1805, suffered, in consequence of all this, from a feeling of distrust,
not merely in their leaders, but also in the whole system upon which the
army was raised, organized and trained. This was substantially the same
as that of the Seven Years' War time. Enlistment being voluntary and for
long service, the numbers necessary to cope with the output of the
French conscription could not be raised, and the inner history of the
Austrian headquarters in the Ulm campaign shows that the dissensions and
mutual distrust of the general officers had gone far towards the
disintegration of an army which at that time had the most _esprit de
corps_ and the highest military qualities of any army in Europe. But the
disasters of 1805 swept away good and bad alike in the abolition of the
old system. Already the archduke Charles had designed a "nation in arms"
after the French model, and on this basis the reconstruction was begun.
The conscription was put in force and the necessary numbers thus
obtained; the administration was at the same time reformed and the
organization and supply services brought into line with modern
requirements. The war of 1809 surprised Austria in the midst of her
reorganization, yet the new army fought with the greatest spirit. The
invasion of Bavaria was by no means so leisurely as it had been in 1805,
and the archduke Charles obtained one signal victory over Napoleon in
person. Aspern and Wagram were most desperately contested, and though
the archduke ceased to take part in the administration after 1809 the
work went on steadily until, in 1813, the Austrian armies worthily
represented the combination of discipline with the "nation in arms"
principle. Their intervention in the War of Liberation was decisive, and
Austria, in spite of her territorial losses of the past years, put into
the field well-drilled armies far exceeding in numbers those which had
appeared in the wars of the Revolution. After the fall of Napoleon,
Austria's hold on Italy necessitated the maintenance of a large army of
occupation. This army, and in particular its cavalry, was admittedly the
best in Europe, and, having to be ready to march at a few days' notice,
it was saved from the deadening influence of undisturbed peace which
affected every other service in Europe from 1815 to 1850.