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BATTLE OF DRESDEN

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 577 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BATTLE OF See also:DRESDEN . The battle of Dresden, the last of the See also:great victories of See also:Napoleon, was fought on the 26th and 27th of See also:August 1813. The intervention of See also:Austria in the See also:War of Liberation, and the consequent advance of the See also:Allies under the See also:Austrian See also:field-See also:marshal See also:Prince See also:Schwarzenberg from See also:Prague upon Dresden, recalled Napoleon from See also:Silesia, where he was engaged against the Prussians and Russians under See also:Blucher. Only by a narrow margin of See also:time, indeed, was he able to bring back sufficient troops for the first See also:day's battle. He detached a See also:column under See also:Vandamme to the mountains to interpose between Schwarzenberg and Prague (see See also:NAPOLEONIC See also:CAMPAIGNS); the See also:rest of the See also:army pressed on by forced See also:marches for Dresden, around which a position for the whole army had been chosen and fortified, though at the moment this was held by less than 20,000 men under See also:Gouvion St Cyr, who retired thither from the mountains, leaving a See also:garrison in See also:Konigstein, and had repeatedly sent reports to the See also:emperor as to the allied masses gathering to the See also:south-See also:ward. The battle of the first day began See also:late in the afternoon, for Schwarzenberg waited as See also:long as possible for the cops of Klenau, which formed his extreme See also:left wing on the See also:Freiberg road. At last, about 6 P.M. he decided to wait no longer, and six heavy columns of attack advanced against the suburbs defended by St Cyr and now also by the leading troops of the See also:main army. Three See also:hundred guns covered the See also:assault, and Dresden was set on See also:fire in places by the cannonade, while the See also:French columns marched unceasingly over the See also:bridges and through the Alt stadt. On the right the Russians under See also:Wittgenstein advanced from Striesen, the Prussians under See also:Kleist through the Grosser Garten, whilst Prussians under Prince See also:Augustus and Austrians under Colloredo moved upon the Moczinski See also:redoubt, which was the See also:scene of the most desperate fighting, and was repeatedly taken and retaken. The attack to the westward was carried out by the other Austrian See also:corps; Klenau, however, was still far distant. In the end, the French defences remained unshaken. See also:Ney led a See also:counter-attack against the Allies' left, the Moczinski redoubt was definitely recaptured from Colloredo, and the Prussians were driven out of the Grosser Garten.

The coup of the Allies had failed, for every See also:

hour saw the arrival of fresh forces on the See also:side of Napoleon, and at length the Austrian See also:leader See also:drew off his men to the heights again. He was prepared to fight another battle on the morrow—indeed he could scarcely have avoided it had he wished to do so, for behind him See also:lay the See also:mountain defiles, towards which Vandamme was marching with all See also:speed. Napoleon's See also:plan for the 27th was, as usual, See also:simple in its outline. As at See also:Friedland, a See also:ravine separated a See also:part of the hostile See also:line of battle from the rest. The villages See also:west of the See also:Plauen ravine and even Lobda were occupied in the See also:early See also:morning by See also:General Metzko with the leading See also:division of Klenau's corps from Freiberg, and upon Metzko Napoleon intended first to throw the See also:weight of his attack, giving to See also:Victor's See also:infantry and the See also:cavalry of See also:Murat, See also:king of See also:Naples, the task of overwhelming the isolated Austrians. The centre, aided by the defences of the Dresden suburbs, could hold its own, as the evens of the 26th had shown, the left, now under Ney, with whom served See also:Kellermann's cavalry and the See also:Young Guard, was to attack Wittgenstein's Russians on the See also:Pirna road. Thus, for once, Napoleon decided to attack both flanks of the enemy. His motives in so doing have been much discussed by the critics; Vandamme's movements, it may be suggested, contributed to the French emperor's plan, which if carried out would open the Pirna road. Still, the left attack may have had a purely See also:tactical See also:object, for in that See also:quarter was the main See also:body of the Prussians and Russians, and Napoleon's method was always to concentrate the fury of the attack on the heaviest masses of the enemy, i.e. the best See also:target for his own See also:artillery. A very heavy rainstorm during the See also:night seriously affected the movements of troops on the following day, but all to Napoleon's See also:advantage, for his more See also:mobile artillery, reinforced by every See also:horse available in and about Dresden, was still able to move where the Allied guns sank in mud. Further, if the cavalry had to walk, or at most trot, through the See also:fields the opposing infantry was almost always unable to fire their muskets. " You cannot fire; surrender," said Murat to an Austrian See also:battalion in the battle.

" Never," they replied; " you cannot See also:

charge us." On the See also:appearance of Murat's horse artillery, however, they had to surrender at once. Under such conditions, Metzko, unsupported either by Klenau or the main army beyond the ravine, was an easy victim. Victor from Lobda drove in the advanced posts and assaulted the line of villages Wolfnitz-Toltschen; Metzko had to retire to the higher ground S.W. of the first line, and Murat, with an overwhelming cavalry force from See also:Cotta and Burgstadl, outflanked his left, See also:broke up Meanwhile Ney on the other flank, with his left on the See also:Pillnitz road and his right on the Grosser Garten, had opened his attack. The Russians offered a strenuous resistance, defending Seidnitz, See also:Gross Dobritz and Reick with their usual steadiness, and Ney was so far advanced that several generals at the Allied headquarters suggested a counter-attack of the centre by way of Strehlen, so as to cut off the French left from Dresden. This plan was adopted, but, owing to various misunderstandings, failed of See also:execution. Thus the Allied centre remained inactive all day, cannonaded by the Dresden redoubts. One incident only, but that of great importance, took See also:place here. The See also:tsar, the king of See also:Prussia, Schwarzenberg and a very large headquarter See also:staff watched the fighting from a See also:hill near Racknitz and offered an easy See also:mark to the French guns. In See also:default of formed bodies to fire at, the latter had for a moment ceased fire; Napoleon, See also:riding by, See also:half carelessly told them to reopen, and one of their first shots, directed at 2000 yards range against the See also:mass of See also:officers on the See also:sky-line, mortally wounded General See also:Moreau, who was See also:standing by the emperor See also:Alexander. A See also:council of war followed. The Allied sovereigns were for continuing the fight; Schwarzenberg, however, knowing the exhaustion of his troops decided to See also:retreat. As at See also:Bautzen, the French cavalry was unable to make any effective pursuit.

The forces engaged were 96,000 French, See also:

Saxons, &c., and 200,000 Austrians, Russians and Prussians. The French losses were about ro,000, or a little over ro%, those of the Allies 38,000 killed, wounded and prisoners (the latter 23,000) or 19%. They lost also 15 See also:colours and 26 guns.

End of Article: BATTLE OF DRESDEN

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