Soult takes the Pratzen

At about 9 a.m. Napoleon orders the attack, with the words “One sharp blow and the war is over.” Saint-Hilaire’s division climbs the Pratzen from Puntowitz under cover of the mist, while Vandamme’s division advances on its left towards the Staré Vinohrady, the Old Vineyards. As they reach the top the sun breaks through, and the Russians on the heights find large French columns in front of them.

The Cairn of Peace, the memorial to the dead of the battle on the summit of the PratzenWikimedia Commons, Kirk, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Mohyla miru 1.jpg)

Kutuzov, with the fourth column, throws in its remaining battalions, and Austrian troops join the fight. After more than an hour Saint-Hilaire’s men are forced back down the slope, then attack again with the bayonet and clear the heights. To the north Vandamme’s skirmishers and volleys break several allied battalions at the Staré Vinohrady.

Napoleon sends Bernadotte’s I Corps forward to support Vandamme’s left and moves his command post from the Žuráň to St Anthony’s chapel on the Pratzen. The allied army is now cut in two, with the columns on the Goldbach separated from their centre and their right.

Sources

David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966).
Ian Castle, Austerlitz 1805: The Fate of Empires (2002).
Scott Bowden, Napoleon and Austerlitz (1997).

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