Right: Napoleon takes the surrender of General Mack and the Austrians at Ulm on October 20, 1805. Medium: oil on canvas. Source: Wikipedia. The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain". This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. Click to enlarge.

The year of 1805 marked a critical moment in European history with the formation of the Third Coalition, comprising the United Kingdom, the Austrian Empire, Sweden, and the Russian Empire, to overthrow the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's march towards European domination. The Hungarian General Karl Mack von Leiberich was given the responsibility of leading the Austrian army - 72,000 strong - against the French threat, but the outcome was far from what was expected. Mack, confident with his army's superiority, invaded Bavaria in a bid to protect the Alps from the French. However, his misjudgment, coupled with Napoleon's tactical genius, culminated in the famous Battle of Ulm on 16–19 October 1805, which marked a turning point in European history.

Napoleon's Grande Armée was stationed at Boulogne with over 200,000 troops prepared to invade England. The Grande Armee reached the Rhine River by late September. With a colossal army at his disposal, Napoleon crossed the Rhine on 24 September 1805 intending to launch an attack on Austria. Mack, receiving reports about Napoleon's plan, decided to change his front, positioning his left at Ulm and his right at Rain, but the French forces continued to cross the Danube at numerous points, leaving Mack's army bewildered and disarrayed. "This speedy advance once again revealed a key feature of Napoleon's character: his willingness to accept long-term political risks for immediate strategic and operational advantages." (Mikaberidze 2020, 200)

The Franco-Austrian conflict intensified on 8 October when Joachim Murat's Cavalry Corps and Jean Lannes' V Corps challenged Franz Auffenberg's division at the Battle of Wertingen, leaving the Austrian forces cut to pieces. The following day, Mack engaged his troops at the Battle of Günzburg in an attempt to cross the Danube and move north, but his army was crushed by Jean-Pierre Firmin Malher's division of Michel Ney's VI Corps. Meanwhile, Auguste Marmont's II Corps swept through Augsburg, leaving Mack's troops blocked by Pierre Dupont de l'Etang's VI Corps division.

Despite being surrounded by the French army, Mack attempted a breakout towards the north on 11 October, but his army was blocked by French forces at the Battle of Haslach-Jungingen. Napoleon's strategy of spreading his corps out in a wide net proved to be an insuperable task for Mack's army to overcome. Initially, Nicolas Soult's IV Corps secured the surrender of 4,600 Austrians at Memmingen before turning east to cut Mack off from Tyrol, whilst Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte's I Corps and Louis Nicolas Davout's III Corps moved towards Munich. Meanwhile, Murat, Ney, Lannes, and the Imperial Guard all gradually closed in on Ulm.

The events that followed saw the Austrian forces being overwhelmed in a series of battles at Langenau, Herbrechtingen, Nördlingen, and Neresheim. The corps of Franz von Werneck was also defeated in actions against Murat's cavalry in the south, whilst Johann Sigismund Riesch's small corps met a similar fate at the Battle of Elchingen, leading the Austrian forces to scattered around the region. Mack, by now bereft of all alternatives, was surrounded by Napoleon's Grande Armée at Ulm by 16 October 1805. On 19-20 October, Mack surrendered with "some 23,500 men and sixty-five pieces of artillery," placing the French army in an elevated position of power in Europe. (Mikaberidze 2020, 202)

Napoleon had achieved a momentous victory primarily through military strategies that exploited and outmaneuvered his opponents. His genius lay in his ability to read and comprehend his opponent's moves, adapting his strategy accordingly to neutralize and counter them. The Battle of Ulm is an exemplar of his military charisma, expertise, and innovation, which played a vital role in crafting his meteoric rise to power. Napoleon systematically and strategically dismantled Karl Mack von Leiberich's army, Owing to his military prowess, Napoleon succeeded in neutralizing a more significant portion of the Austrian forces than he had anticipated "The victory at Ulm was a remarkable success. In less than two months Napoleon had marched some 200,000 men from the Atlantic coast into Bavaria and acheived his major objective of annilhilating the enemy army without even needing to fight a major battle. It was this success, achieved at the operational level rather than the tactical, that led his men to joke that Napoleon had found a new way to make war: with their legs rather than their arms." (Mikaberidze 2020, 202)

The sheer brilliance of Napoleon's Grande Armée and his military tactics on the battlefield against the Austrians was instrumental in securing a decisive victory for the French Empire, thereby solidifying its hold on a significant portion of Europe. The Battle of Ulm serves as a testimony to Napoleon's military genius and exceptional strategic capabilities, which enabled him to outwit and outmaneuver his opponents.

Bibliography

Mikaberidze, Alexander. The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.