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."
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition, sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Great Britain, Portugal, Sweden, Sardinia, and a number of German States defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba. After the disastrous French invasion of Russia of 1812 in which they had been forced to support France, Prussia and Austria joined Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Portugal, and the rebels in Spain who were already at war with France.
War of the Sixth Coalition
Strategic situation in Europe in 1813
The Battle of Hanau
The charge of the Life Guards Cossacks at Leipzig