The Battle of Abach - 21 April 1809 - end of day

Referee's statement

Our Revered Referee's (edited) statement upon the conclusion of the first day of fighting at Abach:

Around 90.000 French were engaged against 70.000 Austrians during a 13 hours full day. More are coming during the night for both sides. This makes this battle a major engagement, the size of Essling, Austerlitz, almost Dresden.

At the end of the day, the French side has lost 77 stands and 4 batteries. 17 more stands are routed (in 6 spent brigades). Gudin's division is almost destroyed, Demont's division is. This makes a total of 30.000 men out of order for the next day, the third of the engaged army.

The Austrian has lost 62 stands, 20 more are routed in 6 brigades also. 11 batteries are lost. This makes a 26.000 losses, a third of the army or so, but almost half of its artillery. Both percentages are therefore close.

Interestingly, this battle can be seen as a success and a failure for both sides. The French could not crush the outnumbered Austrian, but they were able to gather the army (finally!) and made significant losses on the enemy guns. The Austrian survived this day (which was not obvious at first) and are concentrating more of their huge army, but on the campaign side were not able to isolate and destroy any part of the French army.

So, now both sides are facing the nightmare of every commander in chief, a battle of attrition, Borodino-type with expected sky-rocketing losses.

For the first time in the 16 campaigns I was the Umpire, this is the first time I am unable to tell who is going to win! Even the present battle is undecided, and both sides can still win this battle, and therefore the campaign. We may need a third day of battle ...

Abach, the longest battle ever after Leipzig !

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