The Greatest Napoleonic Battles

For twenty years one man's campaigns convulsed Europe. Massed columns, cavalry and artillery met on fields whose names still echo. These are the decisive battles of the Napoleonic Wars.

Austerlitz, 1805. Napoleon's tactical masterpiece.

Trafalgar, 1805. Nelson breaks two fleets at sea.

Jena-Auerstedt, 1806. Prussia falls in a single day.

Borodino, 1812. The bloodiest day before Moscow.

Leipzig, 1813. The Battle of the Nations.

Waterloo, 1815. The end of the empire.

See these battles set beside every other era in Battles That Changed the World.

Why the Napoleonic Wars reshaped Europe

For twenty years Napoleon's campaigns set the standard for the art of war: fast-marching corps, massed artillery and the hunt for one decisive battle. His victories at Austerlitz and Jena and his defeats at Leipzig and Waterloo redrew the map of Europe and closed an age of warfare on foot and horseback.

Which was Napoleon's greatest victory?

The usual answer is Austerlitz, fought on 2 December 1805 and also called the Battle of the Three Emperors. With about 73,000 men, Napoleon beat some 85,000 Austrians and Russians by luring them against his weakened right wing, then seizing the Pratzen Heights in the centre and cutting their army in two. Austria soon left the war¹.

The trap was deliberate. Napoleon thinned his right flank to draw the allies south, while he kept his strength on the left and in the centre. Fog hampered both sides that morning, and at around nine o'clock Soult's corps took the Pratzen Heights, the high ground that divided the field. The fight for the plateau was fierce, with the Russian Imperial Guard thrown in, but the French held it and drove the allies back toward the ponds to the south¹.

The allies lost about 27,000 men, 12,000 of them prisoners, against roughly 9,000 French. The famous story of thousands drowned in the frozen ponds is a legend. When the ponds were later drained, only two bodies were found. The Peace of Pressburg that followed took Austria out of the Third Coalition, though Russia fought on until 1807¹. Follow the whole day hour by hour in our account of the Battle of Austerlitz.

Which battles did Napoleon lose?

Napoleon's best-known defeats are Aspern-Essling in 1809, his first serious loss in the field; Leipzig in 1813, the Battle of the Nations; and Waterloo in 1815, which ended his rule for good. Aspern-Essling was a check he recovered from within weeks. Leipzig and Waterloo were the defeats that cost him his empire.

Aspern-Essling was fought on 21 and 22 May 1809, just outside Vienna. Napoleon tried to cross the Danube by way of the large island of Lobau and was thrown back by Archduke Charles of Austria. Marshal Lannes, one of his best commanders, had his knee crushed by a cannonball and died nine days later. Napoleon learned from it, prepared a better crossing, and won at Wagram on 5 and 6 July².

Leipzig, in October 1813, was a different matter. Austrians, Prussians, Russians and Swedes, around 300,000 men in all, closed in on him from several sides. He led the remains of his army back to France, and his image as an invincible general was gone for ever³. He abdicated in April 1814, came back from exile the next year, and on 18 June 1815 was beaten at Waterloo by Wellington's army and Blücher's Prussians. He was sent to St Helena in the South Atlantic and died there six years later⁴. For the full story of the October battle, read the Battle of Leipzig.

Each battle has its full account below. Meet the men who fought them in the greatest military commanders in history.