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- This is about the battle in 1813. For the World War II battle, see Battle of Bautzen (1945)
Prelude
The Prusso-Russian army was in a full retreat following their defeat at the Battle of Lützen. Finally, generals Wittgenstein and Blücher were ordered to stop at Bautzen by Tsar Alexander I and König Frederick William III.
The Prusso-Russian army was nearly 100,000 men strong, but Napoleon had 115,000 troops. Additionally, Marshal Ney had 85,000 more men within easy marching distance.
Wittgenstein formed two defensive lines, with the first holding strongpoints in villages and along ridges and the second holding the bridges behind a river bend.
Napoleon had planned to pin down his enemies to their lines and then trap them with Ney's troops. However, due to faulty reconnaissance, he became concerned that the Prusso-Russians had more soldiers and held stronger positions than they actually did. So Napoleon then decided he would not set up his trap until they had been softened up.
Battle
After an intense bombardment by the grande batterie of Napoleon's artillery and hours of heated fighting, the French overpowered the first defensive lines and seized the town of Bautzen. The Prusso-Russians appeared to be buckling.
By nightfall, the French were ready to cut the allies off from their line of retreat. But Marshal Ney became confused and his faulty positioning left the door open for the Allies to escape.
Fighting on the following day, the 21st, was again hard and after several hours of setbacks, renewed French attacks began to gain momentum. But these assaults were only intended to fix the allies in place so they could be cut off and enveloped.
Once again, Marshal Ney became distracted and decided to seize the village of Preititz, and thus lost sight of the strategic importance of cutting off the allies.
The Prusso-Russians were being pushed back across the river and, at 4 PM, when the Imperial Guard was sent in, began an all-out retreat. Without Ney's forces to seal them in, however, they again escaped the total slaughter Napoleon had planned. Losses on both sides totaled around 20,000 (information based mostly on French statments and found its way also in English history books). But some other sources (mostly German sources - for example: Schlacht bei Bautzen, Lusatia Verlag, Dr. Stubner &Co.KG, 1993) also say, that the losses on French side were significantly higher because of their aggresiv attack tactics which failed to cut off the allies from their lines and the allies only lost 11,000 - 14,000. The French victory at Bautzen is thatswhy (at least in Germany) often called a Pyrrhic victory.
Aftermath
Although a success for the French, Bautzen was not the decisive, strategic result Napoleon was looking for. Ney's failure to cut the line of retreat robbed the French of complete victory. Once more Napoleon had to settle for a narrow, tactical victory. To make matters worse, during the battle, Napoleon's close friend and Aide-de-camp, General Geraud Duroc, was killed in the fighting. Following Bautzen, Napoleon agreed to a seven week truce with the Coalition. During this time he hoped to gather more troops, especially cavalry, and better train his new army. The allies, however, would not be idle, they too would mobilize and better prepare. It is reported that Napoleon later (on Saint Helena) quoted, that his agreement to this truce was a bad mistake, because the break was of much more use to the allies than to him. The campaign would resume in August.
External links
1813 | Battles of the Napoleonic Wars | Battles of Russia | Battles of Prussia
Schlacht bei Bautzen | Batalla de Bautzen | Bataille de Bautzen | Battaglia di Bautzen | Batalla de Bautzen | Bautzen | Slag bij Bautzen
"Battle of Bautzen"