Saving General Roussel - Campaign Battle of Jettenbach

In the confusion of the retreat from Babensham the Austrian army became strung out along the south bank of the Inn.  The French hastened to pursue, attempting in particular to cut off the tail of the column and destroy it.  Drouet, leading the pursuit, managed to catch FML Auffenberg a little upstream of Mühldorf, where the small stream of the Wanklbach flows into the Inn at Kraiburg.  Auffenberg might have fought a skirmishing retreat to the east but for his knowledge that if he did so he would be leaving General Roussel d'Hurbal, with almost 9,000 men, cut off to the west, trapped against the bank of the Inn.  Roussel would surely be forced to surrender, so Auffenberg sent an appeal to the Emperor, committing the army to a reversal of direction to rescue the isolated column.

The map, looking from the south, and the actual table seen from the east.

In an attempt to hold off the French long enough for Roussel to escape, Auffenberg deployed agressively on the brow of the ridge that ran, parallel to the river, along the axis of the battlefield.  Two brigades of infantry concealed themselves in the woods overlooking the valley up which the French must come, and Vogel's Cheveaux-Legers covered the open slope to the east, above the village of Taufkirchen.  

Vogel's cavalry are shocked to see a French brigade advancing over a shoulder of the hill just
before them,while their infantry colleages scramble to get into position on the top of the ridge.

They were taken aback, though, by the vigour of the French advance.  Appearing suddenly around a corner of the woods at 1:00pm, Drouet's light infantry first drove off the Austrian cavalry screen, breaking them outright in the shock of their assault.  Then the whole division turned up the hill to drive the infantry from the heights.  Although the going was heavy through the woods the Frenchmen continued to advance steadily, inflicting heavy losses.  The difficult terrain bought the Austrians just enough time to retire, narrowly avoiding outright defeat before the bulk of the army could even reach the battlefield.

Austrian casualties mount as the French drive determinedly up the slope and over it, but the courageous stand by Auffenberg's
men hold up the French enough for the rest of the army to arrive and form up in the valley behind.  But will it be enough?

At 3:00pm Franz von Werneck's column started to trickle onto the battlefield from the east.  Leavng Auffenberg for the time being to keep holding the centre, they sought to occupy the villages of Taufkirchen, on the Wanklbach, and Oberneukirchen on the Inn, so as to secure the Austrian left.  

A French attack past Taufkirchen failed to halt the Austrian advance, and Hohenfeld's grenadiers made it into the village.

In the light of the arrival of III Corps an hour later, though, perhaps that was not a good idea...

At 4:30, as Klenau's men flooded along the Inn from the east to shore up the failing Austrian centre, Roussel's column appeared at last along the bank of the river from the west.  Too late, though, to make a speed run to safety - they had been anticipated by half an hour by Rivaud's division of I Corps, who lined the ridge to the south within cannon shot.  Roussel's men crept past in square, making it to the apparent safety of the village of Jettenbach.  Riesch and Klenau had by now cobbled together a strong presence in the centre, and Werneck an L-shaped line on the left flank, although the outpost in Taufkirchen had been annihilated.  

It looked for a while as though the Austrians might hold a viable perimeter until the coming of darkness allowed them to resume their withdrawal.  The only worry was they river was awfully close to their backs...

Ignoring rumours of Austrian reinforcements to his right, Davout forms his corps into a giant assault column, aimed squarely at the
Austrian hinge in Oberneukirchen, where Werneck's and Riesch's commands meet.

Napoleon, Bernadotte and Davout pore over a map, planning the final destruction of the Austrians.

They were too strung out, though, to manoeuvre effectively, and in 1805 combined-arms assaults were in any case not the Austrian strong suit.  As Davout pushed in on the French right, Rivaud flung Roussel's men out of Jettenbach and French artillery on the ridge began to pound the little town of Kraiburg.  By 6:00 pm the town was in flames, untenable as a defensive point, and the Austrian army was forced back into a tight ring around Oberneukirchen. 

With the French pushing in from all sides, and cannonballs beginning to tear through the packed infantry, the fight was abandoned, and the Austrian army began to slip away in the dusk.

Emperor Francis and FML Riesch contemplate the disaster.