Thread by @HthHans

#OTD 29 August 1807 at the battle of Køge the Danish formation of Landeværn (militia) under command of Lt General Count Castenshiold was defeated and routed by the British Reserve under Major General Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) - long thread 1/15 #napoleonicwars

The British Army of 26,000 troops under Lt General Cathcart had landed at Vedbæk 16 August 1807 and reached Copenhagen outskirt during August in order to capture the main part of the Danish-Norwegian Navy to prevent it falling into Napoleon’s hands. 2/15

Ironically, the Danish main army corps was located in Holstein to protect Danish-Norwegian neutrality against France (!). A total of 25,000-28,000 regular troops were in Holstein and troops under General Ewald had even briefly engaged the French Army at Lübeck in 1806. 3/15

In addition to the regular army a militia (Landeværnet) of some 70,000 men had been formed in 1801 to defend local and regional areas and to support the regular army. However, they were never intended to be first line troops and were not fully trained by 1807. 4/15

Copenhagen was defended by a combination of regular units including the Guards, line infantry, artillery, Copenhagen Civic Guard and volunter units totalling ca 13,000 and all under the command of the engineer officer Major General Peymann. 5/15

The Landeværn (militia) of the island of Zealand and surrounding islands was being called upon to support Copenhagen. The two regiments (10 & 9 btns, of which 4 were deployed elsewhere) started to congregate under command of Lt General Castenschiold and Major General Oxholm. 6/15

Count Castenschiold had not held any active commands of higher formations and was definitively not suitable as a field commander. Oxholm was energetic and worked hard to gather the Zealand militia force 7/15

Lacking cavalry except for a small ad hoc force and field artillery except for light regimental guns the force totalling some 7,500 troops was certainly not prepared for large scale operations against regular army formations at brigade or divisional levels. 8/15

This rather ad hoc militia force under command of a well-intended, but not up to the job general was marching on Copenhagen. At the same time Lt General Cathcart deployed a force commanded by Major General Wellesley to block it from reaching Copenhagen and defeat it. 9/15

On 29 August Castenschiold took up position at Køge 30km south of Copenhagen with an advanceguard north of the town and the main force around Køge. At the same time Wellesley’s division advanced on Køge from the north w. a flanking force advancing from the west (0900 hrs) 10/15

Upon contact with the enemy Castenschiold pulled back towards Køge and formed a line just north of the city. However, he had not secured his flank which was open to the advancing British force from the west (1100 hrs) 11/15

The Danish line appeared well-organised and the British commanders initially thought they were advancing on a regular army formation. Unfortunately, the drill and formation of the line was probably the best the militia could do and the line quickly broke (1300 hrs) 12/15

The militia started running,but at a few places in Køge incl. at the church it stood its ground led by Major General Oxholm. Eventually even they had to retreat or surrender and Wellesley’s troops took control of the city and the terrain south and east of it 13/15 (1700 hrs)

The militia force was decisively defeated and routed. The fields were littered with clogs that had been lost by the militiamen and hence the battle was named Træskoslaget (Battle of the Clogs) 14/15

A siege of Copenhagen was initiated with a bombardment 2 to 7 September with much destruction and with no hope of relief from the militia or from the main army Peymann surrendered the city with its garrison and more importantly the majority of the Danish-Norwegian Navy. 15/15

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