Bavarian VII Corps near
Abensberg. Kienmayer's II
Reserve-Armeekorps, minus its cuirassier brigade, remained at
Pfeffenhausen in support of Louis. Hiller's VI
Armeekorps was on the extreme left wing. Hiller posted Major Scheibler and 1,200 troops at
Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm to look out for Masséna's forces. At the beginning of the war,
Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz Jellacic's division was detached from Hiller to capture
Munich and provide a link between Bavaria and the
Tyrol. Hiller ordered Jellacic to rejoin him on April 18, but the latter never arrived because Charles ordered him back to Munich. Jellacic's luckless command would continue its wanderings until being smashed at the
Battle of Sankt Michael on May 25. Archduke Charles ordered Hohenzollern to detach troops in order to provide a link between the III and V
Armeekorps. Hohenzollern obeyed, sending
General-Major Ludwig Thierry's brigade on this assignment, then he erred in sending a second 1,000-man detachment under
General-Major Josef Pfanzelter to link III
Armeekorps and Thierry. After the two detachments, only 18,000 troops remained to carry out the III
Armeekorps main mission. Davout sent the III Corps trains along the river road from Regensburg to
Abensberg. Friant's 2nd Division, La Sablonnière's 3rd Division, and
Général de Division Raymond-Gaspard de Bonardi de Saint-Sulpice's 2nd Heavy Cavalry Division protected the wagon train. Flank protection was provided by
Général de Division Charles Antoine Morand's 1st Division, Saint-Hilaire's 4th Division, and
Général de Division Louis-Pierre Montbrun's Light Cavalry Division. The corps commander also directed one battalion to make a night march in order to secure the all-important Saal defile. Regensburg was defended by Colonel Louis Coutard's 2,000-strong 65th Line Infantry Regiment.
Dünzling, Arnhofen, and other clashes Johann Liechtenstein's blow on the right flank hit only air, as no French troops stood between him and Regensburg. Near Dünzling and Schneidert, Rosenberg bumped into Montbrun's cavalry, reinforced by two infantry battalions. With less than 4,000 troops, Montbrun conducted a brilliant delaying action against IV
Armeekorps all day, using the wooded terrain to good advantage. Rosenberg's corps was weakened early in the campaign by the detachment of
Feldmarschall-Leutnant Joseph von Dedovich's division to besiege
Passau. On April 19 Rosenberg marshaled 16 infantry battalions and 15 cavalry squadrons. At 9:00 am near Schneidert, three kilometers east of Haugen,
General-Major Karl Wilhelm von Stutterheim's IV
Armeekorps advance guard brigade brushed against the 12th and 21st Line Infantry of Gudin's division as they marched west. Continuing to the northeast, Rosenberg began to "fritter away" forces to guard his flanks and rear. He left one battalion and one squadron with the grenadiers, one battalion and four squadrons to hold Schneidert, five battalions to guard his line of march, and one battalion to hold a hill at Moosholzen. After holding the Austrians near Moosholzen and Dünzling until evening, Montbrun fell back northwest to Peising near Abbach. Montbrun reported 233 total casualties while inflicting much heavier losses on his opponents. The Austrians lost 116 killed, 452 wounded, 357 captured, and 159 missing, for a total of 1,084. As the link between Archduke Louis and Hohenzollern, Thierry had his reinforced brigade on the road at 6:00 am. When he reached high ground near Abensberg, he saw Bavarian troops massing nearby and soon became embroiled in a skirmish with them near the village of Arnhofen, northeast of Abensberg. In this contest, the Bavarian light cavalry mauled Thierry's four squadrons of attached dragoons. Elements of
Crown Prince Louis' 1st Bavarian Division and General
Karl Philipp von Wrede's 2nd Bavarian Division were involved. The Bavarians admitted 13 killed, 201 wounded, and 13 captured out of 7,600 troops engaged while claiming to have captured one cannon and 400 Austrian prisoners. Thierry withdrew his brigade southeast to Offenstetten. At Regensburg, the 65th Regiment evacuated the fortified bridgehead on the north bank of the Danube and withdrew into the suburb of Stadt-am-Hof. Under an artillery barrage, Kollowrat launched an assault against the town which burst through a gate and into the streets. However, the French defenders ambushed the Austrian column and drove it out of the suburb. After an all-day fight, the French held Stadt-am-Hof and Regensberg, but ran dangerously low on small-arms ammunition. Coutard begged Davout for a resupply but it would never arrive. A hastily organized convoy was captured by Austrian cavalry the following morning. Far to the southwest at
Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, General
Nicolas Oudinot fell on Scheibler's isolated VI
Armeekorps detachment with the leading formations of his II Corps. Attacking with an infantry division and
Pierre Colbert's cavalry brigade, the French routed the Austrians and took 200 prisoners.
Teugn and Hausen Sometime after 9:00 am, Saint-Hilaire's advance elements blundered into the III
Armeekorps marching column at Hausen.
Feldmarschall-Leutnant Vukassovich quickly deployed two battalions of light infantry, the
Peterwardeiner Grenz and the
Archduke Charles Legion, and flushed the French from the village, chasing them north. By the time the French commanders reacted had Vukassovich installed Moritz Liechtenstein's brigade on a wooded ridge approximately halfway between Hausen and Teugn. (Half of Pfanzelter's brigade of Vukassovich was detached.) He was joined there by
Feldmarschall-Leutnant Lusignan and the brigade of
General-Major Nikolaus Kayser. (Lusignan's other brigade, Thierry's, was detached to the left.) (right) of a
line infantry regiment To gain time for Saint-Hilaire's division to deploy out of the marching column, Davout hurled the 2,000 troops of the 3rd Line Infantry Regiment at Vukassovich and Lusignan's 6,000 soldiers and 12 cannon. The entire 3rd Line deployed into a skirmish formation and swarmed uphill. Its attack failed to dislodge the Austrians, but it allowed time for the
57th Line Infantry Regiment (called "the Terrible") to organize a second assault. The 57th Line's charge carried the first ridge but stalled before a second ridge. In the teeth of intense musketry and cannon fire, the highly trained French infantry deployed into line and returned fire. By this time, the 3rd Line had reformed behind the 57th and took position on its right. Further to the right, the 10th Light Infantry surged forward against the Austrian left flank, where they forced an Austrian battery to retire to the rear. The new attack faltered and fell back to the first ridge when it ran into a strong position on the second ridge. By this time, both sides had received reinforcements. On the French side, the last two units of Saint-Hilaire's division, the 72nd and 105th Line Infantry Regiments, deployed near Teugn. For the Austrians,
General-Major Alois Liechtenstein brought up the first brigade of
Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz Xaver Saint-Julien's division. Hohenzollern launched a frontal attack on the 57th Line. At the same time he sent half of Alois Liechtenstein's brigade through the woods to envelop the French left flank. Davout's
chief of staff,
Général de Division Jean Dominique Compans, alertly sent the 72nd Line to stop the flanking move. The French caught the Austrians just as they began to deploy from column into line and hustled them back into the trees. Lusignan, Saint-Julien, and Alois Liechtenstein called for another effort. One of Vukassovich's hussar regiments swept out of the woods, heading for the 57th Line's flank. The left battalion of the 57th formed a square and drove off the horsemen. With their generals displaying front-line leadership, the Austrian attack roared out of the woods and fell on the French troops lining the first ridge. The push collapsed in the face of converging musketry from the defenders' concave line and a thrust against its left flank by the 3rd Line. Alois Liechtenstein bravely led the
Würzburg Infantry Regiment No. 23 in another charge, this time against one French flank. This thrust finally succeeded in shoving the French off the first ridge, though Liechtenstein fell badly wounded. A lull ensued in which Davout personally rallied Saint-Hilaire's exhausted survivors. Davout's artillery arrived about 3:00 pm, having been delayed by a staff blunder. Backed by artillery support for the first time, the tired French infantry retook the first ridge. An artillery colonel scouted the woods on the Austrian right flank and found a promising position to post his guns. When he reported his discovery to Saint-Hilaire, the two improvised a new attack. Saint-Hilaire waved his men forward in a new frontal attack while a horse artillery battery slipped into position unnoticed by the Austrians. The advance guard of Friant's division soon appeared, aiming for the Austrian right flank. Suddenly, the French unmasked their hidden battery, opening a destructive enfilade fire. The shocked Austrians rapidly lost ground. About this time, the last of Saint-Julien's brigades under General Major Josef Bieber put in an appearance. A counterattack by one of Bieber's regiments halted the French pursuit, though Moritz Liechtenstein was wounded. At 5:00 pm a violent thunderstorm swept across the area, ending the battle. ==Results==