Battle of Großbeeren

Battle of Großbeeren
Part of the War of the Sixth Coalition
Rain having rendered small arms fire impossible, Saxon infantry (left) use musket butts and bayonets to defend the churchyard at Großbeeren against a Prussian onslaught.
Date 23 August 1813 Location South of Berlin Result Coalition victory
Belligerents
French Empire Saxony	Kingdom of Prussia  Russia  Sweden
Commanders and leaders
Nicolas Oudinot	Friedrich von Bülow Crown Prince Charles John
Strength
60,000	80,000
Casualties and losses
3,000 dead and wounded, 1,500 captured, 13 guns	1,000 dead and wounded

In the Battles of Großbeeren and neighboring Blankenfelde and Sputendorf (23 August 1813) an allied Prussian-Swedish army under Crown Prince Charles John – formerly Marshal of France Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte – defeated the French under Marshal Oudinot. Napoleon had hoped to drive the Prussians out of the Sixth Coalition by capturing their capital, but the swamps south of Berlin combined with rain and the Marshal's ill health all contributed to the French defeat.

Following the Battle of Bautzen, in May 1813, during the War of the Sixth Coalition, both sides agreed to a seven-week truce to plan and better prepare. When the campaign resumed, in August, Napoleon ordered an offensive drive to take the Prussian capital of Berlin. With its capture, he hoped to knock the Prussians out of the war. Meanwhile, he kept the bulk of his army on the strategic defensive, to deal with any potential moves by the large Austrian army, which had now gathered in southeastern Germany. For this task, he chose one of his bravest and best commanders, Marshal Nicolas Oudinot, to lead the offensive. Oudinot tried to turn down this honor due to his poor health. He had been wounded on several occasions during the previous year's disastrous campaign in Russia, and had not yet fully recovered. But the emperor insisted, so Oudinot with three corps of about 60,000 men advanced on Berlin.

Unknown to both Napoleon and Oudinot at the time, this strategy played right into the Coalition's hands. In accordance with their Trachenberg Plan (formulated during the truce) they would avoid any large, main engagement with Napoleon himself until after they had gathered overwhelming strength and weakened the emperor by defeating his marshals in separate, smaller battles.

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