Battle at Liebertwolkwitz

Battle at Liebertwolkwitz

Part of: Wars of Liberation

date	October 14, 1813
place	Liebertwolkwitz , Kingdom of Saxony
output	Termination of the battle

Parties to the conflict
France Duchy of Warsaw Rhine Confederation Italy Naples	Austria Prussia Russia
Commander
Joachim Murat	Ludwig zu Wittgenstein
Troop strength
42,000 infantry 7,000 cavalry 156 guns	in the morning: 3000 men 20 guns in the evening: 60,000 men
losses
unknown	unknown

Cavalry battle at Liebertwolkwitz. Marshal Murat (in the foreground) escapes capture. Painting by Richard Knötel

The battle at Liebertwolkwitz , also known as the cavalry battle near Liebertwolkwitz or the cavalry battle near Güldengossa , was a military conflict between troops of the Sixth Coalition and units of the Grande Armée Napoleon in the south of Leipzig on October 14, 1813 , two days before the decisive Battle of the Nations near Leipzig .

prehistory

The Allied forces had already inflicted severe defeats on Napoleon's armies in the autumn campaign of 1813 and left the French general little room for initiative. In October Napoleon had tried in vain to bring the Silesian army under Blücher , which had crossed the Elbe since the victory at Wartenburg on October 3, to battle. Blücher had cleverly evaded with his forces in the direction of Halle and thus gave the Allied main army under Schwarzenberg the opportunity to march from the Saxon - Bohemian border area to the northwest. Napoleon had assigned around 50,000 men under Murat's command, who initially lay between Leipzig and the Ore Mountains and, with the advance of the main army, retreated further and further towards Leipzig. Murat had repeatedly asked Napoleon for support against Schwarzenberg, which he finally approved on October 13th. He believed Blücher was far enough away to have enough time to defeat the main army. Napoleon marched south from Bad Düben . Murat had meanwhile withdrawn his position on a line only a few kilometers south of Leipzig. The vanguard of the allies faced him directly on the night of the 14th.

Course of the battle

Schwarzenberg ordered a violent reconnaissance from his headquarters in Altenburg for the morning of October 14th. The advance guard of the main army, which was still on the march, was supposed to explore the positions of the French south of Leipzig and, if possible, throw the enemy back further. Under the command of General Wittgenstein, 3,000 Russian cavalry men were to carry out the reconnaissance. The two infantry corps under Eugen von Württemberg and Gortschakow , the Pahlen cavalry corps and the Klenau and Kleist corps , as well as the reserve cavalry under Röder , were still subordinate to him . The allies faced about 50,000 men. The Poniatowski Corps with 6,000 men was in Connewitz , Loessnig , Dölitz and Markkleeberg . The II. Corps under the command of Victor stood with 15,000 men in Wachau and the V Corps with 12,700 men under Lauriston in Liebertwolkwitz . The reserve consisted of the IX.Korps Augereau with 10,000 men in Thonberg , a Division Young Guard , a total of 4,000 cavalry divisions of Milhaud , Berkheim and L'Heritier and 2,000 Polish riders.

The battle began at 9 a.m. Murat initially took command of the "Napoleon linden tree" in the garden of the Wachau manor. The advances of the allies began on the right wing with an attack by the Klenau corps on the poorly defended Großpösna . The attacks on Liebertwolkwitz were inadequately carried out in the first few hours. The French did not see their flank threatened until around 11 a.m. when the Maison's division in Seifertshein, Holzhausen and on Kolmberg, east of Liebertwolkwitz, was surrounded by the Austrians. Between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Klenau was able to conquer Liebertwolkwitz, but lost it a little later due to a counterattack by Murat and won it again at 2 p.m. The French conquered the village again, had to give it up after a brief threat from Russian cavalry behind them and finally held it from 6 p.m. while Klenau withdrew to Großpösna.

Kleist attacked Güldengossa to the south with several Prussian cavalry regiments from 10 a.m. At the same time, Röder and his units took action on both Wachau and Markkleeberg. The attack on Güldengossa and Wachau was also supported from midday by the Corps Eugen von Württemberg, which took up positions between the two villages. The conquest of both villages was prevented by the numerous French units that had holed up in the Auenhain sheep farm, which, on the outskirts of Güldengossa, consisted of massive brick buildings. A cannonade by allied artillery on the Wachtberg near Güldengossa and French artillery, which was on the Galgenberg between Wachau and Liebertwolkwitz, gave rise to further mutual cavalry attacks, which exhausted both sides so that the fight was stopped at 12 o'clock. Around 1 p.m. Murat led an attack with about 5,000 riders against the center of the allies, who deployed about the same number of cavalry. Murat narrowly escaped capture. Around 2 p.m. Prussian and Russian horsemen broke through on both flanks of the French center and pursued the French to Wachau, where they had to give way to massive gunfire. Murat's counter-attacks on Prussian artillery on the Wachtberg also failed. At times there were up to 14,000 horsemen on the battlefield in these battles. From 5 p.m. the fighting in the center stopped.

The Russian and Prussian units under Pahlen and Roeder did not succeed on the left wing, despite great efforts to expel the Poles from their positions. However, Poniatowski's attempts to break out of Markkleeberg failed just as bloody. Because of the strong resistance of the defenders, the allies had ordered numerous other units from the south onto the battlefield until about 60,000 men faced Murat in the late afternoon. Nevertheless, Schwarzenberg ordered the battle to be broken off.

Result

Due to the termination of the attacks and the retreat of both sides to the respective starting positions from the morning, the outcome can be rated as a draw. Murat was able to achieve a tactical victory insofar as he delayed the attacks of the allies and their advance on Leipzig until Napoleon could move the main forces of the army to the south of Leipzig by October 16. The allies also drew most of the main army into the following days. The allies achieved a strategic victory insofar as they inflicted further losses on Napoleon's cavalry, which was already barely at nominal strength, which in the following days meant a considerable weakening on the French side. The Allies, on the other hand, did not suffer so much from their own losses. The positions of both sides remained unchanged and were again fiercely contested on October 16. Most of the key positions and villages were only vacated by the French on October 18th.

literature

• Dieter Walz, Sachsenland was burned down , Leipzig 1993
• Paul Benndorf, Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , Berlin 1913
• Karl-Heinz Börner : Battle of the Nations near Leipzig 1813. Berlin 1988.
• Holger Krug, The Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , Leipzig 2004