Hassenhausen

Schmettau deploys to attack Hassenhausen, and Blücher arrives with cavalry on his left. Together they push Gudin’s troops back into the village. At 8.30 a.m. Wartensleben’s division arrives with Brunswick, who sends its infantry to the left and its cavalry to the right. At 9 a.m. the rest of the French cavalry comes up on Gudin’s left.

The wounded Duke of Brunswick led from the field among retreating Prussians, by Richard Knötel, 1895Wikimedia Commons, Richard Knötel, Public domain (Doppelschlacht bei Jena und Auerstadt.jpg)

At 9.30 a.m. Friant’s division and the 12-pounder guns arrive on Gudin’s right and advance in squares, forcing Blücher’s cavalry back. Blücher charges the squares, and his battered regiments are put to flight by French chasseurs held back behind a hill. At the same time two of Wartensleben’s regiments attack Hassenhausen, and the French battalions stand under grapeshot with the call “serrez vos rangs”, close ranks.

Shortly before 10 a.m. Brunswick orders a full assault on Hassenhausen. He is shot through both eyes and carried from the field mortally wounded, and Schmettau is badly wounded as well. With both commanders gone, the Prussian command breaks down.

Sources

John Gallaher, The Iron Marshal: A Biography of Louis N. Davout (2018).
F. Loraine Petre, Napoleon’s Conquest of Prussia 1806 (1907).

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