Thread by @PertinaxS

#battleofhanau #Hanau #Napoleon #coalitionwars In the night from the 30th to the 31th at 3 o’clock guns fired into the city. Shot after shot. Fires started. The fire continued until dawn. Then silence. Wrede drew the mass of the troops out of the city. In his report he

https://twitter.com/PertinaxS/status/1454463162783305731

justified it, that he tried to save the people. It is more realistic, that he didn‘t want to be closed in. The French entered the city in double quick. The civilians, who tried to save their houses and efface the fires tried to escape. So the houses burned down.

The allied forces stood now in formation in the south of Hanau. An infantery battle started, in which the french left wing pushed forward, while the right wing and the centre stood still.
Meanwhile the battle,Hanau’s mayor had to meet the emeperor in his camp in the forest.

There Bonaparte spoke, that it was his will to burn down half of Hanau. In this conversation Napoleon spoke proper German. Augerau told Napoleon how nice Hanau had been to the French in the past. So Hanau wasn’t burned down. When Napoleon heard that Frankfurt was occupied by

austrian forces, he gave at once order to move forward. To see is here the superiority of the french forces in comparison to the allied forces near Hanau. If Napoleon had had the will to fight on the allied forces, he was able to do so.
For seven hours the town was in french

hands. The rest oft wo italian divisions stayed in the city and marauded. Only Oudinot forced those units back to order. Napoleon didn’t entert he city, but marched with his guards onto Frankfurt, which he reached at around 3 o’clock on the 31st.
Also around 3 o’clock in Hanau,

the french forces gave up their positions and the allied forces moved forward. Also on the right bavarian wing and pushed the French over the Lamboy bridge. Wrede in his report wrote about fights in the street. The french sources report only about some skirmishes to slow the

Allies down. At the bridge over the Kinzig the French tried to set the bridge on fire and opened the fire on the following bavarian grenadiers. There Wrede was wounded. Tirailleurs started again fighting and made it very hard fort he allied forces to get control over the whole

city. Around 8 o’clock silence.
In the morning of the1st of November, on the street to Frankfurt only the rest of Bonapartes arriergarde was seen and skirmished the following troops.

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