NAPOLEONIC AUSTRIAN STAFF

The training of lower and higher charge officers in the Austrian army was quite significantly changed after the defeats of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and after the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) - among others, from the 1850s the first war academies in Austria were established. However, despite the theoretically good teaching base, the Austrian officer corps on the brink of wars with revolutionary France (1792-1799) and the Napoleonic wars (1799-1815) did not look very well. In 1792, about 350 generals and 13 field marshals served in the Austrian army. Their average age was high, and many of them owed their promotions to family connections and courtly intrigues, not to leadership skills. All these shortcomings were concentrated in the course of the Italian campaign of 1796-1797, when the Austrian troops under the command of Field Marshal Wurmser (quite a good commander by the way) were smashed by the French in a series of battles - including at Castiglione (1796). The campaign of 1805, marked by a disgraceful defeat at Austerlitz (1805), also ended in a complete defeat. After 1805, the Austrian army underwent some reforms, and one of its most important officers was Archduke Charles - probably the best high-ranking officer of the Austrian army during the Napoleonic Wars, winner, for example, from Zurich (First Battle of Zurich, June 1799). However, in spite of this, in 1809 she was defeated again at the Battle of Wagram. After 1809, the most important high officers of the Austrian army were, for example, Schwarzenberg and Radetzky.