Battle of Halle 1806
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 17 October 1806 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1806 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Germany | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Campaigns of Prussia and Poland, War of the Fourth Coalition | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 51.4667, 11.9667 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
In the Battle of Halle on 17 October 1806, a French corps led by Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte fought the Prussian Reserve under Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg. The French defeated their opponents, forcing the Prussians to retreat northeast toward Dessau after suffering heavy losses. The clash occurred in the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The city of Halle is located about 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of Leipzig on the Saale River.
Emperor Napoleon I of France invaded the Electorate of Saxony and inflicted two disastrous defeats on the Prussian-Saxon armies at the Battle of Jena-Auerstadt. As the beaten armies fled, Marshal Bernadotte's corps marched north and found Duke Eugene's Reserve, which had not yet seen action, at Halle. At the beginning of the encounter, two French divisions rushed the bridges over the Saale on the west side of the city. They overran a weak defending force and quickly occupied the city. In one stage of the battle, Bernadotte was advancing against superior numbers along a narrow causeway, to which Napoleon stated: "Bernadotte hesitates at nothing, one day the Gascon will get caught." (P.S.: Bernadotte was born in Pau, in the historical and cultural area of Gascony.)
Later in the day, Bernadotte's troops stormed out of Halle and attacked Eugene's Reserve which was drawn up to the southeast of the city.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Halle (revision 1370753828), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the War of the Fourth Coalition
- Battle of Czarnowo 1806
- Battle of Lübeck 1806
- Battle of Pułtusk (1806) 1806
- Battle of Saalfeld 1806
- Battle of Schleiz 1806
- Capitulation of Erfurt 1806
- Battle of Allenstein 1807
- Battle of Friedland 1807
- Battle of Guttstadt–Deppen 1807
- Battle of Heilsberg 1807
All 15 battles of the War of the Fourth Coalition →
Browse more: battles in Germany · Europe · 19th century battles