3 December 1800, morning
Out of the forest
Moreau has about 56,000 men against some 64,000 Austrians and Bavarians. The Austrians march at dawn in four columns, in snow, through the forest. From north to south they are Kienmayer with 16,000 men, Latour with 10,800, Kollowrat with 20,000 on the main road from Haag, with Archduke John riding with him, and Riesch with 13,300 on tracks to the south.
On the paved road Kollowrat moves fastest, and at 7:00 his advance guard meets Grouchy’s 108th Line in the forest. When the Austrians come out of the trees, Grouchy counterattacks with infantry and cavalry, takes five guns and throws them back, and Kollowrat halts to wait for the columns on his flanks. In the north Schwarzenberg’s division of Kienmayer’s column attacks Bastoul and Ney, and the hamlets from Tading to Kronacker change hands several times.
Latour and Riesch fall far behind on the forest tracks, and Riesch reaches Albaching only at 9:30. Richepanse’s division meanwhile marches north-east from Ebersberg across Riesch’s front. Near St. Christoph two grenadier battalions sent by Kollowrat cut his column in two, and Richepanse leaves Drouet’s brigade to fight them and goes on north with his leading brigade.
Richepanse’s column in the snow-covered forest at Hohenlinden, engraving after Raffet and Breyer, 1845Wikimedia Commons, Raffet and Breyer, Public domain (Battle of Hohenlinden March of Richpanse.jpg)
Sources
- James R. Arnold, Marengo & Hohenlinden: Napoleon’s Rise to Power (2005).
- Gaston Bodart, Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1908).
- Gunther E. Rothenberg, Napoleon’s Great Adversaries: The Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army, 1792–1814 (1982).
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