| Capitulation of Pasewalk | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theWar of the Fourth Coalition | |||||||
 The Pasewalk Mühlentor, an old city gate | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 French Empire |  Prussia | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Édouard MilhaudAntoine Lasalle | Colonel von Hagen  | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 700[1]–1,500 | 4,200[1] 8 guns | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 4,200[1] soldiers captured, 8 guns captured, 37 colors captured | ||||||
 | |||||||
TheCapitulation of Pasewalk on 29 October 1806 resulted in the surrender ofOberst (Colonel) von Hagen's 4,200Prussian soldiers to an inferior force of twoFrench light cavalry brigades led byGenerals of BrigadeÉdouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud andAntoine Lasalle. The Prussians were completely demoralized after a two-week-long retreat following their decisive defeat at theBattle of Jena-Auerstedt.Pasewalk is 110 kilometers north of Berlin and about 40 kilometers west ofSzczecin (Stettin), Poland.
While retreating east toward Stettin on theOder River, Hagen found his column trapped between Lasalle's brigade and Milhaud's brigade. Without attempting to break out, the baffled Prussian officer surrendered. The incident at Pasewalk came after a similar Prussian surrender after theBattle of Prenzlau the previous day. Within a week two fortresses would capitulate without firing a shot and a number of other Prussian columns would be hunted down one by one.
On 14 October 1806, theGrande Armée of EmperorNapoleon I of France decisively defeated the Prussians at theBattle of Jena-Auerstadt. AtJena Napoleon's 96,000 troops smashed the 53,000-man army ofGenerals of InfantryFrederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen andErnst von Rüchel,[2] while the 26,000-man III Corps of MarshalLouis-Nicolas Davout defeatedFeldmarschallCharles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick's 49,800-strong army atAuerstedt.[3]
At Jena, French losses were 6,794 while Prussian losses were very large but impossible to calculate. The Saxons saved only 23 of their artillery pieces, while losing 59. The Prussians lost at least 24 guns plus 12 colors. Davout estimated his losses as 7,000 at Auerstedt while his enemies suffered 10,000 killed and wounded and 3,000 captured.[4] The Prussians admitted losing 57 guns from their artillery batteries, not counting regimental guns. So Davout's claim to have captured 115 pieces may be accurate.[5]
The Prussian army was so thoroughly shattered by its defeat that it had not recovered cohesion by the next day.[6] Shot through both eyes, Brunswick expired atAltona on 10 November.[7] The badly wounded Rüchel made his way to Poland where he recovered.[8] The retreating mass of Prussians resolved itself into three columns under Prince Hohenlohe,Lieutenant GeneralGebhard von Blücher, and General of the InfantryFriedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth. These forces marched through theHarz Mountains towardHalberstadt.[9] Trailing behind was the 12,000-man corps of Lieutenant GeneralKarl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, which missed Jena-Auerstadt.[10]
On 16 October, French cavalry underMarshalJoachim Murat secured the surrender of 12,000 men and 65 guns in theCapitulation of Erfurt. It was only the first of a series of craven Prussian surrenders.[11] The following day, MarshalJean-Baptiste Bernadotte drubbed Lieutenant GeneralEugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg's Reserve at theBattle of Halle, inflicting 5,000 casualties on this previously fresh body of troops for a French loss of only 800.[12]
The columns of Hohenlohe and Württemberg rendezvoused at Magdeburg on 20 October. Kalckreuth crossed theElbe River atTangermünde and joined his corps to Hohenlohe's soon afterward. He then left for an assignment in Poland.[13] On the 20th, Soult and Murat were before Magdeburg. Murat demanded its surrender, which Hohenlohe refused.[13] That day, Davout seized a bridgehead over the Elbe atWittenberg and Lannes seized a second crossing atDessau.[14]
Having received orders from KingFrederick William III of Prussia to march to theOder River, Hohenlohe's army left Magdeburg on 21 October and reachedBurg bei Magdeburg that night. He left 9,000 men to reinforce the garrison, so that, together with stragglers, there were 25,000 troops in the city.[15] Hohenlohe reachedGenthin at night on 22 October andRathenow on the evening of the 23rd. To better feed his troops, he divided his command up into multiple columns.[16]
Leaving MarshalMichel Ney's VI Corps to begin theSiege of Magdeburg, Napoleon ordered his right wing to march east for Berlin.[17] The French right wing consisted of Davout's corps, MarshalJean Lannes' V Corps, MarshalPierre Augereau's VII Corps, and four of Murat's cavalry units. These were the 1stCuirassier Division led by General of DivisionEtienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty, the 2nd Cuirassier Division under General of DivisionJean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul, the 2nd Dragoon Division commanded by General of DivisionEmmanuel Grouchy, and the 3rd Dragoon Division under General of DivisionMarc Antoine de Beaumont. The left wing was made up of Bernadotte's corps, MarshalNicolas Soult's IV Corps, and General of DivisionLouis Michel Antoine Sahuc's 4th Dragoon Division. Guarding the line of communications was General of DivisionLouis Klein's 1st Dragoon Division.[18] Smith gives the cavalry division numbers.[19]
Blücher crossed the Elbe atSandau on 24 October,[20] while Saxe-Weimar got across there two days later. On the 26th,OberstLudwig Yorck von Wartenburg held off Soult's advance guard atAltenzaun before safely crossing to the east bank. At this time Lieutenant General Johann Friedrich Winning relieved Saxe-Weimar in command.[21] Hohenlohe marched toNeustadt an der Dosse on the 24th. His goal was the fortress ofSzczecin (Stettin) on the Oder. To protect his right flank, he ordered General-Major Christian Ludwig Schimmelpfennig to move throughFehrbellin, between Neustadt andOranienburg. Blücher took over the leadership of Hohenlohe's rear guard.[22]
On 25 October Davout's corps marched through Berlin[23] while one of Lannes' divisions captured the fortress ofSpandau with 920 men and 71 cannons.[24] Hohenlohe's main body arrived nearNeuruppin that evening, with Blücher's rear guard division still at Neustadt. General von Schwerin's cavalry and Oberst von Hagen's infantry brigade bivouacked atWittstock. General-Major Karl Anton von Bila's light brigade reachedKyritz north of Neustadt. Desiring to cut off the forces under Hohenlohe, Napoleon ordered Murat and Lannes to move north from Berlin. Immediately available at Oranienburg were the light cavalry brigades ofGenerals of BrigadeAntoine Lasalle andEdouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud, plus Grouchy's dragoons.[25]
On 26 October, Lasalle caught up with Schimmelpfennig atZehdenick. Initially, the Prussians held their own, but when Grouchy's division charged into the fray, Schimmelpfennig's force scattered. The survivors fled to Stettin with Lasalle, Grouchy, and Beaumont in pursuit.[26] The results of this clash compelled Hohenlohe to shift farther northeast fromGransee toLychen. The next morning he waited in vain for Blücher and Bila to catch up before continuing toward the east.[27] On 27 October, Milhaud's brigade reachedBoitzenburg before Hohenlohe's advance guard. After a three-hour combat, the Prussians drove Milhaud's troopers off, but not before the French despoiled supplies collected for their hungry opponents at theSchloss Boitzenburg. Hearing the sounds of battle, Murat marched north with Grouchy's dragoons. At Wichmannsdorf, three French dragoon regiments got into a brawl with theGensdarmes Cuirassier Regiment # 10. Murat wiped out the Prussian unit but Hohenlohe managed to slip past him towardPrenzlau.[28]
At 4:00 AM on 28 October, Hohenlohe's exhausted Prussians stumbled into Schönermark-Nordwestuckermark eight kilometers west of Prenzlau. At a council of war it was determined to continue on into Prenzlau. At this time orders were sent to Hagen to make for Pasewalk. TheBattle of Prenzlau occurred that day. Murat with Lasalle, Milhaud, Grouchy, Beaumont, and 3,000 of Lannes' infantry intercepted Hohenlohe's column as it marched into the city. Lasalle attacked in front, followed by the two dragoon divisions. On the outskirts, one of Grouchy's brigades hewed a path through the Prussian column, capturing many prisoners and isolating the rear guard. Beaumont's dragoons drove the rear guard against theUecker River north of the city and forcedPrince Augustus of Prussia to surrender. Though Hohenlohe still had a clear road to Stettin, Murat bluffed him into surrendering 10,000 troops by claiming he was surrounded by 100,000 Frenchmen.[29]
Moving on Murat's left flank on the 28th, Milhaud reached the village of Bandelow, about halfway between Prenzlau and Pasewalk. From there, he marched toward the sound of the guns from the Battle of Prenzlau. His brigade arrived in time to witness Prince Augustus' surrender to Beaumont. His troopers bivouacked that night in Bandelow and rode to Pasewalk the next morning. After Hohenlohe capitulated at Prenzlau, Lasalle rode northeast toLöcknitz on the Randow stream. At 4:00 PM, he arrived at the village, which was on the direct road between Pasewalk and Stettin. The French general deployed his cavalrymen in Löcknitz and in the hamlet of Bergholz facing northwest in the direction of Pasewalk.[30]
Appearing before the town, Milhaud sent an emissary to demand a surrender. The Prussian colonel, finding Milhaud behind him and Lasalle ahead of him, immediately capitulated with 185 officers, 4,043 rank and file, 2087 cavalry horses,[31] one ammunition wagon, and eight artillery pieces. Hagen's force consisted of his own infantry brigade and Oberst von Podewil's cavalry brigade. The French captured colors (number in parentheses) from thePirch Infantry Regiment # 22 (3),Zenge Infantry Regiment # 24 (3),Treuenfels Infantry Regiment # 29 (4),Prince Ferdinand Infantry Regiment # 34 (2),Henkel Cuirassier Regiment # 1 (5),Heising Cuirassier Regiment # 8 (5),Holtzendorff Cuirassier Regiment # 9 (5),Leib Carabinier Regiment # 11 (5), andBünting Cuirassier Regiment # 12 (5).[32]
The Prussian officers were released after giving their word of honor not to fight against France for the rest of the campaign. Milhaud's entire force consisted of the 1stHussar Regiment and the 13thChasseurs a Cheval, a total of 700 troopers. Lasalle's brigade included the 5th and 7th Hussar Regiments with 800 cavalrymen and two cannons.[32] Another authority placed the 1st Hussars with General of DivisionAnne Jean Marie René Savary at Neuruppin on the 29th,[33] and wrote that Milhaud led the 13th Chasseurs and an unnamed dragoon regiment.[31]
HistorianDigby Smith wrote that the Pasewalk incident showed the morale of the Prussian army to be extremely low at this point in the campaign. There was no fighting.[32] Lannes wrote, "The Prussian army is in such a state of panic that the mere appearance of a Frenchman is enough to make it lay down its arms." That night, Lasalle achieved an even more astonishing coup in theCapitulation of Stettin.[34] Between 30 October and 3 November, the French capturedKüstrin fortress, an artillery convoy, Hohenlohe's baggage train and guard, and Bila's brigade.[35][36] Blücher and Winning decided to head northwest forLübeck with their 22,000 troops.[37] TheBattle of Lübeck was fought on 6 November.[38]
Media related toCapitulation of Pasewalk at Wikimedia Commons| Preceded by Battle of Prenzlau | Napoleonic Wars Capitulation of Pasewalk | Succeeded by Capitulation of Stettin |
