Battle of Wartenburg

Battle of Wartenburg

Part of: Wars of Liberation

date	October 3, 1813
place	Wartenburg , Kingdom of Saxony
output	Victory of the Silesian Army (Prussia)

Parties to the conflict
France Confederation of the Rhine	Prussia
Commander
Henri-Gatien Bertrand Charles Antoine Morand	Gebhard von Blücher Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg
Troop strength
14,000 men	16,000 men and 32 guns
losses
1,000–1,200 dead and wounded 1,000 prisoners	1,548 dead and wounded soldiers 67 officers dead and wounded

The Battle of Wartenburg was a battle during the Wars of Liberation near the Saxon village of Wartenburg . A corps of the Silesian Army under General Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg managed to cross the Elbe , which forced Napoleon to advance from Dresden to the west in the direction of Leipzig to secure his northern flank . This initiated the encirclement of the French emperor in Leipzig .

prehistory

At the beginning of the autumn campaign of 1813 after the armistice had expired on August 17, Napoleon commanded over 400,000 soldiers in eastern Germany, which the allies with over 500,000 men in Brandenburg, Silesia and Northern Bohemia opposed. Napoleon's plan was to defeat the two armies of the allied Austrians , Prussians and Russians individually in the area of Saxony and push them away to Bohemia and Silesia , while Oudinot was to throw the third army out of Brandenburg . For their part, the allies wanted to evade Napoleon if he should attack one of the three armies. They only wanted to risk a battle directly against the French emperor if all forces were united. Oudinot or other smaller associations that were not led by Napoleon were excluded.

Napoleon, who was in the Dresden area when the armistice expired, waited for the allies to attack. The Silesian Army under Blücher , which marched first, succeeded in luring large parts of the French troops to the east, but since Napoleon lost touch with Blücher, he withdrew with 60,000 men. The Bober Army under MacDonald then ran into Blucher’s positions on the Katzbach and suffered a defeat. At the same time, the Bohemian Army under Schwarzenberg attacked Dresden, but Napoleon reached the city in time and was able to drive the allies to Bohemia with a victory in the Battle of Dresden . The subsequent loss of Vandamme's corps in Kulm reversed this success. Oudinot and his Berlin Army had been wiped out at Großbeeren a week earlier . After Ney took command, he too suffered a defeat at Dennewitz in early September .

After that Napoleon withdrew with his troops behind the Elbe and stayed in Saxony. At the headquarters of the Silesian Army, a plan was devised to break through the Elbe line, either to stab Napoleon in the back or to force him to retreat west. The plan also favored the unification of the three allied armies. The Northern Army under Bernadotte approached from the Wittenberg area and Schwarzenberg advanced against the Zwickau - Chemnitz line .

Course of the battle

The corps under Yorck was supposed to cross the Elbe near Wartenburg in the morning hours of October 3rd. The Division Morand Corps Bertrand was Yorcks soldiers over in well protected positions. Southeast of Wartenburg was in Bleddin the Württemberg Division Franquemont followed by the Italian division Fontanelli .

The Steinmetz Brigade's first frontal attack was unsuccessful. Only after the two-hour conquest of Bleddin by Prince Karl zu Mecklenburg at 2 p.m. could the lines of the French of brigades under General von Horn , who was the first to penetrate Wartenburg, be rolled up. In a cavalry battle in nearby Globig, Prussian and Mecklenburg hussars won .

losses

The Prussian losses amounted to 1,500 men, the Bertrand corps lost around 1,000 men as well as 11 artillery pieces and 70 cars, plus 1,000 prisoners. The rest of the French withdrew behind the hollow .

consequences

Napoleon began a general retreat to the west after the battle of Wartenburg. He left the right wing under Joachim Murat against the main army under Schwarzenberg and himself went to northern Saxony to defeat the Silesian Army and the Northern Army individually and then to move against Schwarzenberg, who was to be held back by Murat for so long. But the Silesian Army evaded him and, supported by militants , inflicted more and more losses through numerous skirmishes. Napoleon believed Blücher and Karl Johann thereupon further north and moved south to attack the main army of the allies, which was south of Leipzig. The Northern Army and the Silesian Army then marched after him, which then led to Napoleon's enclosure during the Battle of Leipzig .

Yorck was raised to the count status in 1814 with the addition of "von Wartenburg" to his name .

literature

• Dieter Walz: Sachsenland was burned down , Leipzig 1993
• Paul Benndorf : Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , Berlin 1913
• Holger Krug: The Battle of Nations near Leipzig , Leipzig 2004
• Frank Bauer: Wartenburg October 3, 1813 (H. 13 Brief Series History of the Wars of Liberation 1813–1815), Potsdam 2006

Web links

• The Battle of Wartenburg on October 3, 1813