Austrian Army during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

After the defeat at the Battle of Marengo (1800), Charles was appointed President of the Court War Council in 1801 and began a comprehensive reform that extended to the structure of the High Command and the entire army organisation.Archduke Charles separated the administrative role of the Court War Council from the operational leadership of the field armies.In a battle or when the army had detached corps, a small number of staff would be allocated to the column commander as a smaller version of headquarters.Archduke Charles, himself produced a new Dienstvorschrift on 1 September 1805,[2] which divided the staff into four departments: Conscription was implemented across the Hereditary and Bohemian (western) lands in 1781, based on population rolls from each regiment's district.Exemptions from this obligation were granted to a range of individuals, including nobles and priests, as well as most skilled workers, such as miners and employees of licensed factories.Service was for a challenging 25 years (effectively life), with the exception of bakers and equipment suppliers, who enlisted for three years.Prior to 1802, release was only possible in the event of complete incapacity, or through inheritance, purchase or marriage, with the requirement to run a property or business, conditional upon the district providing a substitute.As the local nobility refused to be centralized in the early days of the standing army, the Habsburgs often entrusted the supreme command to foreign military personnel and mercenaries.The nobility rejected military service, as the reforms had removed many financial incentives and changed the nature of the profession, and specialized knowledge became a prerequisite for leading armies that were too large to be entrusted to inexperienced individuals, regardless of their talents, courage or wealth.These Grenzers performed consistently well in every battle they participated in, with many French soldiers regarding them highly and considering them the only "warlike" units in the Austrian Army.The majority of the Austrian cavalry was distributed in a dispersed manner to the various infantry formations, which resulted in numerous instances of their being overwhelmed by superior enemy numbers at the point of attack.The inherent limitations of the prevailing command system impeded the full expression of the cavalry's lethal potential, and the implementation of successive reorganisations proved ineffective in rectifying these deficiencies.This phenomenon was reflected in the financial incentives offered to enlisting men in the smaller south German states, which constituted a significant portion of the Austrian army's manpower.The garrison artillery unit comprised personnel deemed unfit for field service and was organised into 14 districts, responsible for the defence of fortresses and other key locations.The main arsenals were located in Vienna, Prague, Olmutz and Budweis, with numerous smaller reserves dispersed throughout the Habsburg Lands.[8] Artillerymen were trained at the Artillery Korps school near Budweis (Bohemia) and in the elite Bombardeur Corps formed by Feldzeugmeister Franz Ulrich Prince Kinsky, by 1786.After relocating to Vienna in 1790, the corps introduced a seven-year programme of study, encompassing mathematics, geometry, physics, chemistry, surveying, fortification, military administration, tactics and practical exercises.However, the complex nature of the Habsburg Empire, characterised by national divisions and apprehensions of revolt, hindered the full utilisation of its manpower potential.In spring 1809, approximately 70 battalions were assembled and outfitted in plain grey smocks, a large black hat, and armed with a range of muskets, contributing to the war effort.