Siege of Kolberg (1807)

The Siege of Kolberg (German: Belagerung vo Kolberg) took place from 14 March to 2 July 1807 during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars, at and near the Prussian city of Kolberg, Pomerania. The French siege was not successful and was lifted upon the announcement of the armistice between France and Prussia (signed on 25 June 1807) which led to the Peace Treaty of Tilsit (9 July 1807).

History

An army of the First French Empire (Grande Armée) with 22,500 soldiers and several foreign auxiliaries from Holland, Italy and the Confederation of the Rhine besieged the Prussian fortified town of Kolberg, the only remaining Prussian-held fortress in the Prussian Province of Pomerania. Prussian Colonel (Oberst) Ludwig Moritz von Lucadou had 6,500 soldiers and civilians who would defend the city. The artillery had 64 usable cannons, which were to be operated by 97 veterans. This was only a fraction of the necessary defense forces. Cavalry and pioneers (combat engineers) were not part of the fortress garrison.

The dragoon lieutenant Ferdinand von Schill had reached Kolberg at the beginning of November 1806 as a seriously wounded man and was soon authorized by von Lucadou to set up a small troop of cavalry. He had charismatic qualities, bravado and tactical instinct. The attempted French attack on Stargard on 15 February 1807 was repelled with losses, and the fortified Naugard office was defended bravely but unsuccessfully by Schill, who had been promoted to Rittmeister. In January 1807, Napoleon ordered the capture of Danzig and a new supply line there from Stettin via Gollnow, Körlin and Stolp became necessary. Parts of the troops moving to Danzig in February were supposed to encircle Kolberg on the way. After the Battle of Preußisch Eylau, however, they had to be diverted towards Graudenz/Marienwerder. In order to encircle Kolberg, Napoleon had a force under the command of his Italian General Pietro Teuliè deployed east of the Oder in mid-February, with the headquarter in Stargard. When the French had surrounded Kolberg in March 1807, von Schill appeared in Stralsund to persuade the Swedish troops in Swedish Pomerania to support Kolberg.

On 8 March 1807, Teuliè had achieved a loose enclosure of the fortress in a 20 km long line from Kolberger Deep in the west around Altstadt-Kolberg in the south to the city forest about 3 km east of Kolberg. At the beginning of the siege, Teuliè had one French infantry regiment and two from the Kingdom of Italy, 280 cavalry and two artillery companies with 10 guns. There was also a sapper company and a train company each. Teuliè was replaced by Napoleon on 25 March 1807 by General Louis Henri Loison, but remained on site. At the beginning of April, Marshal Mortier appeared in front of Kolberg with reinforcements but no artillery to take the fortress. It remained just outpost battles. At the same time, a Swedish corps had advanced from Stralsund to Stettin, and Mortier went to meet it with his reinforcements and part of the besieging troops. He defeated the Swedes and concluded a truce with them on 18 April 1807, in which they agreed not to provide support to Kolberg. Mortier's departure had reduced Loison's troops to 4,215 men. Rittmeister von Schill immediately took advantage of this and attacked west of the Persante river (#68, battle map) on 12 April 1807. The operation could have led to the deployment of the besieging army, but it was only a partial success because once again there was no agreement with von Lucadou. Loison abandoned the encirclement of Kolberg and withdrew to the right bank of the Persian River, with the exception of a detachment in Treptow. He dug in there and sent calls for help to his superior.

In Kolberg, meanwhile, the mood reached a low point because of the failure, which was again attributed to Colonel von Lucadou, and the burning of a suburb on his orders. From the beginning, part of the citizenry had viewed all of von Lucadou's actions with suspicion. Its head was the citizen's representative Joachim Nettelbeck, who was in charge of overseeing the fire extinguishers, the city fountains, the pipe system and the water art, which was extremely important due to the floods. Von Lucadou was old, rarely appeared in public, and had had a stroke. Now officials and officers also discussed replacing von Lucadou, who was in fact overwhelmed. On Nettelbeck's initiative, the King of Prussia used conspiratorial means to send a new commander to Kolberg. Advised by Rüchel, he selected Major August Wilhelm Anton Neidhardt von Gneisenau, who arrived in Kolberg on 29 April 1807. Von Gneisenau immediately took the initiative at a strategically important point and was successful. At the same time, he inspired his soldiers and Nettelbeck with his energetic demeanor. He recognized him as an expert and used him together with the Nettelbeck party in matters of registration and control within the citizenry.

Kolberg was strengthened by a Swedish frigate with 44 cannons on 28 April 1807. Since then she has been cruising in the roadstead and intervened in the fighting with long-range fire several times despite the Swedish armistice with France. During the days of the commander's replacement, the French General Loison had received reinforcements since 23 April 1807. There came a regiment of insurgent Poles under Colonel Antoni Paweł Sułkowski, the Regiment of the Dukes of Saxony (Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Hildburghausen and Saxe-Weimar), with battalions from Weimar and Gotha, Altenburg and Meiningen, two Württemberg regiments, and the Italian battalion that Mortier had taken with him. General Loison was not satisfied with his troops. The Italians failed in the night battles and the Germans from the Rhine Confederation sympathized with their German brothers from Prussia. Almost a third of the Thuringians had already deserted during the approach, and one in five soldiers from Württemberg had also run away on the way.

Like von Gneisenau, French General Loison had recognized that the only way to attack the fortress required possession of the inner field, a plain approximately 2 × 2 km in size northeast of the city. It was dominated by the hill Wolfsberg. Von Gneisenau built a strong redoubt with gun shelters there as the backbone of the defense. Meanwhile, Loison was busy trying to gain access to the inland field, which was surrounded by a low-lying swamp and forest area to the south and east and transitioned into a dune area to the Baltic Sea beach in the north. In the following weeks, reinforcements arrived on both sides during frequent outpost battles and the construction of new field fortifications. Due to the arrival of two infantry battalions, several transports of freed soldiers (Ranzionierte) from Usedom and Wollin by sea and around 20 Ranzionierte every day, the troops in Kolberg maintained a strength of 5,500 men, including over 200 cavalry and just under, until mid-May 1807, despite their losses and the withdrawal of Schill's cavalry 600 artillerymen. Loison received seven heavy guns on 13 May 1807.

On 18 May 1807, the besiegers came to the inland field in a major attack led by Teuliè over two dams that they had meanwhile built in order to conquer the Wolfsbergschanze (entrenchment; #15, battle map). They suffered a heavy defeat. Von Gneisenau's concept of mobile defense in advance, based on a system of entrenchments and blockhouses, proved successful. After he had gained a foothold on the edge of the inland field, Loison now proceeded to the formal siege of the Wolfsberg by advancing trenches and parallels, with constant day and night fighting. The Swedish frigate and, before she sailed, a British corvette of the Royal Navy intervened in these battles on 26 May 1807. The British ship had guided two transport ships with 10,000 rifles to Kolberg days before on 20 May 1807.

By mid-June, von Gneisenau had laid out several defensive lines and the new brick redoubt between the outer wall and Wolfsberg, 900 meters away, in order to be able to systematically retreat from his stronger opponent while gaining time. It was clear to him that after the fall of Danzig, which he learned of on 9 June 1807, that the enemy would soon have more heavy artillery at its disposal and that the Prussian field fortifications only had a limited durability. Loison had already set up 20 guns in redoubts on the inland field to bombard the Wolfsberg. After the arrival of a transport of eleven heavy guns from Danzig, the French attacked Wolfsberg again on 11 June 1807. After hours of bombardment, Loison suggested that his stricken opponent leave freely, including the guns that could still be transported, which he accepted. As a result of different interpretations of the ceasefire, there was a shelling of the redoubt in the evening, in which General Teuliè was fatally wounded and would die on 18 June 1807. General Loison now had control over the strategic important Wolfsberg.

Loison was converting the entrenchment of the Wolfsberg and was in the process of positioning long-range guns with which he could shell the harbor and Fort Münde when three British ships appeared in the Kolberg roadstead. To enable the unloading of 40 guns with ammunition and 10,000 rifles with three million cartridges, the Prussians attacked Wolfsberg on the night of 15 June 1807, captured the entire French garrison and brought them into the fortress with a captured howitzer. After two unsuccessful counterattacks, Loison managed to recapture the now demolished entrenchment the following day. During this time, the ships were able to unload their cargo undisturbed, and the fortress's artillery had received a decisive increase.

In the following days, the Prussian garrison launched sorties in all directions, causing an encirclement in the west and disrupting Loison's attack preparations on the monastery field in the south of the fortress. However, a new attempt to recapture Wolfsberg on 19 June 1807, where the feared French guns had been positioned, failed with heavy losses. On 29 June 1807, the Swedish frigate returned with four mortars, ammunition and a large amount of powder purchased by Kolberg. While the fortifications were constantly being strengthened and, under Nettelbeck's leadership, a new flood narrowed the possible attack range to the outer wall to 250 meters, the besiegers from Wolfsberg moved ever closer to the ramparts.

The French received significant reinforcements since 19 June 1807. A Dutch hussar regiment had already arrived at the end of May. By the end of the month, the urgently requested French line troops, two regiments, and three Nassau and two Dutch battalions arrived. In total, Loison now had around 14,000 men, including 12,300 infantry, 400 hussars, 55 to 67 guns and 275 engineers. He divided his troops into six brigades, five of which were east of the Persante. He managed to close the siege ring in the west on 26 June 1807.

July 1807

On 1 July 1807, at 3 a.m., the main attack on all fronts on Kolberg began with bombardment from all cylinders. The entire city was bombed, but did not catch fire because of the lack of wind and the well-organized fire department under Nettelbeck. In the morning hours, the attackers on the left bank of the Persante had an unexpected success when the infantry of Schill's Corps fled from their fortified position on the Maikuhle to the right bank of the Persante, thereby giving up the harbor. A sea connection was now only possible via the beach and the roadstead. On the Eastern Front, von Gneisenau had to retreat to the nearest defensive line, but at no point did the attackers reach the outer wall.

At 10 a.m., Loison had the gunfire stopped and offered von Gneisenau “honorable surrender” through a parliamentarian. Otherwise, he promised the “complete ruin” of the city and told von Gneisenau that he would then have to “pay with the blood of the garrison”. Von Gneisenau refused, and the bombardment of the city continued. It was only interrupted briefly during the night and the town hall went up in flames. On the morning of 2 July, not all of the fires could be extinguished. The defenders had dug in on the eastern bank of the Persante, while the French entrenched themselves on the western bank with great losses under constant fire from Fort Münde and the Swedish frigate. They had captured two smaller redoubts on the western edge of the inland field. Their attacks on the brick entrenchment (Ziegelschanze) had failed bloodily.

In the early afternoon of 2 July 1807, the Prussian officer Heinrich Ludwig Friedrich Karl von Holleben crossed the French battle line with Loison's permission. He brought von Gneisenau the news of the armistice from the king, which had initiated the peace negotiations in Tilsit, and the promotion to lieutenant colonel. Von Gneisenau immediately ordered cease fire and white flags hoisted on the ramparts. About an hour later, a French messenger reached Loison with news of the armistice. Now General Loison stopped firing and fighting, and in the sudden silence the Kolbergers saw white flags rising on the enemy positions. The Battle for Kolberg was over. Shortly afterwards, Lieutenant Colonel von Gneisenau and General Loison met to discuss details of the armistice. All fires in Kolberg were extinguished by evening. Over the next few days, officers from both sides held joint outdoor peace banquets. On 4 July 1807, the Kolbergers inspected the positions of the besiegers. On 5 July 1807, the French began to withdraw into the surrounding area. This ended the siege and saved the city for Prussia.

Casualties and losses

Defenders

The losses in the battle were unusually high and the destruction was severe. On the Prussian side, 428 soldiers were killed in action, and 288 died of wounds and illnesses in the hospitals. The fortress garrison lost 204 soldiers as prisoners, 159 were missing, and 334 deserted. 405 soldiers were discharged due to invalidity, while 1,043 were temporarily absent due to a wound. The statistics do not contain information on von Schill's cavalry as a whole and on von Schill's infantry before 19 March 1807. The Prussian total figures are therefore likely to be c. 800 dead, around 500 disabled and over 800 prisoners, missing soldiers and deserters. That was a third of the approximately 6,000 soldiers deployed. At the end of the siege, von Gneisenau had around 4,000 soldiers.

According to two reports, 69 and 63 of the Kolberg citizens were dead or injured. According to one there were 27 dead, including 15 women and children, according to the other there were 22 dead, including 8 women and children. Included were two members of the citizen battalion who were injured on duty but not in front of the enemy. The citizen battalion did not get into a fight with the enemy.

A house in Kolberg was completely destroyed by shelling and another by fire. Almost every house had fire and water damage, and around half were temporarily uninhabitable. The town hall and the town courtyard were almost completely burned down, as were most of the suburbs. In July 1807 the city had 2,000 homeless people. Gardens, paths, fields and forests around them were devastated.

Attackers

There are only estimates of the losses on the French side, which vary between 8,000 and 10,000 men. 1,632 prisoners and several hundred deserters were counted, including 204 from the Rhine Confederation contingents who fought on the side of the Prussians. Among the at least 2,000 dead were many soldiers who died because of the poor living conditions in the field camps around Kolberg. A total of over 22,000 men were deployed, but several times significant French forces withdrew after a short time or only appeared in the final phase. 9,200 French, almost 6,800 Italians, around 3,200 Germans, over 2,000 Dutch and 1,200 Poles were deployed by Napoleon. The besiegers' losses reached around 40%.

Peace of Tilsit

The Treaties of Tilsit (French: Traités de Tilsit), also collectively known as the Peace of Tilsit (German: Friede von Tilsit, Russian:: Tilzitski mir), were two peace treaties signed by French Emperor Napoleon in the town of Tilsit in July 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland, at the end of the War of the Fourth Coalition.

While the Franco-Russian agreement of 7 July 1807 (armistice since 21 June 1807) was still an agreement between equals, the treaty concluded with Prussia two days later had the character of a dictated peace. The territory of Prussia and the number of its subjects were reduced by more than half: from the previous area of ​​around 323,408 km², the Prussian territory amounted to only 158,867, in which after peace there were only around 4.5 million inhabitants – from the previous 9, 75 million – lived. The fortresses of Kolberg, Graudenz, Neisse, Cosel, Pillau, Glatz and Silberberg, which were not conquered by France, remained free of French occupation. Furthermore, Prussia had to join the continental blockade against Great Britain.

The West Elbian territories were incorporated into the newly founded Kingdom of Westphalia, and the Cottbus district fell to Saxony. Queen Luise's petition to Napoleon has become famous, in which she begged him in vain to mitigate these territorial losses. From the territories annexed by Prussia during the Second and Third Partitions of Poland, Napoleon formed the Duchy of Warsaw, with Danzig with Oliva and Hela becoming the “Free City” and Russia receiving the Białystok district. As a result of the 2nd Elbing Convention of 10 November 1807, Prussia lost, in addition to the Kulm district that had already been lost in July, the Michelau district (Article 2 of the Convention) and the part of Lesser Poland acquired in 1795 during the third partition of Poland, which was known as the Tschenstochau district or “New Silesia” was referred to the Duchy (Article 7 of the Convention).

In the Königsberg follow-up agreement of 12 July 1807, France committed itself to gradually withdrawing its troops from Prussia in accordance with the settlement of the war contribution, which was still to be determined. The amount was only set by Napoleon on 8 September 1808 in the Paris Convention. This ended the presence of French troops in cities and villages in Prussia in December 1808, but not in the fortresses of Stettin, Küstrin and Glogau. The much hated "French era" (Franzosenzeit), at least in Prussia, was largely over. Nevertheless, the Prussian Army had to provide Napoleon with a contingent upon request. In 1812, many officers rather fought with the Russian-German Legion (Russisch-Deutsche Legion) than for the French. The generally perceived shame of this treaty (later often compared to the Treaty of Versailles) led to the German uprising (Deutsche Erhebung) just five years later (Wars of Liberation).

Sources

• Dr. Gaston Bodart: Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905), Wien / Leipzig 1908

External links

• Siege of Colberg (1760)

Videos

• Kolberg (Film, 1945), YouTube