From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt |
|
Part of the War of the Fourth
Coalition |
Napoleon reviewing the Imperial Guard, by Horace Vernet. |
|
|
|
Belligerents |
 French
Empire |
 Prussia
 Saxony |
|
Commanders |
Napoleon
I
Louis Nicolas Davout |
Duke of
Brunswick †
Prince of
Hohenlohe
Gebhard von Blücher |
|
Strength |
60,000
(Jena);
27,000 (Auerstedt) |
90,000 (Jena);
53,000 (Auerstedt) |
|
Casualties and losses |
2,480 dead and
wounded (Jena);
4,350 killed, wounded, or missing (Auerstedt) |
28,000 dead, wounded, or
captured (Jena);
18,000 dead, wounded, or captured along with 115 lost Prussian guns
(Auerstedt) |
|
|
|
The twin battles of Jena and
Auerstedt (older name: Auerstädt) were fought on
14 October 1806 on the plateau west of the river Saale in today's Germany, between the forces of
Napoleon I of France and Frederick William III of
Prussia. The decisive defeat suffered by the Prussian army a mere nineteen days after its
mobilization resulted in Prussia's elimination from the fourth anti-French
coalition until the liberation war of 1813.
Opposing
armies
Both armies were split into separate parts. The Prussian king
had three forces:
Napoleon's main force at Jena
consisted of about 96,000 men in total:
Further north, in the vicinity of Auerstedt, the French forces were Bernadotte's I Corps (20,000 strong) and Davout's III Corps (27,000).
Overview
Jena and Auerstedt battles
The battles began when elements of Napoleon's main force
encountered Hohenlohe's troops near Jena. Initially only 48,000
strong, the Emperor took advantage of his carefully-planned and
flexible dispositions to rapidly build up a crushing superiority.
The Prussians were slow to grasp the situation, and slower still to
react. Before Ruchel's 15,000 men could arrive from Weimar, Hohenlohe's force was
routed. Nevertheless, it was a fierce battle, and Napoleon
mistakenly believed that he had faced the main body of the Prussian
army.
Further north at Auerstedt, both Davout and Bernadotte
received orders to come to Napoleon's aid. Davout attempted to
comply via Ekartsberg; Bernadotte, via Dornburg. Davout's route
south, however, was blocked by the Prussian main force of 55,000
men, including the Prussian King, the Duke of Brunswick and Field
Marshals von Möllendorf
and von
Kalckreuth. A savage battle ensued. Although outnumbered two to
one, Davout's superbly trained and disciplined III Corps endured
repeated attacks before eventually taking the offensive and putting
the Prussians to flight. Though in sight of the battle, Bernadotte
took no steps to come to Davout's aid, for which he was later
censured by Napoleon.
Situation - 10 a.m., October 14
Situation - 2 p.m., October 14
Battle of
Jena
Prussia's War Plan
Prussia's main weakness in 1806 was a very weak high command
structure that included command positions being held by multiple
officers. One such example is the position of Chief of Staff, held
by three different officers, General Phull (Pfuel), Colonel Gerhard Johann von Scharnhorst
and Colonel Rudolf Massenbach. This confusing system lead to delays
and complexities that resulted in over a month delay before the
final order of battle was prepared. The Prussian army was divided
into three armies drawn from across Prussia. The next obstacle
facing the Prussians was the creation of a unified plan of battle.
Five main plans emerged for discussion; however, protracted
planning and deliberating shifted the initiative to the French.
Thus, the Prussian plans became reactionary to Napoleons
movements.
France's War Plan
Although Prussia had begun its mobilization almost a month
before France, Napoleon had kept a high state of readiness after
the Russian refusal to accept the peace from the Third Coalition.
Napoleon conceived a plan to force Prussia into a decisive battle,
like Austerlitz, and pre-empt the Prussian offensive. Napoleon had
a major portion of his La Grande Armée position in present day
Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, and thus decided on a
northeast advance into Saxony and onto Berlin.
The Battle of Jena
On October 14, 1806, a morning fog rolled across the grassy
field near Jena. This peaceful scene was soon interrupted by cracks
of musket fire and the boom of the French artillery. The first
movements of the French Army were attacks on either flank of the
Prussian lines to give the supporting armies who would make up the
central attack time to get into position. These skirmishes had
little decisive success except a break through by the French
General Saint-Hilaire who attacked and isolated the Prussian left
flank. At this time, French Marshal Michel Ney had completed his
maneuvers and had taken up position as ordered by Napoleon.
However, once in position Ney decided to attack the Prussian line
even with no orders to do so. This proved to be an almost
disastrous move; Ney's initial assault was a success, but he found
himself overextended and under heavy fire from Prussian artillery.
Recognizing this distressed salient, the Prussian general ordered a
counter attack and enveloped Ney's forces, he formed them into a
square to protect all their flanks. Napoleon recognized the
terrible situation Ney was in and ordered General Lannes to shift
from the center of attack to help Ney. This action would lead the
French center weak; however, Napoleon deployed his reserve Imperial
Guard units to hold the French center until Ney could be rescued.
This adaptability was one of Napoleons greatest strengths; he kept
his Imperial Guard under his direct command, and could order them
to take positions depending on the situation that the battle
presented him. This rescue worked and Ney's unit was able to
retreat from the battle. Although the French were in a troubling
situation at this moment, the Prussian commanders did not take the
incentive to push at the French weaknesses. This would later be
considered their undoing. The inactivity of the Prussian infantry
left them open to artillery and light infantry fire. One Prussian
general described it as, "the area around the entrance of the
village was the scene of the most terrible blood-letting and
slaughter". It was at this time around 13:00 that Napoleon decided
to make the decisive move. He ordered his flanks to push hard and
try to break through the Prussian flanks and encircle the main
center army, while the French center would try to crush the
Prussian center. The attacks on the flanks proved to be a success
and caused many of the Prussian divisions on the flanks to rout the
battlefield. With its flanks broken, the Prussian army was forced
to withdraw and Napoleon had won another battle. In total the
Prussian army suffered 10,000 casualties, 15,000 prisoners of war
taken and had lost 150 artillery guns.
Battle of
Auerstedt
General Etienne Gudin's French troops were on the move from
Naumburg before 6:30 a.m. By 7 a.m. the 1st Chasseurs were stopped
cold in their tracks outside of Poppel by Prussian cavalry and
artillery. There was a heavy fog that had lifted just as they
approached the village. Once Davout became aware of the Prussian
force he ordered Gudin to deploy his force at Hassenhausen.
The Prussian commander on the field was Schmettau. His division
was actually under orders to proceed down the very road that Davout
was on, to block his advance in the Kösen Pass. While Schmettau's
troops were deploying to attack Hassenhausen, Blücher arrived with his
cavalry and deployed on his left. Together they attacked Gudin's
troops and pushed them back to the village.
Wartensleben arrived at 8:30 a.m. with Brunswick, who ordered
his infantry to the left flank and his cavalry to the right. The
rest of the French cavalry arrived at 9 a.m. and was placed on
Gudin's left. General Louis Friant and the 12-pound artillery
arrived at 9:30 a.m. and moved in squares on Gudin's right. The
advance of the French squares forced Blucher's cavalry back. Seeing
no other option available he ordered his cavalry to attack. At this
very moment two of Wartensleben's regiments attacked
Hassenhausen.
Everything failed: three cavalry regiments were routed and the
infantry fell back. At this critical point, Brunswick needed to
take drastic action. Shortly before 10 a.m. he ordered a full
assault on Hassenhausen. By 10 a.m. Brunswick was carried from the
field mortally wounded along with Schmettau who was also badly
wounded. With the loss of these two commanders the Prussian command
broke down. The Prussian army was in danger of collapse.
Blücher's infantry and
the Prince of Orange, the later William I of the
Netherlands, arrived about 10:30 a.m., and the King made his
only decision of the day, to split Orange's command in two, half to
each flank. On the French side, Morand's Division
arrived and was sent to secure Gudin's left. Davout could now see
that the Prussians were wavering, so at 11 a.m. he ordered his
infantry to counter-attack. By noon Schmettau's center was broken
and forced back over the Lissbach Stream, Blucher's cavalry was
blown, and Wartensleben was trying to reposition his troops. The
Prussians realized all was now lost and the King ordered a
withdrawal.
Results
Napoleon initially did not believe that Davout's single Corps
had defeated the Prussian main body unaided, and responded to the
first report by saying "Tell your Marshal he is seeing double", a
reference to Davout's poor eyesight. As matters became clearer,
however, the Emperor was unstinting in his praise. Bernadotte was
severely censured and came within an ace of being dismissed on the
spot — despite being within earshot of Auerstedt and within
marching distance of Jena, he ignored his orders and did not
participate in either battle. Davout was made Duke of Auerstedt.
Lannes, the hero of Jena, was not so honored, possibly because
Napoleon judged it best for reasons of prestige to keep the glory
for himself.
On the Prussian side, Brunswick was mortally wounded at
Auerstedt, and over the next few days the remaining forces were
unable to mount any serious resistance to Murat's ruthless cavalry
pursuit. Davout led his exhausted III Corps into Berlin on 25
October. Hohenlohe's force surrendered on 28 October, Blücher's on
7 November. Isolated Prussian resistance remained, but Napoleon's
primary foe was now Russia,
and the Battle
of Eylau awaited.
Influences
The battle proved most influential in demonstrating the need for
liberal reforms in what was then still a very much feudal Prussian
state and army. Important Prussian reformers like Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Clausewitz served at the battle.
Their reforms, together with civilian reforms instituted over the
following years, began Prussia's transformation into a modern
state, which took the forefront in expelling France from Germany
and eventually assumed a leading role on the continent.
The German philosopher Hegel, who was then a
professor at the University of Jena, is said to have
completed his chef d'œuvre, the
Phenomenology
of Spirit, while the battle raged. Hegel considered this
battle to be "the end of the history", in terms of evolution of
human societies towards what we would call the "universal
homogeneous state"[1]
The Paris metro station Iéna is named for this battle.
The battle is depicted in the alternate history/fantasy novel Black Powder War by Naomi Novik, the third
in the Temeraire series.
External
links
References
Wikis
Search
