Campaign
Map on 2 November 1813
Davout opened the campaign by ordering 2nd
and 14th corps to advance on the west side of the river Saale. His aim is to outflank the concentration of
Russian corps in and around Halle.
2nd French
corps is leading the advance, and clash with 2nd Russian corps just
south of Eisleben. 14th Westphalian
corps is moving in support of them, but will not arrive on the battlefield
until midday
Battle of
Eisleben – End of Wargame
2nd Russian corps have orders to
hold Eisleben. They are aware of the
approach of 2nd French corps, but not that they are supported by 14th
Westphalian corps. They will not be
aware until they see them enter the table.
2nd French corps immediately attack,
in order to pin the Russians until the Westphalians arrive. They move into contact just before the
Westphalians arrive
French Guard Grenadiers charge and rout the Russian
gunners.
Westphalian lancers charge and rout Russian
dragoons.
The Russian corps is broken and withdraw with five
of their six brigades in rout.
Campaign
Notes
The French plan is to advance two corps to the
west of the river Saale, and destroy the single Russian corps before they can
be reinforced.
The French are unaware of the location of the
four French corps, and will only be able to react when they make contact. By then it should be too late to save 2nd
Russian corps.
For this plan to work they must inflict heavy
casualties on 2nd Russian corps before they can either join the main
army, or receive support from them.
This battle is their best chance to do so,
however they only inflict 700 casualties, and lose 200 of their own.
They have won the first battle, but it is not a
convincing victory
Now that the Wittgenstein is aware that there
are two French corps on the west bank of the river Saale, he is also aware that
there are only two more available to face him on the east bank.
Not
a great start for the French
Paul,
ReplyDeleteAn interesting opening battle. I found it a little surprising that the Russian corps collapsed (5 brigades out of 6 in rout) after suffering such relatively low losses. I assume that this was due to poor morale and French aggressiveness.
Perhaps the French should have waited for the Westphalians to get into action to ensure that the Russian corps was destroyed.
It looks like being another interesting campaign,
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments
The rout of the Russian corps was a mixture of too few cavalry and poor dice.
They were always going to lose, as the French outnumbered them 2 to 1. However it happened sooner than expected when their single cavalry brigade lost their first melee, this coincided with the arrival of the Westphalian lancer brigade.
The French now had two cavalry brigades in action, and the Russians had lost their only one. In addition the nearby Russian infantry also broke when their cavalry did.
Mind it would have been worse if the Russians had won. That would have been the end of the campaign before it really began
keep safe
Paul