Total Destruction of the Prussian Army

The total destruction of the Prussian army was followed by the surrender of the fortresses which defend that country, some of them ranking among the foremost in Europe.

Continuing Napoleon Crushes Prussia,
our selection from Life of Napoleon Bonaparte by Sir Walter Scott published in 1839. The selection is presented in seven easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Napoleon Crushes Prussia.

Time: 1806
Place: Jena and Auerstadt

The chief point of rallying, however, was Magdeburg, under the walls of which strong city Prince Hohenlohe, though wounded, contrived to assemble an army amounting to fifty thousand men, but wanting everything and in the last degree of confusion. But Magdeburg was no place of rest for them. The same improvidence which had marked every step of the campaign had exhausted that city of the immense magazines which it contained and taken them for the supply of the Duke of Brunswick’s army. The wrecks of the field of Jena were exposed to famine as well as the sword. It only remained for Prince Hohenlohe to make the best escape he could to the Oder, and, considering the disastrous circumstances in which he was placed, he seems to have displayed both courage and skill in his proceedings. After various partial actions, however, in all of which he lost men, he finally found himself, with the advanced guard and center of his army, on the heights of Prenzlau, without provisions, forage, or ammunition. Surrender became unavoidable; and at Prenzlau and Pasewalk, nearly twenty thousand Prussians laid down their arms.

The rear of Prince Hohenlohe’s army did not immediately share this calamity. They were at Bortzenberg when the surrender took place, and amounted to about ten thousand men, the relics of the battle in which Prince Eugene of Wurtemberg had engaged near Weimar, and were under the command of a general whose name hereafter was destined to sound like a war trumpet — the celebrated Blucher.

In the extremity of his country’s distresses, this distinguished soldier showed the same indomitable spirit, the same activity in execution and daringness of resolve, which afterward led to such glorious results. He was about to leave Bortzenberg on the 29th, in consequence of his orders from Prince Hohenlohe, when he learned that general’s disaster at Prenzlau. He instantly changed the direction of his retreat, and, by a rapid march toward Streiitz, contrived to unite his forces with about ten thousand men, gleanings of Jena and Auerstaedt, which, under the Dukes of Weimar and of Brunswick Oels, had taken their route in that direction.

Thus reinforced, Blucher adopted the plan of passing the Elbe at Lauenburg and reinforcing the Prussian garrisons in Lower Saxony. With this view he fought several sharp actions and made many rapid marches. But the odds were too great to be balanced by courage and activity. The division of Soult, which had crossed the Elbe, cut him off from Lauenburg, that of Murat interposed between him and Stralsund, while Bernadotte pressed upon his rear. Blucher had no resource but to throw himself and his diminished and dispirited army into Lubeck. The pursuers came soon up and found him like a stag at bay. A battle was fought on November 6th in the streets of Lubeck, with extreme fury on both sides, in which the Prussians were overpowered by numbers and lost many slain, besides four thousand prisoners. Blucher fought his way out of the town and reached Schwerta. But he had now retreated as far as he had Prussian ground to bear him, and to violate the neutrality of the Danish territory would only have raised up new enemies to his unfortunate master.

On November 7th, therefore, he gave up his good sword, to be resumed under happier auspices, and surrendered with the few thousand men which remained under his command. But the courage which he had manifested, like the lights of St. Elmo amid the gloom of the tempest, showed that there was at least one pupil of the Great Frederick worthy of his master, and afforded hopes, on which Prussia long dwelt in silence, till the moment of action arrived.

The total destruction, for such it might almost be termed, of the Prussian army was scarcely so wonderful as the facility with which the fortresses which defend that country, some of them ranking among the foremost in Europe, were surrendered by their commandants, without shame, and without resistance, to the victorious enemy. Strong towns and fortified places, on which the engineer had exhausted his science, provided too with large garrisons and ample supplies, opened their gates at the sound of a French trumpet or the explosion of a few bombs. Spandau, Stettin, Kuestrin, Hameln, were each qualified to have arrested the march of invaders for months, yet were all surrendered on little more than a summons. In Magdeburg was a garrison of twenty-two thousand men, two thousand of them being artillerymen; and nevertheless this celebrated city capitulated with Marshal Ney at the first flight of shells. Hameln was garrisoned by six thousand troops, amply supplied with provisions and every means of maintaining a siege. The place was surrendered to a force scarcely one-third in proportion to that of the garrison. These incidents were too gross to be imputed to folly and cowardice alone. The French themselves wondered at their conquests, yet had a shrewd guess at the manner in which they were rendered so easy.

When the recreant governor of Magdeburg was insulted by the students of Halle for treachery as well as cowardice, the French garrison of the place sympathized, as soldiers, with the youthful enthusiasm of the scholars, and afforded the sordid old coward but little protection against their indignation. From a similar generous impulse, Schoels, the commandant of Hameln, was nearly destroyed by the troops under his orders. In surrendering the place, he had endeavored to stipulate that, in case the Prussian provinces should pass by the fortune of war to some other power, the officers should retain their pay and rank. The soldiers were so much incensed at this stipulation, which carried desertion in its front, and a proposal to shape a private fortune to himself amid the ruin of his country, that Schoels only saved himself by delivering up the place to the French before the time stipulated in the articles of capitulation.

More information here and here and below.

We want to take this site to the next level but we need money to do that. Please contribute directly by signing up at https://www.patreon.com/history