Battle of Stralsund
Part of theDano-Swedish War of 1808–1809 andFranco-Swedish War
Schill's death at Stralsund,Friedrich Hohe
Date 31 May 1809 Location Stralsund,Swedish Pomerania 54°18′33″N13°04′55″E / 54.30917°N 13.08194°E /54.30917; 13.08194 Result French victory
Belligerents
France Denmark-Norway Holland	Prussia Sweden
Commanders and leaders
Pierre Guillaume Gratien Johann Ewald	Ferdinand von Schill † Friedrich Gustav von Petersson
Strength
5,270[1]	Prussia: 990 Sweden: 500[2]
Casualties and losses
241 killed or wounded[1]	300–400 killed or wounded 568 captured[1]

Dano-Swedish War of 1808–1809:
Rebellion Stralsund

170km
106miles

1

Stralsund

   

The color black indicates the current battle.

TheBattle of Stralsund took place on 31 May 1809 during theDano-Swedish War of 1808–1809 andFranco-Swedish War, both part of the largerNapoleonic Wars. It was fought between Prussianfreikorps underFerdinand von Schill and French, Dutch and Dano-Norwegian troops inStralsund. In a "vicious street battle", Schill's army was defeated and he was killed in action.^[3]

Stralsund, a port at theBaltic Sea inSwedish Pomerania, was surrendered toFrance after thesiege of 1807 during theWar of the Fourth Coalition.^[3] During this war,Prussian captainFerdinand von Schill distinguished himself by cutting off French supply lines usingguerrilla tactics in 1806. In 1807, he raised afreikorps and successfully fought the French forces in what he intended to become a patriotic insurrection. When his corps was disbanded after thePeace of Tilsit on 9 July 1807, Schill was promoted to the rank of a major, decorated with thePour le Mérite, and became a hero of German resistance and patriotic movements.^[4]

In January and February 1809, the German resistance in French-heldWestphalia invited Schill to lead an uprising. He agreed in April and drafted a proclamation which was intercepted by the French, and leftBerlin on 27 April when he was threatened with arrest.^[5] With a freikorps of 100hussars, Schill headed southwest towardsWestphalia to stir up an anti-French rebellion, but news of the French victory in theBattle of Ratisbon made him change his plans. Schill turned northwards to secure a port,^[6] hoping for relief by theBritish navy.^[7]

Schill enteredStralsund on 25 May with 2,000 men.^[6] The freikorps was pursued by a French-led force of 6,000Danes,Holsteiners,Dutch and French, who confronted Schill on 31 May inside of the town.^[8] By then, Schill had 1,490 troops at his command inside Stralsund, including 300 Swedes from the Rügenlandwehr, as well as amilitia of 200 former Swedish soldiers, under Friedrich Gustav von Petersson.^[2]

The Dutch auxiliaries, about 4,000 troops, were commanded byPierre Guillaume Gratien, another 1,500 Danish troops were under generalJohann von Ewald's command.^[9] Gratien's Dutch forces included the 6th and 9th infantry, 2nd Horse Regiment, two squadrons ofhussars and two horse artillery batteries.^[10] They entered the town after storming theTribseer Tor gate,^[11] and engaged Schill's freikorps in street fights.^[7] Schill, along with 300–400 of his men, had fallen. An additional 568 men were captured, including Petersson, who was executed four days later. Between 400 and 500 men had managed to escape. The Dutch had lost 173 men, and the Danes 68.^[1][8]

Eleven of Schill's officers were taken toBrunswick, and later executed inWesel^[12] following an order fromNapoleon.^[3] More than five hundred of Schill's men went into captivity.^[7] Schill's head was sent to theKingdom of Holland for display inLeyden's public library, and only in 1837 the head was buried in Brunswick.^[13]

Schill was not alone with his plans to stir up an insurrection of the Prussian people against the French occupation. Other prominent plotters wereFrederick William, Duke of Brunswick andKasper von Dörnberg. All of them saw the Austrian resistance and the resultingWar of the Fifth Coalition as a chance to expel Napoleon Bonaparte from Northern Germany as well. France however proved to be the stronger party, and Schill's defeat in the streets of Stralsund put a definite end to all plans for a popular uprising.^[14]

• Pomerania during the Early Modern Age
• History of Pomerania (1806–1933)

• Clark, Christopher M. (2006).Iron kingdom: the rise and downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947. Harvard University Press.ISBN 0-674-02385-4.
• Hasubek, Peter; Kreutzer, Marianne, eds. (1987).Karl Leberecht Immermann. Briefe: Textkritische und kommentierte Ausgabe in drei Bänden (in German). Vol. III. Hanser Verlag.ISBN 3-446-12446-2.
• Meckenstock, Günter (2004).Friedrich Schleiermacher. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (in German). Walter de Gruyter.ISBN 3-11-017658-0.
• Parkinson, Roger (2001).Hussar General: The Life of Blücher, Man of Waterloo. Wordsworth Editions.ISBN 1-84022-253-0.
• Pelet, Jean Jacques Germain (2009).Memoires Sur La Guerre de 1809 (in French) (reprint ed.). BiblioBazaar, LLC.ISBN 978-0-559-95080-3.
• Pivka, Otto von; Warner, Christopher (1980).Dutch-Belgian troops of the Napoleonic Wars. Osprey Publishing.ISBN 0-85045-347-X.
• Wienecke-Janz, Detlef, ed. (2008).Die große Chronik Weltgeschichte 12. Neuordnung Europas und Restauration: 1793-1849 (in German). Gütersloh/München: Wissen Media Verlag.ISBN 978-3-577-09072-8.
• Gill, Jack (2010).1809 Thunder On The Danube: Napoleon s Defeat of the Habsburgs, Vol. III: The Final Clashes of Wagram and Znaim. London: Frontline Books.ISBN 978-1-84832-547-0.
• Jacques, Tony (2006).Dictionary of Battles And Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity Through the Twenty-first Century. Greenwood Publishing Group.ISBN 0-313-33536-2.

• Media related toBattle of Stralsund (1809) at Wikimedia Commons

• Stralsund
• Dano-Swedish War of 1808–09
• Battles in 1809
• Kingdom of Holland
• Battles involving the Netherlands
• Battles of the Napoleonic Wars involving Prussia
• Battles of the Napoleonic Wars involving Denmark–Norway
• Battles of the Napoleonic Wars involving Sweden
• 1809 in Sweden
• May 1809
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• Military history of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• Freikorps of the Napoleonic Wars
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• Franco-Swedish War

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