These last 3 comprise the European portion - I said I was quite a bit behind the U.S. when it came to Europe. A few notes below the chapter as I invite others to continue the TL
Chapter 8: It’s All Over but the Shooting
1810 would be a pivotal year for Europe, but Latin America saw wars of independence continue.
Wellesley had been able to pull out of Spain, as Portugal was now safe. The French were clearly more interested in destroying the other continental forces, and Spain was now ina civil war.
Britain had originally sent forces to help the Swedes against Russia. Sweden was holding its own as 1810 wore on, so those joined Wellesley’s forces in going through Denmark from Copenhagen. The fighting was fierce, but Austria had invaded Bavaria and Napoleon had been interrupted in his attack on his brother Louis – wherein he incorporated the Netherlands into his own realm – and forced to march down to meet the Austrians.
It didn’t go well at first, as the Austrians, after early success, had found themselves crashed in May and having to abandon Vienna, marching north of the Danube, where they continued to fight. However, they faced a French army that was starting to become drained. Not only that, but some of the best men were being lost. Napoleon lost a tactical victory a couple weeks before a huge battle involving enormous armies.(1)
Napoleon kept pounding fiercely with his artillery, hoping to win before reinforcements arrived. Wellesley, later titled Duke of Wellington, is reported to have said as they approached, “We haven’t time to plan; order the men to simply go in and shoot at anything French.” Wellington later termed the battle, “The most incredible amount of blood and carnage this world has ever seen.” Archduke Charles’ brother, Johann, was able to arrive in time then, too, thanks to Wellesley’s actions, and the French had been defeated. This wasn’t the only big loss they suffered around this time, either.
Rebellions had broken out earlier in two places. All of Saxony eventually became Austrian thanks to the revolts there, and Tyrol also revolted against Bavarian rule.(3) Napoleon wanted to send men to attack both, but he’d lost a third of his men in this costly, bloody battle over 3 days of fighting. Wellesley’s 35,000 troops added to the Austrians were relentlessly pursing the French, though both militaries were extremely tired; only the fresh troops helped keep the Coalition forces going a little while longer, as they feared the money for them might run out son and they wanted a decisive win.
Napoleon had 2 choices – he could retreat toward Vienna and defend it or go west to Tyrol and try to put down the rebellion there. The advantage of letting the Tyrolese rebellion go a while longer was that if the Austrians recapturing it would be a great moral victory for them; but, Bavaria was clearly in trouble and his Confederation of the Rhine forces wanted to go there. Having seen the great Napoleon suffer a major defeat for the first time, some of his allies were getting cold feet, and the Russians were very thankful they had been busy with the Swedes in Finland and unable to help France.
Still, Napoleon had fought hard for Vienna, and he wanted to keep the city occupied as long as possible; Prussia, after all, hadn’t yet entered the Coalition but they might if they saw Vienna retaken. Now, it was just a blip. Therefore, he ordered his army to fall back to Vienna. Prussia had lost a third of its territory in a treaty the year before(4) but he wanted to ensure that the Austrians were as crushed as the Prussians had been.
General Michael Kienmayer had begun having great success in Saxony, however, and he was actually pushing Jerome Bonaparte (whose forces had previously been whittled down by the British coming down from Northern Germany) back after capturing Dresden recently; he and the Black Brunswickers were in process of capturing all of Saxony. An urgent messenger was sent to him to ask him to bring his troops down to face the French, though he didn’t have many it seemed likely that any little bit would be helpful. Napoleon’s forces tried to hold the Austrians, then crossed the Danube into the Vienna area to garrison it.
The ensuing battle, while not in Vienna itself, caused an immense amount of damage in it from the fires caused by shelling – citizens had been told to evacuate and therefore there were no bucket brigades, or at least not enough to help. General Junot couldn’t help, he was being hammered by Austrians in Saxony, while the Duchy of Warsaw had defeated the Austrians but – since General Poniatowski hadn’t wished to go much further and couldn’t get help from Russia – that aspect of the war had ended so Archduke Ferdinand Karl Josef could bring 20,000 men to help; Austria would gladly surrender some to Poland in exchange for defeating Napoleon, especially since they would get more of the spoils, with Russia and Prussia not with them.
He made an offer to the Saxons – switch sides and they would guarantee independence; although, truth be told, they didn’t want Saxony swallowed up by Prussia. They wanted to start dominoes falling to get the Confederation of the Rhine to back out of the alliance with Napoleon. They also guaranteed Polish independence provided they change sides.
Neither was forthcoming yet, but with Saxony practically occupied completely – and having less territory each day – the Saxon king was very close to splitting. And, the Poles had defeated Austria, so theyfelt confident, as long as their freedom could be preserved against Russia, something Austria was willing to accept; the diplomatic talks as the battles continued were quite intense, with nobody knowing what was happening and with messengers bringing sketchy news.
In the end, one wonders if Napoleon would have been in just as bad a shape had he let Vienna alone and backed off toward Tyrol. He might have been in danger of being shot by rebels there, whereas at least here, Wellesley and his forces insisted that he be taken alive.
As Napoleon maneuvered around after the indecisive Second Battle of Vienna, the Bavarian ranks broke with his as they hoped to stamp out the rebellion – their leader had reportedly had sharp words with Napoleon over his refusal to help. Soon, incredibly, the rebels seemed to be the anvil to the Coalition’s hammer. Okay, it wasn’t quite like that, but it was safe to say that guerilla warfare wasn’t only practiced in Spain. After another bloody battle, Napoleon was slightly wounded by an explosion caused by one of the rebels. The injury wasn’t serious, but it gave the British time to capture him alive if they could. French forces were forced to stand down, protect Napoleon, and try to head back to France. He told them to simply leave him on the field(5), but the weary troops wouldn’t.
In the end, Napoleon was captured by the British.
His wife, Maria Luisa, reportedly miscarried at the many rumors that came flooding into Paris about Napoleon being either dead, wounded, or captured, though her being pregnant at the time isn’t totally certain, as some speculate that there were only rumors she had a child so one could be produced as an heir later, though that wasn’t feasible, as it turned out. The couple had had a girl in late 1809, though, and Napoleon had been hopeful that his new wife could produce a couple more children, at least one being a son.
Louis XVI of France had died a few years earlier, but Louis XVII was now more than ready to take over in France, once the French armies were defeated. Even with Napoleon captured, this would prove to be difficult, of course, as Coalition forces hadn’t yet entered France itself. There was clearly infighting going on in France, however, so they rushed back.
It was without Napoleon, however; he had indeed been captured. The capture of Napoleon made the Russians very glad they hadn’t done more, but also made them worry they would be losing even more territory. Czar Alexander kept up his war with Sweden, but Russian forces weren’t doing that great in Finland and he was worried now about the Poles; if they remained independent, what would happen to Russian Poles? And, Prussia decided they would join the war, too, but had nobody to fight; would they get any of their land back? With the queen sick, the king was in no shape to decide for sure.
With Vienna in ruins, some other place would need to be found to host a conference to reorganize Europe. London seemed to be the best. For now, though, Coalition forces – what remained of them – mopped up in Austria. The first order of business was ensuring that Tyrolese rebels were rewarded – Barvaria would no longer have control of Tyrol. Saxony did switch sides once they learned of the capture of Napoleon was captured, and the rest of the Confederation of the Rhine would have to be neutralized somehow.
“Napoleon’s biggest mistake was going into Spain just months after Tilsit in autumn of 1809 to subdue it once more,” one historian noted. “Then, he subdued his brother and took the Netherlands for himself expecting a possible Austrian attack in late May, when it came in early May. Then, the British master stroke was getting those troops which had withdrawn from Spain and were originally going to help the Swedes in spring of 1810 against Russia, and moving them from Copenhagen into Northern Germany. Sure, Napoleon’s troops were tired out and that let Archduke John/Johann arrive in time to help his brother Charles, but what really mattered were the extra troops Wellesley brought down. They turned a possible defeat into a victory.”
Both sides had been decimated, however. France had lost over half their army as Napoleon tried hard to save Vienna and then to recover from that after the Cannae-style battle beforehand. It would be a hint of what was to come in the massive cavalry charges of wars in the 1840s and 1850s when artillery had far outpaced strategy. Several key generals lay dead on both sides after the 1810 conflict. Even if Britain had wanted to, they couldn’t intervene again in Spain to help calm things down.
This meant the Latin American rebellions continued. While Britain was never able to get troops into Venezuela, they weren’t really needed for the 1807 revolt that led to independence by the time Spain recovered.(6) They’d had so much trouble elsewhere, they spent most on tring to retain Peru, along with fighting losing battles against others, as will be told.
In Europe, Napoleon was exiled, but there was the danger he’d escape.(7) At the Congress of London in 1810-1, Denmark-Norway and Weden were restored to status quo ante bellum, and Saxony – which everybody but the Prussians wanted to keep away from Prussia – was given independence. Prussia was generally ignored as not haveing even been in the winning coalition, but they threatened war over a variety of things. Austria got Tyrol back, and as for Poland, it was argued that they’d gained their independence. Britain certainly didn’t want to reward Russia with it, and Austria wanted it for themselves. They suggested a Hapsburg royal could become King instead, if that didn’t’ work.
“The real trick there,” one chronicler noted at the time, “was to determine how to handle Poland, which had beaten back the Austrians, certainly didn’t belong to Russia, and would probably fight Prussian domination. Someone even suggested, if Prussia would likely simply be restored to their status before the war, that they could make Poland a member of the new German Confederation which was forming. Many wished for wisdom of the American Founders – and even they’d formed 2 countries.”(8)
Meanwhile, the United States and Columbia Confederation kept getting stronger, though the USA was far outpacing the Confederation.
--------------------------
(1) Just as a tactical victory OTL by the Austrians was followed up by a disastrous but close (because of the huge losses) loss at Wagram
(2) Had Archduke Charles’ brother arrived in time with reinforcements OTL at Wagram, Napoleon could have been encircled an, even without encirclement, defeated. Here, the loss of even more quality men in battles in Spain, plus the addition of British and a few Danish men, ensures that it can happen.
(3) Each happened OTL, though the Saxon revolt hadn’t been complete till after the final peace was signed and thus became of no effect, and the French put down the Tyrol revolt, whereas they will be unable to do so here. While it’s true these were in 1809, things happened at a slower pace when it came to the earlier Coalition defeats so it’s likely they would here, too. In addition, Austria wasn’t at war earlier TTL, so it’s more likely they coincide with the Austrian decision to fight in 1810.
(4) Just as OTL in 1807, but here they are only a year removed from the same defeats.
(5) He supposedly did the same in Russia from what I’ve read.
(6) A bit earlier as news of Spain’s defeat spreads. The British weren’t used that much OTL either.
(7) In other words, same as OTL as far as his exile, so if someone wants to continue this they have him escape or not.
(8) And, there’s where the European part stands for someone else to pick up. when i get done with this.
Chapter 8: It’s All Over but the Shooting
1810 would be a pivotal year for Europe, but Latin America saw wars of independence continue.
Wellesley had been able to pull out of Spain, as Portugal was now safe. The French were clearly more interested in destroying the other continental forces, and Spain was now ina civil war.
Britain had originally sent forces to help the Swedes against Russia. Sweden was holding its own as 1810 wore on, so those joined Wellesley’s forces in going through Denmark from Copenhagen. The fighting was fierce, but Austria had invaded Bavaria and Napoleon had been interrupted in his attack on his brother Louis – wherein he incorporated the Netherlands into his own realm – and forced to march down to meet the Austrians.
It didn’t go well at first, as the Austrians, after early success, had found themselves crashed in May and having to abandon Vienna, marching north of the Danube, where they continued to fight. However, they faced a French army that was starting to become drained. Not only that, but some of the best men were being lost. Napoleon lost a tactical victory a couple weeks before a huge battle involving enormous armies.(1)
Napoleon kept pounding fiercely with his artillery, hoping to win before reinforcements arrived. Wellesley, later titled Duke of Wellington, is reported to have said as they approached, “We haven’t time to plan; order the men to simply go in and shoot at anything French.” Wellington later termed the battle, “The most incredible amount of blood and carnage this world has ever seen.” Archduke Charles’ brother, Johann, was able to arrive in time then, too, thanks to Wellesley’s actions, and the French had been defeated. This wasn’t the only big loss they suffered around this time, either.
Rebellions had broken out earlier in two places. All of Saxony eventually became Austrian thanks to the revolts there, and Tyrol also revolted against Bavarian rule.(3) Napoleon wanted to send men to attack both, but he’d lost a third of his men in this costly, bloody battle over 3 days of fighting. Wellesley’s 35,000 troops added to the Austrians were relentlessly pursing the French, though both militaries were extremely tired; only the fresh troops helped keep the Coalition forces going a little while longer, as they feared the money for them might run out son and they wanted a decisive win.
Napoleon had 2 choices – he could retreat toward Vienna and defend it or go west to Tyrol and try to put down the rebellion there. The advantage of letting the Tyrolese rebellion go a while longer was that if the Austrians recapturing it would be a great moral victory for them; but, Bavaria was clearly in trouble and his Confederation of the Rhine forces wanted to go there. Having seen the great Napoleon suffer a major defeat for the first time, some of his allies were getting cold feet, and the Russians were very thankful they had been busy with the Swedes in Finland and unable to help France.
Still, Napoleon had fought hard for Vienna, and he wanted to keep the city occupied as long as possible; Prussia, after all, hadn’t yet entered the Coalition but they might if they saw Vienna retaken. Now, it was just a blip. Therefore, he ordered his army to fall back to Vienna. Prussia had lost a third of its territory in a treaty the year before(4) but he wanted to ensure that the Austrians were as crushed as the Prussians had been.
General Michael Kienmayer had begun having great success in Saxony, however, and he was actually pushing Jerome Bonaparte (whose forces had previously been whittled down by the British coming down from Northern Germany) back after capturing Dresden recently; he and the Black Brunswickers were in process of capturing all of Saxony. An urgent messenger was sent to him to ask him to bring his troops down to face the French, though he didn’t have many it seemed likely that any little bit would be helpful. Napoleon’s forces tried to hold the Austrians, then crossed the Danube into the Vienna area to garrison it.
The ensuing battle, while not in Vienna itself, caused an immense amount of damage in it from the fires caused by shelling – citizens had been told to evacuate and therefore there were no bucket brigades, or at least not enough to help. General Junot couldn’t help, he was being hammered by Austrians in Saxony, while the Duchy of Warsaw had defeated the Austrians but – since General Poniatowski hadn’t wished to go much further and couldn’t get help from Russia – that aspect of the war had ended so Archduke Ferdinand Karl Josef could bring 20,000 men to help; Austria would gladly surrender some to Poland in exchange for defeating Napoleon, especially since they would get more of the spoils, with Russia and Prussia not with them.
He made an offer to the Saxons – switch sides and they would guarantee independence; although, truth be told, they didn’t want Saxony swallowed up by Prussia. They wanted to start dominoes falling to get the Confederation of the Rhine to back out of the alliance with Napoleon. They also guaranteed Polish independence provided they change sides.
Neither was forthcoming yet, but with Saxony practically occupied completely – and having less territory each day – the Saxon king was very close to splitting. And, the Poles had defeated Austria, so theyfelt confident, as long as their freedom could be preserved against Russia, something Austria was willing to accept; the diplomatic talks as the battles continued were quite intense, with nobody knowing what was happening and with messengers bringing sketchy news.
In the end, one wonders if Napoleon would have been in just as bad a shape had he let Vienna alone and backed off toward Tyrol. He might have been in danger of being shot by rebels there, whereas at least here, Wellesley and his forces insisted that he be taken alive.
As Napoleon maneuvered around after the indecisive Second Battle of Vienna, the Bavarian ranks broke with his as they hoped to stamp out the rebellion – their leader had reportedly had sharp words with Napoleon over his refusal to help. Soon, incredibly, the rebels seemed to be the anvil to the Coalition’s hammer. Okay, it wasn’t quite like that, but it was safe to say that guerilla warfare wasn’t only practiced in Spain. After another bloody battle, Napoleon was slightly wounded by an explosion caused by one of the rebels. The injury wasn’t serious, but it gave the British time to capture him alive if they could. French forces were forced to stand down, protect Napoleon, and try to head back to France. He told them to simply leave him on the field(5), but the weary troops wouldn’t.
In the end, Napoleon was captured by the British.
His wife, Maria Luisa, reportedly miscarried at the many rumors that came flooding into Paris about Napoleon being either dead, wounded, or captured, though her being pregnant at the time isn’t totally certain, as some speculate that there were only rumors she had a child so one could be produced as an heir later, though that wasn’t feasible, as it turned out. The couple had had a girl in late 1809, though, and Napoleon had been hopeful that his new wife could produce a couple more children, at least one being a son.
Louis XVI of France had died a few years earlier, but Louis XVII was now more than ready to take over in France, once the French armies were defeated. Even with Napoleon captured, this would prove to be difficult, of course, as Coalition forces hadn’t yet entered France itself. There was clearly infighting going on in France, however, so they rushed back.
It was without Napoleon, however; he had indeed been captured. The capture of Napoleon made the Russians very glad they hadn’t done more, but also made them worry they would be losing even more territory. Czar Alexander kept up his war with Sweden, but Russian forces weren’t doing that great in Finland and he was worried now about the Poles; if they remained independent, what would happen to Russian Poles? And, Prussia decided they would join the war, too, but had nobody to fight; would they get any of their land back? With the queen sick, the king was in no shape to decide for sure.
With Vienna in ruins, some other place would need to be found to host a conference to reorganize Europe. London seemed to be the best. For now, though, Coalition forces – what remained of them – mopped up in Austria. The first order of business was ensuring that Tyrolese rebels were rewarded – Barvaria would no longer have control of Tyrol. Saxony did switch sides once they learned of the capture of Napoleon was captured, and the rest of the Confederation of the Rhine would have to be neutralized somehow.
“Napoleon’s biggest mistake was going into Spain just months after Tilsit in autumn of 1809 to subdue it once more,” one historian noted. “Then, he subdued his brother and took the Netherlands for himself expecting a possible Austrian attack in late May, when it came in early May. Then, the British master stroke was getting those troops which had withdrawn from Spain and were originally going to help the Swedes in spring of 1810 against Russia, and moving them from Copenhagen into Northern Germany. Sure, Napoleon’s troops were tired out and that let Archduke John/Johann arrive in time to help his brother Charles, but what really mattered were the extra troops Wellesley brought down. They turned a possible defeat into a victory.”
Both sides had been decimated, however. France had lost over half their army as Napoleon tried hard to save Vienna and then to recover from that after the Cannae-style battle beforehand. It would be a hint of what was to come in the massive cavalry charges of wars in the 1840s and 1850s when artillery had far outpaced strategy. Several key generals lay dead on both sides after the 1810 conflict. Even if Britain had wanted to, they couldn’t intervene again in Spain to help calm things down.
This meant the Latin American rebellions continued. While Britain was never able to get troops into Venezuela, they weren’t really needed for the 1807 revolt that led to independence by the time Spain recovered.(6) They’d had so much trouble elsewhere, they spent most on tring to retain Peru, along with fighting losing battles against others, as will be told.
In Europe, Napoleon was exiled, but there was the danger he’d escape.(7) At the Congress of London in 1810-1, Denmark-Norway and Weden were restored to status quo ante bellum, and Saxony – which everybody but the Prussians wanted to keep away from Prussia – was given independence. Prussia was generally ignored as not haveing even been in the winning coalition, but they threatened war over a variety of things. Austria got Tyrol back, and as for Poland, it was argued that they’d gained their independence. Britain certainly didn’t want to reward Russia with it, and Austria wanted it for themselves. They suggested a Hapsburg royal could become King instead, if that didn’t’ work.
“The real trick there,” one chronicler noted at the time, “was to determine how to handle Poland, which had beaten back the Austrians, certainly didn’t belong to Russia, and would probably fight Prussian domination. Someone even suggested, if Prussia would likely simply be restored to their status before the war, that they could make Poland a member of the new German Confederation which was forming. Many wished for wisdom of the American Founders – and even they’d formed 2 countries.”(8)
Meanwhile, the United States and Columbia Confederation kept getting stronger, though the USA was far outpacing the Confederation.
--------------------------
(1) Just as a tactical victory OTL by the Austrians was followed up by a disastrous but close (because of the huge losses) loss at Wagram
(2) Had Archduke Charles’ brother arrived in time with reinforcements OTL at Wagram, Napoleon could have been encircled an, even without encirclement, defeated. Here, the loss of even more quality men in battles in Spain, plus the addition of British and a few Danish men, ensures that it can happen.
(3) Each happened OTL, though the Saxon revolt hadn’t been complete till after the final peace was signed and thus became of no effect, and the French put down the Tyrol revolt, whereas they will be unable to do so here. While it’s true these were in 1809, things happened at a slower pace when it came to the earlier Coalition defeats so it’s likely they would here, too. In addition, Austria wasn’t at war earlier TTL, so it’s more likely they coincide with the Austrian decision to fight in 1810.
(4) Just as OTL in 1807, but here they are only a year removed from the same defeats.
(5) He supposedly did the same in Russia from what I’ve read.
(6) A bit earlier as news of Spain’s defeat spreads. The British weren’t used that much OTL either.
(7) In other words, same as OTL as far as his exile, so if someone wants to continue this they have him escape or not.
(8) And, there’s where the European part stands for someone else to pick up. when i get done with this.