Battle of Lützen (1632)

Preparations

The November 14th, Wallenstein decided to divide its forces and to make retirement towards its principal camping of Leipzig. It considered improbable a movement of the army Swedish ordered by Gustave Adolphe, because of a particularly cold time; however this last had decided some differently. In the small hour of the November 15th its army advanced out of the camp towards the last known position of Wallenstein and tried to take this last by surprise. The Saxons were not any more where it was thought, and one in vain awaited them during 4 hours; walk began again, but the bad condition of the road, slowed down artillery. For Ripach, it was necessary to start a true combat to disperse a Croatian formation .

When the night fell both armies were still separated by two to three kilometers. Wallenstein had had wind of the approach of Swedish in the afternoon. Seeing the danger it had sent a note to the general Pappenheim while ordering to him to as quickly return as possible with its army corps. Pappenheim accepted the note after midnight, and immediately got under way with almost all its troops to traverse the 40 km which separated it from Wallenstein. During the night this one, conscious of its clear numerical inferiority, deployed its army in defensive position along the main roads of Lützen to Leipzig which it reinforced with trenches. It pressed its right side on a low hill, on which it placed its principal artillery battery.

The fog of the morning made await the advance of the Swedish army, but at 9 a.m. the two forces are transfered finally. A complex network of channels prevented the Protestant army being spread and from being ready to launch its attack before 11 hours of the morning.

Unfolding

At the beginning the battle began well for the Protestants who had succeeded in surrounding the left wing of Wallenstein which was its weak point. Just when the disaster appeared imminent, Pappenheim arrived with two to three thousand riders and pushed back Swedish. But during the load Pappenheim was mortally wounded. He succumbed whereas he was evacuated in a car.

Shortly after midday Gustave Adolphe was killed by carrying out a load of cavalry. However in the thick smoke of the powder and the fog its fate remained unknown during some time. The infantry continued to follow the orders and tried the attack of the firmly cut off imperial center but was decimated by the fire of artillery and the infantry then the load of cavalry. Panic started when the third in command, Dodo von Knijphausen, could rejoin the soldiers; the chief as a second Bernard of Saxony-Weimar, having learned death from the king came from the left wing to assume the direction of the whole army.

The Swedes started their last attack around 4 p.m. It was a bloody combat with important losses on each side. Finally in the twilight the Swedes took the principal artillery battery of the imperial forces. Those made retirement out of reach, giving up the place.

Around 6 p.m. the infantry of Pappenheim, approximately 3.000 to 4.000 soldiers, arrived. Although the night had fallen they wanted to go up against attack. But Wallenstein considered the situation without hope and ordered to turn over towards Leipzig under cover of the fresh troops.

Consequences

The Protestant army had achieved its principal goal of the countryside: to save Saxony of the imperial impact. However Gustave Adolphe having died, the unification of the German Protestants, was without leader.

The catholic troops had time to recover their losses and to find their balance. The noises of the war continued to thunder during 16 years until the peace of Westphalia in 1648 more.

See too

War Thirty Year old

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