"The Forgotten Battle of the Napoleonic Epoch" Topic

"In the beginning of December 1812 the situation of the Napoleonic army retreating from Russia was very difficult. The multinational Grand Army, exhausted by a long campaign, was only a wreck of the army that in the summer had marched to Moscow. In view of the alarming messages from Paris, on 5th December Napoleon decided to leave his soldiers and go back to France. His marshals were ordered to continue delaying actions which were designed to spare time for the emperor to arrive in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw with the fresh forces. A special role in those actions was given to Major-General Count Jean Reynier, the commander of the 7th Saxon corps.

In view of the betrayal by the Prussian and Austrian contingents assisting the Grand Army, the Saxon corps were the last unit that could provide support for the 5th Polish corps of Prince Poniatowski organised near Piotrków. For this reason, it was especially important for Reynier's soldiers to maintain their position near Kalisz, where the two corps were supposed to combine in the middle of February 1813. Moreover, keeping Kalisz in the Napoleonic hands closed the tsarist soldiers a way back to Prussian Silesia. This had an additional value, if one takes into account the indecisive attitude of Frederick Wilhelm III…."
Main page

link

Amicalement
Armand

Nice summary, too bad the .pdf itself is in Polish.

Glad you like it my friend! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Tango01

There's a description of the action, starting on page 27, in the new edition of Lutzen and Bautzen by George Nafziger.

Many thanks my good friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Yes a pity, I did not know that Tango could read Polish to recommend that article.

I cannot see any betrayal of the Austrians nor the Prussians, they were forced against their will into that attack against Russia, despite that they fought quite well in this conflict, otherwise they had stronger loyalties to their own rulers than to Boney.