The Situation
For a week the 1st West Army fell back after Ottenhoven, fending off the French nipping at their heels and, without supply, trudging doggdly on to Ingolstadt where they hoped to find at least temporary shelter. Their lead elements reached the city on the evening of the 10th, and immediately started scouring it for supplies, establishing warehouses, hospitals and supply dumps for the succour of their soon-to-be-arriving comrades.
As the army trickled in, outposts were left on the various roads to provide a "crumple zone", slowing down the French advance to allow the recovery of broken units and the preparation of a defence. This worked to a degree, but by the morning of the 13th the perimeter was not much more than a mile from the city walls. Elements of II, V and VII Corps attacked at midday on that day with reinforcements to follow through the afternoon, including the infantry and artillery of the Imperial Guard, accompanied by the emperor himself.
The Battle
The Russians began the day poised for flight - Dokhturov's division was already in march order, with its tail toward the French and a good 3000 yards away from where the French would first be seen. Essen, Bagration and Skepalov formed a shield to cover the initial withdrawal, and Miladoravich was in the town itself holding the door open, as it were. Also in the town were the supplies that had been built up in the previous days.
Again they were taken by surprise by the speed of the French advance from the south. Seizing the initiative, the French were into the tail of Dokhturov's column before they had a chance to march off, immediately breaking a brigade and forcing the rest to turn and fight.
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| Well supported and with generals urging them on, the French could not fail to overwhelm the tail of the Russian column. |
With the Russian line pinned, victory seemed assured. Its right flank was hanging in the air, and the infantry of Augereau's VII Corps (his cavalry, under Durosnel, had been on the field from dawn) arrived right on schedule in the mid-afternoon to roll up the Russian flank.
And then they stopped. For this battle, Augereau had been rated "unreliable", meaning that each turn he had a 1/6 chance of failing to issue orders to his division at all. This occurred three turns in a row! With no blame attaching to the player (Gordon had the misfortune to be controlling Augereau this game), the Marshal was in very bad odour at Imperial Headquarters that night, for his inactivity allowed the Russian line to fall back, taking casualties to be sure, but not being flanked and destroyed as they had been at Attenkirchen. Yet again they were going to slip away, this time not even broken!
And so it proved. To the emperor's chagrin, by the time Augereau got his derrièrre into gear in the late afternoon the opportunity had passed. Both flanks had been anchored against the river, and whenever casualties on a particular brigade got too high, that brigade's division could be prioritised to extricated it north of the river (John had not yet discovered end-of-turn micromanagement of brigades, thinkng it to be a French super-power. He would not make that mistake again). A solid perimeter of infantry and guns, with secure flanks, is not an easy thing to break, as the French have repeatedly found fighting against John - especially when that enemy is Russian and has a safe area in the rear to which to evacuate.
By dusk the perimeter was very small, but still holding. Only then did the last Russians, defeated but not beaten, cross the bridge and exit the town by the north gate. Again they left supplies behind for the enjoyment of the French Guard, and faced a long march to the next haven. With the Danube at their backs there would be no more major river lines to defend, but there would be the odd town at which they might stop and rest. They set their faces to Neumarkt, en route for Amberg, and cast only a brief glance to Nuremberg as they faded away to the north, once again dogged by French pursuers.
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