Battle near Altenburg

Battle near Altenburg

Part of: Wars of Liberation

date	September 28, 1813
place	Altenburg
output	Allied victory

Parties to the conflict
France	Prussia Russia Austria

The battle of Altenburg took place on September 28, 1813 during the Wars of Liberation near Altenburg and ended with a French defeat.

prehistory

After the Battle of Kulm and the destruction of the 1st French Corps Vandamme on August 30, 1813, there were different views within the headquarters of the Bohemian Army about the continuation of the war. Due to the poor condition of the army, no extensive attack plans were made, but various mounted patrol corps were sent to Saxony in order to weaken the rear connections of the French army in the Little War .

The five mixed patrol corps of the allies that appeared in Saxony in September 1813 were under the Russian General Thielmann with 2200 men, the Austrian Colonel Emmanuel von Mensdorff-Pouilly with 1000 men, the Cossack hetman Platow and the Prussian majors Colomb and Count Hermann von Pückler- Muskau . The activity of the Streifkorps led to the fact that supply routes of the French army were blocked, couriers could no longer reach the Rhine and numerous important reports fell into the hands of the allies. In particular, the roads between Erfurt and Leipzig became almost unusable as a connection route due to the activities of the patrol corps. The fear of being cut off by the patrol corps led to the surrender of the stage garrisons from Freyburg , Naumburg and Merseburg . The considerable losses caused Napoleon on September 11th to give General Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes the order to put an end to the bustle of the patrol corps.

Thereupon Mensdorff received the order on September 19 to unite with Thielmann. The four other patrol corps also joined Thielmann in the next few days.

course

On September 28, the Lefebvre-Desnouettes troops, 6500 horsemen and 1500 infantrymen with six guns, south of Altenburg, were severely defeated in a battle by the combined patrol corps led by Thielmann and Platow. The French loss amounted to about 1,500 prisoners, three standards and five guns.

consequences

Napoleon then regrouped his troops in Saxony, which severely hindered the activities of the Streifkorps in Saxony until the main army moved in.

literature

• Major Friedrich: History of the Autumn Campaign 1813 , Part 2: From the Battle of Kulm to the Fights near Leipzig (= v. Holleben, Friedrich, Janson, v. Lettow-Vorbeck, v. Voss: History of the Wars of Liberation 1813–1815 , volume 3), Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1904
• Rudolf Friedrich (arr.): The Autumn Campaign 1813 (= The Wars of Liberation 1813–1815, second volume), Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1912, pp. 245–247
• Frank Bauer: "Altenburg / Zeitz September 28, 1813" ("Small series history of the wars of liberation 1813–1815", issue 37), Altenburg 2013.