The Battles Around Leipzig
October 1813
Opening Manoeuvres
by DH Parry
Edited by Gay Gibson
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At last his various corps were ordered on Magdeburg, and on the 7th October, at seven in the morning, the emperor himself left, and quitting the Leipzig road beyond Wurzen, eventually reached the little moated castle of Düben on the 10th where he stayed three days in further indecision, until he suddenly commanded a countermarch of his troops upon Leipzig, stopping himself to breakfast in a field by the roadside, at a point some fifteen miles from the city. While there, the distant booming of cannon told him that Murat was engaged to the south of Leipzig, and at the same moment the King of Saxony came up with his Queen and a strong escort. Napoleon had desired them to accompany him, and advancing to the carriage door, he reassured the frightened lady, who went on after a short halt with her unfortunate husband, destined to pay so dearly for his loyalty to the French cause. It was the anniversary of Iéna, and by a strange coincidence Napoleon was using the identical copy of Petri's atlas which he had consulted for the campaign that had laid Prussia at his feet in two short weeks. Now the tables were turned, and Prussia was about have a terrible revenge.
Meanwhile, the columns were tramping in and taking up their positions; outside the house of Herr Vetter at Reudnitz, a picturesque village two miles from Leipzig, a Chasseur of the Guard with loaded carbine showed where Napoleon had fixed his quarters. Wagons, carriages, escort, and orderly officers thronged the streets; every hour witnessed the arrival of a grenadier regiment, a corps of Tirailleurs, or a rumbling battery of guns, whose grey-coated drivers forced a passage through the crowd with almost as little ceremony as the emperor's suite itself. The citizens had experienced a foretaste of French usage since Marmont's corps came among them at the beginning of the month but that was going to prove as nothing to the misery of the next six days. Early on the morning of the 15th, Murat clattered up to the door of the Quartier-Général, and swinging off his horse went in to hold long counsel with his brother-in-law; after which, about noon, they both rode away into the stubble and the sheep pastures to reconnoitre around Lieberwolkwitz on a hill to the French left, and Wachau village with its orchard in a hollow, which formed the French centre five miles or so from the city, paying Poniatowski's corps a visit among the gardens of Dolitz, and finally returning to Lieberwolkwitz, where one of those dramatic Napoleonic ceremonies took place usual upon the presentation of the cherished Eagle to corps that had not previously possessed it. Three regiments of light infantry clustered round their emperor and, turning to one with the standard in his hand, he exclaimed in a piercing voice: “Soldiers of the 26th Léger, I entrust you with the French Eagle: it will be your rallying point. You swear never to abandon it but with life; you swear never to suffer all insult to France; you swear to prefer death to dishonour. You swear!” “We swear”, came the answer; ”Vive l'Empereur!” And each regiment took the oath, and meant it. The columns had filed down to their posts in the position chosen by Murat and sanctioned by Napoleon, and the line of battle stretched in a huge semicircle south of Leipzig, three miles and a half from end to end; Victor in the centre behind Wachau with the 2nd Corps; Prince Poniatowski on the right with the 8th on the banks of the narrow Pleiss at Mark-Kleberg and Doetlitz; Lauriston on the left, on the hill of Lieberwolkwitz with the 5th Corps; while farther away still, beyond Lauriston, was Macdonald, on the Dresden road, keeping a sharp lookout for Beningsen or the Hetman Platof.
To the west, across the causeway previously mentioned, General Bertrand held Lindenau with the 4th Corps, and covered the road to Erfurt destined to form the French line of retreat; Marshal Marmont, with the 6th Corps, lay round Lindenthal, and protected Leipzig to northward. Ney and Reynier, with the 3rd and 7th Corps, were in full march from Eilenburg, either to support Marmont or operate to east- ward of the city. In all, 182,000 men to sustain the advance and attack of more than 300,000 -- namely, the Allied Grand Army, or Army of Bohemia, 90,000; the Army of Silesia, under Blücher, 70,000; the Army of the North, commanded by Bernadotte, 72,000 and about 15,000 partisans, Cossacks, and light horse. There had been heavy rains for several days preceding the 14th, the night of which was miserable; but the weather cleared on the 15th, and everything was quiet, except the continued march of troops and the loop-holing of the Leipzig walls. The Battles Around Leipzig October 1813
Opening Manoeuvres The Action Opens Latour-Maubourg Falls Decision to Evacuate The Escape Route and Poniatowski The Bridge Explodes Large Map of Leipzig Area (slow: 97K) Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire # 74 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com |
From the Rhine Napoleon had allowed himself to be cut off, by staying at Dresden when every hour was of the utmost consequence. There seem to have come to him towards the close of his marvelous career strange attacks of indecision that none has satisfactorily explained. The lingering at Dresden while the allies had drawn nearer and nearer until they
had him in a net, from which he escaped but with difficulty and at great sacrifices, was one of these.
The day was grey and lowering, and Murat had had several smart cavalry affairs near Borna, in one of which he narrowly escaped with his life. Returning with a single trooper, he had been hotly pursued by Lieutenant De Lippe of the 1st Neumark Dragoons, who repeatedly shouted “ Stop, King Stop, King! ” After a galloping fight the pursuer was killed by Murat's attendant, to whom Napoleon gave the Legion of Honour, and who rode the dead man's horse next day in his capacity of equerry to the King of Naples.
In rear of Poniatowski were Marshal Augereau's men; between Poniatowski and Victor, the cavalry of Kellerman and Milhaud; between Victor and Lauriston the cavalry of Latour- Maubourg; and, finally, when they arrived the Imperial Guard was stationed near the village of Probsteyda, behind Victor, and in front of the ruined windmill and tobacco factory where Napoleon took his stand when the fighting had once begun.