Battle of Lutzen (1813)

Battle of Lützen

Lutzen, Battle of (1813). Napoleon with his troops by Andreas Fleischmann.

Date	2 May 1813
Location	Near Lützen, southwest of Leipzig, present-day Germany
Result	Tactical French-Polish victory;

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

Napoleon I

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (commander-in-chief)

Gerhard von Scharnhorst (DOW)

Frederick William III (present)

Peter Wittgenstein

Alexander I (present)

Strength

78,000 engaged
170,000 present

93,000
(56,000 Russians and 37,000 Prussians)

Casualties and losses

19,500-22,000 dead and wounded

About 8,500 Prussian and 3,000 Russian dead and wounded

In the Battle of Lützen (German: Schlacht von Großgörschen, May 2, 1813), Napoleon I of France halted the advances of the Sixth Coalition after his devastating losses in Russia. The Russian commander, Prince Peter Wittgenstein, attempting to preempt Napoleon's capture of Leipzig, attacked Napoleon's isolated right wing near Lützen, Germany. After a day of heavy fighting, the combined Prussian and Russian force retreated, but due to French losses and the lack of strong French cavalry, Napoleon was unable to pursue his defeated enemy.

Following the disaster of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, a new Coalition formed against him. In response to this, Napoleon hastily assembled an army of just over 200,000 consisting largely of inexperienced, barely trained recruits and severely short of horses (a consequence of the Russian invasion, where most of his veteran troops and horses had perished). He crossed the Rhine into Germany to link up with remnants of his old Grande Armée, and to quickly defeat this new alliance before it became too strong. On April 30 Napoleon crossed the river Saale, advancing on Leipzig in three columns led by an advanced guard. His intention was to work his way into the Coalition's interior lines, dividing their forces and defeating them in detail before they could combine. But due to inexperienced cavalrymen and faulty reconnaissance, he was unaware of 73,000 allied troops under Wittgenstein and Graf (Count) von Blücher concentrating on his right flank to the south. Marshal Ney's corps was surprised and attacked on the road from Lützen to Leipzig. On the eve of the battle, one of Napoleon's marshals, Jean-Baptiste Bessières, was killed by a stray cannonball while reconnoitering near Rippach.

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