Battle of Aspern - Essling In the Battle of Aspern - Essling ( 21 – 22 May 1809 ) , Napoleon attempted a forced crossing of the Danube near Vienna , but the French and their allies were driven back by the Austrians under Archduke Charles . The battle was the first time Napoleon had been personally defeated in over a decade , but it was no more than a tactical victory for the Austrians , who failed to capitalise on their superior numbers and merely repulsed Napoleon , without defeating him . Background . At the time of the battle Napoleon was in possession of Vienna , the bridges over the Danube had been broken , and the Archduke ' s army was near the Bisamberg , a hill near Korneuburg , on the left bank of the river . The French wanted to cross the Danube . Lobau , one of the numerous islands which divide the river into minor channels , was selected as the point of crossing . Careful preparations were made , and on the night of 19 – 20 May the French bridged all the channels on the right bank to Lobau and occupied the island . By the evening of the 20th many men had been collected there and the last arm of the Danube , between Lobau and the left bank , bridged . Masséna ' s corps at once crossed to the left bank and dodged the Austrian outposts . Undeterred by the news of heavy attacks on his rear from Tyrol and from Bohemia , Napoleon ferried all available troops to the bridges , and by daybreak on the 21st , 40 , 000 men were collected on the Marchfeld , the broad plain of the left bank , which was also to be the scene of the Battle of Wagram . The Archduke did not resist the passage . It was his intention , as soon as a large enough force had crossed , to attack it before the rest of the French army could come to its assistance . Napoleon had accepted the risk of such an attack , but he sought at the same time to minimize it by summoning every available battalion to the scene . His forces on the Marchfeld were drawn up in front of the bridges facing north , with their left in the village of Aspern ( Gross - Aspern ) and their right in Essling . Both places lay close to the Danube and could not therefore be turned ; Aspern , indeed , is actually on the bank of one of the river channels . The French had to fill the gap between the villages , and also move forward to give room for the supporting units to form up . The corps led by Johann von Hiller ( VI ) , Heinrich Graf von Bellegarde ( I ) and Prince Friedrich of Hohenzollern - Hechingen ( II ) were to converge upon Aspern , while Prince Franz Seraph of Rosenberg - Orsini ( IV ) was to attack Essling . Prince Johann of Liechtenstein ' s Austrian reserve cavalry was in the center , ready to move out against any French cavalry attacking the heads of the columns . During the 21st the bridges became more and more unsafe , owing to the violence of the current , but the French crossed without intermission all day and during the night . Order of battle . " Kaiserlich - Königliche Hauptarmee " , under the command of Charles of Austria : TOTAL : 99 000 men ; 84 000 infantry , 14 250 cavalry , 288 guns " Grande Armée d ' Allemagne " , under the command of Napoleon I : TOTAL ( on 22 May ) : 77 000 men ; 67 000 infantry , 10 000 cavalry , 152 guns First Day . The battle began at Aspern ; Hiller carried the village at the first rush , but Masséna recaptured it , and held his ground with remarkable tenacity . The French infantry fought with the old stubborn bravery which it had failed to show in the earlier battles of the war . The three Austrian columns were unable to capture more than half the village . The post was still held by Masséna when night fell . Meanwhile , all the French infantry between the two villages and in front of the bridges had been drawn into the fight on the flank . Napoleon therefore , to create a diversion , sent forward his center , now consisting only of cavalry , to charge the enemy ' s artillery , which was deployed in a long line and firing on Aspern . The first charge of the French was repulsed , but second attempt was made by heavy masses of cuirassiers . The French horsemen drove off guns , rode round Hohenzollern ' s infantry square s , and resisted the cavalry of Lichtenstein , but they were unable to do more , and in the end they retired to their old position . In the meanwhile Essling had been the scene of fighting almost as desperate as that of Aspern . The French cuirassiers made heavy charges on the flank of Rosenberg ' s force , and delayed an assault . In the villages , Lannes with a single division resisted until night ended the battle . The two armies bivouacked , and in Aspern the French and Austrians lay within pistol shot of each other . The emperor was not discouraged , and renewed efforts to bring up every available man . All through the night more and more French troops came across . Second Day . At the earliest dawn of the 22nd the battle was resumed . Masséna swiftly cleared Aspern of the enemy , but at the same time Rosenberg stormed Essling . Lannes , however , resisted desperately , and reinforced by St Hilaire ' s division , drove Rosenberg out . In Aspern , Masséna was driven out by a counter - attack of Hiller and Bellegarde . Meanwhile Napoleon had launched a great attack on the Austrian center . The whole of the French center , with Lannes on the left and the cavalry in reserve , moved forward . The Austrian line was broken through , between Rosenberg ' s right and Hohenzollern ' s left . Victory was almost won when the Archduke brought up his last reserve , leading his soldiers with a colour in his hand . Lannes was checked , and with his repulse the impetus of the attack died out all along the line . Aspern had been lost , and the news reached Napoleon at the critical moment . The Danube bridges , which had broken down once already , had been cut by heavy barges , which had been sent drifting down stream by the Austrians . Napoleon at once suspended the attack . Essling now fell to another assault of Rosenberg , and the French drove him out again . Rosenberg then directed his efforts on the flank of the French center , slowly retiring on the edges . The retirement was terribly costly , but Lannes stopped the French from being driven into the Danube . Complete exhaustion of both sides ended the fighting . Results . The French lost over 20 , 000 men including one of Napoleon ' s ablest field commanders and close friend , Marshal Jean Lannes , who died after being mortally wounded by an Austrian cannonball in an attack on Johann von Klenau ' s force at Aspern , which was backed up by 60 well - placed guns . The Austrians had also suffered similar casualties but had secured the first major victory against the French for over a decade . The victory demonstrated the progress the Austrian army had made since the string of catastrophic defeats in 1800 and 1805 . The French forces were withdrawn to the island . On the night of the 22nd the last bridge was repaired , and the army awaited the arrival of reinforcements in Lobau . The Austrians failed to capitalise on the situation allowing the French to regroup . One month later , the French made a second attempt to cross the Danube where Napoleon gained a decisive victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram . The " " ( " Lion of Aspern " ) is a monument commemorating the battle . Accounts . Patrick Rambaud , a French author , wrote a fictionalized account of the conflict entitled " The Battle " using many first - hand sources . Just looking from the French perspective , the novel provides a rather realistic description of combat in the Napoleonic era , as well as detailed depictions of famous commanders such as Napoleon , Massena , and Lannes . The concept and notes for the book originally came from noted French author Honoré de Balzac . De Marbot , one of Marshal Lannes aide - de - camps , wrote in his memoirs of the battle , in which he had to observe the last moments of his close friends , and describes the amount of bloodshed and sadness which came to the Grande Armée after the crossing of the Danube . The army surgeon Dominique - Jean Larrey also described the battle in his memoirs and mentions how he fed the wounded at Lobau with a bouillon of horse meat seasoned with gunpowder .