By the time the sun rose over Leipzig on 19 October, 1813, and the bivouac fires started to fade on the battlefield where more than 300,000 Russians, Prussians, Austrians and Swedes had spent the night, the major part of the French army was already withdrawing over the Elster River.

The previous three days had witnessed the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, with more than 500,000 French and Allied soldiers fighting a series of engagements around this important crossroads in central Germany. Despite a heroic defense, Napoleon was forced to retreat under continuous pressure. With the monarchs of Russia, Austria, and Prussia present, the combined forces of the Sixth Coalition against France were determined to not allow the French Emperor's Grande Armee to escape without further punishment.

At 5:00 a.m., the Crown Prince of Sweden (former French Marshal Bernadotte) became aware that the French forces occupying Volkmansdorf east of the city were retiring, and he ordered General Bulow to attack. The few French soldiers left there made a stubborn resistance against Bernadotte's numerically superior Army of the North. By 9:30 a.m., Bulow's 3rd Prussian Corps reached Hochgericht about half a kilometer from the Grimmisches Tor ("Gate"), the eastern entrance to the city of Leipzig.

Meanwhile Benningsen's reserve column had reached the area between Krottendorf and Strassenhauser, and the Russian artillery began to bombard the southeastern part of the city to make a breach in the wall. General Blucher's Army of Silesia, advancing from the north, was already slowly pushing into the suburbs.

At 10:00 a.m., the Russian barrage was interrupted for half an hour at the request of Tsar Alexander who sent a delegation to negotiate the surrender of the city. The negotiations led nowhere and at about 10:30 a.m., the Prussian jager-horns signaled the start of the assault. Bulow sent forward Borstell's Brigade which slowly advanced in hard fighting against Marshal Macdonald's troops until they reached the outskirts of the city. Battalion Mirbach arrived at the Grimmisches Gate and broke small openings in the two secondary gates on the sides of the main one. The Prussians started to enter the city one-by-one, but could not advance due to heavy French fire from the houses on the side of the Johannisplatz inside the gate.

The Crown Prince of Sweden then sent forward three battalions from Hessen-Homburg's Division and the first of these -- Friccius's East Prussian Landwehr Battalion -- managed to make a breach in the city wall. The main gate was opened, and the Prussian battalions started to stream into the city over the Johannisplatz.

However, at this moment French reinforcements came up and Hessen-Homburg's battalions were thrown back to the gate again while their leader, Prince Ludwig von Hessen-Homburg himself, was severely wounded. The French fire -- coming from all directions -- became heavier. The Prussians suffered heavy losses and some fled out of the gate to escape the terrible fire. The Swedish chief-of-staff, General Adlercreutz, who commanded the assault, now got a message that the French were bringing forward guns into the town square. A request was sent for two cannons from the Gata Artillery Regiment and at the same time the Crown Prince ordered the advance of a column of Swedish jagare consisting of the jagare units pulled from the Swedish Corps (see chart).

This was the first and only time Swedish infantry would take part in any major actions during the Leipzig campaign. This article will attempt to describe who these Swedish jagare were, their organization, their uniform and equipment, and what happened after they stormed through the Grimmisches Gate on this clear October day in 1813.

Organization

There were two types of jagare in the Swedish army, those who formed the light companies of guard and line regiments (similar to voltigeurs in the French line regiment) and those of Varmlands Faltjagarregiment -- which was the only all-jagare regiment in the Swedish army after the loss of Finland to Russia in 1809.

Jagare of the Line Regiments

In 1806 the elite formation of the Swedish infantry regiments was changed from grenadiers to jagare. According to the drill manuals of 1813, a "jagar-division" of 50 men should be formed in each battalion of the "youngest, quickest and most alert" men. Each division [a division, small "d", is the equivalent of a half-company] was led by one officer, 2 NCOs, 4 corporals and one bugler.

As an infantry regiment consisted of three battalions of 600 men each at this time, this meant that a Swedish infantry regiment nominally had 1650 "ordinary" infantrymen and 150 jagare. It was a regular practice to combine the jagare divisions into consolidated jagare battalions as was done at Leipzig.

Varmlands Faltjagarregiment

In 1813 the Varmlands Faltjagarreg-iment fielded two battalions, but only the 1st battalion was present at Leipzig. A faltjagar battalion was smaller than a regular infantry battalion. It consisted of 3 companies, each of these mustered 100 "Faltjagare and corporals", 4 officers, 4 NCOs, and 2 drummers.

The regiment did not carry any regimental colors in the Leipzig campaign, since it was the rule in the Swedish Army at the time that the light regiments should not have any flags.

Weapons

According to the regulations, Swedish jagare were equipped with a rifle. There existed three major types of rifles in the Swedish Army at the time. The two older types were the "Sprengportenska" models of 1776 and 1788 which had both originally been designed for the Savolaks Jagarregiment in Finland. These had a caliber of 19mm with eight rifle grooves. The weight of the 1776 model was 4.73 kg.

The newer type rifle was of Helvig's design (1803). It had "musket-caliber" (20.04mm) and four shallow rifle grooves. A very handy weapon, it weighed only 4 kg and, according to tests carried out at Stockholm in 1804, it had good accuracy up to 300 meters. At these tests a conical bullet proved to be much more effective than the standard, spherical one, but in spite of this Helvig's rifle was not introduced into the Swedish Army during the Napoleonic Wars and the Swedish jagare fought at Leipzig armed with the two older models.

One serious deficiency in the equipment of the Varmlands Faltjagare during the Leipzig campaign was that, unlike the other jagare units, they lacked bayonets. French cavalry at both Gross Beeren and Leipzig inflicted many casualties on the Varmlands battalion which perhaps could have been avoided. It also reduced their offensive capability in several ways.

One example is an event which occurred at Koswig on the Elbe River in the evening of September 18. In heavy rain, a scouting patrol of Swedish jagare from the Kalmar Regiment and Varmlands Faltjagare spotted 26 Polish uhlans out on the same kind of duty. Before the Poles were aware of their adversaries, the Swedish commander ordered a charge, and the jagare from Kalmar Regiment fell on the Poles with their bayonets, scattering the patrol, killing several uhlans and taking one prisoner. The Varmlands Faltjagare could not take part in this successful ambush since they lacked bayonets.

Uniform

The jagare from the line infantry regiments wore the infantry uniform of 1810. It had a double-buttoned dark blue frock coat with short tails, yellow turnbacks and cuffs, and red collar for all regiments except Sadermanland and Jankaping which had yellow. The trousers were dark gray with Hungarian knots above each thigh in the same color as the collar. The waist belt was made of blue and yellow cloth and so long that it went two times around the waist. Shoes and gaiters were black.

Swedish Jagare (Large Illustration: 51K)

In 1812 the shako had still not been introduced in Sweden and the infantry wore an 8-inch tall hat with a yellow woolen plume and a brass cordon. According to the regulations, the brass cordon was supposed to be replaced with a black leather band and a brass badge, but the evidence from contemporary drawings indicates that this apparently was not done.

It is not clear from the regulations how the jagare were distinguished from the rest of the troops, but it is likely that they had green plumes instead of yellow. In earlier models of the uniform they had been distinguished by green facing color, but this seems to have disappeared in the model of 1810.

Varmlands Faltjagare wore a dark green uniform with a single breasted jacket. The collar, turnbacks, as well as the cuffs were black with white piping. Shoes, gaiters, and belts were black except the waist belt which was the ordinary infantry blue-and-yellow cloth belt. The trousers are normally depicted as dark green, but white linen trousers are also mentioned in several descriptions.

The hat was of the same model as the guard and grenadier regiments. It had a black crest which went diagonally over the top, starting at the back of the left side and ending on the front of the right side. Furthermore, it had a green plume with a green pompom at the left side and a black leather band going around the base. The chin strap was of black leather.

More Swedish Jagare:

Swedish Jagare
The Storming of Leipzig
The Storming of Grimmisches Gate (Map)

Related:

Swedish Horse Artillery and the 1813 Campaign
Prelude to Leipzig, Battle of Liebertwolkwitz
Swedish Mornerska Hussars

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