page_title: Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty
section_title: Charge at Austerlitz
hierarchical_section_title: Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty / Napoleonic Wars / War of the Third Coalition / Charge at Austerlitz
context_page_description: Étienne-Marie-Antoine Champion, comte de Nansouty was a French cavalry commander during the French Revolutionary Wars who rose to the rank of General of Division in 1803 and subsequently held important military commands during the Napoleonic Wars.
  Of noble Burgundian descent, he was a student at the Brienne military school, then was a graduate of the Paris military school. Nansouty began his military career in 1785, as a sub-lieutenant in the regiment Bourgogne-Infanterie, where his father had served during the wars of Louis XV. A cavalry officer at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792, Nansouty was commissioned as an aide-de-camp to Marshal Nicolas Luckner. During the First Coalition, he saw service as a lieutenant-colonel and squadron commander in the 9th Cavalry Regiment, campaigning with the French armies on the Rhine and in Germany. Promoted to Colonel in 1793 and given the command of the 9th Cavalry, he was noted for several well-led cavalry actions.
context_section_description: Having advanced the bulk of his army deep into Austrian territory, Napoleon faced a massed enemy army of some 85,000 men in the vicinity of the town of Austerlitz. Combat began before dawn on 2 December 1805, and Nansouty had his entire division reunited under his command and again placed in the Cavalry Reserve, under Murat. Nansouty was positioned on the left wing of the army and his command included his usual six regiments of three-squadrons each: Brigadier General Piston's 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval (205 and 181 men respectively), Brigadier General La Housaye's 2nd and 9th Cuirassiers (304 and 280 men respectively) and Brigadier General Saint-Germain's 3rd and 12th Cuirassiers (333 and 277 men respectively). Additionally, a horse battery from the 4th company of the 2nd horse artillery regiment was also a part of his division. These men were at first positioned on two lines, behind Caffarelli's infantry division of Lannes's V Corps. 
  At around 10:00, after battle had been joined all along the front, Russian General Pyotr Bagration, who had won the cavalry action a few days earlier at Wissau, pulled his forces back from the advancing enemy infantry from the V Corps. Meanwhile, the Austrian Prince Johann I Joseph, Prince of Liechtenstein threw his 4,000-sabre Austro-Russian cavalry reserve into combat against Murat's 6,000 sabres. The Austro-Russians did not provide infantry or artillery support to the cavalry attack, while Murat's cavalrymen were able to cooperate with Lannes's infantry and artillery. Taking immense casualties after a first series of actions against Lannes's infantry, elements of the Coalition cavalry withdrew and were reformed by their commanders. Joined by Bagration's own cavalry, they set off again, this time aiming directly at Murat's command centre. As the Austro-Russian cavalry was closing in on its target, they were steadily met by four of Nansouty's regiments (the two Carabiniers regiments and the 2nd and 3rd Cuirassiers). The sounds of the two massed cavalries colliding could be heard some distance away. After a brief combat, the Austro-Russian horsemen broke and were driven off. However, Liechtenstein soon reformed his men and, seeing that all the French cavalry was positioned on the left of Caffarelli's infantry division, he launched his men against the right wing of this division, but was instantly met with sustained musket volleys that disorganised his cavalrymen. Seeing this development, Nansouty wheeled right with his men and crossed the infantry intervals by platoons, and then formed his men on two battle lines in front of the infantry. Three charges ensued in brief succession, with Nansouty skilfully committing the 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval and the 2nd Cuirassiers from his first line, then the 9th Cuirassiers and Saint-Germain's brigade from his second line. The Austro-Russian cavalry was finally broken and repulsed for good. After another series of well-coordinated cavalry and infantry actions, Murat and Lannes were able to force Bagration's entire force to withdraw, with a loss 2,000 men (approximately half of the force) and 16 guns.
  On the French side, despite their repeated charges on this day, the 1st heavy cavalry division registered only relatively minor casualties, a testament to the skill of its commanders. Piston's 1st Brigade registered 2 killed and 41 wounded, La Houssaye's 2nd Brigade registered 1 man killed and 25 wounded, while Saint-Germain's 3rd Brigade registered 47 killed and 28 wounded. The regiment that suffered the highest casualty rate was by far the 3rd cuirassiers, with 44 killed and 27 wounded, for a casualty rate of 21 per cent. Nansouty's charge was rated "superb and brilliant" in the report drawn up by General Augustin Daniel Belliard, Murat's chief of staff, and Nansouty was subsequently mentioned in the army bulletin for this action and named Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur on 25 December. Additionally, of the six colonels in his division, three were promoted to Brigadier General and three received the cross of Commandeur de la Légion d'
caption: The Austrian Prince Johann Josef I von Liechtenstein was in command of the cavalry reserve of the Austro-Russian army at Austerlitz. During this battle, his men came off worst from a series of encounters with Nansouty's 1st heavy cavalry division.
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