Leipzig 1813

Desperate Liaisons: The Polish French Relationship in 1813—An Essay On La Bataille de Wiederitzsch General de Division Jan-Henryk Dombrowski looked out over the horizon from his command post in Klein Wiederitzsch. He saw the Russians of the IX Corps of the Army of Silesia massing and marching up the road ready to attack his battle-hardened, if numerically sparse, 27 th Division of Poles. He knew that earlier in the day, directly to his South, the rest of Blucher’s army had engaged Marshal Marmont in what would be La Bataille de Moekern. Dombrowski’s efforts would be crucial to the defense of Marmont’s position and to the overall management of the French strategic structure. Dombrowski, a Polish national, had started his military career in the service of Saxony as a member of the Elector’s Guard. He was struck by the irony of preparing for a battle in what might be considered the heart of Saxony, where he had started his military career so many years ago. Dombrowski had returned to the Poles as they were finishing up the Wars of Partition in the early 1790’s. He had been promoted to a lieutenant - general in 1794 and was captured by Suvarov in 1795. After his release in 1796, he joined the French army in 1796. He raised a Polish legion to serve in Italy in 1797 and began a successful career on the Italian Peninsula, fighting in many battles and serving in the army of the Cisalpine Republic---the predecessor of the Kingdom of Italy. He served with distinction in Naples (1806); Poland (1807 and 1809) and Russia (1812), where he was wounded at Berezina. As he meditated on his past career, and the many places it had taken him, he realized the desperate position that he, France and Poland were in. He had seen his beloved Poland wiped off the map, and now the French Empire, to whom he had dedicated his martial spirit, was receding quickly after the debacles of 1812 and 1813. Leading the Russians, was a French émigré general, Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, who had left France after the Revolution began in 1789 as a commanding officer of a French royal regiment. As happened so often during the Age of Revolution, this creature of the Ancien Regime, had a successful career fighting for the Russians against the French; Swedes and Turks for more than a generation. His approach of Wiederitzsch was also accompanied by a meditation of his status as a successful Russian general and the irony that he was now participating in what would be the climactic battle of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. However, he had proceeded down the road towards Wiederitzsch with caution as he was convinced that the master himself, Napoleon, was lurking nearby and ready to pounce on his outnumbered IX Corps with the whole of the Napoleonic reserve, including the Imperial Guard. ( Players’ Notes: this is replicated in the rules with the delayed entry provisions for the Coalition Order of Battle…the Coalition commanders were never comfortable acting alone fearing that they might be the independent detachment devoured by Napoleon’s direct commands). Dombrowski roused himself out of his temporary meditative mode and did what he had done so many times before: he ordered his outnumbered troops to attack the approaching Russians….as what might be expected from the Poles, their attack was ferocious and Langeron wrote in his memoirs that he “believed that Napoleon himself was attacking him.” His cautious approach had been justified in his thinking, because

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La Bataille de Leipzig 1813