Jena-Auerstadt - The Armies of 1806 (Orders of Battle) Paperback – September 16, 2022

Prussia had been uncommitted in 1805 and had allowed Russia and Austria to go to war without her. The outcome had been the defeat at Austerlitz in December of that year. Co-operating with Napoleonic France throughout the first half of 1806, Prussia decided that war was the only course left open after the humiliation of having her territories used by a foreign power to broker peace with England. Mobilising slowly and forcing an unwilling Saxony into a military alliance, Prussia chose not to wait for Russian assistance but sent her proud regiments towards battle with the victors of Austerlitz.Napoleon had planned to march his army back to France and had not expected war to resume in the autumn of 1806. Nonetheless, he was quick to react and set in motion a series of manoeuvres that would see his vast army converge on Saxony and Thuringia to seek a quick and decisive victory. With their armies divided at Jena and Auerstädt, the Prussians and Saxons offered exactly the opportunity Napoleon sought.The battles took place on 14th October and whilst Napoleon thought he was facing the main Prussian force, it was in fact Marshal Davout who did so. The two battles were settled by the afternoon and a victory on par with Austerlitz had been achieved. It would however, be the relentless pursuit and destruction of their army that would effectively knock Prussia out of the war until 1813. For her part, Saxony willingly joined Napoleon’s grouping of German buffer states known as the Confederation of the Rhine.By the end of the year, all that remained of Prussia’s army had either surrendered or joined up with The Russian army in Poland, to participate in a new campaign that saw further destruction at Eylau and Friedland before a temporary peace came. Prussia would be reduced to a minor power, lose territory, have the size of her army limited and be forced to support a French army of occupation. The resulting resentment would manifest itself in a ‘War of Liberation’ seven years later.This fourteenth volume in the Orders of Battle series covers the Grande Armée and The Prussian-Saxon armies present during the twin battles of Jena and Auerstädt. As with previous volumes in the series, an outline to the armies and a brief synopsis of the battle is included along with a detailed representation of the corps, regiments, squadrons and artillery batteries present. Use has been made of numerous available orders of battle to ensure accuracy by cross referencing and drawing the best elements of each to produce the most complete record. Exhaustive research has also been made of the uniforms worn and the flag standards carried by the individual regiments to give an accurate visual interpretation of the way each unit would have actually appeared at the battle rather than its prescribed ‘parade uniform’. A scale of 1:10 has been used to help visualise an accurate image of the actual size of each unit and the text describing the units, their strength and commanders completes what is hoped to be the most complete record available. Read more