THE Scene of this tremendous battle, which took place on the 2nd of December, 1805, was the heights of Pratzen, a range of mountains, with a small semicircular inclination in the middle to the east, running from the lake of Menitz, nearly north and south, to the distance of ten or eleven miles. At the foot of these mountains, on the western side, and about a mile from the base of them, is a little stream, which on the north divides the defile between the parallel heights of Schlapanitz and Pratzen, and towards the south washes the plain of Turas. Between this stream and the fort of Pratzen, and in the vicinity of the plain of Turas on the west of the rivulet, are situated the various villages in which the French were posted, while the allied armies occupied the heights VOL. I.

and the hamlets in the ravines to the east.

At one o'clock in the morning of the 2d of December, Bonaparte mounted his horse to inspect the posts, reconnoitre the piquets of his opponents, and to obtain an account of what the guards had been able to learn of the movements of the confederates. He was informed that they had passed the night in drunkenness, noise, and revelry; and that a corps of Russian infantry had appeared in the village of Sokolnitz, occupied by a regiment of the division under General Legrand.

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The day at length dawned. rounded by his marshals, Bonaparte, who remained with the reserve, waited only for the horizon to clear up to issue his last orders. The sun appeared to

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be rising with extraordinary splendour, | and held out the promise of a clear autumnal day. As soon as his first beams shot above the heights of Pratzen, the orders were issued, and each marshal hastened to join his corps. Buonaparte, in passing along the front of several regiments, exclaimed, "Soldiers! we must finish this campaign by a thunderbolt, which shall confound the pride of our enemies." This appeal was received with ecstacy by the forces, who placing their hats on the points of their bayonets,exclaimed, "Vivel' Empereur!" The sound of a furious cannonade drowned their acclamations. The engagement had begun on the right.

The allies conceived, that by passing the defiles in the neighbourhood of Sokolnitz, and the other villages, the right of the enemy would be effectually turned; and that by avoiding the formidable ravines, which would obstruct their manœuvres, they might have an opportunity of executing their further intentions with advantage in the plain between Schlapanitz and the wood of Turas. They then proposed to press sharply on the enemy's right flank, by attacking it vigorously with numerous and compact bodies of troops in rapid succession. This movement was to be covered by the right of the allies, with the cavalry of Prince John of Lichtenstein, and the advanced corps under Prince Bagration. The five columns were then put in march for the heights, and the fortune of the day was made to depend on the success of this attempt to drive back the enemy's right wing. Lieutenant-General Kilnmayer, who was to force the hollow valley of Tellnitz, and open the route for the first column, lost both time and advantage by commencing the attack with an insufficient force. The Austrians had already been engaged about an hour, and had suffered greatly from the French sharpshooters, who took advantage of the ground, covered as it was with vineyards, and intersected by wet ditches, before M. de Buxhovden, with the first column of the Russians, made his appearance. At length, however, he arrived, and detached a battalion to support the Austrians.

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At nine o'clock, the enemy strengthened by four thousand men from the corps under Davoust, and took

advantage of a thick fog which suddenly obscured the valley, to regain the ground they had lost. When the mist cleared up, the French were driven back, and forced to abandon the plain between Tellnitz and Turas; but the communication between the first and second columns of the allied armies was not yet established, in consequence of which it was found impossible to follow up this advantage. By this time the second and third columns of Russians had quitted the heights of Pratzen, and approached to Sokolnitz. A blind rage seemed to actuate their movements, for without concerning themselves about the fourth column, and without attending to the offensive movements of the enemy, they thought of nothing but the first disposition, and continued their progress upon Sokolnitz, of which they took possession with little resistance, after a long and useless cannonade.

General Koutusoff, who never conceived the possibility of being attacked on the heights, although it is difficult to conjecture on what grounds his ill-fated security was constructed, was surprised in the midst of his combinations by an unexpected and vigorous assault on his centre, made by the massy columns which Buonaparte ordered to advance for that purpose. The faults committed by the Russian general had not failed to strike his eagle-eyed adversary, who perceived the advantage to be drawn from the circuitous route that the left wing of the allies was obliged to take. This wing, which became every moment more distant from their centre, still marched forward with the most surprising want of attention to military combination. Bernadotte having crossed the rivulet by a narrow and ruinous bridge, attained the eminence of Blasowitz, supported by the cavalry of Murat, and by Lannes with his grand division. From this time, the centre and right of the allies became engaged in all quarters. The confederates evinced no want of impetuous gallantry; several brilliant charges of cavalry were made on their part, which, owing to the precipitate courage of the Hulans, whose fiery temperament could not wait for the formation of the rest of the line, were very destructive to themselves, as well as to their opponents. The centre of the allies, unsupported by

desperation, many of the flying troops | betook themselves to the lake, which was too slightly frozen to bear their weight; and the waters engulphed these lacerated and unhappy men, victims at the same moment to two opposite elements, for the French had by this time brought up their batteries of flying artillery, which at once swept the lake and plain with a continual fire.

Here the intrepidity of the French troops overcame every obstacle, and the Russians fled in disorder, in sight of the two Emperors of Russia and Austria, who had stationed themselves on a height, in order to witness the battle. General Rapp now hastened to inform Napoleon that the French had won the battle. His sword was broken, and a wound which he had received on his head was bleeding copiously, so that he was covered with blood. Napoleon received him warmly, and made him a general of

division.

Before two o'clock in the afternoon, the action was decided along the whole of the line, when the division of Vandamme rapidly approached to confirm the general rout. Behind Tellnitz is a hill of considerable altitude, the right of which extends to the lake. Thither the Russian infantry retired, still under the protection of the Austrian cavalry, which a perpetual cross fire of grape shot cut down in all directions. Worn out with fatigue, the infantry continued to retire with tardy steps, and the cavalry had to maintain their ground for a long time. At length the enemy took possession of the hill when the Austrian cavalry quitted it, and the former persevered in plying the fugitives with cannon shot, until they were out of the range of the guns. About eight thousand men of the first and second columns were thus brought off, and marched the whole night by Boschowitz, under incessant and drenching rain, which rendered the roads nearly impassable. The artillery, except that appertaining to the brave regiment of O'Reilly, was of course all lost

in the retreat.

Buonaparte possessed himself of the ground on which the allies had been drawn up on the preceding night. The two emperors having exerted themselves to the utmost of their power to repair the disasters of the battle, retired in the

evening to Hodiegitz, behind Austerlitz, with the wretched remains of their army. The Austrian cavalry posted some detachments before Austerlitz, and acted as the rear guard of the allies. The loss in this engagement fell principally upon the Russians, and is said by the enemy to have amounted to twenty-two thousand in killed and wounded, and twenty thousand prisoners. In opposition, however, to this statement, it was asserted in the official account afterwards published at St. Petersburg, that the entire loss in the campaign did not exceed, on the part of the Russians, seventeen thousand men. The two commanders, Koutusoff and Buxhovden, with several other generals, and a great number of officers of rank, were wounded; numbers were among the slain, and many were taken prisoners. One hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, and forty standards, fell into the hands of the enemy. There could scarcely be a more glorious or decisive day.

Napoleon came back in the evening, along the whole line where the different regiments of the army had fought. It was already dark: he had recommended silence to all who accompanied him, that he might hear the cries of the wounded: he immediately went to the spot where they were, alighted himself, and ordered a glass of brandy to be given them from the canteen which always followed him. He remained very late on the field of battle: the squadron of his escort passed the whole night upon it in taking the cloaks from the Russian dead, for the purpose of covering the wounded with them. He himself ordered large fires to be kindled near them, sent about for a mustermaster, and did not retire till he had arrived; and having left him a picquet of his own escort, he enjoined him not to quit the wounded till they were all in the hospital.

This battle, which was styled by the French soldiers, "the battle of the three emperors," and by Napoleon," the battle of Austerlitz," terminated the campaign and the war. On the 4th, two days after the engagement, an interview took place at the French advanced posts, between Napoleon and the Emperor of Austria, and an armistice was agreed upon, in which it was stipulated that the Russian army should, within a limited