Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Trachenberg and Reichenbach
- 2 The Silesian Army
- 3 “The infamous conduct of the Prussians”
- 4 Löwenberg
- 5 Goldberg
- 6 The Katzbach
- 7 Blücher’s hare hunt
- 8 “Nothing more remains than to have them shot dead”
- 9 Lusatia
- 10 The Middle Elbe
- 11 The Mulde
- 12 Hide and seek
- 13 Opening round
- 14 “A battle of the most obstinate and sanguinary class”
- 15 Leipzig
- 16 Race to the Rhine
- Assessment
- Bibliography
- Index
14 - “A battle of the most obstinate and sanguinary class”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Trachenberg and Reichenbach
- 2 The Silesian Army
- 3 “The infamous conduct of the Prussians”
- 4 Löwenberg
- 5 Goldberg
- 6 The Katzbach
- 7 Blücher’s hare hunt
- 8 “Nothing more remains than to have them shot dead”
- 9 Lusatia
- 10 The Middle Elbe
- 11 The Mulde
- 12 Hide and seek
- 13 Opening round
- 14 “A battle of the most obstinate and sanguinary class”
- 15 Leipzig
- 16 Race to the Rhine
- Assessment
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The wide lowland through which the Elster and the Pleiße Rivers flowed in a northern direction gradually curved westward from the walls of Leipzig toward the valley of the Saale. Between both rivers sprawled a wooded marsh that formed an eastward projecting salient in front of which stood Leipzig. North of the city, the course of the Parthe ran northeast while the Elster flowed northwest, giving the terrain sector between these two water courses the appearance of a broad funnel into which the great highways from Halle, Magdeburg, Dessau, Wittenberg, and Torgau merged. These arteries ran through gentle inclines and over shallow hills, which at most rose no more than twenty to thirty yards above the lowlands of the Elster and the meadows of the Parthe. Steady rains in August and September had rendered the clay soil very soft; low-lying farmlands and meadows hindered the movement of close-ordered troop units. Due to the wet summer and autumn, the marshes of the Elster, Parthe, and Pleiße could be crossed only by way of the existing roads; the rivers themselves formed obstacles because of their depth and could not be crossed without preparation.
From every direction roads converged on Leipzig like the radii of a circle. The Allies controlled the two running west to Naumburg and Merseburg on the Saale; Napoleon commanded all the opposite roads leading east and northeast to Wurzen, Eilenburg, and Bad Düben on the Mulde as well as the roads to Torgau and Wittenberg on the Elbe. In between lay three roads that ran north and three that ran south; the ensuing battle would determine which side controlled these six avenues. With the possession of Leipzig, Napoleon held the hub of all the roads. Simultaneously, he flanked the Bohemian Army by the road to Wurzen and the Silesian Army by the highway to Bad Düben; his forces separated the two Allied armies like a wedge between them. For the 16th, Allied Headquarters wanted to drive through this wedge and take Leipzig.
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- Napoleon and the Struggle for GermanyThe Franco-Prussian War of 1813, pp. 624 - 684Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015