GEN EU A L HISTORY 



[133 



Conjecturing their intention to be 

 either to attack the combined ar- 

 my as it was crossing the Elbe, or 

 to push for Berlin, he made a 

 halt, and soon learned, that the 

 enemy was marching upon Zahne, 

 where a corps belonging to count 

 Tauentzein's division was posted. 

 They attacked that post in the 

 evening of the 4th, but without 

 success. On ihe 5th the attack 

 was renewed with a force so supe- 

 rior, that the post,, and another at 

 Seyda, were carried. On the 6th, 

 the Crown Prince having collected 

 the Swedish and Russian armies 

 upon the heights of Lobessen, was 

 informed that the enemy's whole 

 army, consisting of 70,000 men, 

 and composed of the corps d'armee 

 of the marshal duke of Reggio, 

 of the generals Bertrand and Reg- 

 nier, of the duke of Padua, and 

 a body of Polish horse, the whole 

 under the command of the mar- 

 shal prince of Moskwa, Ney, was 

 in full march upon Juterbock. He 

 immediately directed gen. Bulow, 

 with the Prussians, to attack the 

 flank and rear of the enemy, be- 

 fore Tauentzein, who defended 

 the approaches of the town, should 

 be overwhelmed by numbers. The 

 action soon commenced between 

 the enemy and the Prussians, who 

 sustained with great firmness the 

 force of superior numbers, whilst 

 the Swedes and Russians, after a 

 long march, were getting into or- 

 der of battle. Part of their cavalry 

 arriving at full speed checked the 

 efforts of the enemy, and as soon 

 as the columns began to appear, 

 the day was decided, and the 

 French beat a retreat. They were 

 vigorously pursued ; and the re- 

 Salt on the 8th, was a return of 



the enemy's loss in killed, wound- 

 ed, and prisoners, at from 16 to 

 18,000 men, with more than 50 

 pieces of cannon, and 400 ammu- 

 nition waggons. The loss of the 

 allies fell almost solely upon the 

 Prussiansjwho had from 4- to 5,000 

 killed and wounded. This battle 

 was fought near the village of 

 Dennewitz, whose name it bears. 

 The French retired upon Torgau, 

 still pursued by the light troops of 

 the combined army, who made 

 800 prisoners close to the tete-du- 

 pont of that town. Whilst these 

 events were passing in this quar- 

 ter, the prince of Eckmuhl (Da- 

 voust) in the night between the 

 2nd and 3rd of Sept. evacuated 

 Schwerin in Mecklenburgh,and re- 

 treated in two columns to Ratze- 

 burg, the division of general Loi- 

 son at the same time retiring from 

 Wismar to Schoneburg. At this 

 place the Danes separated from 

 the French, and marched to Lu- 

 beck, where they left a garrison. 

 The whole French corps after- 

 wards fell back behind the Stecke- 

 nitz, where they entrenched them- 

 selves, having suffered considerable 

 loss in their precipitate retreat. 



These important successes to the 

 allied arms more than compen- 

 sated their failure before Dresden, 

 and on the 4th and 5th of Septem- 

 ber, the combined army in Bohe- 

 mia made a forward movement, 

 the effect of which was, to recall 

 Napoleon from a meditated attack 

 upon Blucher, who had fallen back 

 before the superior forces brought 

 against him. The Russians and 

 Prussians, under Barclay de Tolly 

 andWitgenstein,re-entered Saxony 

 by Peterswalde and Marienberg, 

 and pushed advanced posts within 



