Battle of Hanau
Battle of Hanau | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the German campaign of the Sixth Coalition | |||||||
Battle of Hanau, Horace Vernet | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
France |
Bavaria Austria | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Napoleon Bonaparte | Karl von Wrede | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
17,000-30,000 | 43,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
4,500[1]-5,000[2] killed and wounded |
6,000[2] killed and wounded 4,000 captured[2] | ||||||
The Battle of Hanau was fought from 30 to 31 October 1813 between
Following Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig earlier in October, Napoleon began to retreat from Germany into France and relative safety. Wrede attempted to block Napoleon’s line of retreat at Hanau on 30 October. Napoleon arrived at Hanau with reinforcements and defeated Wrede’s forces. On 31 October Hanau was in French control, opening Napoleon’s line of retreat.
The Battle of Hanau was an important tactical victory allowing Napoleon’s army to retreat onto French soil to recover and prepare to face an invasion of France.
Background
The
The coalition was buoyed by the news that Bavaria, a former French ally, agreed to join the Sixth Coalition according to the
Order of battle
Coalition Army
The Austrian and Bavarian army at the battle of Hanau comprised two army corps, one Austrian and one Bavarian, and numbered no less than 42,000 men: 33,000 infantrymen, 9,000 cavalrymen and 94 artillery pieces. They were under the overall command of Bavarian General Karl Philipp von Wrede.[7]
The Austrian Corps, under the command of Field-Marshal-Lieutenant Baron Fresnet, numbered 24,000 men: 18,000 infantrymen (18 battalions), 6,000 cavalrymen (32 squadrons) and 34 artillery pieces. These men were organised in three divisions: the 1st division under General Bach, the 2nd division under General Trautenberg, and the 3rd division under General Spleny (cavalry and reserve artillery). The Bavarian Corps, under Wrede's direct command, numbered 18,000 men: 15,000 infantrymen (17 battalions), 3,000 cavalrymen (20 squadrons), and 60 artillery pieces. These men were organised in two divisions, one cavalry reserve and one artillery reserve: the 2nd division was under General Beckers, the 3rd division under General Lamotte, the three-brigade cavalry reserve was under Generals Bieregg, Ellbracht, Dietz, and the artillery reserve was under General Cologne.[7]
French Army
The French Grande Armée had suffered horrendous casualties at the battle of Leipzig, which left the French Corps at a fraction of its prior strength. Emperor Napoleon I was in personal command of the French forces in the battle. They numbered between 40,000 and 50,000 men, but only a fraction of them were ready for combat, with Napoleon able to count on little more than 30,000 men: the II, V and XI Army Corps, the I and II Cavalry Reserve Corps and the Imperial Guard. Guard units aside, many of the French battalions at Hanau were only 100-man strong, and the cavalry squadrons were much smaller.[5][6]
Of these men, only one division (General
Preliminaries
On 29 October, having correctly reckoned that his force was strong enough to block the retreat of a disorganised enemy army, Wrede decided to give battle. He had plenty of time to prepare his dispositions and deployed his army in a relatively narrow and deep order, which was quite sensible, given that his intention was to remain on the defensive. Wrede's left covered the road to Frankfurt and Mainz, the main retreat route that the French wanted to take. The bulk of his force was positioned along the Kinzig river, on the opposite bank from the city of Hanau, while on his right the divisions of Elbracht and Trautenberg were positioned on the southern bank of the Kinzig. Beckers's Bavarian division constituted the far right and was deployed on either side of the Kinzig. One regiment, the Austrian Szekler, two battalions strong, as well as a great many skirmishers detached from their parent units were placed in an advanced position in the Lamboy forest. Most of the cavalry was placed in the second line, in the centre, with the artillery quite evenly dispersed throughout the battlefield.[9]
Meanwhile, Napoleon spent the night of 29/30 October at Isenburg castle, near
Battle
Wrede, following successful skirmishing against the French, began to deploy his forces to face the main French force of 20,000. On 30 October Wrede placed his centre with the
Aftermath
Wrede suffered 9,000 casualties, Napoleon suffered fewer, but some 10,000 French stragglers became allied prisoners of war between 28 and 31 October.[11] The French reached Frankfurt on 2 November 1813 and were only 20 miles from their relatively safe rear base at Mainz allowing Napoleon’s army to recover and face the subsequent invasion of France in 1814.
Napoleon was not slowed, blocked or interfered with on his march to Frankfurt, where he arrived in the afternoon of 31 October 1813. Militarily the battle was a costly victory for Napoleon. Wrede failed to block Napoleon's path, although the allied forces of Russians, Prussians and Austrians had cut Napoleon's line of retreat. However Napoleon evaded the maneuver. The Kingdom of Bavaria wanted with this battle to support militarily its shift to the allied side. It did not really matter to the Bavarian politicians and military whether the battle was won or lost—as long as it took place. On 5 November 1813 Alexander I marched with his troops into Frankfurt.
Honors
The best officers in the battle were honored by promotion and received many medals. For example, Carl Philipp von Wrede received two medals from the Austrian Empire: the Order of Leopold and the Commander's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa and two from the Russian Empire: the Order of Alexander Nevsky and the Order of St. George.
To commemorate the Battle of Hanau, memorials were erected in the city of Hanau, five of which have been preserved: at Lamboystrasse, Karl-Marx-Strasse and Robert Blum Strasse, and two more at the Kinzig bridge. The battle is also engraved at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in the list of battles won by Napoleon.
In 2015, around 200 remains of French soldiers fallen in the battle were exhumed at the battle's site.[12]
Notes
- ^ Eggenberger 1985, p. 187.
- ^ a b c Tucker 2010, p. 1107.
- ^ a b c Mir 2009, p. 10.
- ^ a b Chandler 1966, p. 937.
- ^ a b Pigeard 2004, p. 370.
- ^ a b c Mir 2009, p. 12.
- ^ a b Mir 2009, p. 74.
- ^ Mir 2009, pp. 75–76.
- ^ a b c Mir 2009, p. 13.
- ^ Pigeard 2004, p. 371.
- ^ a b c d e Chandler 1966, p. 938.
- ^ figaro 2015.
References
- Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905). Retrieved 5 June 2021.
- Chandler, David (1966). The Campaigns of Napoleon. Scribner.
- Eggenberger, D. (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles. Dover Publications inc.
- Mir, Jean-Pierre (2009). Hanau et Montmirail, La Garde donne et vainc Histoire et Collections (in French). ISBN 978-2-35250-086-5.
- Pigeard, Alain (2004). Dictionnaire des batailles de Napoléon (in French). Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne. ISBN 2-84734-073-4.
- ISBN 978-1-5988-4429-0.
- figaro (2015). "Allemagne: 200 squelettes de l'armée de Napoléon exhumés". Le Figaro. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
Further reading
- Blond, G. (1979). La Grande Armée. Castle Books.
- Chandler, David (1966). The Campaigns of Napoleon. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 9780025236608. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
External links
- Media related to Battle of Hanau at Wikimedia Commons
Preceded by Battle of Leipzig |
Napoleonic Wars Battle of Hanau |
Succeeded by Battle of Nivelle |