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Battle of the Katzbach

The Battle of the Katzbach on 26 August 1813, was a major battle of the Napoleonic Wars between the forces of the First French Empire under Marshal MacDonald and a Russo-Prussian army of the Sixth Coalition under Prussian Marshal Graf (Count) von Blücher.[5] It occurred during a heavy thunderstorm at the Katzbach river between Wahlstatt and Liegnitz in the Prussian province of Silesia.[6] Taking place the same day as the Battle of Dresden, it resulted in a Coalition victory, with the French retreating to Saxony.

Battle of the Katzbach
Part of the German campaign of the Sixth Coalition

Battle of the Katzbach by Eduard Kaempffer
Date26 August 1813[1]
Location
near Liegnitz, Prussia
51°06′17″N 16°05′57″E / 51.10472°N 16.09917°E / 51.10472; 16.09917
Result Russo-Prussian victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Prussia Kingdom of Prussia
 Russian Empire		 First French Empire French Empire
Commanders and leaders
Kingdom of Prussia Gebhard von Blücher
Kingdom of Prussia Ludwig Yorck
Russian Empire Osten-Sacken		 First French Empire Jacques MacDonald
First French Empire Jacques Lauriston
First French Empire François Bastien Sébastiani
Units involved
Army of Silesia Army of the Bober
Strength
80,000[1]–95,000[2] 60,000[1]–75,000[2]
Casualties and losses
1,000 killed and wounded (battle)
22,000 (campaign)[3]		 Unknown casualties (battle)
30,000 (campaign)[3][4]
103 guns[4]
Battle of the Katzbach is located in Europe
Battle of the Katzbach
class=notpageimage|
Location within Europe
War of the Sixth Coalition:
German campaign
Map
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Maps: terms of use
200km
125miles
19
Siege of Hamburg from 24 December 1813 to 12 May 1814
18
Battle of Sehested from 10 December 1813
17
Battle of Hanau from 30 to 31 October 1813
Leipzig
16
Battle of Leipzig from 16 to 19 October 1813
15
Battle of Wartenburg on 3 October 1813
14
Combat of Roßlau on 29 September 1813
13
Battle of Altenburg on 28 September 1813
12
Battle of the Göhrdeon 16 September 1813
11
Battle of Dennewitz on 6 September 1813
10
Battle of Kulm from 29 to 30 August 1813
9
Battle of Dresden from 26 to 27 August 1813
8
7
Battle of Großbeeren on 23 August 1813
6
Battle of Luckau on 4 June 1813
5
Battle of Haynau on 26 May 1813
4
Battle of Bautzen (1813) from 20 to 21 May 1813
3
Battle of Lützen (1813) on 2 May 1813
2
Battle of Möckern on 5 April 1813
1
Siege of Danzig (1813) from 16 January to 29 November 1813
  current battle
  Napoleon in command
  Napoleon not in command

Prelude

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Blücher ordered the Army of Silesia to advance on 13 August, before the Truce of Pläswitz could conclude on 17 August. In a series of running fights, the Allied army beat back the confused French, who did not anticipate that the Allies would break the armistice so brazenly.[7] These minor victories raised the morale of the inexperienced German levies.[8] On the first day, Blücher and his chief of staff August Neidhardt von Gneisenau became separated and did not issue orders for troop movements until late in the day, slowing down the Allied advance.[8] The French resistance grew in intensity, the Allied night marches multiplied owing to constant combat and delays, and the weather turned atrocious. On 20 August, Blücher's men came face-to-face Napoleon's main army at the Bober river and beat a hasty retreat when the cheers of the French troops announced the arrival of the French emperor.[8]

For the next five days, the Silesian Army engaged in a series of fierce and costly rearguard actions against the pursuing French forces, which were personally commanded by Napoleon.[8] Blücher lost 6,000–8,000 men in combat on 21, 22 and 23 August, while French losses since 17 August were about the same.[9] Blücher's army began to fall apart.[8] Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg's corps lost 5,000 men to desertion.[10] The Landwehr militiamen deserted en masse in entire battalions, while the Allied corps commanders complained of the ruin befalling their army thanks to the incompetence of its general staff.[11][10] Blücher contemplated firing Gneisenau.[11]

Napoleon returned to Saxony on 23 August with the Guard, I Corps, VI Corps and I Cavalry Corps to face Schwarzenberg's Army of Bohemia.[12] That same day, he formed the 100,000-strong Army of the Bober under Marshal Jacques MacDonald's and ordered him to drive Blucher to east of the Katzbach then pull back to the west bank of the Bober and assume defensive positions to protect the flank of the French armies in Saxony and near Berlin.[13] MacDonald was also authorized to attack in case Blücher took the offensive.[14] MacDonald did not move for 48 hours due to Marshal Michel Ney's misunderstanding of Napoleon's summon of Ney to Görlitz as referring to his entire three-division-strong III Corps.[15] Late on 24 August, Ney turned over command to Joseph Souham, who spent 25 August moving his corps into MacDonald's line.[15] In addition to the III Corps, MacDonald had under his command the V Corps, XI Corps and II Cavalry Corps.

When Blücher on 24 August learned that Napoleon was no longer in direct command of the pursuers, he at 7 pm that day ordered his army to turn back and use cavalry reconnaissance to find the enemy on 25 August.[15] At 11 pm on 25 August, MacDonald issued orders to move his army to the town of Jauer the next day and defeat Blücher or drive him deeper into Silesia.[16] MacDonald's courier reached Souham four and one-half hours late. Souham then moved his corps at 11.30 am to Kroitsch rather than Liegnitz, which meant that only one division from the corps would participate in the battle.[17]

Battle

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Battle of Katzbach by Klein. Prussian troops force the French into the river.

The two armies stumbled upon one another at 9 am after MacDonald crossed the swollen Katzbach river.[18] A sudden flood cut away many of the bridges and destroyed the fords.[19] In the midst of the confusion and heavy rain, MacDonald seemed to recover first. Although his orders were to defend the flank of Napoleon's main force from Blücher, MacDonald decided to attack. He dispatched two-thirds of his army, about 60,000 men, in an attempt to flank the Russo-Prussian right. But confusion reigned again as the French columns found themselves too far apart to support one another.

Blücher ordered his right-wing to advance.[19] The muskets were too wet for firing and the battle was decided with cold steel.[19] The remaining 30,000 men of MacDonald's force, who were supposed to hold down the Coalition forces, were met by a heavy counter-attack by Prussian cavalry. Without support or reinforcement, the French II Cavalry Corps, Brayer's 8th Division from III Corps and Meunier's 2nd brigade were routed at 6.30 pm by Blücher's entire army.[20] The remnants of MacDonald's army retreated, with hundreds drowning in the Katzbach and the Raging Neisse which were in spate.[21]

Aftermath

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Museum of the battle, located in the village of Dunino.
 
Memorial stone; it reads, in German, "Here the French crossed the Raging Neisse and were repulsed, many of them drowning in the flooding river."

Casualties

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MacDonald's casualties on 26 August are unknown but by 1 September he had lost 30,000 men and 103 guns, including 12,000 killed and wounded and 18,000 captured.[2][4] Blücher's losses were some 1,000 men killed and wounded in the battle and 22,000 for the campaign.[3][4]

Analysis

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Beyond the battle losses, the French strategic position had been weakened. Austria might have defected from the Allied coalition after Napoleon's victory at Dresden on 26–27 August.[19] News of Blücher's triumph revitalized the worried Allied leadership.[19] This, coupled with the defeats at Kulm, four days later, and Dennewitz on 6 September, would more than negate Napoleon's victory at Dresden.

Because of his victory, Blücher received the title of "Prince of Wahlstatt" on 3 June 1814.

The battle gave rise to a German saying, now obsolete: "Der geht ran wie Blücher an der Katzbach!" ("He's advancing like Blücher at Katzbach!"), referring to Blücher and describing vigorous, forceful behavior.

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Bodart 1908, p. 454.
  2. ^ a b c Clodfelter 2017, p. 166.
  3. ^ a b c Hofschröer 1993, p. 54.
  4. ^ a b c d Leggiere 2015, p. 9.
  5. ^ Robinson 1814.
  6. ^ Kelly 1831, p. 702.
  7. ^ Maude 1908, p. 175.
  8. ^ a b c d e Maude 1908, p. 176.
  9. ^ Leggiere 2015, p. 225.
  10. ^ a b Leggiere 2015, p. 216.
  11. ^ a b Maude 1908, p. 177.
  12. ^ Leggiere 2015, p. 191.
  13. ^ Leggiere 2015, pp. 191–192, 197.
  14. ^ Leggiere 2015, p. 192.
  15. ^ a b c Leggiere 2015, p. 218.
  16. ^ Leggiere 2015, pp. 236–237.
  17. ^ Leggiere 2015, pp. 237–238.
  18. ^ Leggiere 2015, p. 240.
  19. ^ a b c d e Maude 1908, p. 178.
  20. ^ Leggiere 2015, pp. 254–265.
  21. ^ Leggiere 2015, p. 266.

References

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  • Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905). Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  • Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-7470-7.
  • Hofschröer, Peter (1993). Leipzig 1813: The Battle of the Nations. London: Osprey. ISBN 978-1855323544.
  • Leggiere, Michael V. (2015). Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany: The Franco-Prussian War of 1813 Volume II, The Defeat of Napoleon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-43975-7.
  • Maude, Frederic Natusch (1908). The Leipzig Campaign, 1813. London: Swan Sonnenschein.
  • Tucker, Spencer C. (2009). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East [6 volumes]: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO. p. 1099. ISBN 978-1-85109-672-5.
  • Robinson, G. (1814). The New Annual Register: Or General Repository of History, Politics, Arts, Sciences, and Literature for the Year 1813.
  • Kelly, C. (1831). History of the French Revolution: And of the Wars Produced by that ... Event ... Including a Complete Account of the War Between Great Britain and America; and the ... Battle of Waterloo. London. Biographical Sketches of the Heroes of Waterloo are appended.
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Preceded by
Battle of Großbeeren 		Napoleonic Wars
Battle of the Katzbach 		Succeeded by
Battle of Dresden
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