The battle, which took place on the edge of the vast Göhrde forest, not far from a small village about 100 km southeast of the seaport of Hamburg, is among the least known of the bloody campaign of 1813, which sounds the death knell for French Germany. No mention is made of it in the History of the Consulate and the Empire - commented chronology (1). However, it pits part of Marshal Davout's 13th Corps under the command of General Marc Nicolas Louis Pécheux against the Anglo-Russian troops led by General Wallmoden-Gimborn. Unlike Napoleon's famous battles in Saxony, this confrontation on the banks of the Elbe took place at the very gates of the French Empire, more precisely on the territory of the Kingdom of Westphalia. The battle, without counting among the French victories, nevertheless illustrates the military genius, the heroism, and the bravery of the French soldier in the face of an enemy army superior in number and equipment.
The battle took place in a wooded plain south of Lüneburg, on the banks of the Elbe. Just a few kilometers away is the small village of Göhrde, which also gives its name to the forest. In 1813, there was still at the entrance to the village the superb hunting lodge built by the Huguenot architect Louis Rémy de la Fosse at the beginning of the previous century for the prince-elector of Hanover and future king of Great Britain (2). Until the middle of the 18th century, the Göhrde Forest hosted royal hunts during the visits of British sovereigns to their home country.
Empire Outpost
In 1810, Napoleon ceded this region to his brother Jérôme by the first Treaty of Paris between the Empire and the Kingdom of Westphalia (3). A year later, the northern part of Hanover was united with the Empire with the creation of the Hanseatic departments. The Göhrde forest is therefore located in the Westphalian department of Aller, a few kilometers south of the new French department of Bouches-de-l’Elbe. In September 1813, the Elbe, which flows a few kilometers east of the forest, made the kingdom and especially the department of Aller, an outpost of the French Empire on the border of Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, enemy country for six months.
Because the combat zone is fast approaching Westphalia. September 1813 was a pivotal moment in the existence of French Germany and the Confederation of the Rhine. Prussia's change of heart in March not only strengthened the Russian troops in their fierce fight against the Emperor but also profoundly destabilized the German confederation, created in 1806 by Napoleon (4). The Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the first sovereign of this confederation allied with France to join the coalition troops, on March 25, 1813 (5). At the same time, Eugène de Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy, set up his headquarters in Magdeburg, a city intensely fortified since January 1813 by the intervention of King Jerome on the orders of the Emperor (6). Subsequently, Davout took care to establish with his troops along the Elbe a line of defense and communication from Hamburg to Magdeburg.
This French line along the left bank of the Elbe quickly became the target of Allied troops after the end of the armistice at the end of August 1813. On July 22, 1813, Sweden joined the Sixth Coalition and the Allies decided to create the Northern Army intended to block and weaken Davout's troops. It must also prevent them from joining the troops under the command of Napoleon in Saxony. It is placed under the command of Bernadotte, Swedish crown prince and former marshal of the Empire who was military governor of Hanover in 1804-1805.
The Northern Army consists not only of Swedish and Prussian troops but also of Anglo-Hanoverian troops (King's German Legion) and the new German-Russian Legion. The latter was placed under the command of General von Wallmoden-Gimborn who led it to the banks of the Stecknitz in Mecklenburg (7). From the end of the armistice, and by Bernadotte's wishes, this small duchy on the Baltic coast and on the borders of Swedish Pomerania, the first to leave the Confederation of the Rhine, must subsequently serve as a point of contact for him. departure for the offensives against Davout's French troops.
The northern front on the banks of the Elbe
Despite the failure of the French attack against Berlin at Großbeeren on August 23, Wallmoden feared a new offensive from Davout. He judges the time has come to attempt an offensive behind the French lines, on the left bank of the Elbe. On August 24, he attacked the French military posts at Quickborn, Damnatz, and Dannenberg. After a day of bitter fighting, the French posts temporarily retreated to Blekede, on the Franco-Westphalian border. This first enemy assault interrupted the lines of communication between Davout's headquarters in Hamburg and General Girard's observation corps in Magdeburg (8).
Thus, the northeastern border of the Kingdom of Westphalia suddenly and completely exposed over a length of 50 km. The army of the Westphalian ally almost wiped out a few months earlier on the snowy plains of Russia, is no longer able to protect the borders of the brother kingdom. The newly raised regiments, with great difficulty during the spring of 1813, joined Napoleon's troops in Saxony.
The prelude
Taking advantage of the temporary withdrawal of the French posts, Wallmoden gave the signal to establish a bridgehead on the Westphalian bank of the Elbe, opposite the Mecklenburg fortress of Dömitz. Once the construction work on the wooden bridge was completed, Wallmoden sent the first part of his troops to the left bank of the Elbe where he learned, through the interception of General Pécheux on his way to Magdeburg, that Davout had just made send one of his generals to Magdeburg to re-establish military posts on the left bank.
General Pécheux's mission is to drive Wallmoden's corps from the left bank of the Elbe and destroy the Dömitz bridge. To re-establish the French military outpost in the Westphalian department of Aller, he was accompanied by 3,000 infantrymen with eight cannons and eighty mounted hunters (9). The commander of the Magdeburg fortress, General Jean Léonor François Lemarrois (1776-1836), had to send him a division to assist him in his perilous mission (10).
Ill-informed of the exact strength of General Pécheux's corps and the divisions sent by Lemarrois, Wallmoden decided to set out to meet them with the bulk of his troops. 12,300 soldiers, including a large number of soldiers from the Anglo-Hanoverian Legion, left their headquarters in Hagenow and crossed the Elbe on the new bridge in Dömitz on the night of September 14-15. Not only was the number of enemy soldiers four times greater than Pécheux's forces, but Wallmoden also had thirty-eight cannons, 3,200 horse hunters, three Cossack regiments, and an English rocket battery. The bulk of enemy troops camped in the town of Dannenberg, hastily evacuated by the French squadron on August 24.
The confrontation
Pécheux crosses the Elbe south of Hamburg and continues its route towards Magdeburg on the left bank of the Elbe. On September 14 in Lüneburg, the last French sub-prefecture before the border, he was informed of the presence of soldiers from Wallmoden in Dömitz, on the right bank of the Elbe. Unaware of their crossing of the Elbe the following night, but sensing the imminent danger of his mission in “enemy” land, he immediately informed Davout. We admire his insight at this crucial moment because we must not forget that he advances almost blindly, due to lack of sufficient scouts. Davout, aware of the risks, however, ordered him to continue his route beyond the Westphalian border to Dahlenburg to chase the Cossacks from the left bank of the Elbe and create a diversion for the enemy troops during the passage of a large delivery. powder, leaving shortly before Hanover for the fortress of Magdeburg (11).
Thus, Pécheux's corps marched straight towards Wallmoden's troops who at the same time continued their movements on the road from Dannenberg to Göhrde, where they arrived on September 16 in the early morning. Wallmoden's plan, at this point, is to await the arrival of Pécheux and lure his troops into an ambush in the vast Göhrde forest. But the latter, aware of the danger, stopped the bulk of his body on a hill (Steinker Hügel), next to the postal road from Lüneburg to Dannenberg, between the two villages of Oldendorf and Göhrde. This hill has the advantage of offering a good overview of the wooded terrain and heather around it. The rest of his troops were stationed a few kilometers away, in the village of Oldendorf, to cover the only possibility of withdrawal to Lüneburg if necessary.
Finally, the two bodies finally confront each other around three o'clock in the afternoon. From the start of hostilities, Pécheux and his three thousand men found themselves attacked from two sides by the much stronger troops led by Wallmoden. While his generals von Tettenborn (12), von Dörnberg (13), and Lyon (14) reached the hill from the front, General Ahrenschildt (15) approached from behind through the forest to surround the French troops on the hill and cut off their retreat to Lüneburg. But that's not all, because the new English rockets are causing panic. All afternoon of September 16, Pécheux defended himself valiantly with only five battalions and eight cannons from the top of his hill against an enemy superior in number, but poorly directed.
Despite the heroism of the French soldier and his intrepid command, everything changed when Ahrenschild with his horsemen chased the Pécheux rearguard from the village of Oldendorf and occupied the neighboring hamlet of Eichendorf. The French general saw the trap closing around him and with around 2,500 men exited to the north through the village of Breese. At the same time, around six o'clock in the evening, the enemy offensive allowed him to seize French cannons, sixteen vans, and a forge the troops had abandoned on the battlefield before their hasty retreat towards Lüneburg.
Suppose the outcome of the battle was not favorable to France and the continuation of the German campaign. In that case, we must still recognize the particular merit of Pécheux for having managed to stand up to his adversaries for hours and above all with such low numbers. More than half of his men returned to Lüneburg the day after the battle.
Epilogue
Subsequently, Pécheux withdrew to Hamburg where he remained with Davout until the city's surrender in May 1814. The marshal did not succeed in reestablishing the French defense line on the left bank of the Elbe as far as Magdeburg. , despite the fierce defense of the fortress of this city. But this symbol of French military force in the heart of Germany does not, any more than Davout's defense of Hamburg, allow us to preserve the status quo of French Germany. After Mecklenburg, Bavaria prepared to leave the Confederation of the Rhine in the same month of September 1813 (16). Just two weeks after this first major battle on the territory of the Westphalian ally, on September 28, King Jerome had to leave his capital in the face of the Cossack assault.
Returning a few days later thanks to armed force, the outcome of the Battle of the Nations just one month after the Battle of the Göhrde definitively overthrew his throne and put an end to the existence of the Hanseatic departments. The great Empire, with its outpost on the Elbe, ceased to exist.
1• Jean-Paul Bertaud, History of the Consulate and the Empire – Commented Chronology, Paris, Perrin, 2014, p. 247. On the date of September 13, we find the brief mention: “Blücher and Bernadotte converge towards Leipzig. »
2• Louis Rémy de la Fosse (1666-1726), a French architect from Languedoc, was the first architect of Prince Elector George Louis of Hanover (1660-1727) from 1706. In 1714, the latter ascended the English throne under the name of George I.
3• Treaty of January 14, 1810. Hanover, private property of the kings of Great Britain, was occupied by the French army in June 1803. In 1806, the country returned to Prussia and was again occupied by the French army at the end of that same year. A military governor and an executive commission reside in Hanover (see Olivier Baustian, The Kingdom of Westphalia and the Continental System 1807-1813, to be published by Éditions SPM).
4• The Kingdom of Prussia, dismembered by the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 for the benefit of the Kingdom of Westphalia, never became part of the Confederation of the Rhine. Until the spring of 1813, the kingdom was an unwilling ally of France.
5• The reigning duke since 1785, Frédéric-François (1756-1837), is the grandfather of the future daughter-in-law of King Louis-Philippe, Hélène de Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1814-1858), married to the duke of Orleans in 1837.
6• Without warning the Emperor, King Jerome sent his wife, Queen Catherine, to Paris on March 8, 1813, to protect her from future battles. Napoleon placed her under house arrest at the Château de Meudon where she remained until her husband arrived in France in November of the same year, after the fall of his throne.
7• The Duchy of Lauenburg, on the right bank of the Elbe, has been part of the electorate of Hanover since 1689. Occupied by the French army from 1803, it was united with the department of the Elbe by the Senatus-consult of December 13, 1810, and the creation of the Hanseatic departments the following year.
8• General Jean-Baptiste Girard (1775-1815), Duke of Ligny by imperial decree of June 21, 1815 (contested) and Baron of the Empire (1808), has been commander of the observation division in Magdeburg since July 1813.
9• Among the soldiers of General Pécheux there are also Danish soldiers. Denmark has been allied with France since the bombardment of Copenhagen by the English in 1807.
10• The troops sent by General Lemarrois must re-establish or reinforce French military posts in Westphalia, in the area north of Magdeburg, notably in Stendal, Salzwedel, and Hitzacker, a town south of Dannenberg, a few kilometers from the battlefield of the Göhrde. Unfortunately for him, they had not yet arrived at Hitzacker when Pécheux approached the Göhrde forest on September 16, 1813.
11• Hanover, former capital of the eponymous electorate, was occupied on June 5, 1803 by the future Marshal Mortier and became the capital of the Westphalian department of Aller in 1810.
12• Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Tettenborn (1778-1845), cavalry general. Serving Russia in 1813, he occupied Hamburg in the spring of 1813.
13• Hessian general Wilhelm Caspar Ferdinand von Dörnberg (1768-1850), former officer of King Jerome's riflemen, was primarily responsible for an abortive riot of armed peasants against the Westphalian government in Cassel in the spring of 1809. After his flight, he first joined forces with the Duke of Brunswick who also tried, and unsuccessfully in the same year, to raise Westphalia against King Jerome and French hegemony, then emigrated to England. Returning to the continent for diplomatic missions in 1812-1813, he entered the service of Russia and fought General Morand at Lüneburg on April 2, 1813. This fight did not prevent the reconquest of Hamburg by Davout a few weeks later.
14• Frederick Lyon (1775-1842), British general at the head of the Anglo-Hanoverian Legion in 1813.
15• Wilhelm Daniel von Arentschildt (1761-1835), general of the German-Russian legion in 1813.
16• The King of Bavaria (king, it must be emphasized, by the grace of the Emperor) signs an armistice with the Allies the day after the Battle of the Göhrde.
A terrible region
At the start of the first military occupation of Hanover (1803-1805) by Mortier's troops, a French traveler crossed this sad-looking and very sparsely populated region and gave the following account: “Leaving Zell [Celle], we cross a black wood for at least two leagues; and from this city to Haarbourg […], one does not always pass on sandy roads, but on moors as far as the eye can see. You can gain height like at sea, to know where you are. From here and there, geese, ducks, and sheep of a miserable species indicate the proximity of a puny hamlet or a dwelling. What haunts! Families with sallow complexions and torn clothes chat, dine, and sleep in the stables of their cattle. […] We climb onto a plateau from which a very extensive view is presented. But we hover over heather, large puddles of water, and some abandoned woods on these sad plains. We drive for more than two hours on the sand rivers, to which we have given the name of paths. » (Michel Ange Bernard de Mangourit, Journey to Hanover made in the years 1803 and 1804, Paris, 1805, pp. 55-59)
General Wallmoden-Gimborn (1769-1862)
Ludwig Georg von Wallmoden-Gimborn was the second son of Hanoverian Field Marshal Johann Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn (1736-1811), the illegitimate son of King George II of Great Britain, who capitulated to Marshal Mortier on July 5, 1803 ( Artlenburg Convention). He began his military career in the Hanoverian army before serving in the Austrian army where he was promoted to marshal after the Battle of Wagram. In 1813 he transferred to Russian service. After French troops recaptured Hamburg on May 30, 1813, Bernadotte ordered him to evacuate the former Hanoverian Duchy of Lauenburg and observe the movements of the 13th Corps under Davout.
General Marc-Nicolas-Louis Pécheux (1769-1831)
Marc-Nicolas-Louis Pécheux, Baron of the Empire since 1808, is originally from Aisne. This soldier is not a stranger in Hanover. As brigade leader, in 1803 he participated in the short but brilliant Hanover campaign of the future Marshal Mortier. Throughout the first military occupation of Hanover (1803-1805), Pécheux was assigned as colonel to the 95th line, then served at Austerlitz and contributed to the capture of Lubeck the following year. After his return from Spain, he was assigned as division general to Davout's 13th corps on August 9, 1813 (1).
1• Davout was appointed commander of the 13th Corps of the Grande Armée in Germany on the previous July 1.
The number of soldiers who fell on the battlefield is around five hundred. During the fighting of the retreat, Wallmoden also took around five hundred prisoners.
Commemoration
While France has long forgotten the valiant General Pécheux and the miracle of his successful retreat at Göhrde, this bloody episode of the so-called “war of liberation” still has its place in German history. We still feel it today when we participate in the reenactment of the battle which takes place every two years, in September, with several hundred enthusiastic reenactors. Without doubt, the extraordinary story of a young Prussian girl, Éléonore Prochaska, who disguised herself as a soldier to fight Napoleon's soldiers with the Lützow hunters and who died there during the assault on Göhrde, contributes to this a lot.
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