Background
Since the beginning of October 1759, Field Marshal Daun was trying to gradually drive the Prussian army of Prince Heinrich out of the left bank of the Elbe. Already, by mid-October, by turning the Prussian right wing. Daun had forced Prince Heinrich to retreat from Strehla to Torgau.
Daun was now repeating a similar manoeuvre, hoping to dislodge the Prussians from Torgau and to force them to recross to the right bank of the Elbe. To do so, Daun had despatched several corps around their right wing. Arenberg had taken position at Dommitzsch with a strong corps. He had then been reinforced by Gemmingen’s Corps, while Brentano’s Corps covered his left flank and a new corps under G.d.C. Karl Claudius Count O’Donell was marching on Düben.
Towards the end of October, Major-General Wunsch convinced Prince Heinrich to break the encirclement with an attack against Arenberg’s Corps at Dommitzsch. The plan called for a small detachment under Wunsch to make a junction with Rebentisch’s Corps at Kemberg. Meanwhile, Finck’s Corps would stand ready to launch an attack on Arenberg’s positions from Elsnig. Thus, Rebentisch’s and Wunsch’s forces would attack from the northwest while Finck would advance from the southeast. Together, they would trap and annihilate Arenberg’s Corps.
On October 26, Wunsch crossed to the right bank of the Elbe at Torgau with 6 bns and 10 sqns. He marched downstream along the Elbe to Wittenberg. On October 27, he reached Wittenberg. On October 28, he crossed to the left bank of the Elbe on a hastily established boat-bridge. Meanwhile, Rebentisch’s Corps marched from Bitterfeld to Gräfenhainichen.
However, Arenberg was informed of the crossing of the Elbe by Wunsch and of the junction of two Prussian forces to the northwest of his own positions. Daun ordered him to march on October 29 before daybreak towards Kemberg. He also instructed O’Donell to immediately march to Düben to support Arenberg. The two Austrian corps would then attack Wunsch and Rebentisch, drive them back, advance to Wittenberg and clear the left bank from Prussian troops. Arenberg and O’Donell should then send strong detachments to the east bank of the Elbe to cut the supply line of Prince Heinrich’s Army.
During the night of October 28 to 29, based on erroneous reports stating that Rebentisch’s Corps was still west of the Mulde River between Bitterfeld and Leipzig, Arenberg sent O’Donell orders to stop at Düben. O’Donell tried to confirm the report
On October 29 at 3:00 a.m., Arenberg set off from Dommitzsch in two columns and marched towards Kemberg. Gemmingen led the vanguard. Brentano’s Corps, which had been reinforced with Serbelloni Cuirassiers and Saint-Ignon Dragoons , followed the main body to cover the line of retreat. Including Brentano’s Corps, Arenberg was at the head of 16,000 men.
Early in the morning, Wunsch’s detachment and Rebentisch’s Corps made a junction at Kemberg, to begin their advance by way of Pretzsch towards Dommitzsch. Together, they numbered 9 battalions and 25 squadrons.
When Finck was informed that Arenberg’s Corps had abandoned its positions at Dommitzsch. He sent Major-General von Krockow with the Normann Dragoons and 2 grenadier battalions to follow the enemy. Prince Heinrich soon followed with the rest of Finck’s Corps.
O’Donell finally received confirmation that Rebentisch’s Corps had in fact set off from Bitterfeld and marched towards Kemberg.
Rebentisch and Wunsch were approaching the village of Merkwitz, to the southeast of Kemberg, when hussars informed them that they had spotted an enemy column near Pretzsch. Wunsch sent Jung-Platen Dragoons with their Horse Artillery battery forward beyond Merkwitz. Protected by the Jung-Platen Dragoons, Lieutenant Schwebs deployed his light guns behind a hillock to the west of the road leading to Pretzsch. These guns immediately opened on the Austrian cavalry which could be seen deploying near Oesteritz.
The Württemberg Dragoons and the Freibataillon Salenmon arrived at Merkwitz. The latter occupied the village while Rebentisch marched across Merkwitz with the infantry and deployed it in two lines to the southeast of the village.
Prince Heinrich followed Krockow with the rest of Finck’s Corps. The sound of the guns could soon be heard to the northwest. Evidently, Arenberg’s Corps had encountered Rebentisch and Wunsch and was now caught between two Prussian forces.
Around 11:00 a.m., O’Donell too could hear the sound of the guns. He immediately marched towards Kemberg.
Near Pretzsch, Finck’s vanguard found his way blocked by Brentano’s Corps and opened on its cavalry with its battalion guns. Finck’s main body accelerated its march.
Arenberg deployed his infantry south of Meuro. However, overestimating the size of the Prussian forces deployed near Merkwitz, he did not dare to launch an attack against it. Fearing to have his position turned from the west and his line of retreat cut, Arenberg hastily marched across the heath towards Düben.
For his part, Brentano managed to retire from Schmiedeberg to Düben without significant losses, before Finck’s Corps could overtake him.
Things did not work as well for the Austrian vanguard under FML Gemmingen, who had been charged to cover Arenberg’s retreat and then retire in the same direction. Wunsch had pressed ahead with the cavalry, supported by the Horse Artillery battery and had caught up with the Austrian cavalry near Gommlo. The Austrians had already suffered heavy losses from the artillery fire. The Austrian cavalry deployed to cover the retreat of its infantry.
Jung-Platen Dragoons and Gersdorff Hussars attacked the Austrian cavalry frontally, while Major von Lossow with 3 sqns of Möhring Hussars fell on their right flank. The Austrian cavalry broke and routed, throwing themselves into the ranks of their infantry, part of which had already reached the edge of the forest.
The routing Austrian cavalry fled and the Prussian cavalry, supported by Freibataillon Salenmon advanced to catch up with Gemmingen’s infantry.
Gemmingen had sent Colonel Haller at the head of his vanguard (2,000 men) to occupy the heights of the Sackwitz wood to cover his retreat. However, Haller’s detachment had not yet reached the summit when Jung Platen Dragoons along with Prussian hussars appeared on the crest. The Prussian cavalry immediately charged the Austrian infantry and drove them back. FML Gemmingen, who had been wounded, surrendered as prisoner to Captain von Franckenberg of the Jung-Platen Dragoons.
As O’Donell was approaching Düben with his corps, he met runaways on the heath, who informed him of Arenberg’s defeat. He was only an hour’s march from Kemberg, when he turned back and retired towards Düben.
Rebentisch and Wunsch encamped near Meuro, while Finck encamped at Pretzsch and Dommitzsch.
In this action, the Austrians lost 24 officers and 1,276 men taken prisoners (several of them joined the Prussian service). Jung Platen Dragoons captured a gun, 7 ammunition wagons and a large quantity of baggage. The Prussians lost only 3 officers and 105 men killed or wounded.
http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=1759-10-29_-_Combat_of_Pretzsch
The Game
I had never heard of this battle, but I saw it on the Kronsgraf SYW site and thought it would make a nice game. There is a certain degree of fog of war for both sides, so it is not just your standard “line em up” type of game. I only had a few players, so something manageable was in order!
I made a few tweaks to the variant rules. A few terrain considerations, mostly. The forces were more evenly matched in quality, so it would be a good test.
The battlefield was virtually littered with farmsteads and tiny hamlets. I decided to not represent all of them and just say all the open area was light cover for shooting. I sprinkled in a few buildings, just for the aesthetic. For the actual towns that could be occupied, they got a base.
There were a large number of streams and these were all crossable, from what I could tell, so they were in the game. All the other terrain was as is.
The battle had a number of cavalry regiments operating by themselves, so each unit in the game was a regiment, not a brigade. This made the units very fragile (much like the base rules for 19th century). I also broke up the Grenzers into detachments, for the same reason. The guns represented the horse battery referenced. All the main infantry was organized into brigades.
The game set up started with the Prussian main force deployed around Pretzsch. The Austrians then deployed their columns on the roads, as desired (west of the main stream). The Prussians then deployed the rest of their commands in the center of the table, to reflect the trap. The Austrian column commanded by O’Donnel was off the table (unknown to the Prussians) and would enter on the southern road on a random turn. They he Austrian player would roll 1D6 each turn. If the number was less than the turn number, the force would arrive.
The player that held Pretzsch, at the end of the game, would gain five victory points. Otherwise, each player would gain one victory point for each enemy unit eliminated (grenzer detachments counted half). The game was to be twelve turns long.
The Austrians were surprised by the actual location of the Prussians . This caused them some confusion in the early game, as they tried to force the position, while redeploying forces differently than their original plan.
The Prussians felt quite confident, particularly after their artillery had a few turns of very effective shooting. Seeing the Austrian struggling to get across the stream, they moved forward aggressively against the forces, before they could get themselves organized. This included a number of cavalry charges against isolated units.
The charges caused more delays in the Austrian deployment, but ended up being a little more costly than the Prussians expected. However, they felt they had the Austrians on the back foot and brought their entire army forward to form a forward line and push the Austrians back.
Slowly, but surely, the Austrians formed up their infantry brigades and formed a solid battle line to face off against the aggressive Prussians. The defense stiffened and they were able to through the early attacks back. The Prussians continued to press forward. The woods in the north started to become untenable, so the Prussians decided to pull back, before their position was turned and concentrate on the Austrian center.
The Prussians had some early success, but realized they also needed to get their forces into a more proper battle order and started to shift their forces to do this, as they sent the cavalry forward (unsuccessfully) to attack the Austrians.
With all their forces committed, it was at this point that O’Donnel’s column arrived! The Prussians were now in a pickle and tried to get their forward forces back to cover the town, which they had totally vacated. The Austrians having the road march allowed them to win the race easily. The Prussian forces tried to fall back, but once again did so piecemeal.
We made it to turn twelve and the Prussians resolved themselves that they would not be able to retake the town, so they launched some forlorn attacks in the center to see if they could win, based on casualties. Alas, it was not too be. The Austrians held Pretzsch and managed to keep the casualties even. With that, we had an ahistorical Austrian victory. There would be one less marshal in the Prussian army!
- Manteuffel
Very cool scenario!