Kesselsdorf - 15th December 1745
A Volley & Bayonet scenario by Steve Darrell.
Background
Frederick of Prussia was unhappy with the progress of the independent force (the
"Elbe-Armee") under the command of Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau (the "Old Dessauer") in late 1745. He was supposed to attack the Saxons at Leipzig but by the time he got there the Saxons had moved to Dresden. Frederick then learnt that the main Austrian army was intending to join the Saxons, so it became urgent that Anhalt-Dessau removed the Saxons as a fighting force. Anhalt-Dessau came upon the Saxons at Kesselsdorf but they had already been joined by an Austrian force under Grunne.
The Battle
Early in the afternoon the Old Dessauer sent his men forward over the snow with a curt, "In Jesus Nahmen marsch!". The Prussian right wing foot attacked the Saxon grenadiers in Kesselsdorf after suffering badly from canister from the Saxon guns but the Prussians rebounded from the village. Rutowski seems to have believed that this withdrawal could be turned into a rout, and ordered the troops in Kesselsdorf to attack the Prussians.
However, once in the open the Prussians proved more than a match for the Saxons and as the Saxon grenadiers were pushed back through Kesselsdorf the Prussian centre also reached the Saxon lines, again after taking serious casualties from the Saxon artillery. At this point the Saxon army seems to have collapsed completely. The battle had only lasted 2 hours.
The battle achieved little in that the Saxons asked for peace terms on the same day (i.e. before the court heard the news of the battle). It also seems to have encouraged Frederick to believe that a steady Prussian infantry attack could successfully defeat enemy artillery frontally. However, at Kesselsdorf the Saxon counter-attack seems to have masked their own guns. Frederick's belief that his men could attack well-posted guns would cost heavy casualties in later years.
Casualties were 5,100 for the Prussians and either 6,600 or 10,500 for the Austro-Saxons. The latter figure for the Austro-Saxons includes 6,700 POWs; they also lost 40 guns.
Map
North is at the top of the diagram. The playing area is 6 feet by 4 feet.
T1 (a double town) is Kaufbach.
T2 (a town) is Kesselsdorf.
V1 (a village) is Roitzsch.
V2 (a village) is Zollman.
V3 (a village) is Penrich.
V4 (a village) is Gompitz.
V5 (a village) is Wurgwitz.
V6 (a village) is Kohlsdorf.
V7 (a village) is Steinbach.
Red boxes are towns or villages. Red lines are roads. Solid green areas are woods.
Grey shapes are hills - the grey lines indicate the contour line. All are one contour high.
Blue lines are streams. Green blobs alongside indicate a marshy bank. Areas of green blobs are marsh.
Orders of Battle
Austro-Saxon Army, AC Rutowski
Grenadier Division, DC Allnpeck, Ex = 3
- Hetterodt:Bruggen: Le Fee grens 2-5 [][] ST
- Gsug:Mindelmann grenadiers 2-5 [][] ST
- Friesen:Gersdorf grenadiers 2-5 [][] ST
- Artillery/1 2-5 [][] Field, PT
1st Infantry Division, DC Diemar Ex = 7
- Leibgrenadier Garde 3-5 [][][]
- Garde zu Fuss 2-5 [][]
- Konigin 3-5 [][][]
- Graf Bruhl 2-4 [][]
- Weissenfels 3-4 [][][]
- Rochow 2-4 [][]
- Artillery/2 2-5 [][] Field, PT
- Artillery/3 2-5 [][] Field, PT
2nd Infantry Division, DC Harthausen Ex = 7
- Cosel 3-4 [][][]
- Allnpeck 2-4 [][]
- Niesmeuschel 3-4 [][][]
- Bellegarde 2-4 [][]
- Franz Pirch 3-4 [][][]
- N. Pirch 2-4 [][]
1st Cavalry Division, DC Birkholz Ex = 3
- Leib CR : Hohenzollern [A] CR 2-6 [][] HC
- Anonciade CR : Ronnow CR : Minkwitz CR 2-5 [][] HC
- Bentheim CR [A] : Pr. Koniglicher CR 2-5 [][] HC
2nd Cavalry Division, DC Arnim Ex = 3
- Rutowsky DR : Prinz Karl CL : Sybilsky CL 2-5 [][] LC
- Karabiniers CR : Garde du Corps CR : Rechberg DR 2-6 [][] MC
- Plotz DR : Sondershaus DR : Arnim DR 2-5 [][] MC
Austrians
Infantry Division, DC Grunne Ex = 7
- Wurmbrand 3-5 [][][]
- Waldeck 2-5 [][]
- Keuhl 3-5 [][][]
- Bethlehem 2-5 [][]
- Stolberg 2-5 [][]
- Warasdiner Croats /1 1-5 [] Inf. Skirmisher
- Warasdiner Croats /2 1-5 [] Inf. Skirmisher
- Artillery/4 2-5 [][] Field, PT
Prussian Army, AC Anhalt-Dessau
Right Flank Infantry Division, DC Herzberg Ex = 4
- Munchow : Aulack Grenadiers 2-6 [][] ST
- Anhalt-Dessau : Schoning Grenadiers 2-6 [][] ST
- Alt-Anhalt Musketeers 3-6 [][][]
Centre Infantry Division, DC Lehwald Ex = 10
- Jeetze Musketeers 3-6 [][][]
- Leps Musketeers 2-6 [][]
- Pr. Moritz Musketeers 3-6 [][][]
- Hertzberg Musketeers 2-6 [][]
- Darmstadt Musketeers 3-6 [][][]
- Alt-Wurtemburg Fusiliers 2-5 [][]
- Jung Darmstadt Fusiliers 3-5 [][][]
- Artillery/1 3-5 [][][] Field, PT
Right Flank 1st Cavalry Division, DC Kyau Ex = 2
- Stille:Bredow Cuirassiers 2-6 [][] HC
- Bonin:Roehl Dragoons 2-5 [][] MC
Right Flank 2nd Cavalry Division, DC Bonin Ex = 2
- Leib. zu Pferde : Leib Karabiniers Cuirass. 2-6 [][] HC
- Holstein-Gottorp : Jung-Mollendorf Dragoons 2-5 [][] MC
Reserve Cavalry Division, DC Dieury Ex = 2
- Soldan Hussars 2-5 [][] LC
- Dieury Hussars 2-5 [][] LC
Left Wing Corps, CC Moritz von Anhalt
Left Wing Infantry Division, DC Bredow Ex = 9
- Bredow Musketeers 2-6 [][]
- Bonin Musketeers 3-6 [][][]
- Pr. von Preussen Musketeers 2-6 [][]
- Pr. Dietrich Musketeers 3-6 [][][]
- Pr. Leopold Musketeers 2-6 [][]
- Pr. Ferdinand Musketeers 3-6 [][][]
- Polentz Musketeers 2-6 [][]
- Artillery/2 3-5 [][][] Field, PT
Left Wing Cavalry Division, DC Wreech Ex = 4
- Buddenbrock : Pr. Friedrich Cuirassiers 2-6 [][] HC
- Rochow : von Kyau Cuirassiers 2-6 [][] HC
- Bayreuth : Stosch Dragoons 3-6 [][][] MC
Notes
- All infantry have battalion guns.
- Where I've written something like "Rochow : von Kyau" it means that the brigade is made up of the Rochow and von Kyau regiments.
- I've used Nichol's notes a lot in resolving difficulties in conflicting versions of the orbats.
- I've not included artillery for Exhaustion strength purposes, so if you count artillery losses towards Exhaustion you'll need to increase the Exaustion levels accordingly.
- The Austrian cavalry are part of the 1st Saxon cavalry division. They're denoted by [A].
- There is some confusion about the Austrian guns. Nicol suggests they were massed battalion guns. This doesn't sound much like Austrian practice to me, so I've assumed they were field guns.
- There were 42 Saxon field guns and some with the Austrians. The Prussians had 33 field guns. I've attempted to reflect the Austro-Saxon superiority without making it too dominant. While allied artillery certainly had an effect, I didn't want to make it impossible for the Prussians.
- I've ignored some pulks of uhlans the Saxons had SW of Kesselsdorf. If you want to include some M4 (or maybe even M3) light cavalry skirmishers, you could have 2 or 3 of them. I assumed these weren't counted in the strength totals in the sources.
- The Schoning Prussian grenadier bttn. was with what I've called the Left Wing inf. divn. I've moved it with the other grenadiers to make a simpler VnB orbat.
- The Anhalt-Dessau Prussian inf. regt. was 3 bttns. strong. I've bumped up some of the other Prussian foot units to make the total right (according to the numbers in Nafziger and Chandler). I've done something similar with the Austro-Saxons : any 3-pt units are the result of being increased like this. I've followed the numbers in Chandler. Using Duffy's numbers the Austro-Saxons would have 1,000 fewer foot and 1,000 more horse.
- I've allocated divisional commanders on the basis of the deployments, rather than the organisation in Nafziger or Dorn and Engelmann. For example, the Prussian Avant-Garde (in Nafziger) seems to have been split up (it consisted of the hussars and what I've called the right flank infantry division). In general the Prussians get more command stands to reflect their better flexibility.
- Since I've not followed the orbats in Nafziger/Dorn & Engelmann exactly the choice of names for commanders hasn't followed exactly from the orbats either. However, all the officers named were in command roles at the battle, commanding at least some of the units listed in roughly that part of the battle.
Deployment
Prussians:
Right Flank Infantry Division: SE of small wood and NW of Kesselsdorf.
Centre Infantry Division: In two lines running from the wood NW of Kesselsdorf just E of NE (i.e. towards the E. tip of the other wood). Both fusilier and one of the musketeer
regiments were in the 2nd line.
Right Flank 1st Cavalry Division: SW of the small wood.
Right Flank 2nd Cavalry Division: To the right (S) of the RF 1st Cavalry
Division.
Reserve Cavalry Division: Astride the road running S-SW from Kesselsdorf, on the edge of the board.
Left Flank Infantry Division: Continuing the line of the Centre Infantry
Division to reach the eastern tip of the large woods. Deployed in two lines.
Left Flank Cavalry Division: 1 Heavy Cavalry Brigade (Buddenbrock:Pr.Friedrich) east of Roitzsch, the others south and south-west of it.
Austro-Saxons:
Saxon Grenadier Division: In and south of Kesselsdorf. The artillery are north of the town, facing west.
Saxon 1st Infantry Division: In a line from the small hill east of Kesselsdorf to just east of Zollman. The artillery units must deploy 6" apart.
Saxon 2nd Infantry Division: Two units complete the 1st Division's line to the stream east of Zollman. The rest form a 2nd line behind the 1st
Division.
Saxon 1st Cavalry Division: West and south-west of Penrich.
Saxon 2nd Cavalry Division: Behind the 2nd line of infantry (i.e. 2nd Inf.
Division), except the von Rutowski Chevauleger, who are just north of Kesselsdorf.
Austrians:
Enter in road column at the north-east corner of the board at the start of Saxon 2nd turn.
Initial Conditions
The game starts with the 1200 turn and ends after the 1700 turn. The Prussians move first. Any Austrians or Saxons may be stationary.
Sources
- "The Battle of Kesselsdorf" by M J Nichol in "Miniature Wargames" nos. 205 & 206.
- Nafziger orbats.
- "The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough" by David Chandler Spellmount Limited 1990 (reprint from 1976).
- "The Army of Frederick the Great (2nd edition)" by Christopher Duffy Emperor's Press 1996. This is the only Duffy book which contains more than a few words on the battle. Nichol mentions a map by Duffy : is it in the first edition of this book ?
- "The Army of Maria Theresa" by Christopher Duffy Hippocrene Books 1977.
- "Frederick the Great : A Military Life" by Christopher Duffy Routledge 1988 (paperback reprinting of the 1985 edition).
- "The War of the Austrian Succession" by Reed Browning Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd. 1994.
- "Die Schlachten Friedrichs des Grossen" by Gunter Dorn & Joachim Engelmann Podzun-Pallas 1991.