Battle of the Katzbach
Part of theGerman campaign of theSixth Coalition
Battle of the Katzbach byEduard Kaempffer
Date 26 August 1813[1] Location nearLiegnitz,Prussia 51°06′17″N16°05′57″E / 51.10472°N 16.09917°E /51.10472; 16.09917 Result Russo-Prussian victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Prussia Russian Empire	French Empire
Commanders and leaders
Gebhard von Blücher Ludwig Yorck Osten-Sacken	Jacques MacDonald Jacques Lauriston François Bastien Sébastiani
Units involved
Army of Silesia	Army of the Bober
Strength
80,000[1]–95,000[2]	60,000[1]–75,000[2]
Casualties and losses
1,000 killed and wounded (battle) 22,000 (campaign)[3]	Unknown casualties (battle) 30,000 (campaign)[3][4] 103 guns[4]
class=notpageimage| Location within Europe

War of the Sixth Coalition:
German campaign

180km
112miles

19

18

17

16

Leipzig

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

   

  current battle

  Napoleon in command

  Napoleon not in command

TheBattle of the Katzbach on 26 August 1813, was a major battle of theNapoleonic Wars between the forces of theFirst French Empire underMarshalMacDonald and aRusso-Prussian army of theSixth Coalition under Prussian MarshalGraf (Count)von Blücher.^[5] It occurred during a heavy thunderstorm at theKatzbach river betweenWahlstatt andLiegnitz in the Prussian province ofSilesia.^[6] Taking place the same day as theBattle of Dresden, it resulted in a Coalition victory, with the French retreating to Saxony.

Blücher ordered the Army of Silesia to advance on 13 August, before theTruce of Pläswitz could conclude on 17 August. In a series of running fights, the Allied army beat back the confused French, who did not anticipate that the Allies would break the armistice so brazenly.^[7] These minor victories raised the morale of the inexperienced German levies.^[8] On the first day, Blücher and hischief of staffAugust Neidhardt von Gneisenau became separated and did not issue orders for troop movements until late in the day, slowing down the Allied advance.^[8] The French resistance grew in intensity, the Allied night marches multiplied owing to constant combat and delays, and the weather turned atrocious. On 20 August, Blücher's men came face-to-faceNapoleon's main army at theBober river and beat a hasty retreat when the cheers of the French troops announced the arrival of the Frenchemperor.^[8]

For the next five days, the Silesian Army engaged in a series of fierce and costly rearguard actions against the pursuing French forces, which were personally commanded by Napoleon.^[8] Blücher lost 6,000–8,000 men in combat on 21, 22 and 23 August, while French losses since 17 August were about the same.^[9] Blücher's army began to fall apart.^[8]Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg's corps lost 5,000 men todesertion.^[10] TheLandwehr militiamen deserteden masse in entire battalions, while the Alliedcorps commanders complained of the ruin befalling their army thanks to the incompetence of itsgeneral staff.^[11][10] Blücher contemplated firing Gneisenau.^[11]

Napoleon returned to Saxony on 23 August with the Guard,I Corps,VI Corps andI Cavalry Corps to faceSchwarzenberg'sArmy of Bohemia.^[12] That same day, he formed the 100,000-strong Army of the Bober under MarshalJacques MacDonald and ordered him to drive Blucher to east of the Katzbach then pull back to the west bank of the Bober and assume defensive positions to protect the flank of the French armies in Saxony and nearBerlin.^[13] MacDonald was also authorized to attack in case Blücher took the offensive.^[14] MacDonald did not move for 48 hours due to MarshalMichel Ney's misunderstanding of Napoleon's summon of Ney toGörlitz as referring to his entire three-division-strongIII Corps.^[15] Late on 24 August, Ney turned over command toJoseph Souham, who spent 25 August moving his corps into MacDonald's line.^[15] In addition to theIII Corps, MacDonald had under his command theV Corps,XI Corps andII Cavalry Corps.

When Blücher on 24 August learned that Napoleon was no longer in direct command of the pursuers, he at 7 pm that day ordered his army to turn back and use cavalry reconnaissance to find the enemy on 25 August.^[15] At 11 pm on 25 August, MacDonald issued orders to move his army to the town ofJauer the next day and defeat Blücher or drive him deeper into Silesia.^[16] MacDonald's courier reached Souham four and one-half hours late. Souham then moved his corps at 11.30 am toKroitsch rather thanLiegnitz, which meant that only one division from the corps would participate in the battle.^[17]

The two armies stumbled upon one another at 9 am after MacDonald crossed the swollenKatzbach river.^[18] A suddenflood cut away many of thebridges and destroyed thefords.^[19] In the midst of the confusion and heavy rain, MacDonald seemed to recover first. Although his orders were to defend the flank of Napoleon's main force from Blücher, MacDonald decided to attack. He dispatched two-thirds of his army, about 60,000 men, in an attempt to flank the Russo-Prussian right. But confusion reigned again as the French columns found themselves too far apart to support one another.

Blücher ordered his right-wing to advance.^[19] The muskets were too wet for firing and the battle was decided with cold steel.^[19] The remaining 30,000 men of MacDonald's force, who were supposed to hold down the Coalition forces, were met by a heavy counter-attack by Prussian cavalry. Without support or reinforcement, the French II Cavalry Corps, Brayer's 8th Division from III Corps and Meunier's 2nd brigade were routed at 6.30 pm by Blücher's entire army.^[20] The remnants of MacDonald's army retreated, with hundreds drowning in the Katzbach and theRaging Neisse which were in spate.^[21]

MacDonald's casualties on 26 August are unknown but by 1 September he had lost 30,000 men and 103 guns, including 12,000 killed and wounded and 18,000 captured.^[2][4] Blücher's losses were some 1,000 men killed and wounded in the battle and 22,000 for the campaign.^[3][4]

Beyond the battle losses, the French strategic position had been weakened. Austria might have defected from the Allied coalition after Napoleon's victory atDresden on 26–27 August.^[19] News of Blücher's triumph revitalized the worried Allied leadership.^[19] This, coupled with the defeats atKulm, four days later, andDennewitz on 6 September, would more than negate Napoleon's victory at Dresden.

Because of his victory, Blücher received the title of "Prince of Wahlstatt" on 3 June 1814.

The battle gave rise to a German saying, now obsolete: "Der geht ran wie Blücher an der Katzbach!" ("He's advancing like Blücher at Katzbach!"), referring to Blücher and describing vigorous, forceful behavior.

• Bodart, Gaston (1908).Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905). Retrieved4 June 2021.
• Clodfelter, Micheal (2017).Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.ISBN 978-0-7864-7470-7.
• Hofschröer, Peter (1993).Leipzig 1813: The Battle of the Nations. London: Osprey.ISBN 978-1855323544.
• Leggiere, Michael V. (2015).Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany: The Franco-Prussian War of 1813 Volume II, The Defeat of Napoleon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1-107-43975-7.
• Maude, Frederic Natusch (1908).The Leipzig Campaign, 1813. London: Swan Sonnenschein.
• Tucker, Spencer C. (2009).A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East [6 volumes]: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO. p. 1099.ISBN 978-1-85109-672-5.
• Robinson, G. (1814).The New Annual Register: Or General Repository of History, Politics, Arts, Sciences, and Literature for the Year 1813.
• Kelly, C. (1831).History of the French Revolution: And of the Wars Produced by that ... Event ... Including a Complete Account of the War Between Great Britain and America; and the ... Battle of Waterloo. London. Biographical Sketches of the Heroes of Waterloo are appended.

• a detailed account of the Battle of the Katzbach at historyofwar.org
• Media related toBattle of Katzbach at Wikimedia Commons

• German campaign of 1813
• Legnica
• History of Lower Silesian Voivodeship
• Battles in 1813
• August 1813
• 1813 in Prussia
• Riverine warfare
• Poland in the Napoleonic Wars
• Battles of the War of the Sixth Coalition involving Prussia
• Battles of the War of the Sixth Coalition involving Russia

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use shortened footnotes from June 2021
• Use dmy dates from June 2021
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles containing OSM location maps
• Commons category link from Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension