THE BATTLE OF AUERSTEDT

1806

One day before Napoleon's victory over the Prussians at Jena, Marshal's Davout and Bernadotte commanding the French third and first corps respectively, were following the Emperor's orders to march together and occupy the city of Naumburg. 

For many years hard feelings had run deep between the two men and as they continued there advance, Bernadotte chose to purposely distance himself from Davout by leading his corps toward the town of Dornburg, thus leaving Davout to march on alone in hostile territory.

Along third corps line of march, a dense fog had suddenly rose up and covered the entire area blinding the marshal's line of sight. And with only one of his three divisions present, Davout choose to stop near the town of Auerstadt and camp for the night. 

At 7:00am the next morning the fog abruptly lifted to reveal a large Prussian army encamped a mere one mile from Davout's position. The Marshal immediately ordered General Gudin to form his 10,000 men into square and sent urgent dispatches to his other two divisions under General's Friant and Morand, to come to his aid with all hast.

Without calling for infantry support, Field Marshall Blucher assumed command of the Prussian cavalry and charged towards the formidable French position. This uncoordinated attack had little effect on the French formation and Blucher was compelled to fall back suffering heavy casualties. 

Witnessing Blucher's rebuff, King Frederick William III and the Prussian field commander the Duke of Brunswick, now wasted an additional two hours evaluating the situation. This allowed Davout's second division of 8,000 men under General Friant to arrive at 9:00 am and take up positions on Gudin's right.

Now with 17,000 men Davout redeployed his forces in order to keep the road back to Naumburg open in the event he was forced to call a withdrawal, sending the greater part of Gudin's division to the north of the village of Hassenhaussen while leaving only one regiment to its south.

Just before 10:00 am the Prussians finally attacked in force with two infantry divisions to the north and south of Hassenhaussen. The northern attack was decimated as the Prussians were caught in a murderous crossfire as they veered to far from their objective and marched straight between Friant's and Gudin's divisions, while the southern attack easily brushed aside the lone French regiment. 

With his left flank in serious danger of being turned, Davout personally led two regiments from Gudin's division and counter attacked the Prussian breakthrough, successfully throwing the enemy back and returning some stability to the French lines. 

At this stage Davout's entire command was now heavily engaged, his third division was still to the rear and would not arrive for some time nor was their any sign that Bernadotte may be marching to his aid. 

                                                      Marhal Davout

Fortunately for Davout the Prussians failed to make use of their numerical superiority by turning his weak left flank, instead they wasted more precious time and men by launching four consecutive frontal assaults to take Hassenhaussen, all of which were repulsed with heavy losses. It was also during these failed attacks the Duke of Brunswick was shot through both eyes and killed. 

King Frederick now makes a grave error by failing to take immediate command of the Prussian army, instead allowing his troops to fight on leaderless. At 11:00am when the King does finally assume overall command, the Prussians have again lost there tactical advantage by allowing Davout's third division of 8,000 men under General Morand to arrive and take up positions on the shattered French left. 

At the same time a Prussian infantry division under the Prince of Orange also arrived on the battle field, but instead of going into action on one flank or the other, the Prince divided his force sending half his men to each Prussian wing respectively.

King Frederick now orders General Wartensleben to mount an infantry attack on Morand's flank. The Prussian assault suffered immense casualties as it was cut down by the murderous fire from French rifles. Morand's defence was so disciplined and stubborn that the Prussian attack simply melted away.

The Prussian right flank was now in serious peril of disintegrating. King Frederick still had two infantry divisions numbering 15,000 men in reserve to call upon, but Frederick was mesmerized by the thought he was facing Napoleon in person and ignored the urgent requests by his commanders to commit these troops to stop the collapse of his army.

It was now mid day and with Davout sensing victory, he formed up his three divisions and ordered a general advance. Still refusing to commit his last reserves the King of Prussia could only concede defeat and ordered his army to withdrawal. 

The withdrawal however soon began to turn into a rout, for as Davout's corps approached, the Prussian's began to panic and scatter in all directions. Davout ordered his men to pursue but they were to exhausted to continue.

Davout's victory had been now been complete some 10,000 Prussians lay dead and 5,000 more taken prisoner along with 115 cannons, French losses numbered 7,000 men. The battle of Auerstadt would be Field Marshall Davout's finest hour and history would rank him as one of the great commanders. 

The Prussian capital of Berlin would fall to Napoleon some eleven days later, in the triumphant parade that followed the honour of entering the Prussian capital first, was bestowed upon Davout and his III corps.

THE BATTLE OF AUERSTEDT

YOUTUBE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67NinVIB8Wg