14 October 1806, 6 to 10 a.m.
Lannes attacks in the fog
At about 6 a.m., in thick fog, Lannes’s corps advances from the Landgrafenberg with Suchet’s division on the right and Gazan’s on the left. They drive Tauentzien’s advance guard out of Closewitz and Cospeda and back across the plateau towards Vierzehnheiligen. Napoleon keeps the Imperial Guard on the summit behind them.
Napoleon at the battle of Jena, painting by Ernest Meissonier, 19th centuryWikimedia Commons, Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Public domain (Jena 1806.jpg)
The French flanks come up in turn. On the right Saint-Hilaire’s division of Soult’s IV Corps climbs from the Saale valley, attacks the Prussian left and cuts it off from the rest of Hohenlohe’s army. On the left Augereau’s VII Corps marches up the Mühltal from Jena towards Isserstedt. Hohenlohe, who has misjudged the strength and direction of the attack, brings his divisions forward from their camps to form a line in front of Vierzehnheiligen, with the Saxons on his right.
Sources
- David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966).
- F. Loraine Petre, Napoleon’s Conquest of Prussia 1806 (1907).
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