14 October 1806, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Ney at Vierzehnheiligen
At about 10 a.m. Ney arrives with the head of his VI Corps and, without orders, attacks in the gap between Lannes and Augereau and takes Vierzehnheiligen. His attack runs too far. Under heavy fire from the Prussian guns he is counterattacked and enveloped by cavalry, and his battalions form squares to hold their ground.
A French dragoon with a captured Prussian flag at Jena, painting by Édouard Detaille, 1898Wikimedia Commons, Édouard Detaille, Public domain (Battle of Jena.jpg)
Napoleon sends Lannes across to help Ney and keeps the Imperial Guard ready behind the centre. The Prussian commanders do not press their advantage. Their infantry, Grawert’s division among them, stand in the open in front of Vierzehnheiligen under the fire of French guns and of skirmishers in the village and its gardens. A Prussian general later writes that the entrance of the village is “the scene of the most terrible blood-letting and slaughter”.
Sources
- David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966).
- F. Loraine Petre, Napoleon’s Conquest of Prussia 1806 (1907).
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