page_title: Capitulation of Pasewalk
section_title: Long retreat
hierarchical_section_title: Capitulation of Pasewalk / Long retreat
caption_attribution_description: English: Flight of the Prussian Army, War of the Fourth Coalition, Oct-Nov 1806. Prenzlau-Lubeck Campaign Map.
context_page_description: The Capitulation of Pasewalk on 29 October 1806 resulted in the surrender of Oberst von Hagen's 4,200 Prussian soldiers to an inferior force of two French light cavalry brigades led by Generals of Brigade Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud and Antoine Lasalle. The Prussians were completely demoralized after a two-week-long retreat following their decisive defeat at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. Pasewalk is 110 kilometers north of Berlin and about 40 kilometers west of Szczecin, Poland.
  While retreating east toward Stettin on the Oder River, Hagen found his column trapped between Lasalle's brigade and Milhaud's brigade. Without attempting to break out, the baffled Prussian officer surrendered. The incident at Pasewalk came after a similar Prussian surrender after the Battle of Prenzlau the previous day. Within a week two fortresses would capitulate without firing a shot and a number of other Prussian columns would be hunted down one by one.
context_section_description: The columns of Hohenlohe and Württemberg rendezvoused at Magdeburg on 20 October. Kalckreuth crossed the Elbe River at Tangermünde and joined his corps to Hohenlohe's soon afterward. He then left for an assignment in Poland. On the 20th, Soult and Murat were before Magdeburg. Murat demanded its surrender, which Hohenlohe refused. That day, Davout seized a bridgehead over the Elbe at Wittenberg and Lannes seized a second crossing at Dessau.
  Having received orders from King Frederick William III of Prussia to march to the Oder River, Hohenlohe's army left Magdeburg on 21 October and reached Burg bei Magdeburg that night. He left 9,000 men to reinforce the garrison, so that, together with stragglers, there were 25,000 troops in the city. Hohenlohe reached Genthin at night on 22 October and Rathenow on the evening of the 23rd. To better feed his troops, he divided his command up into multiple columns.
  Leaving Marshal Michel Ney's VI Corps to begin the Siege of Magdeburg, Napoleon ordered his right wing to march east for Berlin. The French right wing consisted of Davout's corps, Marshal Jean Lannes' V Corps, Marshal Pierre Augereau's VII Corps, and four of Murat's cavalry units. These were the 1st Cuirassier Division led by General of Division Etienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty, the 2nd Cuirassier Division under General of Division Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul, the 2nd Dragoon Division commanded by General of Division Emmanuel Grouchy, and the 3rd Dragoon Division under General of Division Marc Antoine de Beaumont. The left wing was made up of Bernadotte's corps, Marshal Nicolas Soult's IV Corps, and General of Division Louis Michel Antoine Sahuc's 4th Dragoon Division. Guarding the line of communications was General of Division Louis Klein's 1st Dragoon Division.
  Blücher crossed the Elbe at Sandau on 24 October, while Saxe-Weimar got across there two days later. On the 26th, Oberst Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg held off Soult's advance guard at Altenzaun before safely crossing to the east bank. At this time Lieutenant General Johann Friedrich Winning relieved Saxe-Weimar in command. Hohenlohe marched to Neustadt an der Dosse on the 24th. His goal was the fortress of Szczecin (Stettin) on the Oder. To protect his right flank, he ordered General-Major Christian Ludwig Schimmelpfennig to move through Fehrbellin, between Neustadt and Oranienburg. Blücher took over the leadership of Hohenlohe's rear guard.
  On 25 October Davout's corps marched through Berlin while one of Lannes' divisions captured the fortress of Spandau with 920 men and 71 cannons. Hohenlohe's main body arrived near Neuruppin that evening, with Blücher's rear guard division still at Neustadt. General von Schwerin's cavalry and Oberst von Hagen's infantry brigade bivouacked at Wittstock. General-Major Karl Anton von Bila's light brigade reached Kyritz north of Neustadt. Desiring to cut off the forces under Hohenlohe, Napoleon ordered Murat and Lannes to move north from Berlin. Immediately available at Oranienburg were the light cavalry brigades of Generals of Brigade Antoine Lasalle and Edouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud, plus Grouchy's dragoons.
  On 26 October, Lasalle caught up with Schimmelpfennig at Zehdenick. Initially, the Prussians held their own, but when Grouchy's division charged into the fray, Schimmelpfennig's force scattered. The survivors fled to Stettin with Lasalle, Grouchy, and Beaumont in pursuit. The results of this clash compelled Hohenlohe to shift farther northeast from Gransee to Lychen. The next morning he waited in vain for Blücher and Bila to catch up before continuing toward the east. On 27 October, Milhaud's brigade reached Boitzenburg before Hohenlohe's advance guard. After a three-hour combat, the Prussians drove Milhaud's troopers off, but not before the French despoiled supplies collected for their hungry opponents at the Schloss Boitzenburg. Hearing the sounds of battle, Murat marched north with Grouchy's dragoons. At Wichmannsdorf, three French dragoon regiments got into a brawl with the Gensdarmes Cuirassier Regiment # 10. Murat w
caption: Prenzlau-Lübeck Campaign Map, October–November 1806
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