page_title: Karl Wilhelm von Stutterheim
section_title: Austrian service: 1809
hierarchical_section_title: Karl Wilhelm von Stutterheim / Austrian service: 1809
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Heinrich Graf Bellegarde, Lithographie von Josef Kriehuber, 1844English: en:Count Heinrich von Bellegarde, Lithograph by Josef Kriehuber, 1844
context_page_description: Karl Daniel Gottfried Wilhelm von Stutterheim, born 6 August 1770 – died 13 December 1811, served in the Prussian and Saxon armies during the French Revolutionary Wars, leaving the latter service in 1798. He spent most of his career in the army of Habsburg Austria and the Austrian Empire. He commanded a brigade in combat against the First French Empire during the 1805 and 1809 wars. In the latter conflict, he led his troops with dash and competence. He authored two histories about the wars; the second work remained unfinished due to his suicide in 1811.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the War of the Fifth Coalition, Stutterheim was appointed to lead a brigade in Hannibal Sommariva's Light Division belonging to Prince Franz Seraph of Rosenberg-Orsini's IV Armeekorps. The brigade consisted of two battalions of the Deutsch-Banater Grenz Infantry Regiment Nr. 12, eight squadrons of the Vincent Chevau-léger Regiment Nr. 4, and a 3-pound Grenz brigade battery with eight pieces. On 19 April 1809, the main armies met at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria. Leading the IV Armeekorps advance guard, Stutterheim located Claude Petit's French infantry brigade in the woods at Schneidert to the east of Hausen. He attacked but was repulsed after a prolonged action. Rosenberg led the bulk of his troops farther east to Dünzling where they finally drove back a greatly inferior force of French troops under Louis-Pierre Montbrun.
  On 21 April at dawn, Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout moved his III Corps east from Haugen against Rosenberg's positions to open the two-day Battle of Eckmühl. Suspecting an attack, Rosenberg put Stutterheim in command of three battalions, six squadrons, and a horse artillery battery and ordered him to hold the village of Paring, which is midway between Hausen and Eckmühl. At 6:00 AM Stutterheim reported the French advance and his corps commander reinforced him to a total of six battalions. The French division of Louis Friant soon attacked Paring with the 108th and 111th Line Infantry Regiments. While the 108th mounted a frontal assault, the 111th turned Austrian right flank. Paring fell and 400 Austrians were captured, but the contest occupied the French until 11:00 AM. Meanwhile, Stutterheim's cavalry harassed the Bavarian division of Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy in its efforts to capture the town of Schierling to the west of Eckmühl. Deroy managed to wrest Schierling from Josef Philipp Vukassovich's defenders, but got no farther east that day.
  Stutterheim fell back east to the main line of defense, which ran through Unter- and Ober-Laichling. These twin villages are northwest of Eckmühl. Rosenberg posted Ludwig Alois von Hohenlohe-Bartenstein's division on the right, Sommariva's division in the center, and Stutterheim's advance guard on the left, holding a hill known as the Vorberg. For the rest of the 21st, Davout battered at Rosenberg's line, but the Austrians managed to hold their ground until evening.
  That night at 2:00 AM, Stutterheim reported that Emperor Napoleon was about to attack the Austrian left flank. Archduke Charles planned for his right wing to attack Davout, while Rosenberg held his position on the left wing. The day of 22 April opened with a thick fog, which did not clear until after 8:00 AM. Charles did not issue his orders until that hour and intended for his troops to begin the assault on Davout about 1:00 PM. The Austrian attack on Davout's left never materialized and Charles quickly abandoned the effort. Meanwhile, Napoleon arrived on the battlefield at about 2:00 PM. The emperor soon brought large forces to bear on Rosenberg's position from the south. Aware of his perilous position, Rosenberg refused his left flank to face the new threat. Davout and Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre's Bavarian VII Corps attacked from the west, while Marshal Jean Lannes' provisional corps, consisting of two detached III Corps divisions, and Dominique Vandamme's Württemberg VIII Corps assaulted from the south.
  As the French and their German allies closed in on Rosenberg, Stutterheim led four squadrons of hussars in a charge which stopped the advance of some of Davout's troops near Unter-Laichling. Later, he directed four squadrons of Chevau-légers in a spirited counterattack against French skirmishers. These enemies, who threatened a key hill called the Bettel Berg, were driven off. Later, a division of French cuirassiers and German-allied cavalry approached the Bettel Berg. Stutterheim joined in a cavalry countercharge, but this time the Austrians were routed and most of the guns were captured when the hilltop was overrun. At 9:00 AM on the morning of the 23rd, French cui
caption: Heinrich von Bellegarde
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