Siege of Torgau
Spring campaign 1813
Lüneburg - Möckern - Halle - Großgörschen - Gersdorf - Bautzen - Reichenbach - Nettelnburg - Haynau - Luckau
Autumn campaign 1813
Großbeeren - Katzbach - Dresden - Hagelberg - Kulm - Dennewitz - Göhrde - Altenburg - Wittenberg - Wartenburg - Liebertwolkwitz - Leipzig - Torgau - Hanau - Hochheim - Danzig
Winter campaign 1814
Épinal - Colombey - Brienne - La Rothière - Champaubert - Montmirail - Château-Thierry - Vauchamps - Mormant - Montereau - Bar-sur-Aube - Soissons - Craonne - Laon - Reims - Arcis-sur-Aube - Fère-Champenoise - Saint -Dizier - Claye - Villeparisis - Paris
Summer campaign of 1815
Quatre-Bras - Ligny - Waterloo - Wavre - Paris
During the siege of Torgau at the end of 1813, the fortress of Torgau , which was occupied by France during the wars of liberation , was besieged by Prussian troops and finally forced to surrender .
Today the city of Torgau is located in the district of North Saxony in the Free State of Saxony . The fortress was built on both sides of the Elbe as a royal Saxon main arsenal based on a design by Ernst Ludwig von Aster . In the spring of 1813 the French advanced into the position. After the Battle of Dennewitz it covered the retreat of the French. During the armistice of Pläswitz , provisions were insufficiently supplied to protect the Middle Elbe and to enable offensives against the Prussian heartland.
After the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , the fortress was besieged by the IV Army Corps with around 20,000 men under Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien . The French trains and officials fled to the fortress , so that the garrison strength grew from 6,000 to 30,000 men. In addition there were around 11,000 wounded in the hospitals. After several heavy bombings that ruined around 200 of the 500 houses, the weakened garrison under General Adrien Jean-Baptiste du Bosc surrendered unconditionally on December 23rd, with about 4,200 men being taken prisoner on January 10th, 1814 around 3,000 remained in the hospitals.
The Congress of Vienna confirmed the possession of the fortress to Prussia.
literature
- Johann Christian Bürger: News about the blockade and siege of the Elbe and state fortress Torgau in 1813. A contribution to the modern history of this city . Wideburg publishing house, Torgau 1838. Digitized
- Reprint: News about the blockade and siege of the Elbe and state fortress Torgau in 1813. A contribution to the recent history of this city . Lightning Source UK, London 2012, ISBN 1-27489-054-3 .
- JL Vogel, The sieges of Torgau and Wittenberg 1813 and 1814 , digitized