Battle Of Halle

In the Battle of Halle on 17 October 1806 a French corps led by Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte fought the Prussian Reserve under Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg. The French defeated their opponents, forcing the Prussians to retreat northeast toward Dessau after suffering heavy losses. The clash occurred in the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The city of Halle is located about 30 kilometers northwest of Leipzig on the Saale River.

Emperor Napoleon I of France invaded the Electorate of Saxony and inflicted two disastrous defeats on the Prussian-Saxon armies on 14 October 1806. As the beaten armies fled, Marshal Bernadotte's corps marched north and found Duke Eugene's unblooded Reserve located at Halle. At the beginning of the encounter, two French divisions rushed the bridges over the Saale on the west side of the city. They overran a weak defending force and quickly occupied the city.

Later in the day, Bernadotte's troops stormed out of Halle and attacked Eugene's Reserve which was drawn up to the southeast of the city. The Prussians were driven from their positions and chased to the northeast. While this engagement was going on, Bernadotte's third division surrounded and captured a Prussian regiment isolated on the west side of the city. One of the few intact Prussian forces west of the Elbe River was now crippled.

Background

Political

Napoleon's decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805 profoundly affected the balance of power in Europe. After this event, Emperor Francis I of Austria sued for peace and Tsar Alexander I of Russia withdrew his crippled army from Austrian territory, ending the War of the Third Coalition. Prussia was caught at a diplomatic disadvantage since her emissary Christian Graf von Haugwitz was on the point of delivering an ultimatum to Napoleon when the war ended, a fact which the French emperor was well aware.

In February 1806, Napoleon pressured a cowed Prussia into handing over several territories to France and her allies in return for the state of Hanover, which was under French occupation. The agreement pushed Prussia into a break with Great Britain whose king was the Hanoverian elector.

Napoleon began to remake the face of Europe. He created the Confederation of the Rhine on 25 July. He named his elder brother Joseph Bonaparte king of the newly conquered Kingdom of Naples, brother Louis Bonaparte ruler over the Kingdom of Holland, and stepson Eugène de Beauharnais viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy. Then he offered Hanover to Britain in exchange for peace, which infuriated Prussia.

The peace-minded Haugwitz was dismissed and, goaded by his Queen, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, on 7 August King Frederick William III of Prussia decided to go to war against the First French Empire. Prussia mobilized 171,000 troops, but its army had missed the changes that had overtaken warfare in the previous decade.

Military

As the Prussians advanced into territory belonging to the Electorate of Saxony, they absorbed 20,000 Saxon soldiers into their army. The combined forces coalesced into three semi-independent armies under Feldmarschall Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, General of the Infantry Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, and General Ernst von Rüchel. Brunswick took station at Erfurt in the center while Hohenlohe deployed near Rudolstadt in the east. Rüchel held Gotha and Eisenach at the western end of the line with General Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach's division probing south toward Meiningen and the French line of communications. Eugene of Württemberg's Reserve was well to the north at Magdeburg.

On 8 October, Napoleon launched 180,000 troops across the Saxon frontier. His troops were massed in a ''batallion carré'' (battalion square) made up of three columns of two army corps each, plus the Imperial Guard, the Cavalry Reserve, and a Bavarian contingent. On 9 October, the leading division of Marshal Bernadotte's I Corps and Marshal Joachim Murat's cavalry forced Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien's division into a withdrawal in the Battle of Schleiz. The next day, Marshal Jean Lannes' V Corps attacked the 8,300-man division of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia at the Battle of Saalfeld. The young prince was killed and his division took to its heels after the drubbing it received.

Napoleon became convinced that his enemies lay near Erfurt, so he ordered his ''batallion carré'' to make a left wheel on 12 October. The Prussian generals opted to fall back. Brunswick was to take the main army north from Weimar to Merseburg, while Hohenlohe protected the move by standing on the defensive near Jena. Rüchel's orders were to hold Weimar until Saxe-Weimar returned with his division. On 14 October, the double Battle of Jena-Auerstedt occurred as Napoleon attacked Hohenlohe while Brunswick ran head-on into the III Corps of Marshal Louis Davout. Both Prussian armies as well as Rüchel's corps were driven in rout from the two battlefields. Brunswick's army suffered 13,000 casualties and its commander was mortally wounded, while the combined forces of Hohenlohe and Rüchel lost as many as 25,000.

When Davout marched from Naumburg to glory at Auerstedt, Bernadotte and his I Corps did not accompany him, leaving III Corps to face the main Prussian force alone against two-to-one odds. Bernadotte's decision to march to Dornberg was controversial within a week of the twin battles. Bernadotte had last received positive written orders from Berthier on the day before the battle, October 12, in which his I Corps, along with Davout's III Corps, were to lay astride the Prussians' projected line of retreat. He was the only Marshal not to receive updated, written orders on the night of 13 October. In the early hours of October 14, Davout received a courier from Berthier in which he wrote: "If the Prince of Ponte Corvo ernadotteis with you, you may both march together, ''but the Emperor hopes that he will be in the position which had been indicated at Dornburg.''" Davout thence relayed this order to Bernadotte when the next met at 0400 the same morning; this constituting Bernadotte's most recent orders.

It was not until several days after the battle that Napoleon became aware that anything was amiss. From his point of view, I Corps had been where it was supposed to be, if not arriving late. At this time criticism developed of Napoleon's dispositions in misplacing the location of the Prussians and allowing III Corps to become so dangerously isolated. On October 21 Berthier sent a message to Bernadotte accusing him of not following the order to accompany Davout. Napoleon followed suit on October 23. Bernadotte defended himself, citing the order from Berthier on the morning of October 14, and that he had followed Napoleon's order to march to Dornberg. A later search of the orders and dispatches from the Imperial Headquarters never yielded any order for Bernadotte to march with Davout. They did, however, confirm Bernadotte's contention that Berthier's order of October 14 made it clear that Napoleon wanted Bernadotte to march to Dornberg. The lack of documentation supporting Napoleon's accusation against Bernadotte calls into question whether Napoleon had intended I Corps to march with Davout, and the order was incorrectly transmitted to Bernadotte on the morning of October 14, or if Napoleon was using the opportunity to shift blame for Davout having to have fought a battle on his own as suggested by Colonel Ernst Marsh Lloyd.

The emperor is said to have remarked to General of Division Anne Jean Marie René Savary, "This business is so hateful that if I send him before a court-martial it will be the equivalent of ordering him to be shot; it is better for me not to speak to him about it, but I shall take care he shall know what I think of his behavior. I believe he has enough honor to recognize that he has performed a disgraceful action regarding which I shall not bandy words with him." Napoleon took no further action against Bernadotte.

Battle

Forces

At the beginning of the campaign, Bernadotte's I Corps consisted of 19,014 infantry, 1,580 cavalry, and 34 artillery pieces. General of Division Pierre Dupont de l'Etang led the 7,000-man 1st Division, General of Division Olivier Macoux Rivaud de la Raffinière commanded the 5,600-strong 2nd Division, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon headed the 5,800-man 3rd Division, General of Brigade Jacques Louis François Delaistre de Tilly commanded the corps cavalry brigade, Smith gives the division numbers in his Battle of Lübeck article. Petre gives the strengths of each division on 14 October. General of Division Jean Baptiste Eblé commanded the corps artillery reserve.

The 1st Division consisted of General of Brigade Marie François Rouyer's 9th Light Infantry Regiment, three battalions, General of Brigade François Marie Guillaume Legendre d'Harvesse's 32nd and 96th Line Infantry Regiments, two battalions each, and two foot artillery batteries of 12 total guns. The 2nd Division included General of Brigade Michel Marie Pacthod's 8th Light Infantry Regiment, two battalions, General of Brigade Nicolas Joseph Maison