With Eagles to Glory by Gill John H

Author:Gill, John H
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Napoleonic Wars
Publisher: Greenhill Books
Published: 2019-05-01T16:00:00+00:00

Reconnaissances and Reorganizations

The day after the battle, Bernadotte expanded an organizational modification he had initiated while IX Corps was in Passau. It had long been a common practice in the Saxon Army to unite the Schützen of each battalion into separate detachments under the command of a specially selected officer; Bernadotte, however, frustrated at the Corps’ lack of light troops, took this traditional practice one step further and consolidated the Schützen of each brigade into an independent Schüzten-Abteilung (section or detachment) on 8 May. The battalions committed to the assault on the Pöstlingberg thus had no trained skirmishers to respond to Bernadotte’s command ‘Allons, tiraillez!’ On the 18th, the four Abteilungen, each augmented by 40 additional soldiers, were formed into two provisional Schützen battalions under tough but popular commanders: the serious Hauptmann Albrecht von Metzsch commanding the 1st and Major Christoph von Egidy, “a rugged warrior”, taking the 2nd. Internally, each battalion was composed of four companies for a total of about 540–560 officers and men, the 2nd Battalion being slightly smaller than the 1st. Still carried on the rolls of their parent regiments as ‘detached’, the men of these two battalions were united by their green plumes but otherwise lacked a common uniform, leading Napoleon to ask if they were a unit of recruits or stragglers when he reviewed them for the first time.74 In fact, assembled from the better soldiers and carefully selected officers, the Schützen Battalions were élite organizations, and, as with all élite formations, the value of combining the superior soldiers into special units has been questioned. Certainly they performed well in 1809 and again in 1812, but their creation was a ‘heavy loss’ for the line battalions, depriving them of trained skirmishers and hampering the adoption of modern, Napoleonic tactics throughout the Saxon infantry.75

Major von Egidy’s Schützen were engaging the enemy the day after their battalion was organized. The anticipated renewal of the Austrian attack had not occurred after the Battle of Linz, rather Kolowrat had disappeared into the hills and Allied detachments had to be sent probing north and east to locate his forces. A Württemberg reconnaissance column confirmed the Austrians’ withdrawal toward Hellmonsödt on the 18th, but the situation in the east was unclear and, on the 19th, a Saxon patrol was sent up the Gallneukirchen road to collect information. This first patrol, consisting of 60 hussars under Rittmeister von Czetteritz und Neuhaus, rode into Unter Weitersdorf at about 9 a.m. and picked up excellent intelligence on Kolowrat’s dispositions from several local inhabitants, one of whom happened to be a transplanted Saxon. Continuing north-east, von Czetteritz encountered a mixed picket line of Austrian infantry (Peterwardeiner Grenzer) and cavalry (Hessen-Homburg Hussars) just beyond the village and, considering his reconnaissance mission accomplished, withdrew after exchanging a few shots with the enemy.

General Vandamme was not satisfied with the results of this little operation, however, and von Gutschmid was ordered to push his scouts all the way to Neumarkt. He consequently reinforced the somewhat astonished and miffed von Czetteritz with 26 chevauxlegers and 26 Schützen and sent him up the road again.

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