THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
m 
In 1809 the bridge was destroyed, Yienna yielded when it found that 
Napoleon would enforce his threat of bombardment, but the Archduke 
Charles succeeded for more than six weeks in forbidding the passage of the 
river; when this was ultimately forced at Lobau, Yienna formed again 
Napoleon's base of manoeuvres, he re-established the bridge of Elorisdorff, 
and it became the most important point on his line of communication with 
the capital. 
A few months since it seemed probable that the passage of the Danube 
and the importance of the Elorisdorff bridges were about to receive a fresh 
illustration. After the great victory gained on the 3rd July by the Prussian 
king, no course promised him politically or militarily, morally or materially 
such decisive advantages as an early occupation of his enemy's capital. 
Had no intrenched camp existed at Elorisdorff, three means of entering 
Yienna naturally presented themselves;— 
(1) To bombard the town from the left bank until its inhabitants might 
induce the Austrian commander-in-chief to withdraw from it his troops. 
(2) To force a passage of the river near Yienna. 
(3) To steal one at a considerable distance above or below that city. 
In the actual state of affairs, neither of the two first courses could be pursued 
until the Austrians had been again defeated in an intrenched position, where 
their artillery w r ould have had the great advantage of fighting at the very 
gates of its arsenal. 
It may seem that the works would not have interfered with the third plan, 
but although they could not do so directly, indirectly they greatly increased 
the difficulty and danger of its execution. 
(1) They enabled the Austrians to watch the left bank. 
(2) The bridges which they covered would probably allow the Austrian 
general, while the Prussians were engaged in the passage of the river, to 
pit on either bank the whole of his own army against a portion of the 
enemy's. 
The general plan of the works which thus afforded the Austrians another 
chance of saving their capital, is simply an outer chain of large detached 
redoubts, and an inner line made up of two completely separate tetes de 
jpont, the larger formed of connected redoubts, covers the Elorisdorff bridges, 
the smaller was in front of a military boat bridge thrown across at 
Stadlau. 
The outer chain consists of thirty-one redoubts, on the left it extends 
along the heights of Bizamberg, in the centre it passes in front of the 
villages of Stammersdorff and Leopoldstadt, and on the right again touches 
the Danube near the isle of Lobau. 
The ground to the left is high and mountainous, sinking at the left centre 
into hills, to the centre and right the country is very flat, and is dotted with 
numerous and substantial villages which often are just within the line of 
defence. 
The distance of the chain from the Elorisdorff bridges is never less than 
4500 yards; from Yienna never less than 6500. 
[vol, v.] 
37 
