Battle Of Dresden

Military Information

	conflict	Battle of Dresden
	partof	the War Of The Sixth Coalition
	date	August 26 - 27 , 1813
	place	Dresden , Saxony , Germany
	result	French victory
	combatant1	First French Empire
	combatant2	Sixth Coalition Austria <br/> Prussia <br/> Russia
	commander1	Emperor Napoleon I Of France <br/> Marshal Saint-Cyr
	commander2	Field Marshal Schwartzenberg <br/> Emperor Francis I Of Austria <br/> Tsar Alexander I Of Russia <br/> König Frederick William III Of Prussia
	strength1	135,000
	strength2	214,000
	casualties1	around 10,000
	casualties2	around 38,000 total and 40 guns

The Battle of Dresden was fought on August 26 - 27 , 1813 , and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon Bonaparte against forces of the Sixth Coalition of Austria ns, Russia ns and Prussia ns under Field Marshal Schwartzenberg . However, Napoleon's victory was not as complete as it could have been. Substantial pursuit was not undertaken after the battle, and the flanking corps was surrounded and forced to surrender a few days later at the Battle Of Kulm .

PRELUDE

On August 16 , Napoleon had sent Marshal Saint-Cyr's corps to fortify and hold Dresden in order to hinder allied movements and to serve as a possible base for his own maneuvers. He planned to strike against the interior lines of his enemies and defeat them in detail, before they could combine their full strength. He had some 300,000 men against allied forces totaling over 450,000. But the Coalition avoided battle with Napoleon himself, choosing to attack his subordinate commanders instead (see the Trachenburg Plan ). On August 23 , at the Battle Of Grossbeeren , south of Berlin , Crown Prince Charles of Sweden (formerly French Marshal Bernadotte, Napoleon's own Marshals) defeated his old comrade Marshal Oudinot . And on August 26 , Prussian Marshal Graf (Count) Von Blücher defeated Marshal MacDonald at Katzbach .

BATTLE

) and the failure to follow up on his success allowed Schwarzenberg to withdraw and narrowly escape encirclement. The Coalition had lost some 38,000 men and 40 guns. French casualties totaled around 10,000.

AFTERMATH

General Vandamme , acting mainly on his own initiative but without support from Saint-Cyr or the other Marshals, pursued the retreating Schwarzenberg, as he knew his Emperor would have wished. This resulted in the Battle Of Kulm three days later.

Note

Some of Napoleon's officers noted he was "suffering from a violent cholic, which had been brought on by the cold rain, to which he had been exposed during the whole of the battle of the 27th." 1

EXTERNAL LINKS

Memoirs Of The Duke Rovigo

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Battle Of Dresden