Battle of Wertingen

Battle of Wertingen

Bas-relief of the battle from the Column of the Grande Armée

Date	8 October 1805
Location	Wertingen, present-day Germany
Result	French victory

Belligerents

First French Empire

Holy Roman Empire

Commanders and leaders

Units involved

V Corps

Auffenberg's Corps

Strength

12,000

5,500

Casualties and losses

200+ killed or wounded

400 killed or wounded,
2,900 captured

In the Battle of Wertingen (8 October 1805) Imperial French forces led by Marshals Joachim Murat and Jean Lannes attacked a small Austrian corps commanded by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz Xaver von Auffenberg. This action, the first battle of the Ulm Campaign, resulted in a clear French victory. Wertingen lies 28 kilometres (17 mi) northwest of Augsburg. The combat was fought during the War of the Third Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had launched his 200,000-man Grand Army across the Rhine. This huge mass of maneuver wheeled to the south and crossed the Danube River to the east of (i.e., behind) General Karl Freiherr Mack von Leiberich's concentration at Ulm. Unaware of the force bearing down on him, Mack stayed in place as Napoleon's corps spread south across the Danube, slicing across his lines of communication with Vienna.

Murat's advance guard included the heavy cavalry divisions of General of Division Louis Klein (16 squadrons of the 1st, 14th, 20th and 26th Dragoon Regiments) and General of Division Marc Antoine de Beaumont (18 sqdns. of the 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 12th and 16th Dragoons), plus General of Brigade Antoine Lasalle's light cavalry brigade (8 sqdns. of 9th and 10th Hussars), a total of 42 squadrons. These were supported by eight battalions of General of Division Nicolas Oudinot's Grenadier division and three battalions of the 28th Light Infantry Regiment.

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