In the Battle of Halle on 17 October 1806, a French corps led by Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte fought the Prussian Reserve under Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg. The French defeated their opponents, forcing the Prussians to retreat northeast toward Dessau after suffering heavy losses. The clash occurred in the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The city of Halle is located about 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of Leipzig on the Saale River.
Emperor Napoleon I of France invaded the Electorate of Saxony and inflicted two disastrous defeats on the Prussian-Saxon armies at the Battle of Jena-Auerstadt. As the beaten armies fled, Marshal Bernadotte's corps marched north and found Duke Eugene's Reserve, which had not yet seen action, at Halle. At the beginning of the encounter, two French divisions rushed the bridges over the Saale on the west side of the city. They overran a weak defending force and quickly occupied the city. In one stage of the battle, Bernadotte was advancing against superior numbers along a narrow causeway, to which Napoleon stated:
Later in the day, Bernadotte's troops stormed out of Halle and attacked Eugene's Reserve which was drawn up to the southeast of the city. The Prussians were driven from their positions and chased to the northeast. While this engagement was going on, Bernadotte's third division surrounded and captured a Prussian regiment isolated on the west side of the city. One of the few intact Prussian forces west of the Elbe River was now crippled.
Background
Political
Napoleon's decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805 profoundly affected the balance of power in Europe. After this event, Emperor Francis I of Austria sued for peace and Tsar Alexander I of Russia withdrew his crippled army from Austrian territory, ending the War of the Third Coalition. Prussia was caught at a diplomatic disadvantage since her emissary Christian Graf von Haugwitz was on the point of delivering an ultimatum to Napoleon when the war ended, a fact which the French emperor was well aware.
In February 1806, Napoleon pressured a cowed Prussia into handing over several territories to France and her allies in return for the state of Hanover, which was under French occupation. The agreement pushed Prussia into a break with Great Britain whose king was the Hanoverian elector.
Napoleon began to remake the face of Europe. He created the Confederation of the Rhine on 25 July. He named his elder brother Joseph Bonaparte king of the newly conquered Kingdom of Naples, brother Louis Bonaparte ruler over the Kingdom of Holland, and stepson Eugène de Beauharnais viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy. Then he offered Hanover to Britain in exchange for peace, which infuriated Prussia.
The peace-minded Haugwitz was dismissed, and King Frederick William III of Prussia, goaded by his Queen, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, decided on 7 August to go to war against the First French Empire. Prussia mobilized 171,000 troops, but its army had missed the changes that had overtaken warfare in the previous decade.
Military
As the Prussians advanced into territory belonging to the Electorate of Saxony, they absorbed 20,000 Saxon soldiers into their army. The combined forces coalesced into three semi-independent armies: one under Feldmarschall Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick; a second under General of the Infantry Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen; and a third under General Ernst von Rüchel. Brunswick took station at Erfurt in the center, while Hohenlohe deployed near Rudolstadt in the east. Rüchel held Gotha and Eisenach at the western end of the line with General Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach's division probing south toward Meiningen and the French line of communications. Eugene of Württemberg's Reserve was well to the north at Magdeburg.
On 8 October, Napoleon launched 180,000 troops across the Saxon frontier. His troops were massed in a bataillon carré (battalion square) made up of three columns of two army corps each, plus the Imperial Guard, the Cavalry Reserve, and a Bavarian contingent. On 9 October, the leading division of Marshal Bernadotte's I Corps and Marshal Joachim Murat's cavalry forced Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien's division into a withdrawal in the Battle of Schleiz. The next day, Marshal Jean Lannes' V Corps attacked the 8,300-man division of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia at the Battle of Saalfeld. The young prince was killed, and his division fled after receiving a decisive defeat.
Napoleon became convinced that his enemies lay near Erfurt, so he ordered his bataillon carré to make a left wheel on 12 October. The Prussian generals opted to fall back. Brunswick was to take the main army north from Weimar to Merseburg, while Hohenlohe protected the move by standing on the defensive near Jena. Rüchel's orders were to hold Weimar until Saxe-Weimar returned with his division. On 14 October, the double Battle of Jena-Auerstedt occurred as Napoleon attacked Hohenlohe while Brunswick ran head-on into the III Corps of Marshal Louis Davout. Both Prussian armies as well as Rüchel's corps were driven in rout from the two battlefields. Brunswick's army suffered 13,000 casualties and its commander was mortally wounded, while the combined forces of Hohenlohe and Rüchel lost as many as 25,000.
When Davout marched from Naumburg to glory at Auerstedt, Bernadotte and his I Corps did not accompany him, leaving III Corps to face the main Prussian force alone against two-to-one odds. Bernadotte's decision to march to Dornberg was controversial within a week of the twin battles. Bernadotte had last received positive written orders from Berthier on the day before the battle, 12 October, in which his I Corps, along with Davout's III Corps, were to lay astride the Prussians' projected line of retreat. He was the only Marshal not to receive updated, written orders on the night of 13 October. In the early hours of 14 October, Davout received a courier from Berthier in which he wrote: "If the Prince of Ponte Corvo [Bernadotte] is with you, you may both march together, but the Emperor hopes that he will be in the position which had been indicated at Dornburg." Davout thence relayed this order to Bernadotte when the next met at 0400 the same morning; this constituting Bernadotte's most recent orders.
It was not until several days after the battle that Napoleon became aware that anything was amiss. From his point of view, I Corps had been where it was supposed to be, if not arriving late. At this time criticism developed of Napoleon's dispositions in misplacing the location of the Prussians and allowing III Corps to become so dangerously isolated. On 21 October Berthier sent a message to Bernadotte accusing him of not following the order to accompany Davout. Napoleon followed suit on 23 October. Bernadotte defended himself, citing the order from Berthier on the morning of 14 October, and that he had followed Napoleon's order to march to Dornberg. A later search of the orders and dispatches from the Imperial Headquarters never yielded any order for Bernadotte to march with Davout. They did, however, confirm Bernadotte's contention that Berthier's order of 14 October made it clear that Napoleon wanted Bernadotte to march to Dornberg. The lack of documentation supporting Napoleon's accusation against Bernadotte calls into question whether Napoleon had intended I Corps to march with Davout, and the order was incorrectly transmitted to Bernadotte on the morning of 14 October, or if Napoleon was using the opportunity to shift blame for Davout having to have fought a battle on his own as suggested by Colonel Ernst Marsh Lloyd.
The emperor is said to have remarked to General of Division Anne Jean Marie René Savary, "This business is so hateful that if I send him before a court-martial it will be the equivalent of ordering him to be shot; it is better for me not to speak to him about it, but I shall take care he shall know what I think of his behavior. I believe he has enough honor to recognize that he has performed a disgraceful action regarding which I shall not bandy words with him." Napoleon took no further action against Bernadotte.
Battle
Forces
At the beginning of the campaign, Bernadotte's I Corps consisted of 19,014 infantry, 1,580 cavalry, and 34 artillery pieces. General of Division Pierre Dupont de l'Etang led the 7,000-man 1st Division, General of Division Olivier Macoux Rivaud de la Raffinière commanded the 5,600-strong 2nd Division, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon headed the 5,800-man 3rd Division, General of Brigade Jacques Louis François Delaistre de Tilly commanded the corps cavalry brigade, Smith gives the division numbers in his Battle of Lübeck article. Petre gives the strengths of each division on 14 October. General of Division Jean Baptiste Eblé commanded the corps artillery reserve.
The 1st Division consisted of: General of Brigade Marie François Rouyer's 9th Light Infantry Regiment, three battalions; General of Brigade François Marie Guillaume Legendre d'Harvesse's 32nd and 96th Line Infantry Regiments, two battalions each; and two foot artillery batteries of 12 guns in total.
The 2nd Division included: General of Brigade Michel Marie Pacthod's 8th Light Infantry Regiment, two battalions; General of Brigade Nicolas Joseph Maison's 45th and 54th Line Infantry Regiments, two battalions each; and one horse and one foot artillery battery, with a combined 12 guns in total. This data is from the Criwitz article.
The 3rd Division comprised: General of Brigade Bernard-Georges-François Frère's 27th Light Infantry Regiment, two battalions; General of Brigade François Werlé's 94th Line Infantry Regiment, two battalions, plus the 95th Line Infantry Regiment, three battalions; and one horse and one foot artillery battery, a total of 16 guns.
Tilly's cavalry brigade consisted of the 2nd and 4th Hussar Regiments and the 5th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiment, four squadrons each. In the artillery reserve there were one horse and one foot artillery battery of 12 total guns. In Smith's order of battle, which does not include Rivaud's division, there are six batteries with 40 guns. But his summary lists eight batteries with 36 guns. If the 12 guns with Rivaud are included, then Bernadotte's corps must have had 52 guns, many more than the 34 listed by Petre.
Before 1806, a French infantry battalion was made up of nine companies. In September 1806, Napoleon decreed that each infantry regiment must have three battalions of eight companies each, including one of grenadiers and one of voltigeurs or skirmishers. Each foot artillery battery normally numbered six cannons and two howitzers, while each horse artillery battery counted four cannons and two howitzers. The French utilized 4-pounder, 6-pounder, 8-pounder, and 12-pounder cannons, plus captured Austrian pieces. The 12-pounders were generally employed by the corps artillery reserve.
Eugene of Württemberg's Prussian Reserve included two infantry divisions, an advance guard, and a cavalry reserve.
General-Major Hans Christoph von Natzmer's 1st Division comprised the Natzmer Infantry Regiment Nr. 54, Kauffberg Infantry Regiment Nr. 51, and Treskow Infantry Regiment Nr. 17, each of two battalions, the Schmeling and Crety Grenadier battalions, and one and a half foot artillery batteries of 12 guns.
General-Major Balthasar Wilhelm Christoph von Jung-Larisch's 2nd Division consisted of the Jung-Larisch Infantry Regiment Nr. 53, Kalkreuth Infantry Regiment Nr. 4, and Manstein Infantry Regiment Nr. 55, each of two battalions, the Vieregg Grenadier battalion, as well as one and a half foot artillery batteries of 12 guns.
General-Major Johann von Hinrichs' Advance Guard included infantry comprising the Borell Fusilier battalion Nr. 9, Knorr Fusilier battalion Nr. 12, and Hinrichs Fusilier battalion Nr. 17, as well as cavalry consisting of two squadrons of Usedom Hussar Regiment Nr. 10, one squadron of Hertzberg Dragoon Regiment Nr. 9, one squadron of Heyking Dragoon Regiment Nr. 10, along with two horse artillery pieces. The reserve cavalry comprised eight squadrons of Usedom Hussar Regiment Nr. 10, four squadrons of Hertzberg Dragoon Regiment Nr. 9, four squadrons of Heyking Dragoon Regiment Nr. 10, and one horse artillery battery of six guns.
In total there were 18 battalions, 20 squadrons and 32 guns present on the Prussian side. The battalion artillery pieces of the infantry regiments are not counted among the 32 guns, so the Prussians had more cannons.
In 1806, Prussian heavy cavalry regiments were made up of five squadrons, while light cavalry regiments usually consisted of 10 squadrons. Foot artillery batteries included six 12-pounder cannons and two 10-pounder howitzers, while horse artillery batteries had six 6-pounder cannons and two 7-pounder howitzers. An infantry regiment comprised three line battalions. Each line battalion had five 174-man companies, while each fusilier battalion had four 165-man companies. Each line battalion was assigned a 6-pounder cannon and four gunners to work the piece. The fusilier battalions did not go to war with their regimental cannons in 1806.