The Battle of Lutzen (1813)

After the defeat of the French army in the Russian campaign of 1812, Prussia rebelled against Napoleon. The united Russian-Prussian army, headed by Field Marshal Kutuzov , cleared Prussia from the French garrisons and went to the Elbe to the German states that remained loyal to the alliance with Napoleon. Kutuzov was against further progress, but he fell ill and died on April 16 [28], 1813 in Bunzlau. On the same day, the command took over the cavalry general Wittgenstein ^[1] , who won the trust of Tsar Alexander I with several victories over the French marshals in 1812.

Wittgenstein moved an allied army beyond the Elbe to Leipzig . By that time, Napoleon had gathered a fresh army in France ^[2] and personally led it to help the weakened troops of his general and stepson Yevgeny Bogarne , who, with 60 thousand soldiers, could no longer hold the superior forces of the allies on the Elbe. Marshal Davout in the north with his Danish-French corps of 30 thousand acted in isolation from the main French forces and could not have a decisive influence on the course of events.

The significant superiority of the French troops was balanced by the lack of education of the recruits, the small number of cavalry and the lack of artillery guns. In this situation, the Allies could count on victory in the battle, while avoiding a clash with Napoleon, withdrawing to the right bank of the Elbe without a fight threatened to lose influence on German lands ^[3] .

Napoleon, not knowing about the concentration of the Allied army south of Leipzig ^[4] , led his army in this city as cheap as possible. In total, Napoleon had up to 130 thousand soldiers, of which only 8 thousand were in cavalry, and 350 guns ^[3] . Mobilization gave Napoleon a large number of recruits, but he failed to make up for the cavalry and artillery lost in Russia in 3 months. The 40,000th corps of the Viceroy of Italy Eugene Bogarne moved from the north to join Napoleon in the Leipzig region.

By April 19 [ May 1 ] the French corps (up to 170 thousand soldiers) stretched for 60 miles along the line Jena - Naumburg - Merseburg south-west of Leipzig ^[5] . The absence of cavalry did not allow the French to conduct deep reconnaissance along the route, which was the reason for their unexpected meeting with the allied forces.

The coalition army of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces Wittgenstein consisted of 54 thousand Russian soldiers with 440 guns and 38 thousand Prussian with 216 guns. Allied cavalry totaled up to 20 thousand ^[3] .

On April 19 [ May 1 ], on the road to Leipzig near Weissenfels, there was a clash with the Russian advance detachment from General Winsingerode ’s corps. In this small-sized collision, the commander of the Napoleonic Guards Cavalry, Marshal Bessières , was killed by a random core ^[4] . Having ousted the Russians, the French occupied Lutzen , located on a high road 20 km southwest of Leipzig. In Lutzen, Napoleon’s main apartment and guard are located ^[6] .

Wittgenstein decided to attack Napoleon's right flank during his march, having fallen with the whole army to the nearby French corps one at a time. Wittgenstein had up to 73 thousand soldiers ^[7] with 400 guns at his disposal, the remaining units guarded the flanks and crossing points on the Elbe River. Napoleon’s lack of cavalry reduced the risks of the Allies, if they were defeated, the French could not have organized the persecution ^[3] .

At 10 a.m. on April 20 [ May 2 ], the French corps of General Loriston started a shootout with the Prussian detachment of Field Marshal Kleist (6 thousand), occupying Leipzig. Hearing the cannonade, Napoleon hurried with the guard to the city from Lutzen ^[8] .

Suddenly, for the French around noon, the Allies attacked the forces of the Prussian corps of Field Marshal Blucher, the corps of Marshal Ney (35 thousand), covering from the side of Pegau the right flank of the French columns marching to Leipzig. The battle ensued in the rear of Napoleon, 5 km south of Lutzen, east of the main road to Leipzig. Napoleon, taken aback, nevertheless immediately gave orders. The corps, including from the Beauharnais group, were redirected to help Her; those that came close to Leipzig were sent to Ney's left flank, the lagging corps went to his right flank ^[9] . Before the corps of Marmont, Bertrand and MacDonald arrived, the allied forces opposed only about 50 thousand French, but Wittgenstein did not take advantage of numerical superiority. The Prussian infantry, with the support of the Russian cavalry, successively knocked out the French from the villages of Grossgerschen, Kleingshenshen, Kaye ^[10] . The fighting was hampered by rough terrain, many ponds, canals, outbuildings.

By 5 o’clock in the afternoon the French corps began to approach Marshal Ney , and by 7 pm the Allies went on the defensive. The numerical superiority leaned to the side of Napoleon ^[7] . He concentrated the fire of 80 guns against the center of the allies in the area of ​​the village of Kaye, and the attack of his guard threw the allied forces to their original positions. By night, the positions of the Russian-Prussian troops were captured by the French from both flanks ^[7] .

Moreover, General Loriston’s corps knocked out the Kleist Prussians from Leipzig, which threatened to bypass the Allied army from the north and lose communication with the Elbe River and, accordingly, with supply bases. General Wittgenstein requested the permission of the monarchs who were with the army to retreat ^[11] . Scharnhorst was mortally wounded.

Wittgenstein was criticized for the fact that due to friction with Miloradovich he did not use his 12-thousandth corps located at Zeitz, and thereby weakened the Allied forces ^[7] .

The French lost up to 20 thousand killed and wounded, 800 people were captured, the division general Gure was killed ^{[12] [13]} .

Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky reports about 15 thousand killed by the French; 259 officers and 2856 "lower ranks" and 8 thousand were killed among the Russians - among the Prussians. In addition, due to the lack of supply, about a thousand wounded from the allied forces remained on the battlefield ^[14] . According to official figures cited by Bogdanovich, the Prussian troops who fought in the 1st line lost up to 8 thousand, and the Russians up to 2 thousand soldiers. However, there are certain doubts in the official figures, since according to the testimony of Eugene Württemberg, only 1,720 people left in his 2nd infantry corps ^[15] . Nevertheless, on the 35th wall of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior the losses of Russians in 2 thousand soldiers are indicated. N. Orlov points to the loss of Napoleon’s army of 15 thousand, the number of those killed by her opponent is “slightly less” and notes that 800 people were captured and 5 guns were captured by the Allies ^[7] . E. Tarle writes about the losses of the Allies, approximately equal to the losses of the French - 20 thousand people ^[16] .

The Prussians died a month later from a wound, General Scharnhorst , who made a great contribution to the rise of the national liberation movement in Prussia .

The great losses of the French are explained by their attacking actions in the conditions of an advantage in artillery on the side of the allies.

Assessment of the battle gave the Prussian General Gneisenau ^[17] :

The basic idea of ​​the battle was good, and the orders were bad. The Allies lost a lot of time on the petty deployment of troops instead of suddenly attacking an enemy taken aback.

The position of Wittgenstein as a commander was difficult: for the first time he had to confront Napoleon himself, moreover, commanding not only Russian troops, but also Prussian formations, which he did not know at all. He was deprived of independence, forced to inform the emperor and the Prussian king about all his actions and seek their consent ^[18] . The absence of unity of command in the Allied army is evidenced by such an episode from the notes of Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky , who served at the General Staff:

At dawn, they woke me up and sent to Count Wittgenstein to learn from him his orders for the coming day. I drove through the fields for a long time: no one knew where the commander in chief, finally, I found him on the field, sitting with great composure. Upon learning why I was sent to him, he replied to me: "The emperor is in the army, and I await the orders of His Majesty." Thus, no one gave orders, the sovereign hoped for the commander in chief, and that one for the sovereign.

Although the allied forces retreated in front of Napoleon, nevertheless, Napoleon was unable to defeat them, without having sufficient cavalry forces to pursue ^[19] . Therefore, in Russia, the result of the battle was initially officially presented as a victory ^[20] . Derzhavin wrote an ode to the "Lutzen victory." General Wittgenstein was awarded the tsar of the highest order of St. Andrew the First-Called , the Prussian Field Marshal Blucher received the Order of St. George 2nd degree ^[21] .

The next day, April 21 [ May 3 ], the Allies in relative order retreated in 3 columns.

The Prussian units under the command of Bulow went to Meissen to close the direction to Berlin . A small detachment of Bulow was pursued by Neem at the head of 3 corps (60 thousand), since Napoleon believed that the main Prussian units had gone to Berlin. The information delivered by MacDonald showed Napoleon his mistake, while the chief of staff Ney Jomini , guided mainly by data from German newspapers, persuaded the marshal to go to Bauzen even before receiving the emperor’s order ^[19] .

The Russian army withdrew through Waldheim to Dresden .

Artillery and carts also went to Dresden via Chemnitz and Freiberg .

Miloradovich’s corps, which did not participate in the battle of Lutzen, fought in the rearguard ^[22] . For successful rearguard fights, Miloradovich received the count dignity ^[19] .

On April 26 [ May 8 ] the Russians left Dresden and crossed over the Elbe. Saxony fell again under the rule of Napoleon. With the exception of the Prussian detachment under the command of Bülow, the rest of the units went to Silesia, since it was necessary to be close to Austria, with which negotiations were held on joining the union ^[19] . On April 30 [ May 12 ], the Allies (the size of their army increased to 96 thousand) ^[19] took up a position on the eastern outskirts of Saxony under Bautzen , successfully fortified by nature itself. To reduce the significance of their defeat at Lutzen, the Allies decided on a new battle ^[19] . It happenedMay 8–9 [ May 20–21] became known as the Battle of Bautzen .

• Bogdanovich M. History of the war of 1813 according to reliable sources. - SPb. , 1863.- T. 1.
• Jomini G. Political and military life of Napoleon. Part 3. - St. Petersburg, 1844.
• Lazarev S.E. The Battle of Lutzen (1813) - Napoleon's Forgotten Victory // Military Historical Archive. 2012. No. 6 (150). S. 36-51.
• Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky A. Description of the war of 1813. - St. Petersburg, 1840.
• Orlov N. The war for the liberation of Germany in 1813 // History of the Russian army, 1812-1864 .. - St. Petersburg. : Polygon, 2003 .-- pp. 91-101. - 719 p. - (Military Historical Library). - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89173-212-2 .