Battle of Dresden

Battle of Dresden

Part of: Wars of Liberation

The battle for Dresden.
Lithograph by Antoine Vernet and Jacques Swebach .

date	26.-27. August 1813
place	Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony
output	French victory

Parties to the conflict
France Rhine Confederation Italy Naples	Austria Prussia Russia
Commander
Napoleon Bonaparte	Karl Philipp zu Schwarzenberg Friedrich von Kleist Michel Barclay de Tolly
Troop strength
approx. 96,000–150,000 men	approx. 175,000–225,000 men
losses
10,000 dead 10,000 wounded	15,000 dead 15,000 wounded 20,000 prisoners of war

The battle for Dresden took place on August 26th and 27th, 1813 between French troops under Napoleon and the main army of the allied coalition partners Austria, Prussia and Russia under Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg . Napoleon won one of his last victories on German soil here. The Moreau memorial on the Räcknitzhöhe in Dresden- Räcknitz commemorates the fatal wounding of the French-born Allied general Jean-Victor Moreau in this battle.

prehistory

During Napoleon's armistice with Russia and Prussia , the Austrian Chancellor Prince von Metternich met on June 28, 1813 in the Palais Brühl-Marcolini in Dresden's Friedrichstadt with Emperor Napoleon, who had taken quarters here at the time. As a result of this conversation, the Danube monarchy joined the anti-Napoleonic allies, as Napoleon did not accept the Austrian demands for a peace treaty.

When the war continued in August after Austria declared war on France and the end of the armistice, Dresden remained the center of the movements of the French army. The commanding French Marshal Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr therefore ordered the construction of defenses around the city in cooperation with the city commander General Durosnel .

On August 22nd, the Bohemian Army under Prince zu Schwarzenberg crossed the Bohemian border with approx. 200,000 men and reached it on 23/24. August Dresden. On August 24th, Allied troops had trapped large parts of the city. The attacks on the city began the following day. The allied monarchs had arrived in the south of the city, Tsar Alexander I moved into Nöthnitz and Friedrich Wilhelm III. in the Leubnitz district. The headquarters of Prince Schwarzenberg and his Chief of Staff Radetzky were moved into Bannewitz . The main focus of the fighting was initially in the southern suburbs of Dresden, the village of Striesen was set on fire by the Russians on August 25th.

Course of the battle

First day of the fight

Battle of Dresden 1813

Situation east of the city on August 26th

Since the main attack on the city, occupied by only 30,000 men, did not take place until August 26th, Napoleon had time to return from his train to Silesia against Blücher in good time and to position larger troops in the city and to take over the management of the defense operations himself. So the most favorable moment for the allies was missed and the French were able to secure the city.

Marshal Saint-Cyr had not set up his troops in the plain in front of the city, his three divisions under Generals Claparède , Razout and Berthezène took cover behind the city wall and the entrenchments and redoubts built in front of it. The Prince of Schwarzenberg had six columns advanced towards the city with the cannon thunder. The left wing was formed by the Austrians under Gyulay , in the center the corps of the Prince of Hesse-Homburg was deployed. The right wing, which leaned against the Elbe, was under the command of General Wittgenstein and was formed from the Russian corps of Prince Gorchakov and the Prussian corps of General Kleist . The available reserve was led by the Russian General Barclay de Tolly .

Emperor Napoleon appeared in the city between 9 and 10 a.m. with reinforcements. General Teste's division advanced first and was sent to Friedrichstadt. At two in the afternoon Marshal Murat arrived at the head of the Latour-Maubourg cavalry corps (78 squadrons) and strengthened the French right wing, where General Testes and Pajol's cavalry division (46 squadrons) were already located . After 3 p.m. the Young Guard under Marshal Mortier moved into the suburb of Pirna, while the troops of Corps Ney took up positions behind Redoute IV in the center of the front.

At 4 p.m. the Russians under Wittgenstein began their advance from the Blasewitz forest against the left flank of the French. The Prussians were able to penetrate into the Pirnaische Vorstadt until 6 p.m. The ski jump in front of the Freiberg loft was taken by the Austrians and the much stronger work in front of the Moczinsky Garden was stormed by the Prussians. The French then counterattacked. The guard led a counter-attack with 16 cannons and drove the Prussians out of the suburbs again. The work in front of Moczinski's garden was also resumed at around 7 p.m. The Russian 5th Division under General Mezentzow (7,350 men and 24 guns) was pushed back by the Old Guard under General Friant . When night fell, the allies withdrew to their previous position on the heights, while the French camped in front of the blows and in the Dresden suburbs .

Second day of the fight

Military situation around the city on August 27, 1813

Situation east of the city on August 27th

On August 27, attacks by the allied armies on French troops in Dresden continued. After the guard under Marshal Mortier had occupied the front on the Elbe, Marshal Saint-Cyr was able to move his troops from the left wing to the center, where the Marmont Corps had now taken over. The flooded Weisseritz river separated the left wing of the Allied front under Gyulay's command from the main army. The center of the Allied positions also consisted of Austrian troops: Colloredo's infantry division, the light division under Moritz von Liechtenstein , the grenadiers under Chasteler and the cuirassier division Nostitz . The Austrian infantry barricaded themselves behind protective barriers, the beginning rain made the powder almost unusable and prevented the full use of many weapons.

Murat, King of Naples set out at 9 a.m. with three cuirassier divisions and the corps under Victor, Duke of Belluno , and formed strong cavalry masses along the Weißeritz on the road to Freiberg and near Cotta in order to attack the left wing of the Austrians could now be fully formed by the approach of the Klenau corps .

Around 10 a.m., Napoleon also had Marshal Ney attacked, who turned against the right wing of the allies, which consisted of Russians and Prussians. The Young Guard was able to throw back the allies here except for Prohlis and Leuben . In vain, however, Napoleon's associations repeatedly attacked the meeting of the allies on the heights of Zschertnitz and Räcknitz , with the leg of the former French general Jean-Victor Moreau , who was now acting as military advisor to Tsar Alexander I, being smashed by a cannonball.

Around noon Murat's cavalry had successfully defeated the left wing of the allies under Gyulay, which stretched from Dölzschen on the western valley wall of the Plauenschen Grund to Gorbitz on the Heerstraße to Freiberg . The attack of the Corps Victor and the cavalry under La Tour-Maubourg broke out on Cotta and the Zschonergrund . Three Austrian divisions under Weissenfels and Liechtenstein and the 3rd light division under Major General Mesko from Korps Klenau were defeated and dispersed. At 3 p.m. Chastel's 3rd Light Cavalry Division stormed past Pennrich, General Pajol's 10th Light Cavalry Division with the Polish Lancieres (Uhlans) chased past Gorbitz and pursued the retreating enemy. The French stormed the village of Naußlitz . General Czollich led his brigade to counterattack at Töltschen, he had to stop the French advance in order to cover the orderly retreat of the FML Liechtenstein division through the gorge from Pesterwitz via Zauckerode to Gittersee, the village of Naußlitz remained in French hands. Over 10,000 cut off Austrians were captured or looted with all flags and cannons in Murat's attacks. General Mesko himself was captured by soldiers of the 23rd Dragoon Regiment.

Battle of Dresden , painting by Julius Ferdinand Wilhelm Sattler , 1814

It was already 5 p.m. when some of the French reserve troops were deployed. The four divisions of the Young Guard, commanded by Generals Dumoustier, Barrois, Decouz and Roguet, broke through the gate of Pirna and the gate of Plauen to follow up. After Murat's troops secured the crossings of the Weißeritz, Schwarzenberg was forced to accept the destruction of his troops on the other bank of the river. Around noon the Austrians were driven from Wölfnitz and Gorbitz and withdrew via Neu-Nimptsch in great disorder.

End of the battle and results

Monument Battle of Dresden, Räcknitzhöhe Dresden

When the news that the French Vandamme Corps , which had crossed the Elbe near Königstein on the 25th , was advancing towards Pirna and threatening the connection with Bohemia , the Allies withdrew on the night of August 27th to 28th.

Napoleon could not achieve his goal of defeating the allies decisively after the persecution due to the defeat of General Vandamme in the battle of Kulm . The balance of power had changed decisively to its disadvantage when Austria entered the war. The result was the defeat in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in October 1813.

The southern suburbs of Dresden were partly badly destroyed. The city of Dresden resembled a large field hospital due to the large number of wounded.

literature

• Frank Bauer: Dresden 26./27. August 1813. Napoleon's last victory in Saxony. (= Small series history of the liberation wars 1813-1815 , issue 7). Edition König und Vaterland, Potsdam 2004.
• R. (Rudolf) Bräuner: History of the Prussian Landwehr. Historical representation and illumination of its prehistory, establishment and later organization. Volume 1. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1863 ( digitized version ).
• August Kummer: The battle near Dresden and its consequences. Remembering the terrible days of Dresden and the surrounding area fifty years ago. Dresden 1863 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Battle of Dresden  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Battle of Dresden 1813 - Maps and Illustrations (English)
• Nafziger: Structure of the Napoleonic Army near Dresden (English; PDF; 175 kB)
• Nafziger: Structure of the Allied Army near Dresden (English; PDF; 117 kB)

Footnotes

1. ^ Heinrich Beitzke : History of the German Wars of Freedom in the years 1813 and 1814 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 3rd, improved ed. 1864, Vol. 1, pp. 501-507.