The Battle of Lübeck took place on 6 November 1806 in Lübeck, Germany between soldiers of the Kingdom of Prussia led by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, who were retreating from defeat at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt, and troops of the First French Empire under Marshals Murat, Bernadotte, and Soult, who were pursuing them. In this War of the Fourth Coalition action, the French inflicted a severe defeat on the Prussians, driving them from the neutral city. Lübeck is an old Baltic Sea port approximately northeast of Hamburg.
After their shattering defeat in October by Napoleon at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt, the Prussian armies withdrew to the east bank of the Elbe River north of Magdeburg, then marched northeast, in an attempt to reach the Oder River. Aiming to annihilate his opponents' forces, Napoleon launched his Grande Armée in a headlong pursuit. A large portion of the fleeing Prussians took refuge in the fortress of Magdeburg where they were surrounded and besieged by Ney's VI Corps. Another large segment was intercepted and destroyed in the Battle of Prenzlau by Murat. This event triggered a series of capitulations of Prussian troops and fortresses.
Blocked from reaching the Oder after Hohenloe's surrender at Prenzlau, Blücher turned and raced to the west, chased by Murat, Bernadotte, and Soult. After a number of well-fought rear guard actions, Blücher's troops forced their way into the neutral city of Lübeck, where they took up defensive positions. Bernadotte's soldiers broke through the city's northern defenses and overwhelmed the troops facing Murat and Soult. Blücher barely escaped from the city, though most of his staff was captured and Prussian casualties were enormous. The French brutally sacked Lübeck during and after the fighting. The next day, the French trapped the surviving Prussians against the Danish frontier and compelled Blücher to surrender.
Danish forces commanded by Johann Ewald were also mobilized and deployed at the nearby Danish-Prussian border with the purpose of preventing any French or Prussian forces from entering their territory (the original Prussian plan was to flee from the coming French to Denmark), as well as being ordered to protect Danish neutrality by force, if necessary; however, the Danish forces did not take any significant part in the armed struggle save for a few minor skirmishes and negotiations with both the Prussian and the French, although during these Ewald himself was briefly detained by the French.
The French captured a small Swedish force during the battle. Bernadotte's courteous and respectful treatment of its officers and soldiers would in part lead to the kingdom offering its crown to the French marshal, almost four years after this battle.
Background
Jena-Auerstedt to Prenzlau On 14 October 1806, Napoleon crushed the Prussian field armies in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. In the chaos after the debacle, the shattered remains of what had been three Prussian controlled armies coalesced into several major elements. General of Infantry Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen took command of one column that retreated through the Harz Mountains. General-Leutnant Blücher and General of Infantry Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth, followed in Hohenlohe's wake with a 12,000-man column. These forces were trailed by 12,000 troops under General Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and General-Leutnant Christian Ludwig von Winning. The last-named corps missed Jena-Auerstedt. Meanwhile, the Prince of Orange surrendered at least 10,000 Prussians to Marshal Murat's Cavalry Corps in the Capitulation of Erfurt on 16 October.
The 16,000 fresh troops of the Prussian Reserve, commanded by Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg, had remained at Halle since the 13th. On 17 October, the 20,600 men of Marshal Bernadotte's I Corps mauled Württemberg's force in the Battle of Halle. The Reserve retreated to Magdeburg where it joined Hohenlohe on 20 October. Marshal Soult with the IV Corps and Murat's cavalry reached the outskirts of the city that day and demanded Hohenlohe's surrender, which he refused. On the 22nd, Soult and Marshal Michel Ney's VI Corps invested the fortress on the west bank of the Elbe. After leaving what was intended to be 9,000, but thanks to miscommunication amongst the Prussians proved to be over 20,000 additional troops to man the fortress, Hohenlohe marched to the northeast via Burg bei Magdeburg. He was soon joined by Kalckreuth who crossed the Elbe to the north at Tangermünde.
As Hohenloe was manoeuvring north to Neustadt an der Dosse, Blücher moved northeast from Nordhausen, through the Harz Mountains, past Braunschweig, and boated across the Elbe at Sandau on 24 October. Similarly, Saxe-Weimar marched from Bad Langensalza to Mühlhausen, and on to Osterode. After feinting at Magdeburg to trick Soult, he successfully reached the Elbe at Sandau too. Oberst Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg conducted a skillful action at Altenzaun on the afternoon and evening of the 26th, the Prussian rear guard holding off Soult's advance guard until Saxe-Weimar's troops safely reached the east bank, then Yorck also slipped away. At this time, Winning took over command of the column from Saxe-Weimar.
Hohenlohe reached Neustadt an der Dosse on the evening of 24 October. After he crossed the Elbe, Blücher accepted command of Hohenlohe's rear guard. There was a network of canals, along with the Havel River, that ran east and west roughly between the Elbe and Oder. Hohenlohe planned to send General-Major Christian Ludwig Schimmelpfennig von der Oye with a flying column to protect his right flank by destroying all the bridges along this stretch of water.
By nightfall on 25 October, Hohenlohe's main body was between Neuruppin and Lindow, a little farther east. General-Major von Schwerin's cavalry and Oberst von Hagen's infantry brigade marched toward Wittstock. General-Major Rudolf Ernst Christoph von Bila reached Kyritz, north of Neustadt, with a cavalry-infantry brigade. Blücher's rear guard was near Neustadt, after a clash with Bernadotte's leading troops. In an ominous development, French cavalry seized Oranienburg before Schimmelpfennig arrived there.
On 26 October, Murat routed Schimmelpfennig's column at Zehdenick, sending the Prussians fleeing to Stettin after losing more than 250 cavalry from their 1,300-man force. The next day, in confused fighting at Boitzenburg, Hohenlohe overcame a French road block and pressed on to the east after losing a cavalry regiment. On 28 October, Murat attacked the Prussians in the Battle of Prenzlau. One of General of Division Emmanuel Grouchy's dragoon brigades hewed a path through Hohenlohe's column. General of Division Marc Antoine de Beaumont and his 3rd Dragoon Division pounced on the now-isolated rear guard under Oberst Prince Augustus of Prussia, forcing it to surrender. Murat then succeeded in bluffing Hohenlohe into capitulating, even though the Prussian was neither surrounded nor outnumbered. Not including 2,000 previous losses, about 10,000 soldiers, 64 guns, and 1,800 cavalry horses fell into the hands of the French.
Prenzlau to Lübeck
The next day, 4,000 Prussians surrendered to two French light cavalry brigades in the Capitulation of Pasewalk. That night General of Brigade Antoine Lasalle and his light cavalry accepted the Capitulation of Stettin after bluffing the fortress commander into surrendering with over 5,000 troops. In the wake of these humiliating defeats, a number of smaller Prussian columns were mopped up. On 30 October, Major von Höpfner surrendered an artillery convoy with 600 soldiers, 25 guns, 48 wagons, and 800 horses at Boldekow south of Anklam. Bila, his older brother General-Major Karl Anton Ernst von Bila, and their 2,173 troops laid down their arms at Anklam to General of Division Nicolas Léonard Beker's dragoons on 1 November. Approximately 100 km to the east of Berlin, that day also saw the fortress of Küstrin capitulate to one of Marshal Louis Davout's III Corps brigades.
Leaving Ney to carry out the Siege of Magdeburg, Soult crossed the Elbe at Tangermünde and headed northeast. He reached Wusterhausen near Neustadt on 30 October, with his cavalry probing toward Wittstock. Farther to the east, Bernadotte captured a Prussian supply convoy and 20 field pieces on the 26th and reached Boitzenburg on the evening of 29 October. The next morning, finding that Blücher had veered northwest, Bernadotte marched toward Neustrelitz. Leading one of Bernadotte's cavalry regiments, Colonel Étienne Maurice Gérard captured 400 troops belonging to Blücher and reported that the Prussian was making for Waren.
On 31 October, the columns of Blücher and Winning met near Waren. Winning wanted to escape to the port of Rostock to the north, and had already sent General-Major Karl Georg Friedrich von Wobeser ahead to organize the evacuation. However, Blücher overruled him and proceeded with his own strategy, which was to recross the Elbe at Boizenburg. From there, he planned to either join with General Karl Ludwig von Lecoq in the former Electorate of Hanover or Lieutenant General Franz Kasimir von Kleist at Magdeburg. Blücher reorganized his small army into two corps. Winning led the 11,000-strong I Corps, while Blücher commanded the 10,000-man II Corps. Each corps was subdivided into two heavy and one light divisions.
At this time, there were 47,252 Frenchmen hunting for Blücher. Bernadotte's I Corps numbered 15,450, Soult's IV Corps counted 24,375, and from Murat's Cavalry Reserve, General of Division Louis Michel Antoine Sahuc led 2,550 dragoons, Grouchy another 2,432 dragoons in his division, Lasalle counted 785 light cavalry, and General of Division Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul led 1,660 cuirassiers. Bernadotte pressed ahead with 12,000 of his most fit troops, leaving the rest behind. Murat and his cavalry were rapidly moving west from their victories at Prenzlau and Stettin.
On the morning of 1 November, the Prussians evacuated Waren. Blücher moved to the northwest covered by a rear guard under General-Major Friedrich Gottlieb von Oswald. Winning marched due west covered by Oberst August Wilhelm von Pletz's rear guard. That morning the Prussians brawled near Waren with both Soult's and Bernadotte's light cavalry brigades, plus General of Division Anne Jean Marie René Savary's 1st Hussar and 7th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments, before falling back to the west. Under Yorck's tactical direction the three Prussian fusilier battalions, six Jäger companies, and 20 squadrons of hussars gave a good account of themselves in the battle of Waren-Nossentin. Though Bernadotte committed General of Division Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon's dragoon division to the capture of Nossentin village, Yorck and Pletz drew off in good order to Alt Schwerin that night.
On the morning of 2 November, Sahuc's 4th Dragoon Division set out from Rathenow and Murat left Demmin (west of Anklam) sweeping west with Lasalle (light cavalry), Grouchy (dragoons), and d'Hautpoul (cuirassiers). Bernadotte was at Nossentin, whilst Soult was further east, at Waren. That day, near Granzin, Drouet's division (of Bernadotte's I Corps) caught up with the 500 men of the 2nd battalion of the Tschammer Infantry Regiment Nr. 27, inflicting a loss of one cannon and 57 casualties, including Major Puttkammer captured. Away to the northeast on 2 and 3 November, the port of Wolgast surrendered to the 22nd Dragoon Regiment of General of Brigade André Joseph Boussart's brigade (Grouchy's division). Hohenlohe's baggage train with 2,500 mostly non-combatants thus fell into the hands of Grouchy's division.