The Battle of the Katzbach on 26 August 1813, was a major battle of the Napoleonic Wars between the forces of the First French Empire under Marshal MacDonald and a Russo-Prussian army of the Sixth Coalition under Prussian Marshal Graf (Count) von Blücher. It occurred during a heavy thunderstorm at the Katzbach river between Wahlstatt and Liegnitz in the Prussian province of Silesia. Taking place the same day as the Battle of Dresden, it resulted in a Coalition victory, with the French retreating to Saxony.
Battle of the Katzbach by Eduard Kaempffer
Battle of Katzbach by Klein. Prussian troops force the French into the river.
Museum of the battle, located in the village of Dunino.
Memorial stone; it reads, in German, "Here the French crossed the Raging Neisse and were repulsed, many of them drowning in the flooding river."
Étienne Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald, 1st duc de Tarente, was a Marshal of the Empire and military leader during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. While not as famous as the other marshals of Napoleon, he was nonetheless a first-rate and successful general.
Portrait by Antoine-Jean Gros
Serving throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Macdonald led major formations in the 1809 campaign against Austria, in Spain (1810–1811), Russia (1812), Germany (1813), and in France (1814).
Heraldic achievement of Macdonald as duc de Tarente
Portrait by François Gerard. The red riband of the Legion of Honour has been replaced by the blue riband of the Order of the Holy Spirit.
