Battle at Langensalza

Battle at Langensalza

Part of: Seven Years War

date	February 15, 1761
place	at Langensalza
output	Victory of Hanover and Prussia

Parties to the conflict
Kurhannover Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel Hessen-Kassel Prussia	Saxony France
Commander
Friedrich von Spörcken Friedrich Wilhelm von Syburg	Friedrich Christoph zu Solms-Wildenfels Judes-Vincent de Saint-Pern Jacques Philippe de Choiseul-Stainville
Troop strength
~ 27,000 men: 12,000 Allies 4,000-5,000 Prussians	~ 8,000 men (?): 5,000 French 3,000 Saxons
losses
Hanover: 20 dead, 47 wounded, 30 prisoners Prussia: unknown, probably similarly low	2,000 prisoners (mostly Saxons), unknown number of dead and wounded

The battle near Langensalza on February 15, 1761 was a military conflict during the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) near Langensalza (now Bad Langensalza ) in Thuringia . In the process, Prussian - Hanoverian troops defeated a French - Saxon corps . The majority of the Saxons were taken prisoner.

prehistory

The Prussian field marshal Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel planned to invade Hesse as commander-in-chief of the Prussian allies in West Germany and to expel the French camped at Werra and Fulda from their winter quarters. Subsequently, the French occupation in Kassel was to be besieged and those in Göttingen cut off from supplies. These shared Ferdinand its approximately 47,000 heads counting troops in several departments: Ferdinand's nephew, the Prussian Major General Prince Charles William Ferdinand of Brunswick , advanced with 12,000 men against the lower Eder ago, 5,000 men under the Hanoverian Major General Georg Carl von Breidenbach should from Brilon over Marching the Lahn and attacking Marburg , the Hanoverian infantry general Friedrich von Spörcken had the order to drive the French from the Unstrut with 12,000 men and then to advance via Eisenach to the Werra near Vacha and on to the Fulda. Ferdinand himself wanted to advance with 18,000 men from Warburg over the Diemel against Zierenberg and Niedenstein ; his contingent marched on February 11th. The other corps had already started moving a few days earlier.

While Ferdinand reached his goal unhindered, the other departments had a hard time: Major General Breidenstein fell near Marburg on February 14th, his troops retreated to the Eder and sought contact with the Hereditary Prince. This in turn unexpectedly took three days to force a 1,000-strong French contingent in Fritzlar to surrender. General Spörcken, however, encountered Saxon and French units distributed in the Mühlhausen- Langensalza area , but they had not yet caught up with each other. On the orders of Frederick the Great, a nearly 5,000-strong Prussian corps under Major General von Sydow marched up from Saxony to support him.

With the Franco-Saxon allies there had previously been a change in the supreme command: As Commandant en chef of the Saxon contingent, Franz Xaver of Saxony stayed to report at the French court; in his absence, Lieutenant-General Vincent-Judes, marquis de Saint-Pern commanded . This in turn was subordinate to Marshal Victor-François de Broglie .

course

Spörcken approached the enemy from Duderstadt via Worbis and Dingelstädt , and prevented the French Lieutenant-General Saint-Pern from uniting with the troops on the Unstrut from Eschwege . At the same time, a Prussian corps, under Major General Syburg, advanced from Weissenfels on Langensalza. Spörcken returned to the left bank of the Unstrut above Mulhouse, which was occupied by 5,000 French people, and also marched to Langensalza. In the early morning of February 15, the united allies stood north of the city, Spörcken near Thamsbrück and Sydow near Merxleben. However, due to the onset of thaw, crossing the Unstrut was difficult.

The French and Saxons, who stood on the heights south-east of Langensalza, were also separated by the Salza , which led to the floods . Perhaps the decisive factor in the battle, however, was that the French under Choiseul-Stainville received an order from their Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Broglie, to retreat to the Werra as soon as the battle had begun. Saint-Pern had followed the same order before. Unfortunately, the 3,000 Saxons did not receive Broglie's orders until they were already in the middle of the fight and had to carry its burden alone.

When trying to break away, the Saxon infantry were grabbed in the flanks by the enemy cavalry and partially smashed. At around 10 a.m. the battle was decided: five regiments or battalions of about 2,000 men of the Saxons went into captivity. Furthermore, the Saxons lost 13 cannons and 7 flags and standards to the enemy.

consequences

The Prussians occupied Langensalza, while the Hanoverians took their starting position again to the left of the Unstrut . The remaining Saxons withdrew to Eisenach and united there with the French main contingent. In the next few weeks the French and Saxons gave up large parts of Hesse and went back to Hanau . Prince Ferdinand, however, refrains from further pursuit and gave the French the opportunity to rally to counterattack.

In France, the defeat caused additional sensation, as the French commander on the spot, Lieutenant-général Jacques Philippe de Choiseul-Stainville , was the brother of the Minister of War Choiseul-Stainville . He was charged with his premature withdrawal from the battlefield, although he had been ordered to do so, presumably by Lieutenant-General Saint-Pern. Saint-Pern himself died on March 8, 1761 in Frankfurt am Main , probably due to the hardships suffered during the hasty retreat.

literature

• anonymous: The Hanoverians in Thuringia and the battle near Langensalza. Langensalza 1866 ( books.google.de ).
• Victor François (duc de) Broglie: Correspondance inédite de Victor-François, duc de Broglie, maréchal de France ,: avec le Prince Xavier de Saxe, comte de Lusace, lieutenant général, pour servir à l'histoire de la Guerre de sept ans (campagnes de 1759 à 1761). Volume III, Paris 1903, pp. 485-487, 635-642.
• Probably Hotham: The operations of the Allied Amy under the command of his Serene Highness Prince Ferdinand Duke of Brunswic and Luneberg beginning in the year 1757 and ending in the year 1762. London 1764, pp. 193-194.
• Prosper Jean Levot: Biography bretonne: recueil de notices sur tous les Bretons qui se sont fait un nom. Volume 2, Vannes, Paris 1852, pp. 815-817.
• Carl Renouard: History of the war in Hanover, Hesse and Westphalia from 1757 to 1763. Volume 3, Kassel 1864, pp. 79–86.
• Harald Rockstuhl: Chronicle of the city of Bad Langensalza in Thuringia 786-2000. , Verlag Rockstuhl, Langensalza 2000 ( books.google.de ).
• Arnold Schäfer: History of the Seven Years' War. Volume II, 2nd department Berlin 1875 ( books.google.de ).
• CHP Westphalen: History of the campaigns of Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig-Lüneberg. Volume 5, Berlin 1872, pp. 83-84 ( books.google.de ).
• Hanoverian Forces at the Battle of Langensalza February 15 1761. Nafziger collection.

Remarks

1. ^ The Hanoverians in Thuringia , p. 93
2. ↑ Schäfer, p. 212
3. ↑ Schäfer, p. 207 ff.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Westphalen, p. 82.
5. ↑ Westphalen, p. 81, more precise information p. 83.