Battle of the Brücker Mill

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The Brücker Mill (Sept. 2011)
The contested bridge

The battle of the Brücker Mühle on September 21, 1762 was a bloody conflict during the Seven Years' War between the French on the one hand and the Hessians, Hanoverians and English allied with Prussia on the other. It took place at the Brücker Mühle southeast of Amöneburg in Hesse .

prehistory

Overview map on the history of the campaign of Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1762

In 1762 the French marshals Le Tellier and Soubise decided to unite their two main armies in Hesse in order to push through to northern Hesse and from there to operate against Kurhannover, which was in personal union with England . This union was supposed to take place in the Schwalm area , but targeted attacks by the Prussian allies thwarted this and pushed the French troops back into the Wetterau . There it came to the unification of the two French armies, which now tried to advance north with different thrusts in order to reach the French occupied, but threatened by the allies Kassel .

Opposite them stood the Western Army from Hanoverian, Braunschweig, Hessian , English and other troops, allied with Prussia, under Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig , brother-in-law of the Prussian King Friedrich II. In order to prevent a French breakthrough into North Hesse, Duke Ferdinand left the entire area east of the Ohm from Burg-Gemünden downstream to Cölbe and also the northern bank of the Lahn, from there up to Goßfelden , and occupy all bridges and river crossings. He also stationed almost 600 men on the Amöneburg . The French plan to advance northwards with different thrusts was therefore not feasible, and their commanders now concentrated their main thrust on the ohmic junctions.

On September 21, 1762, this led to an almost 14-hour battle for the stone Ohm bridge at the Brücker Mühle southeast of Amöneburg, which at that time offered the only way far and wide to cross the Ohm with heavy wagons or guns .

Preparations

On September 19 and 20, the French troops, which had been located in Marburg and the surrounding area , withdrew in an orderly formation towards Kirchhain and Amöneburg. On September 20, the main French army was at Schönbach , other units were to the west of the Lahn at Wehrda , and Prince Franz Xaver of Saxony , allied with them, was southwest of Homberg (Ohm) with his contingent .

General de Castries brought his troops into position near Amöneburg. To the west of the Ohmbrücke they built a series of trench-like positions and an entrenchment at the level of the bridge . Their cannons were brought into position further up on the eastern slope of the Amöneburg rock, firing towards the east. On the west side of the mountain they set up another artillery position from which the city could be shelled. The greater part of Castries' troops were distributed in the area southwest from Amöneburg to Roßdorf, Mardorf and Erfurtshausen.

In anticipation of the French attack, the allies under the Electorate of Hanover, General Christian Ludwig von Hardenberg , placed six battalions of infantry , eight squadrons of cavalry and six artillery pieces east of the Ohm crossing on September 20 . About 150 m northeast of the bridge they built a two-flanked and about one meter high earth hill, which was occupied by 200 men from the Hanoverian regiment von Estorff . Two Hessian howitzers were brought into position a few hundred meters east of the bridge at the brickworks, and the Ohm bridge was barricaded with beams, stones and earthwork . Another hill with six 6-pounders from Bückeburg was located at the height of the Ransberg, east of the Ziegelhütte, and was commanded by the Hanoverian General von Zastrow , who took over command of the sick Hardenberg. The rest of the Allies' infantry and cavalry troops were behind the heights in the rear. The far left wing of the allies was at Homberg / Ohm; further battalions were at Dannenrod and Schweinsberg .

The battle

On September 21, in the morning fog at 5 a.m., the French opened fire on the city, and around 6 a.m. they began to bombard the Ohm bridge and the hill behind it. The cannonade very soon destroyed the barricades on the bridge. The first French assault that followed failed, however, in the fire of the opposite entrenchment crew and the grapevine hail of the Ransberg battery on the bridge area .

In the meantime, Duke Ferdinand had learned of the fighting and ordered his gun park from Stausebach towards Kirchhain. Around 8 o'clock six Hessian 12-pounders arrived from there on the battlefield and were brought into position on the edge of the Brücker forest and above the brickworks.

In the hours that followed, the French repeatedly attempted to attack, but they all collapsed in the opposing defensive fire. In the afternoon at around 3 p.m., six more Hessian 12-pounders were brought into position on the south-western slope of the Ransberg, and they immediately intervened. At around 5 p.m., the six 6-pounders from Bückeburg had to be exchanged for six 12-pounders from Hanover due to a lack of ammunition. Since the French had still not achieved a breakthrough, they now directed all their strength to the hill behind the bridge. Both sides repeatedly sent fresh troops into the battle for the hill and the bridge, which then fell victim to the enemy gun and cannon fire. After the Hanoverians of the Estorff regiment, the English, then Scottish Highlanders , then Hesse defended the hill. In the afternoon the constant bombardment had leveled the earth wall so that the men of the Hessian regiments von Gilsa (under Lieutenant-General Philipp Ludwig von Gilsa) and von der Malsburg (under Major-General August Carl von der Malsburg) presented their fallen comrades as a protective wall piled up.

Around 7 p.m. the French stormed the hill one last time. A column advanced across the bridge to close to the hill, but then they too was driven back by the defensive fire. When night fell around 8 p.m., the noise of the battle ceased. The approximately 14-hour battle resulted in a total of 527 dead, 1,363 injured and 19 missing on both sides, making it the bloodiest of the entire war in Upper Hesse . There was no clear winner, even though the French had been denied a breakthrough north.

Conquest of Amöneburg

As early as September 21, while the fighting was taking place at the Brücker Mühle, the French had targeted the castle buildings and towers on the west side of the mountain under targeted fire and also made two attempts at assault, which had failed. Another assault with 15 battalions the following day was successful. According to the agreements between the opposing armies about the treatment of their prisoners of war, the defenders of the city, 553 men and 11 officers, were handed over to the allies east of the Ohm on the afternoon of September 22nd.

armistice

Contemporary representation of the conversation of Ferdinand von Braunschweig and Lord Granby with the Comte de Guerchy, November 1762
The peace stone
Detail from the Peace Stone with flags, drums and cannons

In the following weeks the opposing troops faced each other in their positions on either side of the Ohm, but there was no more fighting. On November 7th, the French generals learned of the preliminary peace negotiated on November 3rd in Fontainebleau between England and France, whereupon the two parties held a first meeting on November 8th at the "Brücker Wirtshaus". On November 14th, Duke Ferdinand received from King George III of England . the power of attorney to negotiate an armistice with the French, which Duke Ferdinand and the French marshals Le Tellier and Soubise signed on November 15 in the Brücker tavern. Then the two marshals gave the Allies' generals a meal in a room of the inn, the eastern wall of which was riddled with about 60 cannon shots. The withdrawal of the French troops began that same day. The allies did not vacate their positions until November 17-22.

In the courtyard of the “Brücker Wirtshaus” a baroque obelisk , the so-called Peace Stone, that was erected at the time, reminds of this armistice agreement.

In the Amöneburg Museum, a diorama illustrates excerpts from the battle of the Brücker Mühle.

Web links

Commons : Brücker Mühle (Amöneburg)  - Collection of images
Commons : Alte Ohmbrücke (Amöneburg)  - Collection of images
Commons : Friedenstein (Amöneburg)  - Collection of images

literature

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ In 1763 he became Duke d'Estrées .
  2. ↑ After the lost battle near Wilhelmsthal on June 24, 1762, the French troops withdrew to Kassel. The city was then besieged and captured by the allies in November 1762.
  3. ^ A b Regiments of Hessen-Kassel in action at the Brücker-Mühle, September 21, 1762 ( Memento from January 10, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Monika Vogt: Search for peace and chase after it. Encounters with the monument culture in Hessen . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1781-3 , pp. 38–41: The battle at the Brücker mill - Amöneburg .

Coordinates: 50 ° 47 ′ 36 ″  N , 8 ° 56 ′ 16 ″  E