The Battle of Grossbeeren took place on 23 August 1813, between forces of the First French Empire and an allied Prussian, Swedish army of the Sixth Coalition. It was in fact three isolated actions at Blankenfield, Sputendorf and the largest at Grossbeeren. In each case the outcome was the same; the Allies prevailed. August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining. ... 1813 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The tone of this article is inappropriate for an encyclopedia. ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and... The Sixth Coalition (1812-1814) was a coalition of the United Kingdom, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria and a number of German States against Napoleonic France. ... Grossbeeren is a village in Germany, 13 miles (21 km) south of Berlin where, on August 23, 1813, the allies defeated the French in their advance on Berlin. ...

Prelude

In August 1813, during the War of the Sixth Coalition, Napoleon ordered an offensive drive to take the Prussian Capital of Berlin. With its capture, he hoped to knock the Prussians out of the war. In the meanwhile he kept the bulk of his army on the strategic defensive, to deal with any potential moves by the large Austrian army. For this task, he chose one of his bravest and best commanders, Marshal Oudinot, to lead the offensive. Oudinot tried to turn down this honor due to his poor health. He had been wounded on several occasions during the previous year's disasterous campaign in Russia, and had not yet fully recovered. But the emperor insisted, so Oudinot with three corps of about 80,000 men advanced on Berlin. Note: as an adjective (stressed on the second syllable instead of the first), august means honorable. ... 1813 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Sixth Coalition (1813-1814) was a coalition of the United Kingdom, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria and a number of German States against the Napoleonic France. ... For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and... This article is about the city in Germany. ... The Marshal of France (maréchal de France) was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France. ... Nicolas Charles Oudinot (April 25, 1767 - September 13, 1847), duke of Reggio, was a marshal of France. ... A corps (a word that immigrated from the French language, pronounced like English core, but originating in the Latin corpus, corporis meaning body; plural same as singular) is either a large military unit or formation, a administrative grouping of troops within an army with a common function (such as artillery...

Unknown to both Napoleon and Oudinot at the time, this strategy played right into the Coalition's hands. In accordance with their Trachenburg Plan, they would avoid any large, main engagement with Napoleon himself, until after they had gathered overwhealming strength and weakened the emperor by defeating his marshals in separate, smaller battles. Plan concocted by Allied commanders during the Great French War in 1813 during the Campaign for Germany. ...

Battle

From its start the offensive was plagued by misfortune. On the same day as the advance began, 19 August, heavy rain storms broke out turning the roads into muddy quagmires and making it nearly impossible to move the artillery. Further hindering the advance, the area south of Berlin was crisscrossed with small lakes and swamps. In the best of weather there were only a couple of roads by which to approach the city from the south. But rain turned many of the Prussian defensive positions into fortified islands. Oudinot was forced to advance along three separate roads, with himself leading one corps and Generals Bertrand and Reynier the two others. He did not expect any serious opposition and a lack of cavalry kept him unaware of the position of the enemy. Berlin was defended by the Army of the North, commanded by Crown Prince Charles of Sweden, formally French Marshal Bernadotte, another of Napoleon's most able commanders. When Reynier's corps (which consisted largely of French allied Saxons ) reached Grossbeeren, he encountered the bulk of Prince Charles' army drawn up for battle. Reynier, acting without orders or support, attacked von Bülow's corps, which had just been reinforced by the Swedes, and was repulsed with heavy casualties. Oudinot, unable to concentrate his army, arrived late in the day after Reynier's Saxons had begun to withdraw after he failed to rally them for another assault. Realizing the advance had been checked, and believing his army was in an exposed position, Oudinot ordered the retreat to Jüterbog after sustaining heavy losses. August 19 is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Historically, artillery refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ... Joseph Louis François Bertrand (March 11, 1822 _ April 5, 1900, born and died in Paris) was a French mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory, differential geometry, probability theory, and thermodynamics. ... Italian cavalry officers practice their horsemanship in 1904 outside Rome. ... Carl XIV Johan , born Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (January 26, 1763 – March 8, 1844) was King of Sweden and Norway (where he was known as Charles III John (Carl III Johan)) from 1818 until his death. ... With an area of 18,413 km² and a population of 4. ... Freiherr Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow, Count of Dennewitz (1755-1816), Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars, was born on 16 February 1755 at Falkenberg in the Altmark; he was the elder brother of the foregoing. ... Jüterbog (2002 pop. ...

Aftermath

The defeat at Grossbeeren, combined with continued ill health, had shaken Oudinot's confidence, and he continued the general retreat to Wittenburg. Napoleon was furious with Oudinot, not so much for his defeat, but for his withdrawal to Wittenberg instead of back to Luckau. He fumed, "It is truly difficult to have fewer brains than the duke of Reggio!". Napoleon then appointed Marshal Ney to lead a second drive on Berlin with the same three, now reduced and demoralized, corps and the ailing Oudinot as Ney's subordinate. The result would be the Battle of Dennewitz. Wittenburg is a city in the district Ludwigslust in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. ... Luckau (-German, Sorbian: Łuków) is a city in the Dahme-Spreewald District in Brandenburg, Germany. ... Michel Ney, Marshal of France Michel Ney (January 10, 1769 – December 7, 1815) called Le Rougeaud (the ruddy) and le Brave des Braves (the bravest of the brave) was a marshal of the French army who fought in the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. ... Battle of Dennewitz 6 September 1813 Prelude: Marshall Oudinot advanced his corp along 3 separate roads on an advance to Berlin. ...

The Sixth Coalition (1813-1814) was a coalition of the United Kingdom, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria and a number of German States against the Napoleonic France. ... This Battle of Lützen happened as Napoleons army was on the way home from its Russian disaster. ... The Battle of Bautzen was fought on May 21, 1813, and resulted in a French victory under Napoléon Bonaparte against the Kingdom of Prussians and Russians. ... The Battle of Katzbach on 26 August 1813, was an accidental engagement of the Napoleonic Wars which took place in a heavy thunderstorm between the forces of the First French Empire under Marshal MacDonald and a Russo-Prussian army of the Sixth Coalition under Prussian Marshal Graf (Count) von Bl... The Battle of Dresden was fought on August 26-27, 1813, and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon Bonaparte against Austrians, Russians and Prussians under General Schwartzenberg. ... The Battle of Kulm was a battle of the Napoleonic Wars. ... Battle of Dennewitz 6 September 1813 Prelude: Marshall Oudinot advanced his corp along 3 separate roads on an advance to Berlin. ... The Battle of Leipzig or the Battle of the Nations (16-19 October 1813) was the largest conflict in the Napoleonic Wars and the most decisive defeat suffered by Napoleon Bonaparte. ... The Battle of Champaubert was fought on February 10, 1814, and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon Bonaparte against Russians and Prussians under General Olsufiev. ... The battle of Montmirail was fought on February 11, 1814 and resulted the victory of the French under Napoleon Bonaparte over the Russians under General Dmitri Sacken and the Prussians under General Johann Yorck. ... The Battle of Château-Thierry occured on February 12, 1814 between a Prussian army under Marshall von Blücher and the French under Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. ... The Battle of Vauchamps, the final major engagement of the Six Days Campaign, was fought on February 14, 1814 and resulted in 18,000 French under Napoleon defeating 30,000 Prussian troops. ... The Napoleonic Wars lasted from 1804 until 1815. ...

References and links

• International Napoleonic Society
• The Encyclopedia Of Military History: From 3500 B.C. To The Present. (2nd Revised Edition 1986), R. Ernest Dupuy, and Trevor N. Dupuy. pg 761
• Memoirs of the Duke Rovigo