Star.
London, England, 1809-07-12 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT To TI lIC LONDON GAXETI4E,

es TVEsDAY, TUN 11TH JIHM.

AA Aetount of the Battle fought near Atpern, on the March- I
teld, on the 21st and iM of May, 1202, between the Arch-
duke CIIIARLES of Austria, .ooneralissinto of the imperial
Austrian Armies, and the Emperor NAPOLEON., Commander
in Chief of the Frisch and Allied Annie*: •"" - - • •
The EinpefOr Napoleon having, after some san-
guinary engagements .near Abensberg, Hansen and
• Dinzlingen, in which the fortune of war favoured the
Austrian arms so as to force the French garrisen at
Ratisbon to surrender, succeeded in cutting off the
left wing of the Austrian army and driving it back
to .Landshut, and afterwards in advancing by Eck-
. Ihuhl with a superior corps "of cavalry, taking the
road of Eglofsheim, and forcing to retreat those Ms,
triln corps that were posted on the heights. of Leike-
- point and Talmessiig, the Archduke on the 23d of
, April crowd the Danube near Ratisbon, and joined
the corps of Bellegarde, who .had opened the cam-
paign by several successful affairs in the Upper Pa-
latinate, had reached Amberg, Neutharkt, and He-
im% and had by this time approached Stadt-am-Hof,
in order to execute its immediate junction with the
ArchdOke.
The Emperor Napoleon ordered 'the, bombardment
of Ratisbon, occupied by. a few battalions who were
to cover the passage of the Danube. On the 23d,
in the evening, he became master of it, and imme-
diately hastened along the right bank of the Danube
to enter the Austrian States, in order, as he openly
• declared, to dictate'Peace at Vienna.
The Austrian army had taken a position - near
Chant, .behind the River Regen, which was watched
by sortie of the enemy's divisions, while Emperor Na-
poleorr celled all disposeable troops in forced marches,
fr.= the North of Germany to the Danube, and con-
siderably reinforced his army with the troops of Wur-
temberg,- Hessia, Baden, and some time after, with
chase of Saxony. . .
Near Kirn'and Nittenau, some affairs had happen-
ed between the out-posts, which, Itowever, bad no in-
fluence upon the armies.
.. However easy it would have been for the Archduke
to continue his offensive operations on the left bank of
the Danube without any material resistance, and
however gratifying it might have been to relieve pro-
vinces which were groaning beneath the pressure of
'foreign dominion ; the preservation of his native
land did not perm;t him to suffer the enemy to nct
with impunity. in, the entrails of the monarchy, to
give up the rich sources of its independence, and ex-
pose the welfare of the subject to the devastations of
foreign conquerors.
These motives induced the Archduke to conduct
his army. to Bohemia, by the way of Klentsch and
Neumark, to occupy the Bohemian Forest with light
troops, and part of the Militia, and to direct his
march towards Budweis, where he arrived on the 3d
of May, hoping to join near Lintz;•his left . wing,
•which had been separated from him, and which was
under the command of Lieutenant-General Baron
. ..
Mier. .... .. . .
But the latter had been so closely pressed by the
united force of the French armies, that, after several
spirited engagements, and even after a brilliant affair
in which he bad' the advantage near Neumarkt, and
.in which the troops atehiev.ed all that was possible,
- . against the disproportionate Superiority of the enemy,
Ile indeed was able to reach Lintz,• but was incapa-
,l4e.,of crossing the Danube, and obliged to content
himself With destroying the communication with the
lefthink, and taking up a position behind the Trann
nearEber.sberg This was the occasion of an extremely
murderous engagement, during which the enemy, in
storming the bricliv, lost near 4000 men—Ebersberg
. was set on fire, and Lieutenant-General Hiller con-
- tinned his retreat till he pa so much the start as to
. pass the Danube near stain, without being disturbed
. by the enemy, and to wait the approach of the Arch-
duke, wlio, after having in vain attempted the *Jane-
. tion of the arms. near Lintz, had marched from Bud-
weis to Zwettei ; still hopirg, by a quick passage of
the Dahube, to arrest the enemy's progress towards
teat Metropolis.
Meanwhile, a corps of Wurtembergers had advan-
ced from Passau along both the shores of the Da-
nube, lad occupied Lintz and the hank opposite to
it ; had restored the bridge, and signalized itself by
. destroying the defenceless villages and castles which
could not be protected by the small advanced guard
proceeding by the side of the main au my.
The enemy, by marching through the valley oil
the Danube in the straightest line, had got so much 1
a-head, that all hopes of coming up with him in front
of Vienna vanished ; still, however, if tivt city had 1
• been able to hold out for five days, it might have I
been relieved ; and the Archduke resolved on ventu-
ring the utmost to rescue that good city, which by the
excellent disposition of its citizens, the faithful attach-
ment to its Sovereign, and its noble devotion, has
raised to itself an eternal monument in the annals of
Austria. All his plans were now directed towards
gaining the bridges across the Danube near Vienna,
and endeavouring to save the Imperial residence by
a combat under its very walls.
Vienna, formerly an important fortress, was in vain
besieged by tie Turks, and would even now, from
the s,lility of its ramparts, the strong profiles of its
wor!:c, and the extensive system of its mines, he ca-1
pable of making a protracted existence, had not, for
upwards 4 a century back, the luxury of a large me-
trop...:i:, the w::nts of ease, the conflux of all the mag- 1
nates in the empire, and the pomp of a splendid
Court, totally effaced every consideration of military 1
defence. Palaces adorn the rampart, the casemates
and ditchei wer, converted into workshops of trades-
men, plaw.ation,, mark the counterscarps of the tor-'
tress, and aventv.,7.. of trees traverse the glacis, unit-1
ing the meat be,lutiful suUttrhs in the world to the,
corps de la Place.
Although under such circumstances no obstinate
resistance of the r:tpital Was to be expected, yet,
from the unexampled loyalty of the inhabitants, it •
was confidently hoped that Vienna might for a few
days serve as a tete-de-pont to cover the passage of
the river ; whence all preparations amounted to no
more than to secure tie place against a coup-de-
main ; and for, this reason the Archduke .had some
time before directedField-Marshal Hiller to send part
of his corps along the right bank towards the capi-
tal, in the event of his the Archduke's) passage to
the left shore.
.