Battle of Hanau

Background

The Battle of Leipzig, fought on 16–19 October 1813, was a decisive Allied victory. Napoleon withdrew west towards the Rhine, intending to regroup near Mainz, where his supply lines would be shorter. He set up headquarters at Erfurt on 23 October and on 26 October sent his corps towards Frankfurt through Eisenach and Fulda.

Bavaria had been France's ally until it changed sides on 8 October. Under the Treaty of Ried, signed just before Leipzig, Bavaria joined the Sixth Coalition, and Wrede was given command of a mixed Bavarian and Austrian force. He marched into Napoleon's rear and occupied Würzburg, whose small French garrison withdrew into the citadel without a fight. His advance guard reached Hanau on 28 October and blocked the road to Frankfurt.

Wrede expected to meet about 18,000 to 20,000 men and thought the French army in disorder. He was right about the disorder, but the main body of the Army of Bohemia was far away, and the force coming towards him was Napoleon's whole army. Napoleon's army was losing discipline as the retreat went on, and it was losing men daily. Wrede's army was intact, and the road he held was the one Napoleon needed to reach Frankfurt and the Rhine.

The armies

Wrede had about 43,000 men. His Austrian corps, about 24,000 in three divisions, was under Fresnet, with Bach, Trautenberg and Spleny commanding the divisions. The Bavarian corps, about 18,000 with 60 guns, had two infantry divisions under Beckers and Lamotte and a large cavalry and artillery reserve. At the start of the battle he outnumbered the French troops in front of him, about 17,000 under Victor, MacDonald and Sébastiani.

Napoleon had 40,000 to 50,000 men, but only about 30,000 were fit for combat, and many of his battalions were reduced to about 100 men. His fighting strength was in a few formations: Victor's II Corps (Dubreton's division), part of MacDonald's XI Corps (Charpentier), Sébastiani's cavalry, Nansouty's Guard cavalry, and the Guard infantry and artillery. The Guard artillery was commanded by Drouot, and it was what made the difference. The rest of his army was an exhausted stream of stragglers and men without weapons.

The battle

Wrede's position, 29–30 October. Wrede put his centre on the Kinzig with the river at its back and his right, under Beckers and Trautenberg, south of the stream, linked to the main body only by the single Lamboy bridge. He placed a screen of Szekler infantry and many skirmishers in the Lamboy forest, which covered his front on the eastern side. Napoleon spent the night of 29 October at Isenburg castle near Gelnhausen, sent his baggage north, and planned a frontal attack, noticing that Wrede's army had its back to the river.

The forest, noon on 30 October. Victor and MacDonald advanced into the Lamboy forest and cleared Wrede's outposts. The dense trees let the French close with the Allied line almost unseen. By noon the woods in front of Wrede's centre were clear, and Wrede realised he faced Napoleon himself, but chose to fight on.

Drouot's battery, afternoon. Napoleon attacked Wrede's left with everything he had. Drouot found a forest track that let guns reach Wrede's left flank. By about 15:00 Old Guard grenadiers had cleared the Austrian and Bavarian troops from the area, and Drouot deployed about 50 guns, supported by Guard and Sébastiani cavalry. A short bombardment silenced Wrede's 28 guns. The French cavalry then drove off Wrede's cavalry on the left and struck the flank of his centre.

The Kinzig, evening. The centre, attacked from two directions and with the river behind it, fell back along the Kinzig with heavy losses, and several hundred men were cut off in the water. On the right, Bavarian troops trying to cross the single bridge to reinforce the centre suffered many drownings. Wrede's right counterattacked and pushed the French back into the forest, but French counter-attacks forced both brigades back across the bridge. Wrede rallied his men into a line from the Lamboy bridge to Hanau, and the Allies abandoned the town in the night.

31 October. The French artillery bombarded Hanau at 02:00, and Bertrand occupied the town unopposed at 08:00. Napoleon's main army passed north of the Kinzig on the Frankfurt road, leaving Souham, Marmont and Bertrand to deal with Wrede. By about 15:00 the rest of the army had passed and Marmont withdrew, with Bertrand remaining as rearguard. Wrede attacked the Lamboy bridge and failed, but his troops retook Hanau; he was wounded in the fighting there. Wrede's attack on the Kinzig bridge north-west of the town was also repulsed. Napoleon did not pursue him.

Aftermath

The French reached Frankfurt on 2 November, about 20 miles from Mainz. Napoleon could rebuild for the defence of France in 1814. Wrede lost about 9,000 to 10,000 men without stopping the retreat, though the Allies had cut Napoleon's line of retreat and the French escaped only by winning the fight. The French lost about 5,000 in the battle and about 10,000 more stragglers captured between 28 and 31 October.

Bavaria wanted the battle to prove its commitment to the Allied side. Wrede received the Austrian Order of Leopold and the Commander's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, and Russian orders as well. Alexander I entered Frankfurt on 5 November. The battle is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe, and memorials stand in Hanau; in 2015 about 200 remains of French soldiers were exhumed near Frankfurt. Beethoven's Seventh Symphony was first performed in Vienna on 8 December 1813 at a charity concert for wounded soldiers. The war moved into France, where the Allies invaded early in 1814 and gave Napoleon no time to raise a fresh army.

Wargaming it

Hanau is a small-ish, well-defined battle for a corps-level or divisional table at about one base per 500 men. The French begin with a fraction of their strength, about 17,000 men, and the game is whether they can break Wrede's 43,000 before he realises who he is fighting.

The terrain does the work. Dense forest hides the French approach and slows Wrede's reactions; the Kinzig and a single bridge trap his right wing. Give the French player a few hidden or delayed entries and make forest movement slow for guns until a track is found, so that Drouot's battery is a scenario event, not a given.

The Allied player's problems are the river at his back and a right wing that cannot reach the centre. The obvious what-if is Wrede withdrawing across the Kinzig before the French arrive, or fighting on the south bank only. A second scenario starts on 31 October, with Napoleon's army streaming past on the north bank and Wrede trying to cut it, and the French needing only to hold the bridge and Hanau until the column has passed. Rate the French stragglers as non-combatants who clog the road.

Maps and pictures