Siege of Jülich (1814)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Siege of Jülich
Juelich-Franzosen-MaxAusPlan-1805.jpg
date January 15, 1814 to May 4, 1814
place Jülich
output Handover of the city
Parties to the conflict

Russian Empire 1721Russian Empire Russia Prussia Sweden Mecklenburg-Schwerin Denmark Saxony
Prussia KingdomKingdom of Prussia 
Sweden 1650Sweden 
Mecklenburg-SchwerinMecklenburg-Schwerin 
DenmarkDenmark 
Kingdom of SaxonyKingdom of Saxony 

France 1804First empire France

Commander

various

General bouquet

Troop strength
different 5,000 men

The siege of Jülich by armed forces of the Sixth Coalition took place from January 15 to May 4, 1814 during the Wars of Liberation . In contrast to the sieges in the 17th century, there was hardly any fighting. The siege ended with the surrender of Jülich after Napoleon Bonaparte's abdication .

prehistory

After the lost Battle of the Nations near Leipzig and the defection of the Rhine Confederation , the French withdrew from Germany. The Jülich fortress was then part as all the land west of the Rhine to France and should the crossing of the Roer protect. The state of siege was in effect as early as December 12, 1813 . On January 15, 1814, the French General Sebastiani and his troops left Cologne and left 3,000 soldiers behind in Jülich on the march to northern France, so that the garrison of the fortress under General Bouquet grew to a total of 5,000 men. Soon after, however, the heads of the coalition's advancing armies appeared and enclosed the fortress. Despite their reinforcements, the French garrison was still far too weak to carry out the task of the fortress as support for a strong field army and the protection of the Rur crossing.

The siege

The first to appear on January 16 was an advance detachment of 150 Russian Cossacks under the command of General Aleksej Wassilijewitsch Ilowajskij (1767–1842). The Lützow Freikorps did not arrive until February 17th , began with the actual siege and took its headquarters in the nearby Hambach Castle . The protection of the Rur Bridge, one of the most important tasks of the fortress, soon proved to be superfluous, as the coalition armies did not depend on the road that led past Jülich, but instead built a new bridge a few kilometers upstream at Altenburg and bypassed the fortress and garrison.

The besiegers often took turns; the Lützow Corps was soon replaced by Swedish units and finally Danish and Mecklenburg troops took over their duties. The name Schwedenschanze in the Jülich district of Broich , where the Swedes set up their headquarters, also comes from this time .

The siege was carried out with little vigor on both sides and was more of a blockade . Although the besieged carried out a total of six sorties, they withdrew immediately into the fortress every time the action threatened to develop into combat. The first dropout took place in the direction of the Jülich Busch, the second in the direction of Karthaus, the third against Kirchberg , the fourth after Bourheim , the fifth in the direction of Aldenhoven and the sixth in the direction of Broich. In the records of the Lützow Freikorps, a failure in the direction of Karthaus is noted for February 24th, which was brought forward with 500 infantrymen, 40 cavalrymen and a field gun in order to seize the former monastery not far from the fortress walls. A battle of several hours developed, in which the besiegers allegedly lost only twelve wounded, while the attacking garrison alone suffered about a hundred deaths and withdrew without having achieved anything. The sortie was repeated two days later with 300 infantry, 60 cavalry and a field gun, but ended like the first. This time the Freikorps lost two dead, the garrison losses are described as "considerable". Two days later, the failure was repeated again to a similar extent and this time, too, it was rejected with losses.

Conversely, the besiegers showed little inclination to attack the fortress directly and limited themselves to the blockade and repeated bombardments. The bombing lasted only briefly and ended as soon as a building in the city caught fire. A typhus epidemic occurred in the city during the blockade , which allegedly claimed up to 2,000 victims, including 300 citizens of Jülich. The Lützow Freikorps practiced raid-like bombardments with light field batteries in order to alarm the crew and withdrew as soon as the alarm was given.

With the arrival of the news of the capture of Paris and Napoleon's abdication on April 28, 1814, the commander was the day after the white flag on the tower of the Provost Church hoist and open the gates. On May 1, a negotiated Saxon officer taking possession of the fortress and on May 3, a total of 4,000 marched Saxon soldiers (three lines - and two Landwehr - Battalions ) in the fortress. The next day, the remaining 2,500 French soldiers left the fortress with their weapons and nine artillery pieces.

Aftermath

After the Congress of Vienna most of the French Rhineland came to Prussia. The landscape painter Johann Wilhelm Schirmer , who was born in Jülich, experienced the siege as a child and describes it in his memoirs. The Prussian officer von Keyserlinck became the fortress commander.

swell

  • Neumann, Hartwig : The Citadel Jülich. A walk through history , Verlag Jos. Fischer, Jülich 1971.
  • Historical reminiscences of the fortress Jülich , anonymous, Verlag Jos. Fischer, Jülich 1889.
  • Adolf Schluesser / Johann P. Velthusen: History of the Lützow Free Corps , Berlin / Potsdam / Bromberg 1826

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the Lützow Freikorps , pp. 191–196