Salzwedel Campaign – Day 5

Campaign Map on 26 September 1813

Both armies are in urgent need of reorganisation, resupply and reinforcements.

Blucher orders his four corps to hold, resupply and regroup.

However Napoleon is determined to prevent the Prussians regrouping.

He orders 1^st Guard corps and Reserve corps to attack Salzwedel

This is the main Prussian supply base and is defended by 2^nd Prussian and reserve corps.

Battle of Salzwedel – end of move 6

All four corps have battle casualties, but the French less than the Prussians

However the French have to attack and win.

The Prussians have only to defend and hold Salzwedel

The Prussian cavalry and artillery did not perform well in this battle

By midday both cavalry brigades had been defeated and routed

The gunners had failed to inflict only light casualties on the enemy infantry

The French gunners were more effective, and caused more casualties

Their unopposed cavalry forced the enemy infantry into square

The infantry broke the Prussian centre and routed five brigades

By late afternoon Blucher was forced to order a general withdrawal into the fortified city of Salzwedel

Campaign Notes

This wargame would be decided by the luck of the dice.

The Prussian gunners fired 10 times, but only inflicted one casualty

Both Prussian cavalry brigades were defeated in melee

But worse both suffered heavy casualties

And worse still they failed to inflict heavy casualties on the French cavalry

Without cavalry support the Prussian infantry were forced into square

They prevented very attractive targets to the French gunners

And they lost heavy casualties as a result

The French guard infantry advanced in three columns

They received no casualties from enemy artillery or skirmish fire

The leading brigade routed the centre artillery battery

This caused the adjoining infantry brigades to test their morale, which they failed

Fortunately the fortified city of Salzwedel was directly behind them

The fleeing Prussian infantry and cavalry were able to find shelter in the city

The French have no siege artillery in this campaign.

Their field artillery is pretty ineffective against a fortified city

To attack without siege artillery would be ill advised.

The only option is a siege

The city has four days supplies.

The campaign is designed to provide good battles to wargame

A siege does not make for a good wargame

There are no rules for siege warfare, though they would not be difficult to write

But my preferred option would be to make the defenders fight to relieve the city

Hence the unrealistic four days supplies for a major city.