Austerlitz 2000 Background

Welcome to Austerlitz 1805 (June 9 - 12, 2000), another great JodieCon 2000 event at the US Military Academy Preparatory School, Ft. Monmouth, N.J. Most of you grognards already know the history and events leading up to what many consider Napoleon's greatest victory but here is a thumbnail sketch for those who need some brushing up:

In 1803, England declared war on France and initiated a great effort to unite the rest of Europe against "the Corsican Ogre." Napoleon formed the Grand Armee and made plans to invade England. An immense training base was established near Boulogne for that purpose but due to the failure of the French Navy to secure the crossing of the Channel, the invasion plan was scrapped.

In the meantime, the British Prime Minister, William Pitt, had managed to Bring most of the major powers together in what was called the Third Coalition. The plan was to simultaneously attack France with great armies, totaling 500,000 men from the various points of the compass. The armies were in the process of gathering when the Emperor Francis of Austria (at the urging of General Mack) decided to invade its neighbor and French ally, Bavaria. The Austrians reasoned that the French could not intervene before the Russians arrived. The die was cast. What would Napoleon do?

Napoleon I was not the man to allow the allies to gather their armies on his borders in peace. Together with his finely tuned staff, he unrolled a great 7 X 10 foot map of Europe and placed it over the charts of the Channel and England. In a short time a precise plan to crush the allies somewhere north of the Alps evolved. Spies reported the location of the main Austrian army to be at Ulm on the Danube. In general, the Cavalry Reserve, under Murat, was to demonstrate on the Austrian southern sector through the Black Forest. At the same time, the Grande Armee would conduct a great wheel to surround and take the Austrians in their right rear.

The operation commenced on 27 August 1805. Like most great marches in history, movement was well calculated so that the units were in their new encampments by noon and met with hot meals. The Austrians were taken completely by surprise and General Mack surrendered with 60,00 troops on October 20th. The French pursued Kutuzov's Russian Army Down the Danube. The Allies could not hold Vienna, so the withdrawal continued into Moravia, near a small town called Austerlitz. Napoleon established his field headquarters at Brunn and the Russians, with the remnants of the Austrian Army, occupied Olmutz. The armies settled down to plan the next phase... and that is:

Austerlitz 1805 at JodieCon 2K