Tyrol 1809

1809. Tyrol.
    The French are on the move and near the Danube there will be a collision of Napoleon and Archduke Charles at Aspern-Essling. But there is a secondary front in much more in hospitable terrain. The woods and hills of the Tyrol bring smaller armies but just as fierce fighting.
    General Auguste Marmont has a corps on the move when his route is blocked by the corps of Generalleutnant von Klenau. Marmont has a veteran division under Major General Friant, a division of garrison troops under brigadier Lanusse and a cavalry division under brigadier Mermet, about 16,000 men. Von Klenau has blocked the road with two mixed divisions – grenadiers and chevaulegere under Brigadier Ulm and dragoons, hussars and grenzers under Generalmajor Vincent – and a small infantry division under Generalmajor Schwartzenburg. In all about 14,000 men.
    Klenau has Schwartzenburg ensconced in a knot of woods where the main road splits. Vincent sits on a hill overlooking some open ground behind Schwartzenburg while Ulm is deployed to the left of Vincent on the main road toward Vienna.
    Marmont brings Lanusse up on his right flank and pushes half forward into an apple orchard while holding the other half, and Friant’s division, on a ridge of hills east of the main road. The cavalry is initially deployed at the split of the road, facing Schwartzenburg’s infantry.
    Klenau threw his dragoon brigade forward on the Austrian right and the Hahn grenadier battalion against the apple orchard on the Austrian left. Neither attack went well. The dragoons were beaten in a swirling melee by the 3rd Lancers and forced to retreat, badly disordered, their colonel dead on the field. The grenadiers were shattered by the Neuchatel Regiment. They reformed outside of the orchard but had been severely handled.
    The French then went over to the attack. The 17th Ligne had some initial success against the knot of woods, driving back Infantry Regiment 24 and establishing a brief foothold in the trees. However, the supporting attack by the 10th Legere was beaten back by squadrons of the 3rd Hussars dashing through the 3rd Cavalry Battery and then Infantry Regiment 4 counterattacked, throwing the French out of the woods.
    Things now rapidly deteriorated for Marmont. The 2nd Banal Grenzers and Grenadier Battalion Kirchenhalter charged forward against the ridge. The Grenzers captured a battery of 6-pounders and then pushed into the 10th Legere. The light infantrymen, already shaken by their encounter with the hussars, retreated. The Grenzers then engaged and drove back the 108th Ligne.
    Meanwhile Kirchenhalter destroyed the 15th Legere and then captured a battery of 12-pounders, driving a large hole in Lanusse’s division.
    Desperate, Marmont ordered the 4th/6th Chasseurs a Cheval to charge north on the main road. The Austrian artillery – 2 reserve batteries – smashed the brave troopers before they could even engage the chevauleger. The only success was the Lancers and 21st Chasseurs who forced the 12th Grenzers  and Infantry Regiment 24 to form square as the dragoons again failed to protect the Austrian right.
    With the failure of the cavalry charge and with gas in both his infantry divisions, Marmont ordered a withdrawal. Klenau, whose orders were to delay or stop Marmont’s advance, did not pursue.
    Klenau had suffered some 1200 casualties but Marmont left over 1600 men and 14 guns on the field.
    Fought using 15mm figures and Fire and Fury Napoleonic Rules.