Generalship through out history.

Jena and Friedland

A/N so I technicality broke my systems as this is a combination of two campaigns, hence why it's so much longer. I did this because the two take place during the same war so

 The year was 1806, Napoleon had crushed the Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz. A battle so decisive that it had single handedly knocked Austrian and Russia out of the war. A few months later he sent a army under Marshal Messene to subjugate the kingdom of Naples for daring to side with his enemies, there was no the help for the Neapolitans. The Pope sent a letter to Napoleon, expressing his discontent at Napoleon for annexing papal land. Napoleon responded with indifference., but the most humiliate country was Prussia,. Prussia was mobilizing against Napoleon before Austerlitz, but after word had reach the Prussians they backed down and gave in to all of Napoleon's demands which were numerous. Many Duchies and Principalities were given to Napoleon who admittedly gave them to his friends and family. Prussia was forced to break all treaties with Britain and Sweden (who were Napoleon's last remaining enemies) and have only trade agreements with France. The only reward for these humiliations was Prussia would be given the Kingdom of Hanover. But Napoleon, at the last minute, offered it to Britain for peace. This was the last straw. Prussia erupted in to a patriotic fever, there were pro war pamphlets and calls for war all through the streets, but the most pro war person was Queen Marie louis wife to the King Frederick Wilhelm III. She rode with a brigade of Dragoons(cavalry men with firearms) to the French border and began to fire at the French citizens. It was not just the queen, several sergeant of the Prussian royal guard brought their swords to the French embassy in Berlin and began to sharpen it right outside.  These acts gave the Queen the Nick name "the only man in Prussia". As war was looking inevitable the only name the Prussians spoke of was that of Rossbach the battle were Frederick the Great (a military genius in his own right and will be talked about in greater detail latter) fought a French army twice as large as his. At the battle of Rossbach Frederick beat the French men senseless. But the Prussian army of Rossbach was the same as the Prussia army of 1806, which was a problem. The Prussia armies systems, drill and doctrine were develop by Frederick the Great himself and when he created the Prussian army if was the best of the best. But now it's "Frederician" model was now outdated. Another problem with the army of Prussia was the fact that only the artists understands his art, a Frederician style army under Frederick himself could have drubbed, even beat Napoleon. However, Frederick the Great had passed away by now, as were his subordinates who severed him well on his own campaigns and the commanders that were still around were old, uncreative, and above all predictable. That being said the command troops on the ground were (like in Frederick's day) still the best trained in the world, even better than the French ones and the reputation of the Prussian soldier blurred the line between infamous and legend. These young men were ready to do what their fathers and grand fathers had done, humiliate the medaling French. When Prussia formally declared war on France she was joined by Russia and the small German state of Saxony. They were also joined by Britain and Sweden in a alliance that was called "the fourth coalition". However Prussia and Saxony made a small mistake, that was sending Napoleon an ultimatum demanding that he move all his troops out of southern Germany and that he abolish the confederation of the Rhine (a French puppet state that Napoleon had built). Napoleon did move all his troops out of southern Germany, right into Saxony. The Saxon army moved north and met up with the Prussian army all together the two German states fielded 171,000 men to face Napoleon. But this was on paper, in actuality many of these troops were stationed in forts and cities and other supply depots so in reality it was more like 160,000. The allied army was lead by the Duke of Brunswick who was a veteran of the French revolutionary wars but like the rest of the Prussian high command was old and more importantly sacred of Napoleon, Napoleon's "la Grand Arma"-the Great army in English- crossed the river Saale into Saxony and Prussia in October 1806 with 166,000 men. Napoleon much like Frederick the great had made revolutionary reforms to his army (some of which were heavily inspired by the Prussian king). The most important of these was the corps system, It was a major over sight on my part to leave this information out as in was a vital part of the Austerlitz campaign. Which as of 1811 was copied by every army in the world, each corps was commanded by a Field Marshal. Each corps was a minnie army with it's own Calvary, infantry and artillery wings. When on the march each corps would move independently each one never more than a day or two's march from each other this meant that Napoleons army could move much faster than his enemies and when one corps had found the enemy location the rest could quickly concentrate for battle. When Napoleon's army finally made it across the Saale they moved in three columns though a forest called the Thüringen Wald. The rode's were well reconnoitered by scouts and spies. Napoleon intended to threaten the key city of Leipzig and forced a battle near the village of Gera but unbeknownst to Napoleon the Duke of Brunswick was a bit further west near Erfurt. The Duke had hope to flank Napoleon's advance, but he was caught off guard by the speed of the French invasion and ordered a retreat north to find better ground. On the tenth of October V corps under Marshal Lannes engaged a sizable Prussian cavalry force at Saalfeld and a large melee between Prussian and French Hussars emerged and Prince louis Frederick heir to the throne was killed by a sergeant of the French 10th Hussars. Three days later Lanns's V corps found the main Prussian army at Jena and sent word to Napoleon. The Emperor then came up with plan, he would bring most of the army with him to Jena while III and I corps commanded By Marshals Davout and Bernadotte respectfully would continue north then turn around to fall on the Prussian and Saxon left flank from the north. But what Napoleon did not know was that he was not facing the main Prussian army, but a strong rear guard(35,000 men) under General Hohenlohe. The main Prussian army 52,000 men under the Duke of Brunswick was farther north, moving right in to the path of Davout's III corps and Bernadotte was no were to be seen. In the village of Jena, on the 14th of October the battle opened at 6.30 am with a very heavy mist. Marshal Lannes had already gained a toehold on the plateau on the other side of a small stream east of a series a villages the Prussians had fortified. Napoleon ordered Lannes to drive back the Prussian forces as far as possible to win room for the rest of the army to deploy which was arriving by the hour. The infantry of V corps led the way and fierce fighting broke out in and around the villages of Cospeda ,Clausewitz and Lutzeroda. While Lannes was slowly but surely driving back the Prussians, Marshal Augereau's VII corps moved through a small ravine and emerged on Lannes's left. IV corps under Marshal Soult formed on Lanns's right, while Lannes was attempting to take the village of Vierzehnheiligen Napoleon constructed a 25 Cannon battery in the center of the battle field to support the attack. Lannes took the village but lost it to a Prussian counter attack, on the right Soult carried the village of Clausewitz but was hit in his right flank at the village of Rodigen. Only a charge by light cavalry threw back the Prussians, having grown impatient from a lack of orders the fearless Marshal Ney gathered 5,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry from who knows which battalions and charged straight at the Prussian line whilst the charge was taken place no one in the French high command knew what was happening. Napoleon is supposed to have just repeat the same thing a few times "What a brave man". While his attack had seen success at first it soon stalled and Ney's 7,000 men found themselves surrounded, until Napoleon sent some of his Guard Calvary. By now the Prussians were expecting 15,000 reinforcements under General Ruchel at any moment, but for now General Hohenlohe had been inactive only ordering limited counter attacks. But Hohenlohe had ran out of time, when the battle started he had 35,000 men to Napoleon's 25,000 but a steady stream of reinforcements had brought Napoleon up the 96,000. During the battle Napoleon rode past the imperial guard were one excited soldier called out "Forward!" Napoleon stop then told the young soldier to not give advice until he too had commanded in 30 battles. But the time was right, although to it's disappointment the Guard remained in reserve the rest of the French army was ordered to make a general attack. At first the Prussian army lived up that the high level of discipline it was known for, but then Napoleon ordered His flamboyant Calvary commander Marshal Murat to charge with every horse men he had at the weakest point of the Prussian line resulting in the Prussian army breaking into a rout. It was at this point that General Ruchel finally arrived and his 15,000 men put up a good fight but soon joined the rout. Napoleon's Cuirassiers (type of heavy Calvary) sabered many fleeing Prussains. One young Prussian soldier who according to Napoleon could not have been more than sixteen was found on the battle field curled up in a fetal position crying Napoleon told the boy "there is no shame in losing to the French". Meanwhile many miles to the north at Auerstadt Marshal Davout's III corps and the main Prussian army under the Duke of Brunswick were unknowingly marching right into each other. Davout with 27,000 men and forty eight cannon's faced odds of two-to-one and Beradotte's I corps; (which was supposed to support Davout) had apparently gone missing. But never the less the iron Marshal (a nickname the men of III corps had given Davout) showed no sign of alarm and formed his men up for battle in and around the village of Hassan Hussain. His infantry formed square to repel the calvary charge of the Prussian advance guard, Davout's men held firm in the face of repeated Prussian attacks. Davout and his men were helped by the poorly coordinated Prussian attacks and the fact that the Prussians did not try to use their numerical advantage to try and out flank them. At this crucial moment the Duke of Brunswick was hit by a stray round through the eyes and died. King Frederick Whielm took command and did not commit the many Prussian units that had yet to see any action; believing that he faced the main French army under Napoleon. At 12:15 Davout ordered a general attack and the demoralized Prussain army turned and fled. When Napoleon had heard of Davout's victory against such odds he told the carryer "tell your Marshal that he, and his Generals and his troops have everlasting clams on my gratitude." Napoleon gave praise to Davout awarding him the title "Duke of Auerstadt", on the other hand Bernadotte was almost court martialed for his failure to come to Davout's aid. After the twin battles of Jena and Auerstadt the Saxons surrendered and the Prussian army was in tatters and Napoleon bagan what can best be described as a Napoloenic blitzkrieg. On the 16 of october Murat captured 12,000 Prussians at Erfurt,on the 17th Bernadotte-trying to make up for his no show at Auerstadt or Jena- beat the Prussian remnants rear guard at Halle killing 5,000 of them and taking 11 cannons,after sweeping north on the 25th 265 Pussains surrendered at Zehdenick,on the 26th 10,000 surrendered at Prenzlau,on the 28th 4,200 men and 8 cannons and 37 standards(a flag unique to a regiment) were taken at Pase walk,on the 29th 5,300 men and 281 cannons at Stettin and on the 30th 600 men and 25 cannons were taken at Boldenow. There were many more fortresses that surrendered into November. Soon the heroes of Auerstadt (III Corps) entered Berlin(Prussia's capital) and the captured standards and cannons were paraded around in the streets. The stolen trophies were then sent back to Pairs and the citizens marveled at the mementos taken from the imfaous Prussians. While Napoleon was walking through the palace in Berlin he passed the Grave of old Fritze better known as Frederick the Great. Napoleon pointed and turned to his Marshals and said "Hats off Gentlemen,if he were alive we would not be here". Napoleon was right though While Frederick probably could not have beat Napoleon he could,at the very least, held him at bay long enough for Russia and Sweden to come to Prussia's aid. But alas when Frederick died, so too did the army of the Black Eagle (the ominous nick name the Austrian soldiers gave the Prussian army during the Seven years war.) But the Prussains were never ones to take humiliation laying down and at to end of the century (1870 to be exact) the Prussains would avenge themselves in the Franco-Prussian war, at the battle of Sudan against Napoleon III(Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew). But for now Napoleon would get to enjoy his great victory, and Napoleon sure did seem proud of himself before he entered Berlin he said "I have undone the affront that was Rossbach." From the city he issued the Berlin Decrees the main result of these decrees was the "Continental system". The Continental system was a Europe wide trade embargo on Britain it closed all ports of France and its allies from trade with Britain. But not all countries were a part of the Continental system yet. The Swedes,and Russians would have to be brought to heel. Napoleon still had other problems, Prussia had not surrender yet, the remnants of her armies still held out in the east, as did the king, hoping the approaching Russian armies could save them. Napoleon left Berlin and into what is now modern day Poland and soon entered Warsaw, where he met a young man named Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowsk (a member of the famous house Poniatowsk,a family that has produced many skilled Generals over the years.) In exchange for Poland's freedom Poniatowsk offered his and the Polish peoples service in Napoleon's Army. The Polish would serve Napoleon well for years to come, Napoleon would even create the"5 regiment de Hussar's" and the " heavy Polish Lancers of the Guard" and add them to his Imperial guard as well as "the Duchy of Warsaw" a semi independent Polish sate. All Polish troops of the La Grand Arma would be under the command of Poniatowsk and he would even go on to be Napoleon's only Marshal not born in France. Right before the year closed out Napoleon moved his foot sore men and positioned them along the line of the river Vistula-believing the Russians and Prussians had done the same. He was hoping to use the newly created Duchy of Warsaw as a launching point for an offensive the next year. While Napoleon was riding with III corps near the village of Czarnowo just on the other side of the Vistula,Napoleon found a small Russian force under General Tolstoy. Napoleon Planned a night assault to drive the Russians away. Napoleon put meticulous planning into the attack crossing first in boats and then in prefabricated bridges. The Russian's were soon falling back and Napoleon had lost just 846 to the Russains 1,400 dead and 500 prisoners and 5 cannons captured. Over the next couple of days the Russians fought several rear guard actions, although they were still falling back,they had slowed Napoleons advance and had thwarted his plan to pin them against the Narew river. The battle of Czarnowo was a good note to end on for the year, Napoleon had driven a wedge in between the Prussians and Russians. Napoleon resumed his chase of the Russians; Napoleon soon realized that his chase of the Russians was taking to long. So he came up with a new plan, he intentionally spread his corps too thin in the northern sector,(these corps were the I corps under Bernadotte and VI corps under Ney) so when the Russians moved to attack these over stretched forces Napoleon and the rest of the army would swing north and encircle the Russians. The Russians (under the command of General Bennigsen) took the bait, but unknown to Napoleon Marshal Ney moved towards Kionigsberg to find supplies. Ney's VI corps was caught on the march and was beaten back at Heilsberg. Ney retreated south towards the main army and left Bernadotte all alone with the Russians closing in to smash the isolated corps. Bernadotte was able the check Bennigsen at Mohrungen, although Ney was not safe from Napoleon's sarcasm, the Emperor was unusually claim about Neys Defeat. After news of Bernadotte's victory reached him, Napoleon ordered Bernadotte to withdraw west; to lure Bennigsen away further away from his supply base, Ney was ordered to move north to hit Bennigsen in his flank, Napoleon would take the main army up and around to hit the Russians in the back. Bennigsen had a reputation of being a very weary commander, Bennigsen reconfirmed his reputation and withdrew back east. By the time Napoleon reached the Russians he could only batter their rear guard at Ionkova. Napoleon hoped to destroy the bridge in the village to sever their line of retreat. Napoleon attacked the village in a three pronged assault, although the first two attacks were beaten back by three P.M he had massed the Grand battery of the Guard (the artilerary wing of the Imperial Guard) to blast through the Russian center. As night fell both sides stop fighting, Napoleon planned to start his attack again in the moring. But the Russians withdrew while the French were sleeping when Napoleon awoke the next moring and having found that his prey had escaped he was furious, in particular Marshal Soult was blamed (his corps was the one making the main attack on the bridge.) While Napoleon was waiting for Marshal Augerue to come to him with reinforcements, he trusted Marshal Bessières with The Guard chasseurs à Cheval (the light Calvary wing of the Imperial Guard) who harassed the Russians dogetly. Meanwhile Ney caught up with and beat the Russian rear Guard at Waltersdorf on the fifth of February, Ney took 2,000 prisoners and 10 cannons. On the 6th of February Marshal Murat defeated the Russains while they were falling back at Hof. After bitter fighting he had lost 1,500 men to the Russian's 2,000 men and 5 cannons as well as 2 standards. The Russians fell back to the village of Eylau and Napoleon quickly gave orders to all his corps to concentrate for battle. When Napoleon reached Eylau he had only 45,000 troops to face the Russains who had 76,000 and were joined by a few Prussian regiments trusting in Ney and Bernadotte to come from the north on the Russians right flank and for Davout to come up form the south and hit them on the left. The French attacked the Russains who were drawn up on a small plateau, the first attack was repulsed but Marshal Soult who brought up his corps and the French tried again slowly gaining ground, the fight went well into the night and by the end of the first day had left both sides with 4,000 casualties. In the morning both armies found themselves on opposing ridges, Napoleon opened the second day with an artillery bombardment and the Russians who for the frist time had an Artillery advantage responded, the artillery duel lasted for some time as Valtiguers (French sharpshooters armed with more accurate but more expensive weapons) took up positions on the left and began firing on the Russians. The Russians attacked the Valtiguers and soon the fight on the left was growing more heated. The left was the weakest part of Napoleon's line; fearing that Bennigsen would roll up his left Napoleon took a gamble, he knew that Davout would be coming up on his left any time now, so he ordered Marshal Augerue and General St. Hilaire to make a general attack hoping it would pull Bennigsen's attention away from his left. But as soon as Marshal Augerue and General St. Hilaire set off a snow storm set in, the storm was so thick that the men could not see an inch past their nose. When Marshal Augerue and General St. Hilaire could finally see again they had found that they had stumble into a battery of 98 Russian cannons and Augerue's corps was blow to bits and five French Standards were lost. The Army was only saved by a massed Cavalry charge of 10,000 horsemen lead by Marshal Murat, Murat's charge is legendary,Murat himself rode 10 paces ahead of the force and with his flashy manner of dress he had the attention of every person for miles around, Murat and his Cuirassiers threw back all that lay before them with great bravery, hence why it is remembered as one of the great cavalry charges in history. The three corps that Napoleon had been expecting were moving much slower than expected, but after Murats charge the battle ended in a draw (the first time Napoleon did not win a clear victory as Emperor) and both sides had lost around one third of their armies. After the horrors of Eylua both sides settled into winter quarters, while the city of Danzig was besieged by Marshal Lefebvre's X corps ,the city surrendered on the 22nd of May. When winter was over Napoleon had an army of 190,000 men to face 115,000 Prussians and Russians. Napoleon once again switched up his strategy, his new plan was to take the port cites along the coast in order to cut Russia from British financial support (which at this point was the only thing Russia was running on.) Napoleon continued to pursue this tatiac and was happy to hear that Ney fought Bennigsen to a stand still at Spanden on the 4th of June. Napoleon gave chase to the withdrawing Russians until Bennigsen finally turned to offer battle at Heilsberg. The second Battle of Heilsberg is remembered as the day where all of the black cats in the world crossed the La Grand arma, the Russians where drawn up on a large hill with two lines of entrenchments and an old castle. The ground to their front where the French would have to cross was broken and full of woods. Many French units got separated and some disappeared. Marshal Murat and Ney were currently in charge and the attack was beaten back with many losses, Murat was getting frustrated and accusing every one around him of cowardice, when Napoleon showed up with the main army he inherited a losing battle, so he gave the order the withdraw; hoping to come back better organized. But Marshal Lanns came without hearing Napoleon's order and attacked but was also beaten back. Napoleon wrote to Bennigsen asking for a temporary ceasefire so both sides could tend to their wounded the Russian General agreed and both armies went back the their respective positions to rest. The battle reopened when Bennigsen fired his Cannons. This time though Napoleon stayed quiet, he had corps coming and could soon maneuver the Russians out of their position, which happened on the 11th of July. When Bennigsen left, he was in such a hurry he abandoned all of his supplies and wounded. It was a tactical loss and a strategic win (of sorts) it was obvious that the French had been given a good beaten, to be fair Napoleon had been handed a losing battle from Murat and Ney and Lanns usually some of his best did not seem to be themselfs at Heilsberg. Some have tried to call Heilsberg a win, It was not; but it was not a loss. Napoleon moved towards Konigsberg with Marshal Lanns acting as a flank guard to send word to the main army if Bennigsen tried to attack. Bennigsen (believing that Napoleon's main army was much further from Lanns than he was) crossed the small bridge over the Alla river expecting to get a quick victory, Lanns sent word to Napoleon immediately while hiding his inferior numbers behind a cloud of skirmishers and slowly yielding ground, When the main French army showed up Bennigsen with the river to his back was still deploying when Marshal Betheair Suggested they attack while the Russians were setting up Napoleon said:"never interrupt your enemy while his is making a mistake; that is just bad manners". After the Russian Guard was beaten back they tried to fall back over the small bridge but came under heavy cannon fire from the guard artillery. As the Russians tried to get over the bridge they scrambled over each other and many drown. The battle of Fredland had been a divisive victory for Napoleon, The Russians and Prussians surrendered with Prussia losing the most land and money. Now Napoleon was the uncontested master of Europe. But Napoleon had yet to defeat the British, the Royal Navy was the strongest in the world which would make it impossible to invade Britain so Napoleon would have to hope that the continental system would win the war. It didn't go so well