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THE LONDON GAZETTE
May 25, 1813LETTER FROM LORD CATHCART TO LORD CASTLEREAGH
Dresden, May 6
My Lord My last dispatches informed your Lordship of the arrival of the Ruler of France, and of the concentration of his forces near Erfurth, and towards the Saale, as also of that of the Allies upon the Elster.
I have now the honor of enclosing herewith, the official statements which have been published by the Russian and Prussian Governments, of the general action which took place on the 2nd inst. between the two armies; and after which the Allies remained in possession of the field of battle, and of the positions from which, in the course of the day, they had dislodged the enemy.
The last division of Gen. Tormasoff's corps, having crossed the Elbe on the 28th ult. the whole of it moved forward by forced marches to the Elster. His Imperial Majesty and the King of Prussia arrived at Dorna (?) on the morning of the 1st inst. with the reserve, and the several parts of the army were, on the same day, collected in the vicinity of that place.
Marshal Prince Koutousoff Smolensky was left ill on the march, at Buntzlin, where he died; but his death was not published Count Wittgenstein, at that time at Zwenkan, was appointed to command the army.
He had on that day reconnoitred the enemy, and ascertained his position; and the same evening, a disposition was made for a general attack, to take place on the following morning at day-break.
During the proceeding week, the advance of the enemy's main army towards Naunburg, and the approach of Beauharnais from Quedlinburg, had been indicated by several skirmishes and partial affairs, particularly at and near Halle and Merseburg, where the Prussians behaved with great gallantry.
On the evening of the 1st, the enemy appeared to have great masses of his forces between Lutzen and Weissenfelds, and after dusk a strong column was seen moving in the direction of Leipsic, to which place there was clear evidence that he intended to move.
The advanced corps of Count Wittgenstein's army, having been engaged on the same evening, to the east and north of Lutzen, the cavalry of it remained there, to amuse the enemy in the morning, but with orders to retire gradually. Meanwhile, the several columns of the army were ordered to cross the Elster at Pegau, and bear down, and follow the course of a rivulet, which, rising near the Elster, runs in a north-west direction to the Saale, by which movement, which the ground favored, it was intended to turn the enemy's right between Weissenfelds and Lutzen, while his attention was directed to his left between the latter place and Leipsic.
As soon as their Majesties saw the troops placed according to the disposition, the whole was put in motion towards the enemy.
The country is uncovered and open, the soil, dry and light, but with very considerable variety of hill and valley, and much intersected by hollow ways and mill-streams, the former not discernible till closely approached.
The enemy placed behind a long ridge, and in a string of villages, of which Gofschen is the principal with a hollow way in front and a stream sufficient to float timber on the left, waited he near approach of the allies.
He had an immense quantity of ordnance, of 12-pounders, and larger natures, distributed throughout the line; and in the villages; the batteries in the open country were supported by masses of infantry in solid squares.
The plan of operation determined upon on view of the enemy, was to attack the village of Gros Gorchen with artillery and infantry, and in the meanwhile to pierce the line to the enemy's right of the villages, with a strong column of cavalry, in order to cut off the troops in the villages from support.
The remainder of the enemy's line was to be engaged according to circumstances, by the corps opposed to it.
The cavalry of the Prussian reserve, to whoselot this attack fell, presented themselves and supported their movements with great gallantry, but the showers of grape shot and musketry, to which they were exposed on reaching the hollow way, made it impracticable for them to penetrate; and the enemy appearing to maintain the villages at any expense, the affair assumed the most extensive character of attack and defense, of a post repeatedly taken, lost and re-taken.
The cavalry made several attempts to break the enemy's line, and behaved with the most exemplary coolness and regularity under the very heavy fire; I some of these attacks they succeeded I breaking into the squares and cutting down the infantry.
Late in the evening, Bonaparte, having called in the troops from Leipsic, and collected all his reserves, made an attack from his left on the right of the Allies, supported by the fire of several batteries advancing.
The vivacity of the movement made it expedient to change the front of the nearest brigades on the right, and as the whole cavalry from the left was ordered to the right to turn this attack, and to charge it, I was not without hopes of witnessing the destruction of Buonaparte and all his army; but before the cavalry could arrive, it became so dark that nothing could be distinguished but the flashes of the guns.
The Allies remained in possession of the disputed villages, and of the line on which the enemy had stood.
Orders were given to renew the attack in the morning, but the enemy did not wait for it, and it was judged expedient, with reference to the general posture of the cavalry, not to pursue. The wounded have all been removed across the Elbe, while the cannon and prisoners taken, and the ground wrested from the enemy in the action, are in contestable proofs of the success of the Allies.
Both Sovereigns were in the field the whole day. The King was chiefly near the village where his troops were engaged. The Emperor was repeatedly in every part of the field, where he was received with the most animating cheers by every corps he approached. The fire to which his person was not infrequently exposed, and the casualties which took place near him, did not appear in the least to disturb his attention from the object to which it was directed, and which he followed without any ostentation.
Gen. Wittgenstein, with the army, is between the Elbe and the Elster, with the command of several bridges over the former.
The Russian troops of all corps fully realized the expectations I had formed of their bravery and steadiness; and the emulation and spirit of patriotism which pervades the Prussian army, merits the highest encomium.CATHCART
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-Napoleon Bonaparte
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