378 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



telligence with the French Generals 

 endeavour to conceal from the peo- 

 ple, who are so unfortunate as to be 

 subjected to their power. 



Head- Quarters, Tomas, the 20th 

 April, 1809. 



(Signed) 



W. C. Beresford. 

 Marshal and Commander in Chief. 



Supplement to the London Gazette 

 of the llth of July. 

 Account of the Battle 

 fought near Aspern, on the 

 March-field, on the '21st and 

 22nd day of May, between the 

 Archduke Charles of Austria, 

 Generalissimo of the Imperial 

 Austrian Armies, and the Em- 

 peror Napoleon, Commander in 

 Chief of the French and Allied 

 Armies. 



The emperor Napoleon having, 

 after some sanguinary engagements 

 near Abensberg, Hausen and Dinz- 

 ligen, in which the fortune of war 

 favoured the Austrian arms so as to 

 force the French garrison at Ratis- 

 bon to surrender, succeeded in cut- 

 tingofFthe left wingof the Austrian 

 army, and driving it back to Land- 

 shut, and afterwards in advancing 

 by Eckmuhl, with a superior corps 

 of cavalry, taking theroadof Eglof- 

 sheim, and forcing to retreat those 

 Austrian corps that were posted on 

 the heights of Leikepont and Tai- 

 inessing, the archduke on the 23rd 

 of April crossed the Danube near 

 Ratisbon, and joined the corps of 

 Bellegarde, who had opened the 

 campaignbyseveralsuccessfulaffairs 

 in the Upper Palatinate,had reached 

 Amberg, Neumarkt and Hemau, 

 and had by this time approached 

 Stadt-am-Hof, in order to execute 

 bis immediate junction with the 



archduke. The emperor Napo- 

 leon ordered the bombardment of 

 Ratisbon, occupied by a few battal- 

 ions who were to cover the passage 

 of the Danube. On the 23rd in the 

 evening he became master of it, and 

 immediately hastened along the 

 right bank of the Danube to enter 

 the Austrian states, in order, as he 

 openly declared, to dictate peace at 

 Vienna. The Austrian army had 

 taken a position near Cham, behind 

 the river Regen, which was watched 

 by some of the enemy's divisions 

 while the emperor Napoleon called 

 all his disposable troops, in forced 

 marches, from the north ofUermany 

 to the Danube, and considerably 

 reinforced his army with the troops 

 of Wurtemburg, Hessia, Baden, 

 and sometime after with those of 

 Saxony. Near Kirn and Nittenau, 

 some affairs had happened between 

 the out-posts, which, however, had 

 no influence upon our armies. 

 However easy it would have been 

 for the archduke to continue his 

 oflPensive operations on the left bank 

 of the Danube without any material 

 resistance, and however gratifying 

 it might have been to relieve pro- 

 vinces which were groaning beneath 

 the pressure of foreign dominion, 

 the preservation of his native land 

 did not permit him to suffer the 

 enemy to riot with impunity in the 

 entrails of the monarchy, to give up 

 the rich sources ofits independence, 

 and expose the welfare of the sub- 

 ject to the devastations of foreign ' 

 conquerors. These motives induced 

 the archduke to conduct his army 

 to Bohemia, by the way ofKlentsch 

 and Neumarkt, to occupy the Bo- 

 hemian forest with light troops and 

 part of the militia, and to direct his 

 march towards Budweis, where he 

 arrived on the 3rd of May, hoping 



to 



