Introduction (By CoV Editor Fred Schachter): Welcome back! The first part of this article series provided an overview of the 1805-1812 Napoleonic Wars period. This episode sets the historical stage for commencement of GMT’s P-500 offered Congress of Vienna Game.
This article Part 2 of 4 resumes the exciting narrative with Napoleon’s remarkable comeback after his disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia. Will he triumph or is the emperor’s journey to Elba assured?
Here’s a map depicting, in highly stylized form, the historical military situation for a game of Congress of Vienna’s commencement.
Note: If you would like to view any of the above or below images in a larger size, you can click on the image and it will point you to the full image file.
March-April 1813
On March 16, Russian forces entered Berlin. This resulted in Frederick William III of Prussia, supported by his Prime Minister Handerberg, to fully join the Coalition. The newly declared allies pledged to include Poland within the Russian empire, incorporate Saxony as part of Prussia, as well as request British subsidies to rearm their armies.
The Russian commander-in-chief, the aged Kutuzov (a hero of the recent destruction of France’s Grande Armée) and other Russian generals such as Aleyechev, did not want to become deeply embroiled in a Central European war as they distrusted the diplomatic motivations of Austria and Britain. However, their voices were muted in the Tsar’s ears, for with Napoleon absent in Paris, Eugene decided to retire behind the Elbe River leaving Prussia, Pomerania, Saxony, Poland and Silesia open to Russian/Prussian ambitions.
In Spain, French forces surpassed 200,000 troops; but they were in a difficult position due to the increase of Allied forces directly confronting them and to guerrilla activity in their rear. In areas under French control, their presence was limited to some scattered garrisons and the two main French armies: the Armée de Espagne facing Wellington’s army; and the Armée de la Méditerranée of Marshal Suchet opposing primarily Spanish with some English forces in southern Spain. This resulted in the French trying to maintain a long front line from Leon to Valencia. This dispersion made them vulnerable to a concentrated assault. The French high command considered a withdrawal to the Ebro River line (keeping in Spain only the space of Catalonia on the CoV map) but related political risks at the beginning of 1813 discouraged executing such a drastic repositioning.
At the beginning of April 1813, the French withdrawal in Central Europe caused the Allies to acquire a false sense of security as they were unaware of the full magnitude of a new and powerful French army’s gathering. The Allies continued their advance and Saxony was completely overrun.
At that time, the British pledged to pay generous subsidies to Prussia and Russia, despite a legislated limit imposed upon the British treasury that financed such largesse. For Britain’s wealth was increasingly strained by other priorities: the war in Spain, the war against the United States; funds to Sweden (in the game represented by the Norway and entry of Sweden into War Issues) as well as the defense of Sicily (in the game portrayed as the Naples Issue). Vansittart, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was forced to brutally increase tariffs and other taxes. Fortunately, the upper chamber dominated by the Count of Eldon supported these efforts for continuation of the war. Soon, British negotiators realized that for their nation to influence the final situation in Europe; it was necessary to seize territory from France through achieving battlefield success. This would influence their future plans.
In newly-freed Prussia, compulsory recruitment was used to rebuild the Prussian army. This did cause resentment. However, ruling class support for the liberation of Germany was much more widespread, such as that of the former Prime Minister Stein, or between the military’s Blücher and Scharnhorst. At the end of April, the French Armée de l’Elbe under Eugene, with 60,000 troops, was near Hanover when the new Grande Armée with 140,000 arrived on the border of Bavaria under the direct command of Napoleon and the superb mastermind of marshal Berthier as his invaluable chief of staff.
This new and formidable force came into being through the emperor’s leadership, organizational skills, capacity for work and experienced subordinates, like Gaudin: his minister of economy, whose efforts would support French forces expanding to more than 600,000 men under arms by end of 1813’s summer. Despite this impressive effort, there were serious limitations vexing France: lack of experienced officers, youth with inexperience among a large part of the new recruits, limited support units (sappers, pontoon bridges, supply, medical services …), and especially the poor quality and quantity of cavalry.
These circumstances meant that during the spring campaign of 1813 the French army could not conduct an adequate pursuit of a defeated foe and its speed in military operations was lower than during previous campaigns. However, the Allies had their own problems: first of all, Russia’s armies had suffered high attrition during the previous year’s campaign and, to reconstitute them, it was necessary to incorporate newly recruited soldiers into their ranks. Furthermore, after Kutuzov‘s death on April 28, Wittgenstein became supreme commander of Russia’s forces, although the Tsar’s interference imposed an inefficient and complex command structure upon him. Metternich “slowly and reluctantly” began to prepare Austria for war by initiating a mobilization of Austria’s army and raising new units for it through recruitment.
All these considerations determined that during the campaign of 1813 massive armies would clash, but these would contain formations with low tactical skill and experience. Additionally, the Allies would adopt a strategy of defeating Napoleon’s subordinates, rather than directly battlefield confront the still feared emperor himself, an approach that from its beginning was one which Napoleon’s close collaborators Caulaincourt and Fouché feared.
Turn 2: May 1813
Napoleon ordered the advance of the Armée de l’Elbe towards Berlin and his own Grande Armée into Saxony, reaching Leipzig on May 1 where they clashed with the main Allied army (Army of Silesia). The French advance began with Napoleon displaying the energy and brilliance of old and despite his lack of cavalry, limited artillery and inexperience of his new recruits, the French obtained a resounding and albeit costly victory at Lützen on May 2.
Wittgenstein was the nominal Allied commander-in-chief for this engagement, but with the Tsar “directing” the battle; orders were confused, verbal, and sometimes contradictory. The Prussian contingent shined due to outstanding performances by both Yorck and Blücher, due to their talented chief of staff, Scharnhorst. On the French side, the performance of Eugene and Ney were remarkable. Napoleon’s resurgent military skills allowed concentrating in two days almost 200,000 men while the Allies only managed to gather 80,000. However, lack of cavalry prevented the French from properly pursuing the defeated Allies who retreated in good order to the east. The losses approached 20,000 men on each side. After the battle of Lützen; Napoleon sent Eugene to Italy to lead the Armée de Italie to face Austria on that front in the event of a potential declaration of war.
Despite lack of an effective cavalry pursuit, the French advance continued quickly, reaching Dresden (the capital of Saxony) where the small Saxon army was integrated into the Grande Armée. The Allies, as Napoleon had foreseen, began to manifest internal dissensions; both Wittgenstein and the Prussians feared the possibility of a French advance towards Berlin (the space of Prussia in the game) which was defended only by a weak Prussian corps commanded by von Bülow. However, the Tsar, Barclay de Tolly and Arkachev wanted to safeguard their line of communications with Russia through Silesia and Poland.
The Allies decided to end their retreat and entrenched 100,000 men and 600 guns in Bautzen, a small town between Silesia and Saxony very close to the Bohemian border. Despite his lack of cavalry Napoleon saw an opportunity to destroy this Allied army. To accomplish this, the main French army of 120,000 men would fix the Allied positions, while another 80,000 men surrounded it by attacking their left flank from the north, preventing an Allied withdrawal to Poland and Russia. However, the emperor’s choice to lead this risky strategic maneuver fell to Marshal Ney, a brave general with limited capabilities to succeed in such a feat. Davout or Soult would have been much more suited to accomplish this task; but the experienced and talented Davout was in Hamburg (CoV’s Hanover space) and the militarily skillful Soult was leading the Grande Armée’s main frontal attack.
The battle of Bautzen began on May 20; Napoleon‘s perfect approach caused the Tsar to not notice French intentions. When Grande Armée forces attacked the Army of Silesia’s positions, the Allies were close to running out of reserves… it was time to spring Napoleon’s trap. Yet Ney, instead of cutting the Allies’ line of retreat, suffered delays and failed to take the proper direction for his attack against the Army of Silesia. This allowed that Allied Army to escape by a hair and with damaged reputation: for they had suffered a second defeat in just three weeks.
Meanwhile, to the north, the Army of the Elbe pushed the Allied Northern Army back, occupying the key city of Hamburg from irregular Cossacks and a German Freikorps advance guard. This additional bad news further compounded the funk the Allies were increasingly finding themselves in.
Wittgenstein submitted his resignation as commander in chief. He was fed up with the Tsar’s meddling. Barclay was named his successor. The dejected Allied army retreated to Silesia and any hope that Austria could be persuaded to join the Coalition evaporated. In addition, Denmark joined Napoleon as did most smaller German states, including Bavaria and Saxony. (These would be French Issue wins in CoV). Nevertheless, rapid and continuous French advances produced a large number of Grande Armée casualties due to sickness and exhaustion from its less experienced and trained troops.
At the same time these events were happening in Central Europe, the Spanish front exploded into action when Wellington marched with 125,000 men (55,000 British, 30,000 Portuguese, and 40,000 Spaniards of the Spanish general Castaños) from the north of Portugal, through Leon, flanking the French and forcing them into a continuous withdrawal.
In the War of 1812, due to the difficulties poor roads imposed on land movement, control of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River was crucial. During May 1813, the construction of a U.S. flotilla allowed an amphibious force to place the British position in Upper Canada on the verge of collapse. However, British forces organized a counter-offensive in June. Although the result was a tactical draw; the battle was a strategic victory for the British as the Americans withdrew instead of continuing their advance in Upper Canada. At this time, the Six Indian Nations allied themselves with the British, which in turn led to a general U.S. withdrawal as the American Command mistakenly believed they were outnumbered in men and armaments.
In contrast with the all too frequently incompetent U.S. militia; the Canadian militia had an excellent record of performance. Contributing to this were that French Canadians considered the anti-Catholic position of most Americans detestable, while loyalists, who fought for the British Crown during the War of Independence, strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of their new homeland. Furthermore, in Newfoundland and Halifax (a major British base), the governor, Sir John Sherbrooke, placed his militias into a state of readiness that allowed them to reject American incursions and later during August 1814 to take the war to their foes by occupying the border territory of Maine, an occupation which would endure until the war’s end.
On the distant frontier of Ohio in May 1813, the British and their native ally Tecumseh besieged Fort Meigs. American reinforcements arriving during the siege were defeated by the natives, but the fort continued to resist. The native contingent, tired of what was proving to be a long drawn-out campaign, finally began to disperse, compelling a British return to Upper Canada and resulting in a strategic victory for the United States.
Turn 3: June 1813
On June 4, through Austrian mediation, both the Tsar and Napoleon accepted an Armistice and a Peace Congress was held in Prague during July. Napoleon accepted the Armistice for three reasons: the first in recognizing his evident inferiority in cavalry and second to ameliorate the increasingly hostile attitude of Austria. Napoleon hoped that during a cease-fire he could reach an agreement with Austria, enhance the quality and quantity of his cavalry, and thirdly take advantage of tensions between Prussia and Russia. If diplomatic efforts with Austria failed and they joined the Allies; he hoped to defeat them separately by taking advantage of the Grande Armées central position.
When the British Government learned of the Armistice’s signing, it was aghast and immediately began negotiations to subvert it. On June 14, a series of agreements were signed between Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, which served to establish and strengthen a united Coalition against Napoleon. Britain agreed to grant Prussia subsidies so it would maintain in the field against France a force of at least 80,000 men and Russia to have 160,000 men under arms.
At the beginning of June, in Spain, an Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese force seized Burgos (space of Castile in CoV) forcing Joseph Bonaparte’s Army to retreat to a defensive position behind the Ebro River (also within the space of Castile in CoV). This Allied advance led to the battle of Vitoria (June 21) where the scattered and poorly-run Armée de Espagne of Joseph Bonaparte with its 75,000 troops and more than 150 guns was decisively defeated by Wellington’s 100,000 Army consisting of 55,000 British, 25,000 Portuguese , 20,000 Spaniards and 90 guns.
Wellington took advantage of his considerable numerical superiority and attacked the French defensive position from the south with Hill and Morillo; from the west with units under his direct command; and finally from the north, with a force directed by Graham that cut the French line of retreat. Joseph’s devastated and routed Army had to abandon all its artillery, supply train, treasure, personal belongings of the king and a horde of booty obtained during his occupation of Spain. The latter led many Allied soldiers into temptation, they halted pursuit of their defeated foes to plunder those riches; and as a result Wellington failed to completely annihilate the French.
After long preparation, the British Army of Sicily finally swung into action by attempting amphibious landings against Suchet’s French Army of the Mediterranean, who were contending with the largely Spanish Eastern Army slowly advancing northward against them. That seaborne attack failed and the British were compelled to withdraw from whence they came: back to Sicily to future confront the Army of Naples
With approval of the Armistice, the Allies began to negotiate among themselves and Austria joined those meetings. Metternich discussed with the Tsar and the Russian Chancellor Nesselrode the concessions that Napoleon should make to reach a peace agreement acceptable for everyone; this despite the Tsar’s fervent desire to continue the war as soon as the Armistice concluded.
On June 26, Napoleon and Metternich had a long interview in Dresden; with the emperor doing his personable utmost to persuade the Austrian chancellor that after recent French victories, he saw no reason to give territory to the Allies. However, Metternich considered those very concessions vital to forging a long-term general peace agreement. During this bi-lateral discussion, the interests of Britain were not taken into account, since key issues to their interests were neither discussed nor presented: such as Holland, the French removal from Spain, the return of Naples to its legitimate sovereigns, the restitution of Hanover to British hands, or free sea trade (a space on the Pax Britannica track in CoV). They also agreed to extend the Armistice until August 10.
On June 27, 1813, independent of the meeting in Dresden the day before, the Reichenbach Convention was signed between Prussia, Russia and Austria, represented respectively by Frederick William III, Tsar Alexander and Count Stadion. Under the terms of this momentous accord, Austria agreed to declare war on Napoleon if he rejected the Allied-offered conditions for overall peace.
This concludes Article Part Two, Napoleon has remarkably reconstituted the Grande Armée which has smashed its way back into Central Europe winning an impressive and stunning series of victories against his foes. What will happen next? Will France be able to resurrect its European hegemony? Those questions will be answered by Article Part Three: “Europe Aflame (July-December 1813)”.
Footnotes
[1] Bold type presents the historical characters that appear in the Event card deck and Leader cards. Bold italic type is used to portray the Issues, represented by cardstock counters, that are moved, debated and resolved in the Diplomacy and Decision segments during the game’s Government Phase. All the leaders that appear in CoV have a brief biography in the historical description of the Event cards. These can be viewed in an upcoming InsideGMT article series: “Meet the Statesmen of Congress of Vienna”.
Author: Frank Esparrago
I’ve been to the military museum in Vitoria which has a decent selection of Joseph’s personal possessions, among the booty from the battle.