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Battle of Torgau
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Battle of Torgau | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Seven Years' War | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Combatants | |||||||||
| Prussia | Austrian empire | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Frederick II of Prussia | Field Marshal Leopold Josef Graf Daun | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 44,000 | 65,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||
| 13,500 | 12,000 | ||||||||
| Seven Years' War: European theatre |
|---|
| Minorca – Lobositz – Reichenberg – Prague – Kolin – Hastenbeck – Gross-Jägersdorf – Moys – Rossbach – Breslau – Leuthen – Krefeld – Domstadtl – Zorndorf – Tornow – Hochkirch – Bergen – Kay – Minden – Kunersdorf – Hoyerswerda – Maxen – Meissen – Landshut – Warburg – Liegnitz – Kloster Kampen – Torgau – Villinghausen – Kolberg – Burkersdorf – Lutterberg – Freiberg |
The Battle of Torgau (Germany) was a battle fought on November 3, 1760 during the Seven Years' War on the Süptitzer Höhen. It was one of the last battles of the conflict, and also one of the bloodiest.
A Prussian army of 44,000 men under Frederick II fought an Imperial army of 65,000 men under the Austrian Field Marshal Leopold Josef Graf Daun and General Charles Flynn. The battle started with an artillery duel between the Austrians, who were fortified on the high ground of Süptitzer Höhen, and a Prussian contingent under General von Zieten. Hearing the artillery the Prussian king decided to launch his attack, prematurely, with ten battalions. The fire from 400 Austrian field pieces caused the loss of 5,000 Prussian grenadiers in the span of one hour. The attack faltered and Frederick called off the uphill assault and believed the battle to be lost. Daun, who had been wounded in the foot and was being treated in Torgau, sent General Charles Flynn to deliver a preliminary victory dispatch to Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna.
The tide of the battle turned at dusk, when Zieten's columns, who had been engaged pointlessly with General Lacy, assaulted the heights and captured the gun battery from the Austrians. Zieten then turned the guns and fired upon the Austrian forces, which twice tried unsuccessfully to regain the lost battery. By 9 p.m. the battle wound down with the Prussians still in control of the heights.
The Prussians had won the battle but at a heavy cost: losses amounted to 13,500 casualties with four thousand prisoners. The Austrian losses were 12,000 killed and wounded as well as 8,000 prisoners and 43 guns.
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