Surrender of Ulm
Napoleon captured an Austrian army of some 27,000 men at Ulm in October 1805 having barely fought a battle. The campaign began with the Grande Armée encamped on the Channel coast for an invasion of England that the destruction of the combined fleets was about to make impossible. When Austria and Russia joined the coalition, Napoleon turned the whole force — around 200,000 men in seven corps — and marched it across Europe to the Danube in about five weeks. The corps system is what made it work: each corps was a miniature army with its own infantry, cavalry, artillery and staff, capable of fighting alone for a day against anything it met, so the army could move on separate roads and concentrate on contact. General Mack had advanced into Bavaria expecting the French to come through the Black Forest and expecting Russian support that was still weeks away on a different calendar. Napoleon sent a cavalry screen to hold his attention and marched the rest of the army north of him, crossed the Danube behind him, and cut him off from Vienna. There was fighting at Wertingen, Günzburg, Haslach and Elchingen, and by mid-October the Austrians were shut in Ulm with the French on every road. Mack surrendered on 20 October and marched his men out to lay down their arms. Napoleon is said to have remarked that he had destroyed the enemy merely by marching. Trafalgar was fought the next day. Vienna fell in November, and Austerlitz followed on 2 December.
- Year: 1805 CE
- Category: Military
