Campaign Battles of Luckenwalde and Petkus

On 11 February 1807 the French left wing, facing the Prussians, saw an opportunity to monster the exposed extreme right of the Prussian line.  From the French perspective the situation looked like this:

That the Russians were at last in-theatre had been confirmed by scouts, but it was hoped that a quick strike on a limited field would defeat the Prussians before substantial help could arrive.

The Battle of Luckenwalde

Marshals Bernadotte and Davout attacked on the morning of the twelfth.  

The field was bisected by a marshy stream running across the front, and east of the stream the field narrowed to a defile perhaps a half mile wide between two extensive woods.

Crown Prince Ludwig's Avant Gard was isolated near the stream running north from the marshes near Jänickendorf, although two more divisions (the reserves from Brandenburg and Posen) were hidden in the woods further east.  

Coalition Generals planning to stay alive until help can arrive.  Russian commander Michael W.
on the right, Prussian commander Michael B, centre, and guest general Ricky,
playing  his first game with these rules, at left in red.
The two eastern corners of the field are entirely wooded, indicated by the tree-lined borders.

Ludwig withdrew from the trap as fast as he could, falling back on his friends to the east.  A vigorous attack by Morand's division inflicted early casualties, though, as they crossed the stream, and he was supported by both army corps (I and III) flooding onto the field and advancing into the early afternoon.  They were further reinforced by dragoons coming up through the southern woods on the Prussian left flank.

On the other side of the field reinforcements were also arriving.  By midday the three Prussian divisions had been joined by two more, and the first Russian division to be seen on the field - with nine brigades, and strong ones, comparable to a French corps!

French infantry falling back on their friends out of shot to the left (west).  Dragoons coming up f
rom the south (everything inside the ring of trees is actually woods) to be met by Prussians
lining the woods' edge.

The rain never ceased all day, and a mid-morning rainstorm left the ground muddy, making artillery both difficult to move and of dubious value, so this was very much a battle of cold steel - at first that of the French infantry, but in the afternoon of the Coalition cavalry.  

After the initial retreat in the face of French numbers in the morning the three divisions together managed to avoid annihilation until reinforcements arrived - six more divisions of Prussians, followed from mid-morning by Russians.  These were not revealed as such at first, but in the mid-afternoon Sacken's division emerged from the curtain of rain, shook themselves out from the traffic-jam of the defile between the woods to deploy for battle.  Its attack, coordinated with a counter-attack by the Prussians, threw the French back across the stream, although at heavy cost to the Prussian cuirassiers.

Prussian cuirassiers, supported by their infantry and with the first Russian division entering
combat on their right, bring the French to their knees as the light fades.

With dusk coming on the Emperor made the decision to abandon the field.  The Coalition suffered far the heavier casualties in the battle, with four brigades broken and one annihilated in exchange for just one French brigade.  Three Prussian divisions were demoralised from their losses, but with one Russian division already engaged and another three fresh ones still to deploy, the prospect of disaster to the French on a second day's fighting was too great a threat.

The Battle of Petkus

On the following day, the thirteenth, the Prussian and Russian commanders were confident that the force to their right, now scattered to the west, would not renew the fight, but fearing a renewed attack on their left they began to move in that direction.  

The French had indeed contemplated an attack there, striking from the south-east toward Golssen while their enemies were concentrated near Luckenwalde.  As the corps in the west gathered themselves together, though, the sight of another apparently isolated division was too tempting.  The same formations that had fought near Luckenwalde on the twelfth attacked again on the fourteenth, with Morand's division again in the van.  This time the chosen victim was the Stendal Reserve division, to be hit by III Corps before it could either escape or be reinforced. I Corps was just off the field to the north-west, the dragoons again to the south and east, and most of V Corps on the march from the south-east also.

The field of the 14th overlaps with that of two days' earlier - Jänickendorf is now in the NW
and the woods around Liessen through which the dragoons advanced then are now the
base for the attack of Gudin and Friant's divisions.

The Stendal men started the day alone on the field, with Morand's infantry less than a mile away and the rest of III Corps not much further and coming on fast.  Another cloudburst at dawn was good luck for them, slowing the French advance, wetting their muskets and reducing their vision.  Despite that, by 9:00am both Prussian flanks were threatened.  If the French could gain the initiative on the second turn they thought they had a good chance of breaking at least one enemy brigade and maybe more, after which if need be they could fall back, resting on their laurels.

It was not to be.  As the rain cleared, advancing Russians became visible on the French right, and before it could put its attack in Brouard's brigade was surrounded, putting up a gallant but doomed resistance before being swept away by overwhelming numbers.  Winning's division coming up on the Stendalers' right caused Friant and Gudin to think again, and with the initiative lost the French began to fall back.

III Corps falls back from Petkus, with what is left of Morand's division already demoralised
for the remainder of the day (the small black die indicates permanent fatigue, unlike the red ones
that can be removed by going to reserve).  The French blank tucked into the board on the right
indicate that French reinforcements (dragoons, as it happens) are on their way, but Morand
is not sticking around to wait for them.

From there it was all downhill for the French.   For the following two hours coalition reinforcements marched on from the east - first Russians, then Prussians and Russians, and toward midday a strong column of Prussians in the north.

The expected French reinforcements were not coming, but as the morning trickled in, so did news from off-table.  Kellerman's cavalry, along with the I Corps reserve artillery, had met the enemy north of Jänickendorf and been put to flight.  Drouet's and Dupont's infantry divisions were presumably still on their way, but how long until they arrived?

The Prussians learned at the same hour that the Glogau Reserve division had met and been driven off by French dragoons in the south-east.

The Coalition, in fact, had issued deliberate orders to many of their troops to approach the battlefield by circuitous routes, cutting off reinforcements to the main field from both flanks.  By and large this was very successful - although it lost them some of their own reinforcements, delayed others and cost them some casualties, it denied III Corps any help.  Gudin and Friant, led by Davout and the Emperor in person, fell back first through the defile between the two woods, then after Gudin's artillery was overrun by the Russian Chevalier Garde (who only narrowly failed to break the infantry behind), into the southern wood to join Morand.

They were soon glad of the woods.  Although news arrived at midday of an off-field victory by Grouchy's dragoons over some Prussian reserves, and an hour after that of the victory of the rest of the dragoons, reinforced by a division of Lannes' V Corps, over a strong mixed enemy force, what did not arrive was actual help. 

Looking east at the advancing Coalition forces.  Aside from those represented by figures,
green blanks left of top centre indicate another two Russian divisions advancing into or
past the woods around Liessen.

Meanwhile, Russian cavalry guard the left against French reinforcements there,
as well as menacing III Corps' right.

General Drouet, of Bernadotte's I Corps, arrived just off the north-western corner of the table at 1:00pm, but the Prussians there (three divisions under the Duke of Saxe-Weimar) were too strong for him to challenge.  What he could do was threaten their flank from off-table, preventing their advance on Davout's hard-pressed corps.  That threat had its desired effect until Prince Ludwig, also still off-table, drove him off, and an hour later did the same to Dupont as he arrived.  That freed Weimar to lead his column south, at the same time as General Sacken's Russians, having marched via Liessen, emerged from the northern woods on to Davout's left flank.

Saxe-Weimar's column , about to wheel south into III Corps' rear. 
The village of Jänickendorf  is just out of shot to the left.

By mid-afternoon the mud left by the morning's rainstorm, and which had impeded the Coalition advance, had dried up.  The advance was able to become both faster and more orderly, and as III Corps fell back deeper into the wood they were pursued from the east, then from the north by Sacken's division and finally threatened from the north-west by Saxe-Weimar's men.  The trees gave them good protection, especially from cavalry who would in the open have ridden them down, but casualties mounted, and one Prussian charge came within an ace of breaking through the front line to reach Napoleon himself.

The remnants of III Corps at bay, with their generals watching from a safe distance.

At last came darkness, and in the night the French survivors were able to slip way in the shadow of the trees.  Luckenwalde alone might have been just bad luck, but after two such battles in quick succession they are seeing a pattern, and one they don't like.