On 6 September 1813, near the village of Dennewitz by Jüterbog, the Prussian corps of Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow and Bogislav von Tauentzien defeated the French army of Marshal Michel Ney, which Napoleon had sent against Berlin. They belonged to the Allied Army of the North under the crown prince of Sweden, Bernadotte. Ney, writes the staff historian Friederich, had not thought of a battle that day, and his three corps reached the field hours apart. By nightfall his army was in flight, and Ney reported to Napoleon that he was completely beaten. Who deserved the credit for the victory was soon disputed among the victors themselves.
Battle of Dennewitz
6 September 1813 · 213 years ago
A new marshal for the road to Berlin
On 23 August Bülow's corps had beaten Marshal Oudinot's advance on Berlin at Grossbeeren. Petre writes that Napoleon, furious at Oudinot, gave the command to Ney but left Oudinot at the head of the XII Corps; the ADB biography of Bülow also has the command of Oudinot's force handed to Ney. According to Petre, Napoleon's orders of 2 September had Ney reach Baruth on the 6th, from where he could attack Berlin on the 9th or 10th, and dismissed the Allied army as "all this cloud of Cossacks and pack of bad landwehr".1
Ney took over on 3 September, Petre writes, with three corps: Bertrand's IV, Reynier's VII and Oudinot's XII, which he puts at 58,000 men on the 5th. Bernadotte's own bulletin names the same commanders, with the Duke of Padua's corps, under the Prince of the Moskwa, Ney's title. Facing them stood the Prussian corps of Tauentzien and Bülow, part of the Allied Army of the North under the crown prince of Sweden, Bernadotte, whose Swedes and Russians were further off. The NDB and ADB biographies of Bülow count Dennewitz as the third time he saved Berlin, after Luckau and Grossbeeren.2
A march, not a battle
Ney's orders for 6 September, as printed by Friederich, sent the whole army by Dahme towards Luckau, "dem Kaiser entgegen", to meet the Emperor (our translation). Friederich, a major attached to the Great General Staff, concludes that Ney "hatte jedenfalls an eine Schlacht am heutigen Tage nicht gedacht", had in any case not thought of a battle that day (our translation); Petre, who follows him, agrees. A strong north-west wind raised clouds of sand, Petre writes, and both he and Friederich have the three corps reach the field between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., at long intervals.3
Friederich has the first shot fall shortly before 10 a.m., as the head of Tauentzien's column reached a pine wood north of Dennewitz; Bülow wrote to his wife the next day that the battle began at 10 o'clock. The Württemberg general Stockmayer, quoted by Friederich, recalled that after a couple of hours of fighting Ney rode past and called out: "Mais mon dieu, mon général, quelle cochonnerie fait ce Bertrand!", But my God, general, what a mess this Bertrand is making! (our translation).4
In Petre's account, General Fontanelli's division of Bertrand's corps attacked about 11 a.m. and drove in both of Tauentzien's wings until a Prussian cavalry charge saved the position for the time being. When, at midday, those around him spoke of retreat, the ADB has Tauentzien answer that he would "eher mit meinem ganzen Corps auf dem Platze liegen bleiben ehe ich einen einzigen Schritt weiche", sooner lie on this spot with his whole corps than yield a single step (our translation). By 12.30, Petre writes, the heads of Bülow's columns were reaching Nieder Görsdorf.5
Ney's order at Gölsdorf
In Petre's account, Reynier's VII Corps began to reach the field at 2 p.m., and his two Saxon divisions took part of the village of Gölsdorf about 2.30; driven out, they retook it with the support of Oudinot's divisions, which had begun to arrive about 3 o'clock. Bülow threw in Borstell with his last reserve.6
Then, Petre writes, Ney, standing on the heights south-east of Dennewitz and seeing little through the dust, ordered Oudinot to march to his right for a fresh attack there. Reynier begged Oudinot to leave at least one division at Gölsdorf, but Oudinot, "still smarting under his supersession by Ney", insisted on obeying the order literally. Borstell's Prussians stormed Gölsdorf, and the Saxons, after losing nearly 1,500 men, were driven out. Petre judges that Oudinot "must share the blame for the defeat with Ney"; the Fondation Napoléon's biography of Ney says that he "blundered to defeat at Dennewitz".7
By 5 p.m., Petre writes, Bertrand had been driven from Rohrbeck. Ney ordered a retreat on Dahme at 6 p.m., but in Petre's words "Panic and confusion reigned supreme", and the troops fled in different directions.8
Whose victory?
Bernadotte's bulletin from Jüterbog, dated 8 September, says that the Prussian army, "forte de tout au plus 40,000 hommes", at most 40,000 strong, held off "70,000 ennemis, appuyés par 200 pièces de canon", 70,000 enemies supported by 200 guns, until Russian and Swedish cavalry and batteries came up, and that the appearance of their columns decided the battle at once (our translation).9
Bülow told his wife otherwise, writing from Oehna the day after the battle that of the Allies only the Swedish and Russian artillery at the end, and the Russian cavalry in the pursuit, had taken part (our translation). On 19 September he wrote that the crown prince's bulletins "enthalten beinahe nichts wie Lügen", contain almost nothing but lies (our translation). Petre, citing Friederich, writes that Bernadotte was not really to blame for his late arrival, and that the 36 guns he got up prevented the French from rallying.10
"I am completely beaten"
From Dahme, Ney wrote to Napoleon, in the German text that Friederich and Varnhagen print: "Ich bin gänzlich geschlagen und noch weiß ich nicht, ob mein Heer sich wieder gesammelt hat", I am completely beaten and do not yet know whether my army has rallied; he advised leaving the Elbe and falling back on the Saale (our translation). To the governor of Wittenberg he wrote, in Friederich's text: "Ich bin nicht mehr Herr der Armee", I am no longer master of the army (our translation).11
On 7 September Wobeser's brigade, ordered forward by Tauentzien from Luckau, attacked Dahme, where Ney had his headquarters. Varnhagen counts 1 gun and 2,500 prisoners taken there, the bulletin 2,500 prisoners; Petre writes of over 2,800 prisoners at Dahme and another 400 in the pursuit. On 8 September, Varnhagen writes, all the French troops withdrew across the Elbe at Torgau.12
Counting the cost
Friederich gives the losses of Bülow's and Tauentzien's corps, including the fights at Zahna and Dahme, as 10,510 men, and adds that what the Swedes and Russians lost is unknown. Varnhagen puts the loss of Bülow's corps at over 200 officers and about 6,000 men killed and wounded, and Tauentzien's at an estimated 3,000.13
For the French, Friederich follows Quistorp's calculations from official sources: about 22,000 men in all, with 53 guns, 412 vehicles and 4 flags, and 13,500 prisoners according to Bülow's reports; Petre repeats these figures. Varnhagen gives over 10,000 French killed and wounded, about 15,000 prisoners, 4 flags and 80 guns; the bulletin counted 16,000 to 18,000 killed, wounded and prisoners and more than 60 guns.14
Bülow von Dennewitz
The king sent Bülow the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. In 1814 he was made a count, under the name Bülow von Dennewitz by a cabinet order of 3 July, the ADB writes.15
Tauentzien, given the honorific "von Wittenberg", rejected it and claimed the name of Dennewitz, write Varnhagen and the ADB. "Die Schlacht bei Dennewitz habe ich gegeben", I gave the battle of Dennewitz, he wrote to his adjutant, and he signed the letter "Graf Tauentzien nicht von Wittenberg" (our translation). The autumn campaign of 1813 continues in our article on the Battle of Leipzig.16
Second Battle of Changsha, 1941: Anami's drive on the Hunan capital
6 September 1941 · 85 years ago
In the second Japanese attempt to take Changsha, capital of Hunan, the Japanese 11th Army fought the Chinese National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Japanese troops reached the city but soon began to withdraw, with Chinese forces pursuing them.
Read the full story of Second Battle of Changsha, 1941: Anami's drive on the Hunan capital ›Also on this day
1914: the Allied offensive on the Marne opened. Sir John French, commanding the British forces, reported that the combined movements "practically commenced on Sunday, September 6th, at sunrise", on a front from Ermenonville to a point north of Verdun. Gabriel Hanotaux prints the order of the day that Joffre sent from Châtillon-sur-Seine on 6 September at 7.30: "Au moment où s’engage une bataille dont dépend le salut du pays, il importe de rappeler à tous que le moment n’est plus de regarder en arrière", as a battle on which the country's safety depends begins, all must be reminded that this is no longer the time to look back (our translation). Read our full account of the Marne.17
