The Battles Around Leipzig
October 1813
The Action Opens
by DH Parry
Edited by Gay Gibson
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French troops in action in the closing stages of the battle - they continued to maintain an heroic resistance until all hope of retreat was lost. That night Colonel Marbot of the 23rd Chasseurs-a-Cheval, lost an opportunity of changing the whole face of the campaign through no fault of his own, for, being in observation at the foot of a hill called the Kolmberg, or Swedish Redoubt, he saw several figures on the summit, outlined against the sky, and heard a conversation in French that made the blood tingle in his veins. Stealthily drawing his regiment forward in the darkness, while the 24th (Chasseurs-a-Cheval) crept round the other flank of the hill, a few minutes more would have sufficed to enclose the Kolmberg and capture the speakers, but one of his men accidentally fired his carbine. There was "mounting in hot haste." The figures vanished at full speed towards the allied position, and Marbot had a sharp brush with an escort of cavalry, learning afterwards, to his intense chagrin, that the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia were in the group that had escaped him! Early in the foggy dawn of the 16th October Napoleon left his quarters, attended by his orderly officers and the escort of the Guard, and riding on to the hill of Lieberwolkwitz again, he was joined by Murat. The pair gazing long through their glasses towards the enemy's lines, where, when the fog melted into the drizzle of a cold and gloomy day, they saw several columns forming for the attack. Huge riding-cloaks were then the fashion, and as the cavalcade left the hill muffled to the ears, three signal-guns crashed out about 9 o'clock, sending their balls over the heads of the staff into the Guard and the Cuirassiers beyond, doing some damage, and commencing what is known as the battle of Wachau. Kleist, with a mixed force of Russians and Prussians, advanced on the French right wing in the marshes of the Pleiss and took the village of Mark-Kleberg. Wittgenstein, commanding two columns, also of Russians and Prussians, was partially successful in the Wachau hollow; and the Austrian general Klenau flung his men at the hill of Lieberwolkwitz, which Napoleon regarded as the key of his position. Ordering forward half the young Guard under Marshal Mortier, and sending for a part of Macdonald's corps, the emperor repulsed the Austrians with great loss, captured a portion of the wood of the university, and having sepa-rated Klenau from the rest of the allied army, turned his attention on his centre at Wachau, bringing up two divisions of the Guard under Oudinot to support Victor, placing his reserve artillery on the heights behind the village, and moving Milhaud's and Kellerman's cavalry to attack the Russian left. Cannonade All this while the most furious cannonade was in progress along the whole line, until, as one who was present has declared, “the earth literally trembled.” As the French horsemen gained the plain, affairs became serious for the allied centre, which was bayoneted out of Wachau by a superior force, and retired slowly, fighting all the way, leaving a thousand men dead in the stubble fields before it reached its reserves at the farm of Auenhayn; but, fortunately for Prince Eugène of Würtemberg, who commanded the retreating column, Nostitz arrived with a host of white-coated Austrian cavalry, which, after some dashing charges, drove Milhaud's and Kellerman's back, and saved the allied centre from a similar separation on the left wing to that which had already happened on the right. Still, the allies had gained nothing but the village of Mark-KIeberg. Six desperate attacks had been repulsed by the French; and at Napoleon's command the bells of Leipzig were rung during the afternoon to celebrate a victory and a band played gaily in the market square, where the Saxon Grenadiers stood under arms for the protection of their king. Away beyond the rivers at Lindenau, Bertrand had stood his ground against General Giulai while the great fight waged to the south; but north of Leipzig Marshal Marmont had been less fortunate at the battle of Möckern, where Blücher took 2,000 prisoners, three guns, and forty ship's cannon, which Marmont could not remove for want of horses. The marshal fought hard though, in spite of the odds of three to cite against him; and although he had to retire at nightfall on to the Halle suburb, he retained Gohlitz and Möckern as advanced posts, and kept possession of Euterich. Ney had drawn up in Marmont's rear early in the morning; but hearing the cannonade at Lieberwolkwitz before Marmont was attacked, the Due d’Elchingen marched off towards the firing until Blücher's guns recalled him, and he is said to have lost both combats in consequence. Returning once more to the south, one little incident deserves to be recounted, which had happened when the Kolmberg was stormed. Napoleon, seeing the necessity of a strong charge, turned to a regiment drawn up like motionless spectators, and asked which it was. “The 22nd Light, sire.” “Impossible!” he cried. “The 22nd Light would never stand with its arms folded in presence of the enemy!” Instantly the drums rolled the “pas de charge”, the colours were waved, and, supported by Marbot’s Chasseurs, they rushed forward. The sides of the Swedish redoubt became alive with blue figures and white cross belts, and the hill was taken under the eye of that leader who knew so well how to flatter the vanity of his followers, and who probably got more out of flesh and blood by a few artful sentences than any commander who ever existed, “charmed he ever so wisely.” Between three o'clock and four, when the allied centre had been driven back, leaving its right exposed, Murat detected that weakness and prepared to swoop down with Latour-Maubourg's cavalry into the plain. Alexander, whose station was behind the village of Gossa, tried to get his reserves up in time, but by some mischance they were jumbled together in some broken ground, leaving two regiments, the Lancers and Dragoons of the Guard, to face the rush of fifty squadrons, thundering down from the heights, the sun full on them as they came. They were the 5th Cavalry Corps, with Murat, Latour-Maubourg, and Pajol leading -- five thousand horsemen, mostly dragoons, green coated, grey breeched, high booted; white cloaks rolled en banderole across the square revers , which showed scarlet and crimson and rose, and bright yellow and dull orange brass helmets with the whisk of horsehair about them; bearskins of the Compagnies d'élite bedraggled with the rain: one of those furious waves that in the early days of the Empire were wont to annihilate everything in their course, and which now tore, heedless of a storm of cannon shot, capturing twenty-six guns in the twinkling of an eye, and hustling the Russian dragoons over a brook in their rear. A few causeways crossed the rivulet and the ground was swampy; the cavalry were splashed with mud from crest to spur, and the horses hock-deep in many cases. The Russian lancers fell back and formed to the left, without crossing the brook; and checked in the moment of victory, by the marsh into which they had floundered, the French squadrons became confused and unmanageable. Guns were brought to bear upon them; the hussars of the Russian Guard charged in on their right rear, and they scrambled out in great disorder, which degenerated into a panic and a hasty retreat. Seeing this the Emperor Alexander sent his personal escort of Cossacks under Count Orloff Denisoff to take the mass on the other flank. Back streamed the broken dragoons, nor did they halt until they reached their infantry, for they had been sent at the enemy without any supports into ground where a voltigeur would have hesitated. 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 |
Suddenly, about eight in the evening, three brilliant white rockets rose into the starlit sky from the allies' headquarters at Pegau on the Elster, and these were answered a minute later by four red ones that trailed up beyond Halle - a signal which put the French on the qui vive.