Thread by @PertinaxS

#OTD #battleofhanau #Hanau #Napoleon #bavaria #austria #oesterreich #befreiungskriege #coalitionwars In the night of the 29th Octobre Bonaparte rested in the castle of Langenselbold. It had been ten days since Leipzig and 310 km of march. 30 km the day meant

https://twitter.com/PertinaxS/status/1453805689986588678

sometimes a rest but marching all the day. For some soldiers like Marshal MacDonald it had been a wet start since Leipzig, where many soldiers had to swim through the river since the bridge was blewn up too early. Only a small part of those, who swam, still had their arms.

If the soldiers could not sleep inside of occupied houses, or in tents, it was a cold night in the meadows. Especially the meadows of the Kinzig have high ground water and are wet and cold at night. Bavaria had already changed the sides and joined the coalition already at

the 8th of October in the treaty of Ried. Only to prove Bavaria‘s loyalty, Carl von Wrede, a former commander of Napolen’s bavarian forces, who served under Napoleon in Russia, was sent to challenge the Emperor. His cavalry troops in parts had not any horses until one week

before the battle. Parts of Napoleon‘s army passed in wild formations sometimes unarmed the city of Hanau. Also the French civil administrations in nearly all bavarian and hessian cities packed their luggage to leave those towns.

But no soldiers of the guards were seen around Hanau. This should have been an alarm signal. The emperor had lost the battle. But he was still Napoleon Bonaparte. And his guards were with him.