Osprey, Men-at-Arms #009 Blucher's Army 1813-1815 (1973) OCR 8.12.pdf
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Transcript of Osprey, Men-at-Arms #009 Blucher's Army 1813-1815 (1973) OCR 8.12.pdf
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OSPREY
MEN T RMS
SERIES
liichers
rmy
18 3
xt
PETER
YOUNG
olour pl tes
MICH EL ROFFE
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MEN T RMS SERIES
EDITOR PHILIP W RNER
~ i i h e r s rmy
8 3 8 5
xt BRIG DIER PETER YOU
SO
Me
MA
.-.0111
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ublishcd in 1973 by
Publishing Ltd
P.O.
Box 25
07
Oxford
Road Reading Berkshire
Copyright 1973 Osprey Publishing
Limited
This book
is copyrighted
under the Berne
Convention.
All rights reserved. Apart from any
fair dealing for thc
purpose
of private study
raearch
criticism or rcvicw as permitted under th e
Copyright Act 1956 no part of this publication
may Ix rcproduced stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any mcans electronic
lectrical chemical
mechanical
optical photo-
opying recording
or
otherwise without the prior
permi5.5ioll of the copyright owner. Enquiries should
addressed to th e Publishers.
ISUS 85 51175
I wish to pay
tribute
to the uniform plates and
notes of F. and G. Bourdicf those of Richard
KnOtcl
and
to
the
work
of
Illy old
friendthe late
Winand Aerts. I am in addition much indebted
to my friend Marcus Hinton for permission to
uS
plates drawn for his series entitled Prints ililairt
To my Wife who since 1956 has typed all my
deathless prose I can only arx logize for inRicting
yel
another
burden upon her.
P T R YOUN
Printed in Great nritain.
Monochrome by
RAS Printers I.inlitcd
Wallop
Hampshire
olour by Colour
Reproductions
Ltd. Billericay.
2
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lJliicl7el:S
u1TI1Z , 18fJ-18f
t rorlu tioll
In
th e
long struggle
with
Revolutionary
France
Iod with apoleon, Prussia s share was
by no
mcans pre-eminent. In successive coalitions she
either
had
no part at
al l
or played second
fiddle to
Austria,
G re at B ri ta in
an d Russia. But in
th e
final
campaigns
from IBI3 to 1815
she threw
caulion and pedantry to the
winds and fell
upon
the F re nc h w il h all
th e
fervour and energy
o f
a
modern
litzkrieg
This
was
due to
one
ma n
above
all, Field-Marshal
Prince
Blucher
the
avenging
thulldcrboll . whose
dynamic energy
would have
been
remarkable
in
an
officer ofhalfhis years. The
most pugnacious of generals
the
mosl loyal of
colleagues, BlUcher led or drove his
raw
regiments
to
th e
fight
with
relentless
vigour.
The
fumbling
uncertainty displayed
b)
th e
Prussian
High
C om ma nd i n 1806 was
no t
for him. His
army
of
1813-15,
Ihough
it
c on ta in ed p er ha ps
half
the
officer corps
that
had
fought
at
Jena
and
Auer
stadt was
nothing
like
th e
creaking
ma ch ine tha t
Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Duke o f Brunswick ha d
inherited from his
uncle
Frederick the Greal.
The soldiers of
th e
War of
Liberation showed
up
poorly on
the
parade
ground but
they
made
up in
enthusiasm for
an y
lack
of the ol d
Prussian
precision in matters of drill an d lurn-out.
This book docs no t
concentrate
on
th e Waterloo
campaign
to
the
exclusion
of th e
camp.aigns
of
1813
and
1814, for it was
at
Dennt:witz,
on
th e
Katzb ae h a n d at
Leipzig that
th e
Prussian
Army
recovered the self-respect which it ha d lost no t SO
much on
the
battlefields
o f
Jena and Auerstildt
as in th e shameful surrenders that followed. The
Prussian Army
o f
1813
was
very different not only
in
appearance
but in
spirit
from
that of
1806. But
it was the same as that of 1815: it was in fact
BlUcher s Army.
ffrather more
dctail
is here
given
a bo ut the c amp aig n of 1815 than about those o h h e
War of Liberation it is because to
th e
Engli
speaking reader lhe
events
of Napoleon s
l
campaign
have
an
inexhaustible
fascination.
moreoversalutary
forthe
British
student
of milit
alTairs to recall
that
in
t he m aj or it y of
our
gr
battles we have ha d
th e support of trusted
all
Could Marlborough
have won Blenheim with
Prince Eugene? Could ellington have w
Waterloo without Blocher? Those
wh o
have fou
against
the Germans
in this
century have
genera
acknowledged thaI they were resolute :lnd vali
enemies.
t is
as well sometimes to recall that
times
past
they also
showed
lhemsdves
to
devoted
and
hard-fighting
allies.
P
Napoleon
reed
..l
lh e
Q,,
o f P n a
la a TU h F
ch e painw e h y
Nic o la
w
F. . . . .90i.
C o
e
T h e T re a ty o f n i t
r e d u c e d
P r u
la
co eh e cae s
second..:.la
powe
..
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Napoleon lands ncar Cannes.
Ballies
of
Ligny and Quatre Bras.
Battles of Vaterloo and Vavrc.
Second abdication
of
apolcon.
Combal
al Versailles.
The Campaign of
France.
Abdication of Napoleon.
Scharnhorst
dies
of
a wound receive
at Grossgorschen.
Austria declares war.
Dattle
of
Grossbeeren; Bernadott
defeats Oudinot.
Baule of
Ihe Kiltzbach; Blucher rout
Macdonald.
Battle of Dresden; Napoleon wins
laClical victory.
Battlc
of
Kulm; the Allies annihilat
Vandamme s
Corps.
Baule
of Dcnnewitz.
The Battle of the Nat ions: Leipzig
Napoleon is heavily defeated.
Battle
of
Hanau; . apoleon defeat
Vrede s
Bavarians.
The Allies cross
the
Rhine.
2 8 June
12 Aug.
23 Aug.
26
Aug.
30 31 Oct.
6 Sepl.
16 -
1
9
0CI
.
26 -27
Aug.
21 Dec.
8
4
Jan.-Apr.
II Apr.
8S
Mar.
16June
ISJune
2 2 June
I July
Death
of Queen
Louise
of
Prussia.
GIlIY}//O Of)
The
Convention ofTauroggen; Yorck
withdraws the Prussian contingent
from Ihe
Grande Armie
Dattles
ofJena
and Auerstadt.
Napoleon enters Berlin.
BlUcher surrenders near Lubeck.
BaltIc
of
Eylau, General Lestocq s
Corps takes
parl.
Schill s
death at
Stralsund.
Battle of
Wagram.
8
3
2 3
Feb.
Frederick William determines
10
break with Napoleon.
13
Mar. Prussia declares waron France.
2
May
Battle
of
LOlzen.
20 21
May
Battle of
Bautzen;
apoleon drives
Wiltgenslcin from the field.
Balilc of Viloria (Spain).
1
June
8 6
14
Del.
27
Oct.
24
Nov.
8
7
8
Feb.
,8 }
1 May
5-6]uly
.810
IgJuly
r8n
30 Dec.
Templ i n
P
vldence
806.
The
Pru
l.a.n
Noble
G
. . .
r d
sharpe ..
their o rd on
the s teps
or
the F f t. .
ch
Ernbal i .y
la BerlIn.
Wat
colo .. r by F. de
Myrhach
4
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. :ll--< ._
.
9rgal izatioJl
Organization is a ne ces sar y e viL
V O N C LA U SE W IT Z
In 1806
th e
ol d Prussian
Army
inherited from
Frederick t he G re at was shattered. The baltlcs of
.Jcna a nd Aucrstadt broke its body: with th e
shameful surrenders of Klislrin and other fort-
resses it seemed that its soul also
ha d
fled. By th e
Treaty
of
Paris 18oB) the Prussian Army was
limited to a strength
of
42,000.
In 1804 the King of Prussia ha d 9,752,731
subject s l iving in his domains
ofwhorn
4,860,747
were
men.
Th e
Canton
system
of
recruiting
~
milled
numerous
e xe mp ti on s; b ut even
S0,
in
1805,
there
were
2 320 22 me n
l ia ble to
military
service. By the Peace
of Tilsit
9
July
1807) th e
population of Pr us sia was
reduced
to 4,938,000.
The loss
of
rich provinces redu ced h er terricory
from 5 ,5 70 to 2, 877 square miles.
O f
her fortresses
only
Graudenz Pillau Kolberg
Glatz Silbcrburg
an d Cosel had Prussian garrisons. The rest
were
all garrisoned
by
t he F re nc h. In less than a year
Queen
LoW8a
reviewing th e
Pru5s1an
A r m y
18
Watercolour
by F. de
My r b a c h
Prussia, from being the foremost among
German military
powers, had become on e
of
least.
The mobilization of 1813 b eg an o n 9
Februa
when the
royal
authorities in th e tempora
capital
at
Breslau
declared conscription
for
t
r eg ul ar a rm y. Earlier still, on 28
January
[8
an A rmament Commission had been set
up
supervise Ihe
mobilization
and expansion of t
army. Its members included Hardenberg
Schar
horst
and
Hake.
It was on th at d ate t hat Scha r
horsl resumed
his
ol d
POSI at t he h ea d
of
th e
W
Department.
Royal orders for mobilization were issued
January I
February
and 2 an d 18 Mar
1813.
The
first, ironically
enough
was
in
respon
to a
French
request fo i additional troops. ga
a pretext for bringing
regiments
up to establis
ment
size
and
for
calling
up artillery pioneers
a
reservists.
By an
instruction
of 7 Fcbruary it was laid dow
that
subalterns wh o had served in 1806 and 18
were eligible for immediate promotion while
a
ca pa bl e cadet
or
suitable N .C.O. could
commissioned forthwith.
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On 3
February Hardenberg had announced
the formation
of Volunteer
Jager
units,
appealing
to
the
propertied classes, who
were cxempted
from
conscription, to volunteer. This measure brought
in
young
men
of good
family,
who werc
officer
material. In the
first
months of
1813, 2,798
volunteered
and by
the
summcr
the
total had
reached 7.800. This was
not enough
to
prove
that
the best of the nat ion
were
rising spontaneously
throw
off
the
yoke
of Napoleon,
but it was
quitc enough
to
provide
a
valuable
pool
of
subaltern officers.
At
first
the
Jager, who
were required to equip
themselves, were given
preferential
treatment.
But
few commanding officers believed in anything
but the strictest disciplinc, and they had thc
Volunteers whipped
with
the same impartiality
that they
bestowed
on ordinary
recruits.
The reformers worked hard to
cnsure
that
every able-bodied man should be
liablc
to con-
scription, and
achieved
their cnd in the teeth of a
popular
press which
declared Ihat the country
was
not ready
for
such
a
burden,
and
that the
free
Prussian lands wcrc
bccoming
a police
state.
But
so
far
as
the military
authorities wcrc
concerned,
a
man
was fit
if
his front teeth met firmly enough
lO
enable him
to bilc his cartridge.
Prince Eugenc
de Beauharnais withdrew
his
French
t roops from Berlin
on
4
March.
By that
time the
alliance with Russia had been signed
(28 February and on
March
King Fredcrick
William felt bold enough
to
declare
war
on
the
French
Empire. Next
day he made
his
appeal,
6
An Mein Volk,
by
which he
set the
tone of the
w
Henceforth the struggle was nO l dynastic
b
national. In all these measures we may disc
the hand of
Scharnhorst,
who principally
pav
the
way for Blucher s
campaigns.
The opening of
hostilities
on March
18
found Ihe Prussians with the following resourc
F I E L D
ARMY
1,776 officers; 66,963
men;
20,105 hors
213
guns.
M E D I C A L T R A I N
AND
T EC H NIC A L T RO OP S
2,643
men;
3,625 horses.
S EC O ND L IN E T RO OP S
615 officers; 32,642
men;
650 horses; 56
guns
GARRIS ON
T R O O P S
398 officers; 22,277 men; 1,743 horses;
train Knechte .
Garde -J ii ge r Baual io n. G re en j
red
facing.;
g old l
R . KnCS1el)
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Left: Queen Lows .
of
Prussl ; rillbt: Frederick w r
of Prussl Enll
.,ed
by
T.
Johnson
The total amounted to 127 394.2 but half the
men
were recruits
without
much training.
There
was little
artillery;
muskets were hard to
come
by
and there
were not
enough horses. Flints for
muskets
were
so s ca rc e that
the
Berlin
porcelain
factory was
ordered
to
make
t r s l ~ ones.
On 2 April a andsturmforce was brought into
being. was to be a
guerrilla army,
armed with
flails rakes pikes
and
axes
and
was
to
carry
out
a
scorched-earth
policy
upon the approach
of
the
enemy.
was
not uniformed
- indeed uniform
for
the
andslurm
was expressly
forbidden.
Students of
uniform will
observe that whereas
most units
of
Bliicher s
Army
w or e P ru ss ia n b lu e
many of their
shakos
and cartridge-belts had
a
decidedly English
appearance.
But
arms are evcn
more important
than
uniforms
and
it is
not
loo
much
to say that without English weapons
the
Prussian
Army would
have
been on the same
footing as
the andslurm By th e
end
ofJune
1813
British
arms were
arrivinR in
the
Balt ic p or ts . By
5July 40 000 muskets and million cartridg
had been
received.
Cannon,
powder,
ball wago
and
uniforms
arrived
in
quantities. Altogether t
Prussian
Army
was issued at least 13 000 Engl
muskets in time for
the
autumn campaign of 18
They
were
needed, for
by
June 1813 the Pruss
Army numbered nearly
150 000
men. T
Landwehr, recruiting
vigorously raised a
total
120 000
men by mid-July;a Lithuania,
East
a
West
P ru ss ia to
the Vistula,
20 000
men;
Prus
west of
th e
Vistula
6,620;
Silesia 49 974;
N
Mark,
7 941; Electoral
Mark Brandenbu
20 560;
Pomerania,
15 409.
In the
1815
campaign the
Prussian
Army
w
organized into Headquar ter s and
four
arm
corps. There
were no
divisions.
Each
corps
h
four
infantry
brigades each about
thc
same s
as a
French
infantry division. Each corps had t
or three brigades of
cavalry
and between
six
a
eleven
batteries
of
artillery
as well as a
compa
of pioneers.
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The corps
varied
in
strength:
I
11
Infantry
29,135
27,00 2
22,275
27,459
Cavalry
2, 75
4,47
1
1,9
8
3,3 2 I
Gunners
1,0. )4
1,5
999
1,37
Guns
88
8
4
8
88
Pioneers
4
74
63
5
Total
32,568 33,048 25,318 32, 23e
will be observed
that Thielmann s
Corps
(III)
was
much weaker t han the o ther
three.
llie e tiers
FELDMARSCHALL VORWARTS
TilE AVENGING THUNDERBOLT
as Heilige
Don1/erwe/ler
GEBHARD U;RERt:CHT VON Bl UCHER (1742-1819)
was a native of Rostock, brought up in Mecklen
burg. When he
was
6
he obtained
a commission
in
the
Swedish service,
but
was soon
taken prisoner
by
the Prussian Colonel von Belling, who formed a
high
opinion
of him and took him into his
own
regiment. His piOllS commanding officer s prayer
was:
Thou
seest, dear
Heavenly Father, the sad
plight of
thy servant
Belling.
Grant him
soon a
nicc lit tle
war that
he
may bct ter
his
condition
and
continue
to praise Thy
name.
Amen. t
would be
strange if
his attitude did not influence
his subalterns.
BWeher is said to have been of a quarrelsome
nature and fond
of
drinking and gambling.
He
also seems to
have been somewhat heavy
handed and
when stationed
in
Poland is
alleged
to
have tor tured
a priest in order to extract a
confession. At a time
when
Frederick th e Great
wished
the
Poles to believe
him their benefactor
llus was unwise.
Blucher
was passed
over
for
promotion and,
resigning his commission, was
told by the
King
that he
mighl
go to the devil.
He
soon regretted his action and repeatedly applied
to return to the servicc; but in vain. Not until
Frederick
died in
1786
was Bliicher,
now
aged
44,
reinstated. He
was given the
rank of major
in his
old regiment. In
1793
he was
serving
as a colonel
8
under Duke Ferdinand of
Brunswick,
taking
p
in a number of sieges and skirmishes.
In
M
1794, aged 52, he
was
promoted major-gener
He was already known for his energy and his lo
of
excitement:
from
drilling
his squadron, wh
was quartered at a distance, he would proceed t
hare
hunt or a gay dinner
and thai same nig
perhaps,
to a
surprise
a ttack on
the enemy, or
the
laying
of an ambush for the
next morni
Slloe.ian RUloe
Battalion.
Gr_n
black
facinc_ with
pJpinS, yoellow . . .oetal buttons. Fro. . . 8
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Having temporarily
silenced t he e ne my he would
enjoy himself
at
Frankfort gambling
or going
to
th e t h e a t r e ~
By
8
he
was a lieutenant-general.
In
1802 Prussia was granted a slice of the
bishopric of MUnster, an d Blucher was given
command of the occupying force. Baron Stein, the
famous s ta tc sman a n d reformer, was president o f
the organization commission,
and
b et we en t he m
they made such a good job
of
their unpopular
task
that
th e estatcs
and the
ecclesiastical
authori
tics asked the King of Prussia to ma ke Bluc her
thcir governor. Somewhat surprisingly they
had
been impressed by the old hussar s
knowledge of
local aA airs, his honesty
and
uprightness, his
amiability an d charitableness, his cleverness and
pcnctration,
and
his ability
to keep
the peace
between soldiers
and
civilians'.
$
When in 1803 Mortier occupied Hanover,
BlUcher
hastened
to Berlin,
only
to find to his
disgust
that
his
government s attitude
was
onc
of
indifferencc. 'All
thc
misfortuncs of Germany and
of the Prussian monarchy , he was to
declare
later,
are traceable to this event, at the moment so
insignificant.' From this time the words, W e
must
fight France , were constantly on BlUcher's
lips.
At Auerstadt
(14 October 1806), at
the
head of
his squadron,
he
ha d his
horsc shot
under him.
After extricating h im se lf h e asked t he King to let
him
lead
the
Gendarmes
to
th e c ha rg e. No s oo ner
had he been given permission than a counter
Qrder bade
him cover the w ithd raw al o f Hohen
lohe.
This he
succeeded in
doing.
When
Hohenlohe
surrendered
at Prenzlau
B hich er fou ght on ,
cutting his wa y through to th e
Hansa
city
o f
LUbeck, where after a s ti ff fight he was compelled
to surrender, though he was soon to be
exchanged
for Gen eral later Marsh al) Victor.
Scharnhorst, wh o ha d been with BlUcher in th e
retreat
to LUbeck,
had
discerned
in
hi m
th e
highest military
qualities.
No
other
general, in
his opinion, was fit to
head
th e
army
of resurgent
Prussia.
Y ou
ar c
our
leader
and our
hero, wrote
S ch ar nh or st , e ve n
if
yo u
have
to be carried
before or behind us on a litter. But, afflictcd by
th e disasters
of
1806, BlUcher fell sick in
body and
mind.
Boyen tells us that he
actually
believed
that
he was pregnant with an elephant , to which
Scharnhorst s
retort was that BlUcher must lead
F el d mar .cb al l
Gebhard Leberll chc von BlUcher, P
o f Wahl.tadt. Engraving b y G. Kruell
though he have a h u nd red e le ph an ts insid
him .
In
1809 Major von Schill,
on e
of
the
hero
th e
defence
o f
Colbcrg
(1806)
rose
agai nst
Fr en ch . H e was defeated
and
killed at Strals
Eleven of his officers were court-martialled
shot. A number were sent captive to Fra
branded
an d compelled to serve in the gal
Blucher,
though
in his public utterances
disavowed Schill 's action, took some goo of
survivors under his protection an d in consequ
was reprimanded by the King. For a second
he resigncd from th e Prussian service.
To
Gneisenau he wrote:
G od knows
with w ha t gr ief
I
quit
a stale
an army in which I h av e b ec n ror fifty year
breaks my heart to abandon a
master
for wh
w ou ld h av e given my life a thollsand times.
all th e same, by God in Heavcn, I will stan
more slights I will no t be treated as a su
annuated commander.
l l n g ~ r
me n shall
no
placed ahead of me the King docs not m
up his
mind,
if we take no steps to
break
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Scharnhorst .
Froan a anedalllon
by L.
POlich
chains
- well, those who will may wear them,
not I I have sacrificed
everything
ror
the state;
1 leave it as one
quits
the world,
poor, naked,
and barco But I shall go, wherever it be, with a
quiet conscience and
accompanied by
many
honest rolk.
is said
that he
actually
oncred
his
sword
to
the
Austrian
Archduke Charles, but the King assured
BlUcher orhis COIHinucd conl ldence and promoted
him gencr.d or cavalry. Gradually the old man s
wrath
subsided. Sti ll , throughout 1809 he was
urging
the King to
throw in his lot with
Austria
nd arter Wagram he did not hesitatc
to
reproach
Frederick William ror not having dOlle so.
During the debacle or 1806 and all the misror
tunes
that
rollowed, Prussian morale, albeit a
reebte flame, had been sustained to some
extent
by the grijcious,
brave
and charming Queen
Louise, who was twice
the
marl
lhat
Frederick
William was. Her sad and
early
death deprived
the
Prussian
court
or
its
chid
ornamcnt.
pro
voked a characteristic explosion rrom General
BlUcher:
I am as ir struck by lightning The pride
or
womanhood has departed rrom the earth. God
in Heaven, it must be that she was too good for
us How is i t possible ror such a succession or
misfortunes to rail un a state In
my
present
mood I should be pleased to
hear tha t
the earth
had caught fire at all four
corners
At this
time Blucher
was in command
a
Colberg,
busy with the fortifications and wilh
training reserves. The French consul at Stcuin
discovered
that
he
had
7,000
men re
than
he
was allowed and
apoleon s ambassador
de
manded his dismissal. On
I I
November 1811 the
King
wrote
explaining
this in as rr iendly a rashion
as he ventured to, sending him 2,000 thalers ro
his travelling expenses, and adding, I have it in
mind to place
yOll
in a position to
renew
you
ac tivity so soon as
there
shall an opportunity.
At 6g BlUcher
can
scarcely have
thought
it likely
that he
would
reemployed.
BlOcher withdrew to Stargard where he spen
the winter
or
1811 12 While the French
were
invading Russia he remained unemployed, com
plaining
that, with Prussia subjected by treaty to
France, All
is
lost and honour too . But with
the
ncws that
the
rande Arnde
had
been crippled
excitement rosc. Early in
January
1813 Bluche
wrote
[
Scharnhorst:
I am
itching
in every finger to
grasp the
sword.
If
his Majesty,
our
King,
ir
all the othe
German princes, if
the
nation as a whole do no
now rise and sweep rrom German territory the
whole rascally French brood together with
tapol
eon
and all his crew, then it seems to me
that no German is any
longer
worthy or the
name.
tis now the
moment
to do what I was
already advising in 1809;
namely, to
call
the
whole nation
to
arms
and
to
drive
out
those o
the
princes who refuse and who place
them
selves in
opposition
even as we shall drive ou
Bonaparte. This
is not
a
question
or Prussia
alone
but or
reuniting the
whole
German
Fatherland and rebuild ing the nat ion.
What Blucherwas bluntly expressing in hissoldierly
prose, was
already being
SLing
by
the
pacts or
the
War or Liberation, among
them
Moritz Arndt:
path
r
freedom Purify
the
soil
The German soil oh deanse it with thy blood
At first Frederick William hoped to preserv
peace with France on
the
principle or Live and
let live , but
by
23 February Scharnhorst
Hardenberg
and others
had made up
his
mind
ro
him. He would venture to break with Napoleon
Three days
later
he wrote
to
Blucher:
I have
determined to place you in command o
those
troops
that are to the first to take th
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field. ] order you
accordingly
to mobilize here
as speedily as possible.
The importance of the
commission
thus
entrusted 1 you will convince
you
of
the confidence
feel in
your military
e x ~ r i e n c e and in your
patriotism.'
Blucher's Army of Silesia look the field
early
in
April,
drove
in
the French
outposts, crossed
the
Elbe and set up his headquarters in
Dresden.
From
the
first
bartle
of
the campaign,
LOtzen
(2
May),
his
mixture
of
iron
nerve
and
dash
built
up
rhe Blocher legend.
'Blucher, with
the
utmost
i m ~ r t u r b b i l i t y
re
mained,
for the
mOSI
part at points of more or
lessdanger,
indefatigably smoking
his pipe.
When
it was smoked to the
end
he would hold it out
behind him
and call
Schmidt whereupon
his
Olderly would hand him
one
freshly filled and
the old gentleman smoked
away
at his case.
Once we
haired
for a time
qui le ncar
a Russian
battery
and
a shell fell right in front
of
liS.
Everyone
shouted: Your
Excellency, a shell
' ' 'Well, leave the hellish thing alone said
BlOcher
calmly.
There he stood until it
burst;
then
and
not till then
did
he
change
his position.'
About 4 o'clock he led a desperate attack on the
corps
of
Ney
and Marmont and
in
the
fighting
that
followed his horse was shot under him and he
was
hit
in Ihe side by a bullet. As the
surgeon
examined the wound BlUcher feared the worst,
but, learning that
it was
11 t
serious, scarcely
had
the
patience to
let himself be bandaged before
mounting
and
dashing back
into the fray. In the
last
cavalry attack,
made after dark by a man of7_
who
had
been
in
the
saddle
since dawn, he got
within 200
yards
of
Napoleon's
command post,
and
so imposed upon
the Emperor's imagination
that he let the Allies depart
unmolested.
LUtzen
was
not much
of a victory for the
French,
who lost
22,000
men
to the 11,50 casualt ies of the Allies.
As
Blucher elegantly expressed i t,
'The
French
may
make wind as
much
as they please; they are
not likely to forget the
2nd
of May.'
The Tsar,
full of
admiration,
bestowed
the
Cross of St
George
upon Blucher for his services
on this occasion, speaking
of
his
'splendid
habit of
always
being
present at the point of
greatest
danger
.'
But
despite his
bravery
at LOtzen,
Bautzen
and Hanau the old gentleman had his
critics. He was too
old;
he was out of date; he
had
been out of his
mind;
he had little experienc
handling large
forces; he knew little of strat
or tactics.
He could
not converse with his Rus
colleagues
either
in Russian or
French.
He
fond ofgambling and o f the bottle.
Even
if
all or
some
of these charges
contai
an
element
of
truth
BlUcher's virtues outweig
them.
He
alone had the will-power, the drive,
optimism, the sheer guts
to carry his raw a
forwards. His quickness
of
decision, his presenc
mind under
fire,
more
than made up for his
c
tempt
for
planning and cartography. With
a
C
of Staff like
Gneisenau
to work out the detai
was a positive advantage to lhe Prussians
BlUcher did not concern himselfwith the minu
of
military administration.
'Gneisenau,
being
my chief of
staff
and
very
liable,
reports
to me on the manceuvres that
~ ; ; ' _ ~ - : ' ' ' ' ' ' _ ' ' ' ' ' ' _ o L i l . ' f j -
The Bnuo.deDb , I:
Cwratls ler
RepmeDI . The
sUneD
ra ised a t e r Tn. i ,
rro
....
the
r maiDS o r . u .
heavy
ca
r e pmeD 'S, a nd
(ousht
In th e campaJ'1lII
o(
.81) .....d
at
Baul>len,
n ... .. .den,
Kuhn, Le lp z i. a nd elsewhere.
I
d . . - a a
whJte
coa 'ee
waa wo rn .
On
c ampa J p
office. . .
th blue jack t kao aa
the
l ~ i b o c l c td the men w
blue litnlc
with r td
( adn .a . With the
white c
U.hl
btue
raci.roa:s were
worn. The . . .
ddle-doths ar
with } -lIow lr i ....mi R Knl>tel)
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to be executed
and the marches
that
are
to be
performed. Once convinced that he
is
right I
drive my troops
through
hell towards
the
goal
and never stop until the object has been achieved
- yes,
though
officers of the old school
may
sulk
and
bellyache to the
point
of
mutiny.'
Above all Blocher had the great virtue that,
i le he detested
Napoleon,
he was not impressed
him.
'Let him do his worst: said he after
'he
is
really
nothing but
a
dunderhead.'
Blucher for his part was not merely a
blunt
Arndt, who met him in April 1813,
saw
in his face
'the
cunning
of
a hussar,
e
play
of features sometimes extending up into
s eyes, and
something of
a marten listening for
prey'.
Wenzel
Krimer
(1795-1834), an
Austrian
who
ought in Lutzow's Freikorps
at Lutzen and
tzen tells
us something
of Blucher's
technique
f
command.
rooper,
Ufes:uard,
1 09
White
u.uform,
re d
(adaS_ aDd
rey
ove
....
lIs.
From
a d ....win.
by
I.
Wolf,
en.....ved
by
F.
u e l
' Blucher, although he might
readily
ove
look indiscipline among
brave
soldiers,
cam
down
very severely on weaklings and usuall
punished
them
by his caustic
humour
or b
personal example.
Thus
it frequently
happene
that,
if
he met stragglers
along
the line of march
he would
dismount
and proceed on foot, wit
them
walking in front
of him. Or
he would
orde
them
to
stick wisps of straw in
their
shakos an
they
would then be
escorted by
cavalrymen
t
their regiments, decorated as men of
straw.
'Whenever he passed a
battalion
which h
knew to
be
a
brave
one, he
would
not allow h
staff
to take
up the
middle
of the road. So as no
to
impede
those on
the march, he
preferred
t
ride to
one
side, and he
greeted everyone
cord
ally
and
made
enquiries about
everything.
there was a shortage of rat ions, we were certai
to
find an adequate
supply
all
ready
laid out i
the open
street in
the
next village: every man a
he passed by was allowed to help
himself
as h
liked.
'BlOcher's usual
greeting
was
Good morning
children even in the evening. To this th
soldiers would respond with,
Hurrah, Fathe
BlOcher
'He had
his weaknesses, certainly,
bu t
thes
did
little
damage
to his many virtues.
ofte
happened that, as soon as
evening
came or
whe
otherwise in bivouac, a
drum had to brough
over, and he would
throw
dice with the fir
officers who
came
along.
Ifhe
won a
few
thalers
he was as
delighted
as a child and would strok
his grey moustache and
grin;
while
if
he lo
(and
he often lost a
great deal
of money) h
would laugh at himself. But, s trange to relate
the very
thing
he himself
did
so passionately h
forbade to the soldiers: they were not allowe
to
play
for
money or ,
at least, must never b
caught doing SO,'1
Captain Fritz a fellow
Mecklenburge
who had been at
Auerstadt,
with
the King
German
Legion in the Peninsula, and had th
Cross of
St
George and the
scar of
a
lance woun
as souvenirs
of
Borodino, was well received
whe
he called on Blucher
early
in 1813.
Vhen
I called on
our
old hussar general, h
was cheerful as always and displayed that
rar
joviality
with
which
he always knew
how to
wi
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the hearts of those around him. He was just
having a good brea kfas t of bread and ham and a
few
bottles of Hungarian wine, to which he
had
invited several Russian generals
under
his
command, when I was permitted to enter.
t
is
indeed a
great
pleasure,
Captain,
to see
you a ga in. How the deuce did you acquire that
memento
on your
check? He talked in this
friendly manner and shook my
hand
vigorously.
Take
your
things
off and
drink
a glass
of
wine
with us
and
tell
us what
you have been
doing
in
the world since I last saw you. You
are
said to
have
got
around
quite
a bit ,
he
went on, giving
me a large glass of the Hungarian wine. Drink
up he ur ged.
This is
good wine, such as we
do not have the chance of tas ting e ve ry day.
He introduced me to the Russian generals as the
grandson
of
an old
comrade
in
arms and the
son
of an officer of his regiment who had been a dear
friend
of
his. I
had to
sit
down
at
table
and
tell
them about Wellington and the English, and it
was so cheerful
and pleasant
that
the
few hours
which our breakfast took slipped by very quickly
for me. The General was still the same man
whom I
had
known before;
rank,
fame
and
years
had not affected him in the slightest. He laughed,
joked
and
also swore like
any
good hussar officer,
and for everyone, high or low, general or cor
poral, he
had
a c oa rse
joke,
an
apt
jest, but also,
if
he
thought
necessary, a rebuke.
This
un
affected joviality, which nothing put off, was of
inestimable value to the Army of Silesia and
helped subst ant ial ly to impr ove it and to
6t
it
for great deeds.
Despite his affability Blucher could be heavy
handed, s the Saxons were to find when they
mutinied
in
1815.
The most perceptive analysis
of
Blucher s
character comes from General Karl von Muffling
1775-1851),
the Hanoverian
who was to play
an
important
part
as liaison officer with Wellington s
Headquarters
at
Waterloo.
Despite a sharp, penetrating intellect Blucher
had
received no s ys te ma tic
education; only
in
contac t with other peopl e, fi ndi ng hi msel f
on
good terms with everyone, acting firmly and
with great tact, his inexhaustible cheerfulness
and his modest , good-natured behaviour won
him friends whe re ve r he went. He never despised
G ~ a d i ~ r Fooc
Guard. ,
1809.
Blue uniform,
red
Cacb
rk
rey
breec:he
. From
a d
. . .
wlnl
by
I.
Wolf,
eUI ,v
by
F. JUlel
knowledge, nor did he overestimate it. He talk
frankly about the neglect of his upbringing, b
he also knew very well what
he
could achie
without this education. His imperturbabil
in dangerous situations, his tenacity in misf
tune, and his courage whi ch g rew under dif
culties were based on an awareness of his physi
strength,
which he
had
often used in
hand-
hand
fighting during earlier campaigns.
In
t
way he had gradually convinced himself th
Ulere was no military predicament from whi
one could no t ultimately extricate oneself
fighting, man to man. He had no very hi
opinion of
any
officer who
did not share
t
view.
'In his opinion courage produced a mi li ta
reputation, and
it s ee med to him impossible th
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Officer C
F
ilie.r Sattallon
18ol}. T h e
t ul i f onn
bl .. e with
red
faclalJ. aD d silver lace. Fro m a p r i o t o f
th e
period
drawD by I. W ol f aD d r lJrtlVed by F. l d
a brave man could lose such a reputation.
He
was never troubled by
th e
slightest apprehension
that a
retreat
or a lost
battle
could take
away
his
own reputation.
Thus
th e wish to command large
armies was quite alien to him: as a field-marshal
he pu t himself
at
the head
of
a squadron as
readily as
at
t he h ea d of an
army.
He trusted the officers of his
staff
on ly when
he c onsidered the m e ntcrpris ing; bu t once they
had
earned
this
trust
he
gave
it
unreservedly.
He allowed them to pu t forward
their
pla ns for
marche s, positions
and
battles, he
grasped
everything quickly,
an d
if he ha d given
them
his
approval and signed th e relevant orden he would
accept no outside advice, an d no expressions of
a la rm m ad e
the slightest impression
on
hi m
We have now arrived at th e dawn of th e
cam-
paigns whic h made Blucher s reputation.
From
this t ime his hist or y s that
of
his army. Suffice it
to
ad d
that he was made a f ield-marshal a
Leipzig an d inJuly 1814 - des pite his own oppo
t ion - Pr ince Bl ucher von Wahlstadt. Everythin
he
wrote , will
d ep en d o n
the so rt of principa
I
am
to receive in Silesia. Under no circumstan
will I consent to add
on e
more to th e horde
sickly, hungry princes:
GENERAL HANS
DAVID
LUDWIG
YORe K VON WART
BURG 1759-1830). Y o r d was comm issi oned
the Prussian
Army
at
th e ag e
of
13,
but go t
hims
cashiered before he
h ad h ad
two yean service.
accused a
brother
officer of stealing while
campaign. This deli cate case in mi litary law w
summarily dismissed by no less an authority th
Frederick the Great who wrote, Plundering
no t stealing. Yorck ca n go to the devil - a c
history that soldiers would bc unwise to take a
precedent.
Lieutenant Yorck was now compelled to se
his fortune
abroad an d
served in Ceylon with
French regiment
in
th e pay of th e Dutch E
India Company. On Frederick s death
he
rejoin
th e Pr ussian A rm y, rising to command a Jag
regiment
an d
was noted as an
expert train
With
his customary awkwardness
he
declin
th e coveted order our e iritesaying that
wanted to win it on the field of battle and no t o
parade ground.
In
1806 Yorck,
b adl y wo un de d
was tak
prisoner
in
Blucher s defence
of Lubeck.
When apoleon invaded Russia a Pruss
contingent
under Yorck s erve d under
Mars
Macdonald
in his
advance on
Riga. He c
eluded the Convention of T: lUroggen with
Russians 30 D ec em be r 1812), an d by so do
made thc first move in th e
War
of Liberation
which th e people of
Germany
lhrew
of f
th e yo
of Napoleon.
Beyond question Yorek was a difficult custom
and
though
competent and upright
a b
subordinate.
He was known to th e men
s
der
hegrim which, though it means
l he
old man w
th e iron helmet s the centuriesold nickna
given to the wolf in German folklore.
He
w
merciless to looters,
stragglen
an d campfollowe
Lie ulenantColone l Ludwig von Reiche give
balanced picture
of
this remarkable officer.
Ahhough General Y o r d
could
often be ba
tempercd
an d
even harsh he could also be
ju
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as kind, and really charmcd peoplc in this way.
He had
a high
degrce
of subtlcty
in his
mind,
and
a tinge of slyness cxpressed itself in his
spiritcd facc especially
when
he was in a
good
humour
an d his peculiar sarcastic smile
showed
itself. Yet he ha d a
t en de r h ea rt
susceptible to
friendship.
As a
subordinate,
however, Yorck was very
disobedient
and
difficult to
handle,
which with a
character
like his
is
no t
to
be w ondered
at.
That Yorck was ad mi red a nd could be
quite
charming is exemplified hy an
incident
d ur in g t he
Frellch
retreat
to
t he R hi ne after
Leipzig. Colonel
Coullt Henckel von
Donnersmarck, th e com
mander of Yorck s
advance
guard, with
tw o
regimcnts of cavalryd rescued
Austrian
officers an d 4,000 men,
taken
at
Dresden,
wh o
wefe
being marched into
captivity
by two
Polish
battalions.
When
he
reported
to Yorck,
th e
General took
offhis cap an d
said to his
entourage,
Gentlemen,
le t
us give
Count
Henckel a cheed
These
words, wrote th e
Count,
spokcn
at this
mOment an d by this
man,
I valued
more
than
if
I
had been
decorated
with some order.
BlOcher, who
had
to
pu t up with
a
good deal
from
th e Wolf , said o f h im : Y or ck is
a waspish
fellow;
he
docs
n ot hi ng b ut
argue, but
when he
attacks, then he gets stuck in like nobody else.
Not
too
ba d an
epitaph
for de lte
segrim
G EN ER A L
WILIIELM
B U LO W
VO N D E N N E W I T Z (1755
18t6).
Colonel Hermann von Boyen
1771-1848),
who was at
on e
lime his Chief of Staff, describes
the General thus:
Bolow ha d a vcry keen glance an d an excel
lent
memory;
a bold selfconfidencc guidcd his
steps,
bu t this made him mostly an opponent of
his
superiors an d
a
rather uncomfortable sub
ordinatc. Without
being
strictly
trained
as a
scholar, t he G en er al ha d
acquired
a respectable
fund of
knowledge
in many fields. He ha d a
passionate love of music and had established a
reputation
as a composer
The General ha d
u nd er st oo d t he
events of
the time
in a
liberal
spirit; his views
on war
were mainly
derived
from
the Seven
Years War and our earlier
military institutions [i.e. the legacy of Frederick
t he G re at ) an d
therefore
he had
been
among th e
opponents
of Scharnhorst even before th e wa
However, his
practical understanding
led
hi
almost unconsciously to
grasp th e nature 1
th
new
war [of
1813].
Although
very susccptib
to fame, he
placed
very l it tlc value on
outwa
distinctions, he was
not
self-seeking, an d
esteemed people irrespective of their opinions
In th e Watcrloo campaign th e other
thr
corps commanders
were:
I.
L ie uten an t-Ge ne ra l Han s
Ernst
Karl
Gr
von Zieten II (1770-d1413). He ha d com
manded
a division in
the
Leipzig
campaig
II.
Major-General
George
Dlibislaw
Ludw
Pirch I. He was 52 :lIld
came
ffom Magd
burg.
III.
Licutenant-General Johann
A do lf F re ih c
\ on Thielemann. He was 50 and had led t
Saxon
cavalry
fighting for Napoleon
Borodino in 1812.
is
well known
that
Wellington
cared
bUl lit
how his officers dressed
when
on
campaign,
an
saw
nothing
objeclionable in
Si r
Thomas Picto
taking his division into action to p
hat
on hcad an
umbrella
in
hand.
does
I t
seem that Bluche
F r e de r i c k Wilhelm BUlow
v on O en ne witz .
F r om
e n g ra v i n g by
T .
J o b n ..on
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staff
was
much more
d res sy . Hi s ow n
turn-out
with c lo ak an d forage cap was
practical
rather
than showy. A
great
differencc ha d crept in s in ce
the days
of 1806 when
Yorck
ha d ta ken the
field
with his kit
packed
in a
wagon and
a l ig ht ch ai se .
He took with
him two
extra uniforms,
t en p ai rs
of
gloves, four pairs of trousers an d waistcoats, an
extra hat
cloaks, a n a bu nd an ce of personal
cloth
ing, four pai rs of
leather
breeches, fifteen pairs of
stockings,
eight
nightgowns, five nightcaps,
three
table-cloths, thirty-six napkins, a mattress, five
pillows, a
red
silk bcd-cover,
tw o
bedpans a set of
china an d silver, cooking utensils, a coffee-grinder,
eight
razors, twelve glasses,
an d
twenty-five
bottles
of
liquor.
o
On 5 October 1813 an incident
took place
which illustrates
th e
new
attitude towards turn-out
an d what
now
vulgarly known
as bull . Boyen
is once more ou r aul1lOrity.
While
they were
marching
through
Dessau
there occurred another
source of
annoyance
for
t he C ro wn
Prince. Bnlow look
very
little
trouble
over his dress, in glaring
contrast
to
th e Cr own
Pr inc e, w ho
devoted
every possible
care
to this
s ub je ct . We ha d 11 0 idea Ihat the
Crown
Prince,
who
had never
once
bothered about th e
troops
throughout the ca mp ai gn o r shown
h im se lf to
them
was
proposing
to
make
an exception here.
A nd so Riilow, wearing his sel vice ovcrcoat an d
a
rather dilapidated
field-cap, rode
at the head
of his troops
on
a small Polish horse.
Suddenly
we
heard that the Crown Prince
was
waiting
a
few
yards
away in
the
slrcets of Dessau in order
to let th e corps parade
past
him. With the best
will in
th e
world
there
was no
time
to
a lt cr a ny
thing. llnlow
drew
his sword
and just
as
he
was,
led his t ro op s p as t
th e
Commanderin-Chiefwith
all possible
honours of
war.
However
this was a
stab
through
th e heart
for
th e
C ro wn P ri nc e.
H e r eg ar de d it
as a
per
sonal slight to
th e
respect
due
to hi m, but instead
of s ay in g so
direct
he called
me over
and in a
voice which everyone
round could hear he
mixed r ep ro ac he s
about
this clothing offence
with
the
old recital
of
all B ul ow s real
or
alleged
sins. As
can
well be
imagined
1 found myself in
a most
embarrassing situation and when he
r ev er ted to
the sartorial error
I replied a trifle
rudely that
this ha d been
the
service dress in o m
army
since
th e time
of
Frederick th e Grea
whereupon
I was dis mi ss ed.
In
fact,
part
of
m
answer was a lic, because
the
Prussian offic
has only our
present
monarch
to
thank for
th
dress specially made for campaigning. ll
Thc
Crown
Prince
was,
of
course,
JeallBaptist
Jules Bernadotte on e
of
Napoleon s
marsha
wh o
was
no w
at
t he h ea d of th e
Swedish Army.
GENERAL AUGUST G RA F N E IT H AR D T VON GNEISENA
1760-1831). Born in Saxony the son of a lie
tenant
in
the
artillery
Gneisenau joined t
Austrian
service,
then transferring
to
that
Anspach-Bayreuth
was
sent
to
America
in
17
fight for
King
George I I I
against
his rebellio
colonists. Too late for the
war
he returned
Europe where in 7B he
joined
th e Prussi
Army
as a
staff captain. In IB 6
he
commanded
battalion at
Saalfeld
an d at Jena. In IB 7
greatly distinguished
himself by
his
tenacio
defence of th e fortress
of
Kolberg an explo
which won him th e h ighes t P ru ss ia n orde
Pour
Meritt
and soon b ec am e l eg en da ry
German
history -
Hit ler h ad
a film
made of
when the tide
turned
against hi m
in
t he S ec o
W or ld W ar .
G ne is cn au h at ed
the
Russians and
mistrust
the English, but he got on splendidly wi
BlOcher
who needed someone
to
do
his
staff
wor
Friedrich
von
Schubert an
officer in
th e Austri
se rvi ce, tells us that
Gneisenau
w as a
highly
gifted and clever man of
spi
and energy. He
virtually
commanded
th e
Arm
of
Silesia,
yet
he
could no t h av e d on e
this in h
ow n name. For
on e
thing he
was
not
ye t s en
enough
in
rank;
for
another
public
opini
d em an de d th at BlUcher s
name
celebrated
Prussia, should
be
at
the head Relatio
between
Bli.icher and his Chief of Staff
were
mo
excellcnt.
Both
men were
fired
by hatred
the French.
Bu t
th e
on e
wh o could
only concei
of Vorwar{s had complete confidence in
t
outstanding
abilities of
the o the r
to whom
he
l
all
arrangements
for th e
advance
and
accept
personal responsibility for this.
In 1814 th e
University
of Oxford conferred
Blncher the h on or ar y d egr ee of doctor. At
dinner given in his
honour the
Field-Marsh
said:
Now if
you
have made
me a
doctor
th
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Gnellu,n u.
rom
med lUon
by L. POIIc:b
Gneisenau
must
be made at least
an
apothecary.
Ernst
Moritz
Arndt 1769 1860), a Professor of
History
and
Philology, writes:
Gnciscnau was a
man
of fifty-two
when
first
saw
him
during
the winter
of 1812, but
he
looked
like a
thirty-year-old
in bearing, walk and
gestures. His figure was
imposing,
his
limbs
like
those of a lion, and he had broad shoulders and
chest.
From the
hips to
the
soles
of
his feet every
thing
was strong,
roundcd
and,
wherever
it
should be
delicate
- the feet andjoints-dclicatcly
and supply formed.
He stood
and movcd
like a
born hero. A noble
head crowned
this powerfuli\
built
body
of above average
height:
the brow
was open, broad and serene, his dark hair grew
thick, he had
the most beaut iful ,
large, blue
eyes, which could look and nash with equal
friendlincss or disdain, a straight nosc, full lips,
a
round chin, and
an expression
ofmanliness and
beauty in all his features. The forehead bore a
long,
hcaled-up scar. This scar , he
used to say
with a smile, often makes me angry or bored,
when
people
want to know
in
which
battle
received the wound, and 1 have to send them
away
with
the
dusty
answer:
A foal was th e
hero
who scarred the lad.
This fine man
had
a passionate and fiery
nature, and
bold
impulses and thoughts
flowed
incessantly to and fro within him. And if he d
occasionally - a
rare occurrence
for him -
into a half-dreamy,
brooding
state of exhausti
his face likewise
radiated
a
bubbling, spirit
animation which seldom left his features
repose. Consequently,
the
very handsome f
was difficult to take in and portray in its m
peculiar, positive significance, and
anyone
w
kncw
Gneisenau was dissalisfied wilh
a
portrait
or
engraving
of
him.
Another intellectual, Henrik
Steffens
(177
1845), who served on his staff, found Gneisenau
blend
of
noble
pride
and real humility, of conf
cnce and modesty
_He
discerned
in Gneisena
respect for higher intellectual training, b
thoughl he lacked the agility of mind, the
rea
wit and the pungent irony which distinguish
many of
the outstanding
senior officers ofhis day
Gneiscnau was a stern and unbcnding warri
but
not
lacking
in
heart.
On
19
October
1813
A.D.C.,
Captain Stosch,
rode
with
him
across
corpses of the Silesian Landwehr un the battlefi
of
Mockern
which
Yorck had
taken
on
the
16
watched
Gncisenau s
solemn face, :md as
said
to me,
Victory was bought wi th Gcrm
blood
at
gre: l1
cost, at
vcry grea t cost ,
a
t
trickled down f rom his eye. was the only lea
ever
saw
him shed.
u
He
was
made i t count
for
services in Ihc Leipzig campaign.
Gneisenau played
a decisive
pari
in Ihe 1
campaign and by his relentless pursuit of
rmieu Nord
on
the
night
aftcr
Waterloo
show
himself as much a man of action as a staff offic
The pursuil
he
described as die r in Klapperja
a mad chase, and laler declared
that
it was
most
glorious
night of his lifc. Gncisenau died
cholcra
in
August
1831.
MAJOR-GENERAL KARL
VON
CLAUSEWITZ (17
1831).
Clausewitz
was
born
at
Magdeburg
June
1780, and entered the )russian
Army
a
Falmenjunker (cadet) when he was 12.
He
serv
on the Rhine in 1793 and 1794 and
afler
the si
of Mainz
was commissioned.
From 18 1
10 1803 he was a student at
Berlin
Military
School, then under
Ihe direct
of General Scharnhorst, who was struck by
ability.
Clausewitz
for his part took
Scharnho
as his model.
He
passed out first wilh the Gene
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on his
breadth
of vision, and obtaining
im a posting as
A.D.C.
to Prince August
of
At the battle
of
Auerstiidt Clausewitz led a
battalion in the
assault on Poppel.
Prince Au gu st s battalion was with
Prince
Hohenlohe s
rearguard in the retreat
that
fol
owed, an d when
surrender
was
imminent
tried
to fight its
way out.
Arter beating o ff several
French
cavalry
attacks
it was trapped in a bog
nd
taken. Prince August
and
Clausewitz were
prisoners
of wa r
until 1809.
On
his
return
from
France
C la us ew it z was
appointed to Scharnhorst s staff an d played
a pa n
in his
reorganization of
th e Prussian
Army.
At this
p er io d h e
became
a friend
of
Gneisenau.
In
1810
Clausewitz
became
a member of th e Prussian
General
Staff an d a professor at the Military
School, as well as military
instructor
to the
Crown
Prince
of
Prussia, later King Frederick William IV .
In 1812, when N apoleon took a Prussian c orp s
to
Russia, Clausewitz
along
with some 300
of
his
brother officers resigned
their
commissions and
the Russian service,
where
he was
A.D.C.
to the Prussiall General Ernst von Pfull 177
1866).
He
was at Borodino and was w it h
Milora
dovich s rearguard covering the Russian with
drawal. In Napoleon s retreat
from Moscow
Clausewitz served with
Gen eral Wiu ge ns te in
Corps. fell to his lot to playa decisive part in th
negotiations with Yorck that led to
th e Conventio
of Tauroggen.
In 1813 Clausewitz, still in th e Russian servic
was liaison officer at Blocher s headquarters, an
in 1814 he was
Chief of Staff
to
Ge ner al Wa
moden s
Corps.
In
1815 he
re-entered
th e Prussia
Army and served as Chief of Staff to Gener
Thielemann
Ill
Corps) at Ligny
an d Wavre.
In 1818 Clausewitz was promoted
majo
general
and made Director of th e
Berlin
Milita
School, a n a pp oi nt me nt
which
gave him
time
devote
himself to his writings. In 1830 he w
tr an sfe rr ed to
th e
artillery
at
Breslau
and
December of
that year, when
wa r
with
Franc
appeared imminent, he was appointed Chief
Staff
to
Gneiscnau.
They
were
both
victims
of th
cholera
epidemic
of 1831.
This is no t th e
place
to
analyse Clauscwitz
theories on
th e ar t of
war. In addition
to
his
gre
work, On
War
3 vols.), he w rot e stu die s
of
Th
Ilalian Campaign q 9 ; The Campaigns
Switzerland and Italy 799 2
vols.),
the cam
paigns
of
1812, 1813
an d
1814;
an d
The
Wa/eTl
Campaign Among
a
number of papers
on
th
campaigns of
G us tav us Adolphus, Turenn
Luxembourg,
Frederick the Great an d others, th
most important was
on e
on
th e debacle of
180
This was published
by
th e
German General
Sta
in 1888.
The German h l i l ~ k r i of
1939
an d
19
followed th e classic
German strategy
hammere
ou t by Blucher, bu t
recorded,
analysed an
d eve lo pe d by C la use wi tz ,
and
handed down
the
elder
Moltke an d by Schli eRen. Yet Claus
witz wr ote not
only
for soldiers
bu t
for Slatesme
an d
his legacy
is lO
b e found
e ns hrin ed n ot
on
in Bismarck s policy
of
Blood and Iron, but
Hitler s A ein Kampf
GRAF AUGUST
LUDWIG
FERDINAND
VON
NOSTI
1777-1866). Blocher s
A.D.C.
was
Graf
Augu
von Nostitz.
The
son of a Saxon
cavalry gener
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he had
served in a
dragoon
regiment. As a
captain
he was with BlOcher at Leipzig, and
accompanied
him to England in 1814. As a lieutenantcolonel
he
coolly rescued
the
old field-marshal
when he
was
pinned under
his
dead
horse
at
Ligny.
Nostitz,
aged
75
and by then
a
general
of
cavalry,
carried
Blocher s
baton
at
Wellington's
funeral in
1852. He kept a diary which has been
published.
Nostitz
showed
his p re se nc e of mind not only
at
Ligny
but at
Leipzig,
when
on 18
October)
the
Allies were
entering the
city
and Blocher
was
leading up
troops from a Russian corps wilh
impatient
cries of'Vorw;irts, vorw;irts,
Kinder '
'A Russian general,
of
whose
bravery
BHicher
had no great opinion, protested about the
personal
danger
to
which
BlOcher was
exposing
himself;
but Blucher paid
no
attention, and
r en ew ed his
shouts
of Vorwarts
inspiring
his
troops to advance
more
rapidly still.
At
this
moment
my
horse
shied:
it
had
been
hit by a
bullet. The Russian
general, not icing
this,
drew Blucher s
a tten tion to the
fact as a
proof of
his
earlier
assertion
that
BlOcher wa s
within
range
of bullets.
BlOcher turned peevishly
round
and asked,
Nostitz,
is
your
horse
wounded?
' ' ' I 'm not aware
of
it ,
was
my
reply.
'A t
the gate the General remarked, That
was
clever of
you,
Nostitz, telling a lie about
your
horse s
wound.
If
you
had
said
'Yes',
then our
good
friend would probably
have
gone to
pieces. 'lt
STAFF
The Headquarters
Staff
under
von
Grolmann
numbered
only six officers. The remainder
of the
Army Staff
numbered fortynine
and
ineluded the
officer commanding the artil lery, the
commandant
of Headquarters,
surveyors, surgeons,
an auditor,
the
provostmarshal
and others. In
all
the
Prussian
Headquarters amounted
t o f if ty e ig ht
officers.
A
corps staff
comprised
about twenty
officers
and a
brigade staff about
five.
The officers of
the
Army Headquarters
included
Lieloltenant-Colonel Count von Nostitz, Blocher's
A.D.C. who gallantly rescued
his
general at
Ligny, j ~ r von Winterfeldt, who was severely
wounded when,
while taking an
import
mes sage t o
Wellington, he
imprudently
rode
near
the
French
outposts; Captain von Wuss
and Captain von
Scharnhorst.
At
Leipzig
Yorck's staff included
Colo
Katzcler, Major
Count
Brandenburg and Ma
von
Schack.
In
the
same battle
Gneisena
A.D.C. was Captain Stosch.
The
three armies engaged
in
the
1815
campa
were
led respectively
by
a
gunner, an infan
officer
and
a
cavalryman. Each showed
a
decid
pen h nt for his old arm. Bhichcr was
the caval
man, and, despite his years and his heavy r
ponsi bil iti es as
Commander-in.Chicf,
thou
nothing
of
leading
cavalry
charges
in person
wcakness
which nearly brought complete
disas
on at
least
one
occasion.
InJune
1808
the
Prussian
cavalry
was 12,8
strong,
including 535 officers
and
1,766
N.C.O
Since
the whole army
only numbered 5 0,4 7 t
was a reasonable proportion of mounted tf
but since 4,634 of the men
were
on more or
permanent
leave,
the regiments can
scarc
have been
in a very high state of efficiency.
Wh
i n 1813
the
Prussian
Army
was
expanded
t o s o
'100,000, serious difficulties
were
encountered.
Narrow eBcape
of
Blucher
a t Ul(ny. Trapped
under
dead horBe, he BeeB the 9th Cui ras si e rs
charl(e
paBt h
i A.D.C.,
Graf Nostilz, haB d lBmounted to
defend
h
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At regimemal
and squadron level, cavalry
tactics in
Blucher s
Army were much the same as
in those of his contemporaries. Their tasks may
e
summed l p
as rcconnaissest uni ts were as good as the ilite regiments
f
Napoleon s
cavalry.
Nor were
they
anything
as well mounted or equipped as th e British
nd
King s German
Legion
cavalry
of th e
day.
n th e Waterloo campaign Blucher s cavalry
numbcrcd
I 1,948. This was
not
a
particularly
iberal
provision.
20
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Officers
N.C.O.s
Musicians
Surgeons
Troops
Me n
on
leave
No r di d he have any great cavalry co mm and er at
his disposal.
He
lacked a Seydlitz to take a
grip
on
th e whole mass of his mounted
arm.
Me n like
S oh r a nd H en ck el v on
Donnersmarek
were first
class
at
th e
regimental
level, bu t Blocher ha d
nobody wh o could co-ordinate the movements of
the
cavalry
as
Uxbridge
di d for Wellington
at
\Vaterloo, and as Murat ha d done for apoleon
in t he great days
o f
th e
Empire.
The
consequence
of
all this was
that
Blucher
occasionally took it into his old hussar h ea d to lead
cavalry
charges
himself.
Thus
it was
that a t a bout
8 p.m. on
16June
1815,
when
he could see by th e
selling sun nOlhing bu t ruin and a
breach
in his
line filled with the bearskins of the O ld G ua rd
he g al lo ped f or wa rd
at
the head
of
ROder s five
regiments. The Prussian cavalry mel by volleys at
point-blank
range
only
succeeded in
strewing
the
ground
with
th e
bodies
of men
and horses.
Milhaud s
Cuirassiers
and
the D ragoo ns
of
th e
Guard
su pp orte d th e
F re nc h s qu ar es
and they
pressed
on
towards th e windmill of Brye.
Undaunted Blucher
led his last remaining
squadrons in a desperate charge. His horse was
hit, an d galloped wildly on until suddenly it fell
dead crushing
its
aged master. Graf
ostitz
dismounted
to p ro te ct t he F ie ld -M ar sh al as th e
9th Cuirassiers
ebbed
an d flowed past
them
in the
d im l ig ht , li ttl e k no wi ng th e
prize that la y
within
Iheir grasp.
fell
to some
Prussian
uhlans
to
haul
Ihe old
gentleman
from under his dead horse, and
to the charger of an .C.O. of th e 6th Uhlans
10
carry him
back
amidst th e
flood
of departing
Prussian soldiery.
While Blucher was
playing
Ihe hussar,
Count
Gneisenau was
working
ou t the next move - and
getting it right. So it
ma y
be s aid
thai if
BlOcher
did not always behave precisely as a
commander
in-ehiefshould at
least he had m anaged to select a
chief
of
stafr
wh o
eould
carryon
in his a bs en ce .
jilllflJI
W he n P russia took th e field against N apoleon in
1813 sh e was desperately
short of
t rai ne d m an
power. This was la rg el y due to the restrictions
laid down by the Treaty of Paris of 8 Septem
1808.
Strength
of th e Prussian Army includ
reserves:
187 53 523;
1808,52,142; 18og, 45,8
1810 62 609; 1811, 74,553;
18Et, 65,000.
is
true
that under a programme attributed
Scharnhorst there had been
a n a tt em pt
to
tr
reserves. The success of th e KriimjNr syuem
become
part of Prussian legend, bu t th e assert
that
15,000 reservists were available in
t8t3
re
only
on
th e m is ta ke n i de a thai th e ne w un
formed
that
year consisted
entirely of
reservi
This was no t so; they were built
on
a nuc leus
trained officers, N.C.O.s and men to wh
recruits were
added.
That this was not easy
is
evident from
following figures:
Strength orthe Prussian Army inJune 1808
hifaTltry Artillery Cavalry To
1,079
147
535 1,7
3,264 503 1,7
66
5,
659 35
9 9
227 27
86
10,025 2,161 5,651
7
17,396 1,653 4,634 23,
Total 32,650 4,526 12,871 50,
We see that th e Prussian Army some 50,
strong
in 1808, c om pr is ed
only
1,761 officers
a
5,533
N.C.O.s.u
There was a serious shortage
experienced officers and
literate .C.O.s. O n
other
hand
there was a source
of
poten
officers
In
th e
Volunteers FreiwiiJige
]iiga w
came
forward in
substantial
numbers. They w
however,
r 1r
from
being
imbued with Ihe sp
of
th e old-style Prussian
martinet.
One
of the
C oun t Christian Stolberg lSI EaSI Pruss
Regiment) wrote on 8 October:
am
no
sold
but
a
fighter for
th e Fatherland;
and
w he n p e
comes
I
shall return home. To be a soldier for
ow n
sake will always be
abhorrent
to
me l
Major Karl Friedrich Friccius 1779-1856)
the 3rd Battalion of th e
East
Prussian Landw
Regiment, lells us that in order to t he u
up to
strength
they had tu
take m;I lY men
un
1
7
or over 40.
Even fathers of families, if th e lottery
picked them
could
seldom be
exempted
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O _ ~
of f ia: r Fool Artill
.. ry or tb .. rd , 1801 .
Blue
. .Uonn
with n d
plpins:
a r o _ d collar
and cuff
10 jacket and
. r ip
down
overall.
Cold la_. Fro. ..
corueonpo ry pr int d . . .
.. by I. Wolf a
..
d
e ..
C....ved
y F.
Jille.1
very
often
the town had
to assume carc
of the
wivcs and chi ldrcn. Whcrc many ways re
mained opt:n
of
escaping from military service,
and
when
the
promised advantages
appeared so
meagre, and above all when it had not
yet been
settled whether privileges promised
to
volunteer
i i g ~ r
should
also be granted
lo l.mulwdtr
volull
leers, voluntary cnlistmCll1 ill lite J andwdlr had
greater merit than later 011. In spite of all this,
thc Battalion had over one hundred sllch
volunteers. Of tht
many
boys
who
oflcred their
services, we only look as many as we could usc
for
drummers
and b ug le rs . All
the
rest were
rejected
As the men of the Battalion werc drawn from
a large
town, they
were
better acquainted
with
the pleasures of life and
perhaps
weaker in
physique.
but
they wcre also more experienced
and skilful,
and were
imbucd with
greater claims
to
justice and
honour.
They were a
strange
mixture, drawn from the most varied walks o
life
and
ag e groups. Beside a grey-haired man
you might find a boy
of seventeen;
beside a
worthy
family-man,
who had never conceived
the
idea of
taking
up arms while in
the
quie
circle of his civil profess ion, might a gay
adventurer; beside an
educated
young man. who
had broken
away
from the happiest circum
stances
so as to fight for
the Fatherland
with
high
ideas
of
duty
and
honour,
stood a
raw
youth
The
othcr battalions
of the
province
wer
recruited from
the
villages and small towns
where
onc found a greatcr uniformity in age
better
physique,
more contentedness and respec
for their superiors, but less
experience
and
docility. 11
The equipment left
much
to be desired. Whe
20,000 Austrian muskets were issued to th
Silesian Landwehr it was d is co ve re d that th
manufacturers
had
failed to
bore
t o u c h h o l e s
Many of the soldiers
had linen
wallets
instead
o
knapsacks. On 30 October 1813 E rn st Janke,
young
Prussian officer,
wrote
to his family: Bu
no one i n B erlin will b elieve just how ragged ou
army is. The
men s
clothing
is rotting
off the
bodics. What will the outcome of it all ?
Yorck, describing
the state of
his corps af te
Leipzig, tells us
that
of 106
guns
he had i
September only 42 remained serviceable. Despi
picking
up
a number
of
French muskets
many o
his men were unarmed.
The
troops
who had
taken part in
the
Russia
campaign in Courland
were
still wearing th
clothing issued
to them
in 1811. The Silesia
fAndwthr s patrol
jackets made out
of coars
cloth had shrunk so badly as a resull of we
bivouacs and
rainy
weathcr
that
they were to
narrow
fore
and
aft,
and
too short on
top an
below. We were approaching a wintcr
campaig
and
the men still had no
cloth
trOllsers. Th
adage
about ten patches for OIlC hole foun
widespread
application on
the
tight-fitting coat
Thcre was a great lack of shoes, although o
the march
from L ei pz ig any ne w or worn foo
wear to be found
had
been
requisitioned.
Many
and
not
only Landwehr men
but
also Jiig
volunteers,
marched
barefoot. There was
s h o r t ~ of cloaks too, but here and
there
peop
had
taken
them
off prisoners. The horses for
th
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artil lery were
wo rke d ve ry
hard
and
many
of
them
became
unusable. What is more, the region
we had marched through
s in ce l ea vi ng
Halle
was v er y poor in horses, so we
had been able
to
requisition
only
a
few:
The
spirit
of
the Landwehr sustained them even
when they had to
march without
shoes. But the
shortage
of
food, lack of straw and firewood, and
generally
indifferent administration
took its toll.
In the
eighteen days
ending