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
12 - Hide and seek
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 preliminary reports that reached Blücher on 9 October indicated Leipzig as the objective of French movements. Unaware of the emperor’s offensive down the Mulde that very day, Silesian Army Headquarters did not make haste. Gneisenau and Müffling rescinded the disposition for the march on Leipzig and drafted new orders, entitled the “Secret Disposition for 9 October,” to evacuate the entire stretch between the Mulde and the Elbe. Rather than along the left bank of the Elbe, the Army’s communication would run on the right bank through Roßlau and Aken starting on 11 October. Rauch received instructions to dismantle the pontoon bridge at Wartenburg and post one battalion and twenty troopers at Elster to defend the bridgehead. He would proceed through Wörlitz to Dessau with his remaining units and the bridge train. All three corps would slide west: Yorck’s corps would move across the Mulde at Jeßnitz; he would post his advance guard five miles south of there at Bitterfeld. While Langeron’s corps crossed five miles upstream of Jeßnitz at Mühlbeck, his vanguard would take a position eight miles further south at Sausedlitz. Sacken would move to Bad Düben, directing his vanguard to Pristäblich east of the Mulde with cavalry patrolling the Eilenburg–Torgau road. If Shcherbatov had yet to cross the Elbe, Blücher instructed him to force-march to Elster and there await further orders. At 11:30 A.M., Blücher reported these measures to Frederick William as well as the news that he and Bernadotte had agreed that the imperial columns at Wurzen had come from Torgau and would proceed to Leipzig. Thus, both commanders viewed a Rechtsabmarsch (march to the right) as suitable for all contingencies (see Map 5).
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- Napoleon and the Struggle for GermanyThe Franco-Prussian War of 1813, pp. 547 - 584Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015