6G0

ECIJ A— ECKMUHL.

Ecija. A considerable town in Spain, in the pro-vince of Seville. This town is beautifully situatedon the banks of the Xenil. The neighbouring countryis very fertile, and is considered the wannest in allAndalusia. Ecija has a population of about 28,000persons. It is believed to be the Colonia AugustaFirmia of the ancients, and many Roman antiquitieshave been discovered in the neighbourhood. In thevicinity of the town, are many fine public walks. Itis fifty-live miles E. N. E. of Seville. Lon. 5° 4' 34"W„ lat. 37 u 31'51" N.

Eckingham. A town in the county of Derby.The inhabitants are partly engaged in trade, andpartly in agriculture. The population amounts to3948 persons, and the annual value of real propertyto 12,767/. It is 159 miles N. W. of London, andsix from Chesterfield.

Eck.uuhl. A town on the river Labor, in theBavarian circle of the Regen, remarkable for thebattle which was fought in April 1809. Austria, en-couraged by the national war which had been kindledin Spain against Napoleon, entered the contest with-out allies, but, trusting chiefly to this country and thePorte, with an energy greater than she had everbefore displayed, she called out all her regularforces, and the militia which had been organised bythe archduke John; the archduke Charles com-manded in the character of generalissimo. Whilecount Stadion, with Gentz and others, summoned theGermans to arms by proclamations, and conductedthe negociations, the army was destined to put an endto the confederation of the Rhine, and the power ofFrance in Germany, Poland and Italy, and to restoreto Austria and the German empire their former inde-pendent position in the European system. Six corpsdarmee, under the archduke Charles, with two bodiesof reserve, in all, 220,000 men, guarded the Iser andarrived at Munich (April 16), and the Danube andRatisbon (April 20); the seventh corps, under thearchduke Ferdinand of Este, 36,000 strong, took pos-session of the duchy of Warsaw; and two corps,80,000 strong, under the archduke John, menacedItaly, the Tyrol having taken up arms in favour ofAustria.

Napoleon’s victory at Eckmiihl decided the cam-paign of 1809, on the Danube, in the vicinity ofRatisbon, and compelled Austria to give up heroffensive operations, and to resume the disadvantage-ous attitude of defensive war. The operations onthe Danube, during the five days from the 19th tothe 23rd of April, cannot, therefore, be disconnectedfrom the important battle of Eckmiihl. Napoleonleft Paris, April 1.3, and promised the king of Bavaria,at Dillingen, on the 16th, to restore him to his capitalwithin a fortnight, and to make him more powerfulthan any of his ancestors; on the 18th, his head-quarters were at Ingolstadt. Here he determined toconcentrate the different corps of his army com-manded by Davoust, Oudinot, and Massena, theBavarians under the command of Lefebvre, 'andthe Wiirtemberg troops under Vandamme, in all200,000 men ; Poniatowski, in expectation of theRussian auxiliary corps, was charged with the defenceof Warsaw; the viceroy Eugene, step-son of Napo-leon, was to protect Italy ; and marshal Marmont,Dalmatia. Napoleon himself prepared for the attack.For this purpose, Oudinot, by the affair at Pfaffen-hoffen, on the 19th April, effected a junction withMassena, on the 20th ; at the same time, Davoust,

who advanced from Ratisbon, attacked the archdukeLouis at Tann (a town in the Bavarian circle of thelower Danube) and Rohr, while the Bavarians, underLefebvre, fell upon his rear. Davoust, with the Ba-varians, then joined the main army under Napoleonwho now commenced the attack in person. ’

While Davqust kept in check three corps ofthe Austrian main army, under the archduke CharlesNapoleon, with the Bavarians and Wurtemhergers,and the French corps under Lannes and Massenafell upon the Austrian left wing, consisting of about60,000 men, under the archduke Louis and generalHiller, at Abensberg, (near Ratisbon), on the 20thwho were thus cut off from the Danube and the arch-duke Charles. Charles, meanwhile, had taken pos-session of Ratisbon on the 20th, formed a junctionwith the corps which advanced from the upper Pala-tinate, stormed the heights of Abbach, on the dditbank of the Danube, on the 21st, and taken positionat Eckmiihl, which commands the communicationwith Ratisbon. Here, having concentrated fourcorps, he menaced the victor of Abensberg in hisrear, and hoped to make himself master of the roadto Donauwerth, on which the possession of Bavariadepended. But Davoust and Lefebvre held him incheck on the 21st, and on the 22nd, Napoleon withthe divisions of Lannes and Massena, the Wurtera-bergers and the cuirassiers, advanced from Landshutto the Danube, and attacked the archduke, at twoo’clock in the afternoon, at Eckmiihl, where the Ba-varians and Davoust were already engaged. Thismovement decided the contest. The Wiirtembergerstook the village of Burghausen ; the Bavarian gene-ral Seidewitz, with two Bavarian regiments of cavalry,carried an Austrian battery, which commanded theroad from Landshut to Ratisbon ; Lannes flanked theAustrian left, whilst Davoust, Lefebvre and Montbrimattacked them in front. The Austrians obstinatelydefended their second position, and the Wiirtemberginfantry took the town of Eckmiihl by storin. Atthis time, the French cavalry broke the Austrianlines, on the plain in the rear of Eckmiihl. The Aus-trian infantry, thus taken in flank, were thrown intodisorder, and the archduke Charles himself was savedonly by the fleetness of his horse. Thus, about110,000 Austrian troops, under an able general,covering a position of twelve miles in length, wereattacked from all quarters by about 130,000 Frenchand Germans, extending over a ling of twenty-ninemiles, were outflanked on their left wing, and totallyrouted.

During the night, the archduke passed the Danube,and attempted to cover his retreat by defendingRatisbon, which was indifferently fortified. Napo-leon moved on like a storm. The French cuirassierschased the Austrian cavalry, destined to cover Ra-tisbon, over the Danube. The French-Bavarian ar-tillery made a breach in the walls, the French infantry,headed by Lannes, forced their way into the city, and,after a bloody' combat in the streets, Napoleon be-came master of Ratisbon.

Napoleon was slightly wounded in his foot hv aspent musket-ball, on the 23rd. His bulletin of the24th announced that the fruits of the five days’ cam-paign, of the three victories at Tann, Abensberg andEckmiihl, and the combats at Freising, Landshut, andRatisbon, were 100 cannon, forty stands of colours,50,000 prisoners, three pontons, and 3000 wagons ;and added, “ in four weeks, we shall be in Vienna.