ORDER OF BATTLE // April 23, 1809
Battle of Ratisbon
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 119,000 estimated
French Empire
72,000
Medium-confidence figure
Austrian Empire
47,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of Ratisbon closed the Bavaria phase of the 1809 campaign. Although French forces under Napoleon, Lannes, and Davout engaged an Austrian army roughly 25,000 men smaller, the engagement's operational consequence lay less in the disparity of casualties—Austrian losses of roughly 8,000–8,900 against French losses of 1,000–2,000—than in what the Austrian rearguard achieved. The brief defense of Ratisbon and the construction of a pontoon bridge to the east allowed Archduke Charles to withdraw the bulk of his army into Bohemia intact, preserving it as a continuing field force. That escape would shape the subsequent course of the 1809 campaign, as the Austrians remained capable of further resistance. Napoleon was wounded during the assault—an artillery contusion to the ankle—marking a rare instance of the Emperor being struck in battle, though the injury did not remove him from command.
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