Editing Battle of Wagram (section)

=== Austrian retreat ===
While ''Feldmarshalleutnant'' Klenau was being ousted from Essling, Archduke Charles received much-awaited news about the arrival of his brother on the battlefield. However, the news were disappointing: Archduke John of Austria and his 13,000 men, Charles's only hope for rescuing his collapsing left flank, would only be able to arrive towards 17:00, much too late to make any difference. By now, Charles was acutely aware that his troops would not hold out much longer. His three corps on the Wagram plateau (I, II and IV) had been in action for some ten hours. On his right, Kollowrat's III Korps, Klenau's VI Korps and the Reserve Korps were being pushed back. Crucially, he had no battle reserves with which to either support his battered line or to launch a counterattack of his own. Continuing to fight in these conditions would have spelled the end of the ''Kaiserlich-königliche Hauptarmee'' and, in Charles's view, the end of the Habsburg Empire. His only realistic option was to begin an orderly retreat, which he ordered by mid morning, directing each corps along its line of retreat.{{sfn|Castle|1990|p=85}}{{ref label|Retreat|Note 9|9}}

While MacDonald's attack was drawing the attention of the Austrians, the French launched their general attack. Napoleon committed Marmont's fresh XI Corps, sending these men to take position opposite to Austrian I Korps and fill the gap between the "Army of Italy" and II Corps. Moreover, towards 13:00, the French from Oudinot's II Corps had begun to advance frontally against the Austrian troops on the Wagram plateau. The mercurial Oudinot, who had been waiting for his orders to attack all morning, decided to wait no longer, despite the fact that he had not yet received his order. Opposite to Oudinot was Austrian II Korps. Having spent the entire morning doing nothing else than exchanging artillery fire with French II Corps, these men were relatively fresh. They were also in a very dangerous position. The commander of II Korps, the experienced ''Feldmarschalleutnant'' [[Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen|Hohenzollern]], could see that his force was in danger of being attacked from the flank by Davout's seemingly unstoppable corps. Now Oudinot was advancing against him. At first, Hohenzollern tried to hold on his initial positions and his men greeted Oudinot's advancing columns with intense musketry. However, the Austrian commander realised the fragility of his position, seeing that, on his left, all the Austrian troops were in full retreat and he ran the risk of having Oudinot pin his men down, while Davout was free to advance in his flank and rear. Hohenzollern thus had little choice but to order his men to fall back and form a new line further north, sending 5 battalions and several batteries from his second line to form a new flank and slow down Davout's two advancing divisions, which were drawing dangerously close to the strategic village of Baumersdorf.<ref name="Nau67" />{{sfn|Rothenberg|1995|pp=194–195}}

Seeing the Austrians in full retreat, Oudinot lost his composure and galloped along his line, shouting his commands, ordering his men to run at the enemy. One of the Corps divisional commanders, general [[Charles Louis Dieudonné Grandjean|Grandjean]], reiterated this highly unusual and potentially disastrous order, which would have resulted in the columns rapidly dispersing and becoming vulnerable to a counterattack. Luckily enough, the troops were commanded by experienced junior officers, who took over and executed the orderly manoeuvres that were required on such occasions. During this action, Oudinot was wounded twice and had his horse shot from under him,<ref name=Nau67/> but he retained his command and, after his surgeon dressed his wounds, he led his men on.<ref>Arnold 161.</ref> His troops stormed Baumersdorf, which they took, despite gallant defense from [[Ignaz zu Hardegg|Hardegg]]'s brigade. Oudinot's Corps then fanned out, with the bulk of his men continuing to press Hohenzollern and [[Jean Victor Tharreau|Tharreau]]'s division wheeling left against Bellegarde's I Korps. To the west, General [[Michel-Marie Pacthod|Pacthod]] and his division of the "Army of Italy", supported by the Italian Royal Guard, were able to manoeuvre unseen by following the riverline of the Russbach up the village of [[Deutsch-Wagram]]. There, they fell upon the unprotected flank of [[Konstantin Ghilian Karl d'Aspré|d'Aspré]]'s Austrian grenadier division, which had been left behind to cover Bellegarde, who had just begun to retreat, in accordance with Charles's orders. Surprising the grenadiers, Pacthod stormed the position and pushed the Austrians back in disorder beyond the village of Aderklaa. They were supported by Tharreau's division of II Corps, which had managed to storm the plateau next to the village. Bellegarde reacted by sending in some of his reserves to stop the enemy onslaught, but the French managed to secure both Wagram and Aderklaa, two key positions on the battlefield.<ref name=Nau67/>{{sfn|Rothenberg|1995|pp=194–195}}

By 16:00, the entire Austrian army was in full retreat. They executed this manoeuvre admirably, with the formations remaining cohesive and withdrawing in echelon, each formation protecting the retreat of the adjoining one. During this phased retreat, ''Generalmajor'' [[Josef von Smola (1764–1820)|Smola]], commander of the Austrian artillery had a major role, managing to mass a sufficient number of cannon to keep the enemy at a respectable distance. The French, who had been marching and fighting for over forty hours, under intense heat and with scarce rations of water and food, were slowly following the retreating enemy. The exhaustion of the French troops was such that, towards 16:00 a brief moment of panic occurred at Wagram. Dozens of French infantry fled down the escarpment, with the Old Guard forced to form square in order to protect the Emperor's headquarters, before order could be restored. A second such moment took place around one hour later, when a mounted scouting party from Archduke John's army suddenly appeared near Glinzendorf, causing panic among the stragglers and civilian contractors of the army, with the Guard again forced to form square. But John soon received word that the battle was already over and hastily retraced his steps.{{sfn|Rothenberg|1995|pp=196–198}} A final incident took place towards 18:00, when elements of the 108th Line regiment from Davout's Corps caught up with enemy stragglers at the Bockfliess. There, the French found the houses filled with drunken Austrian whitecoats, who refused to surrender and attempted to defend themselves. Some 200 of these men were slaughtered and 400 were captured.<ref>Naulet 71.</ref> By nightfall, contact had been broken and the exhausted French had to stop the pursuit and camp on their positions.{{sfn|Castle|1990|p=85}} Towards dusk, French cavalry caught up with Austrian III Korps and tried to block its retreat but the numerous Austrian cavalry in the sector promptly stepped in, hitting the enemy's flank and sending these horsemen fleeing. This persuaded Archduke Charles that he had left III Korps in an exposed position and ordered it to hasten their retreat and get in line with VI Korps. Towards 20:00 all combat ceased and the Austrians were able to move away without any further incident. Napoleon's forces had won the bloody Battle of Wagram.{{sfn|Rothenberg|1995|p=202}}