Silesian Army (Wars of Liberation)

The Silesian Army was one of the three Allied military combat formations in the Sixth Coalition War of the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon from 1813 to 1815.

Lineup

After the costly battles of Großgörschen and Bautzen in the spring campaign of 1813 , the allies Prussia and Russia agreed an armistice with the French on June 4, 1813 and withdrew their troops to a defensive position near Schweidnitz in Silesia. With the Reichenbacher Convention , Austria joined the Prussian-Russian coalition and in the conference of Trachenberg Castle on July 12, 1813, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and the Russian Tsar Alexander I a plan for a common strategy against Napoleon's armies, which the former French Marshal Bernadotte (since 1810 Crown Prince Karl of Sweden ) and the Austrian Chief of Staff Marshal Radetzky had worked out. After Austria declared war on France, the Allied troops were re-formed together with Sweden and Great Britain to become the greatest military power in the Wars of Liberation.

After that, in addition to the Bohemian Army under Prince Karl Philipp zu Schwarzenberg and the Northern Army under Crown Prince Karl of Sweden, the Silesian Army under the supreme command of General von Blücher with the I. Prussian Corps of General Yorck and the Russian Corps of Generals de Langeron , de Saint -Priest (8th Corps), Olsufjew (9th Corps), Kapzewitsch (10th Corps), von der Osten-Sacken (11th Corps) and Wassiltschikow (4th Cavalry Corps). In March 1814, the commanding generals of the III. Prussian Corps, Bülow , and the 2nd Corps of the Russian Main Army, Wintzingerode , who withdrew with their troops from the Northern Army in November and December 1813 and marched into France via Belgium and Holland and successfully besieged the French troops in Soissons Commander Blucher.

Skirmishes

The Silesian Army was involved in the following battles, skirmishes and sieges:

Autumn campaign 1813

Katzbach - Wartenburg - Leipzig

Winter campaign 1814

Brienne and La Rothière - Champaubert - Montmirail - Château-Thierry - Vauchamps - Soissons - Craonne - Laon - Reims - Arcis-sur-Aube - Fère-Champenoise - Saint-Dizier - Claye - Paris

In the autumn campaign, the Bohemian and Silesian armies had initially taken up the pursuit of the troops led by Napoleon on separate routes and only proceeded together again in the cavalry battle of Fère-Champenoise.

In August 1813 the Silesian Army had a combat strength of 105,414 men. In the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , the army had a combat strength of around 68,000 men and 10,000 horsemen as reserve troops. With the incorporation of the Bülow and Wintzingerode Corps in March 1814, it reached a strength of more than 100,000 men.

literature

Karl von Müffling : On the war history of the years 1813 and 1814. The campaigns of the Silesian army under Field Marshal Blücher. From the end of the armistice to the conquest of Paris . 2nd Edition. Mittler, Berlin 1827
Klaus Thiele, The Silesian Army: Elbe crossing, Battle of Wartenberg. On the 185th anniversary of the Wars of Liberation , Annaberg 1998

Web links

List of troops of the Silesian Army 1813

Individual evidence

^ Hugo von Freytag-Loringhoven , Enlightenment and Army Command. Depicted at the events of the Silesian Army in the autumn of 1813. A study. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1900 (digitized version)

[1] Hugo von Freytag-Loringhoven , Enlightenment and Army Command. Depicted at the events of the Silesian Army in the autumn of 1813. A study. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1900 (digitized version)