13. Napoleon’s Marshalls Bluff the Austrians Into Surrendering a Vital Bridge
Napoleon’s 1805 Ulm Campaign culminated in his capture of an entire Austrian army. In the aftermath, the Austrians’ Russian allies retreated to the north bank of the Danube, and hoped for breathing space to regroup by putting that river between themselves and the pursuing French. To that end, all bridges spanning the Danube were either blown up or prepared with explosives to detonate at a word of command to prevent their capture by the French.
In the meantime, peace negotiations were underway as the French neared the Austrian capital of Vienna on the Danube. In order to not cast a pall over the negotiations, and because it might prove unnecessary should the negotiators succeed, Austrian authorities forebore from blowing up Vienna’s bridges, but rigged them up for detonation if the French tried to seize them. One such was the Tabor Bridge, entrusted to Count Auesberg. In one of history’s most brazen deceptions, two of Napoleon’s Marshalls tricked the unfortunate Auesberg into handing the bridge over.