Battle of Altenburg

Battle of Altenburg
	Part of the German campaign of the Sixth Coalition
	; Battle of Altenburg engraved by Ant. Tessaro
Date	28 September 1813
Location	Altenburg, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg50°59′6″N 12°26′0″E / 50.98500°N 12.43333°E
Result	Coalition victory
Belligerents
Prussia; Austria; Russia	France; Baden
Commanders and leaders
Thielmann; Mensdorff; Platov	Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes
Strength
Unknown	8,000
Casualties and losses
300 dead or wounded	600 dead or wounded; 1,000–1,400 taken prisoner
	class=notpageimage\| Location within Europe

War of the Sixth Coalition:
German campaign

200km
125miles

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Leipzig

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current battle

Napoleon in command

Napoleon not in command

The raid at Altenburg on 28 September 1813 took place during the War of the Sixth Coalition's German Campaign of 1813.^[3] The raid was carried out by the Streifkorp under the command of Saxon General Johann von Thielmann commanding seven regiments of Cossacks, a squadron each of Saxon Hussars and Dragoons, and a detachment of Saxon Freikorps numbering about 1,500 cavalry. The objective of the raid was to attempt harassment of the French lines of communication 25 miles (45 km) south of Leipzig shortly before the Battle of Leipzig. The Austrian contingent was commanded by Emmanuel Mensdorff and the Russian contingent of Cossacks by Matvei Platov.^[2]^[4]

Background

The battle was the culmination of a raid in which Thielmann cavalry successfully attacked Napoleon's lines of communications along the roads between Erfurt and Leipzig in the Saale valley.^[2]^[5]

Battle

Thielmann completely surprised and routed a larger force of French cavalry, including Cavalry of the Imperial Guard and a small force of 2nd Baden Infantry Regiment (Infanterie-Regiment No.2 ‘Markgraf Wilhelm’) nominally under the command of Lefebvre-Desnouettes numbering some 8,000. The French, completely surprised, broke and fled from Altenburg losing a third of their number (2,100), in the process running over the Baden infantry which was taken prisoner despite attempting to resist.^[6] Thielmann's force lost about 200 in casualties.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Bodart 1908, p. 459.
^ ^a ^b ^c Jaques 2007, p. 40.
^ p.155, Riley
^ UMKP staff 1813, p. 330.
^ Clarke 1815, pp. 631–632.
^ pp. 4233-4237, Anonymous

References

Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905). Retrieved 4 June 2021.
Clarke, Hewson (1815). "Twelfth Bulletin". An Impartial History of the Naval, Military and Political Events in Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution to the Entrance of the Allies Into Paris, and the Conclusion of a General Peace [...]. Brightly & Childs.
Jaques, Tony, ed. (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity through the Twenty-first Century (3 volumes ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-33536-5. LCCN 2006015366. OCLC 68786744. OL 10420610M.
UMKP staff (1813). The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure. J. Hinton. p. 330.