Battle of Waren - Nossentin The Battle of Waren - Nossentin on 1 November 1806 saw soldiers of the Kingdom of Prussia led by August Wilhelm von Pletz and Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg fight a rear guard action against troops of the First French Empire commanded by Marshal Jean - Baptiste Bernadotte . Though forced to give ground , the Prussians successfully kept the French from inflicting serious loss or cutting off any units in this War of the Fourth Coalition action . Waren lies on the northern end of Lake Müritz , about southeast of Rostock . Nossentin is a small village on the Fleesen See ( Fleesen Lake ) about due west of Waren . After the Battle of Jena - Auerstedt on 14 October 1806 , Emperor Napoleon launched an all - out pursuit of the defeated Prussians . At the end of October , the Franch managed to cut off and capture large numbers of Prussian soldiers near Prenzlau and Stettin . Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher ' s corps evaded capture by turning back to the west . Near Waren , Blücher linked up with another Prussian corps and the combined force withdrew to the west . As the Prussian rear guard pulled out of Waren , the first French cavalry attacked . This action started an all - day battle between Pletz and Yorck ' s troops and the French . Though Bernadotte attacked vigorously , the Prussians managed to get away intact after several clashes . In contrast to their dismal performance to date , the Prussians acquitted themselves well in this fight . Background . The Battle of Prenzlau on 28 October 1806 ended with the capitulation of General of Infantry Frederick Louis , Prince of Hohenlohe - Ingelfingen with his surviving 10 , 000 Prussian troops to Marshal Joachim Murat . This disaster was followed by the Capitulation of Pasewalk on 29 October and the Capitulation of Stettin on 30 October . In the next few days , the French mopped up the Prussian forces in the area in a series of surrenders at Boldekow on 30 October , Anklam and Küstrin on 1 November , and Wolgast on 2 and 3 November , Since 24 October , General - Leutnant Blücher had served as Prince Hohenlohe ' s rear guard commander . The commander of the I Corps , Marshal Bernadotte picked up news of Hohenlohe on the 25th when he was at Brandenburg an der Havel and determined to follow the Prussians . From Nauen , the I Corps moved northeast on the 26th , to reach Oranienburg on the 27th . Moving north , the French arrived at Furstenberg on the 28th before turning northeast to reach Boitzenburg on the 29th . On 30 October , Bernadotte received reports that Blücher turned back to Neustrelitz . Bernadotte sent Colonel Étienne Maurice Gérard with his 2nd Hussar Regiment to harass the Prussian retreat and turned his corps northwest on the 30th . Besides capturing 400 soldiers and a number of wagons , Gérard secured the information that Blücher was headed for Waren . That evening , Bernadotte ' s troops made it to Burg Stargard , southeast of Neubrandenburg . At this time Marshal Nicolas Soult ' s IV Corps was at Wusterhausen , just north of Neustadt an der Dosse . On 31 October , Blücher joined the column under General - Leutnant Johann Friedrich von Winning near Waren . Winning ' s force , originally led by General Karl August , Grand Duke of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach , missed the Battle of Jena - Auerstedt on 14 October and had been trailing Blücher ever since . Winning wanted to reach Rostock to the north , and , to this end , he ordered General - Major Karl Georg Friedrich von Wobeser to move ahead and prepare the port for evacuation . However , Blücher called off the Rostock operation in favor of his own idea , which was to cross to the west bank of the Elbe at Boizenburg . He hoped to join with General Karl Ludwig von Lecoq in the former Electorate of Hanover or with General - Leutnant Franz Kasimir von Kleist at Magdeburg . To that end he sent officers to collect boats and supplies in the area . Blücher organized his army into two corps . He gave Winning command of the 11 , 000 - man I Corps , while retaining control of the 10 , 000 - strong II Corps . The Prussians had a particularly powerful cavalry contingent , with 80 squadrons total . Each corps was subdivided into two heavy and one light divisions . Altogether , 47 , 252 French troops were hunting for Blücher . Bernadotte had 15 , 450 , Soult led 24 , 375 , General of Division Louis Michel Antoine Sahuc ' s 4th Dragoon Division numbered 2 , 550 troopers , General of Division Emmanuel Grouchy ' s 2nd Dragoon Division had 2 , 432 horsemen , General of Brigade Antoine Lasalle counted 785 hussars , and General of Division Jean - Joseph Ange d ' Hautpoul ' s 2nd Cuirassier Division included 1 , 660 cavalrymen . Bernadotte dropped off his least fit men at Neubrandenburg and pressed on with 12 , 000 . Meanwhile , Murat and his cavalry were sweeping west through Western Pomerania . Battle . On the morning of 1 November , the Prussians left Waren . Blücher moved to the northeast via Hohen Wangelin , covered by a rear guard under General - Major Friedrich Gottlieb von Oswald . Winning marched east along the north shore of several lakes , covered by Oberst von Pletz ' s rear guard . That morning in Waren , Colonel Claude - Étienne Guyot with the 400 - strong 22nd Chasseurs à Cheval from Soult ' s corps surrounded and captured Major Schmude and 170 dragoons . However , when Guyot tried to advance from the town , Pletz counterattacked with 850 horsemen of the " Köhler " Hussar Regiment # 7 . For a loss of only one killed , 15 wounded , and 10 missing , the Prussian hussars threw Guyot ' s cavalry back into Waren and freed Schmude and his men . The French lost six officers killed or wounded , over 40 men captured , and an unknown number killed or wounded in this minor Prussian victory . After Guyot ' s discomfiture , Bernadotte ' s cavalry arrived in Waren to give the French six regiments in the area . General of Brigade Jacques Louis François Delaistre de Tilly led the I Corps cavalry , consisting of the 2nd and 4th Hussar Regiments and 5th Chasseur à Cheval Regiment . General of Brigade Pierre Margaron commanded the IV Corps cavalry , including the 8th Hussar Regiment , and 11th , 16th , and 22nd Chasseur à Cheval Regiments . On the outskirts of Waren , the French light cavalry began a series of skirmishes with the Prussian horsemen that lasted from 10 : 00 AM to 1 : 00 PM . Meanwhile , the Prussian rear guard under Yorck took a defensive position between two lakes at the village of Jabel . The lakes near Jabel are the Jabelscher See to the south and the Loppiner See to the north . While historian Francis Loraine Petre notes that Pletz was the rear guard commander , he credits Yorck with the tactical control of the battle . Under Yorck ' s direction were three fusilier battalions , six jäger companies , and 20 squadrons of hussars . General of Division Anne Jean Marie René Savary arrived with a task force consisting of the 1st Hussar and 7th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments , giving the French a total of eight cavalry regiments . Savary detected Oswald ' s rear guard at Sommerstorf northwest of Waren and prepared to attack , but Bernadotte recalled him to Jabel . The two sides exchanged artillery fire at Jabel for an hour before Yorck pulled back into the woods toward Nossentin . Spearheaded by the 9th Light Infantry Regiment of General of Division Pierre Dupont de l ' Etang ' s division , the French pressed ahead into the woods to be met by vigorous resistance from the Prussian jägers and fusiliers . At length , Bernadotte ' s force passed the western edge of the wood to find Yorck ' s men drawn up awaiting them . The Prussian right flank rested on the Fleesen Lake , the center on Nossentin village , and the left flank on marshy ground . Yorck deployed his infantry in the front line with his horsemen in the rear . After a French hussar regiment was repulsed from Nossentin , Bernadotte committed General of Division Jean - Baptiste Drouet , Comte d ' Erlon ' s division to the attack . Drouet ' s seven - battalion division included of the 27th Light Infantry , and the 94th and 95th Line Infantry Regiments . At the same time the marshal tried to turn the Prussian left flank with his cavalry . The cavalry attack failed amid marshes and water - filled ditches , but Drouet drove Yorck ' s men out of the village after a hard fight . During the ineffectual cavalry maneuvers , Bernadotte was thrown from his horse and ridden over by the 5th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiment . Yorck retreated to Alt Schwerin , reaching there at 10 : 00 PM that evening . Result . Later , Bernadotte claimed to have fought 12 , 000 or more Prussians , while Soult estimated there were between 5 , 000 and 6 , 000 enemies . Petre , who gives no casualty figures , suggested that the Prussians had only about 2 , 000 infantry and 2 , 000 cavalry available , in addition to a half battery of horse artillery , plus regimental guns . Since a Prussian horse battery comprised six 6 - pound guns and two 7 - pound howitzers , Yorck ' s half - battery must have had four guns . Gunther E . Rothenberg states that the fusilier battalions did not use regimental guns in 1806 . When Murat heard about the fighting at Waren and Nossentin , he abandoned his march on Rostock and decided to march to the I Corps ' assistance . He later found that Bernadotte and Soult joined hands and realized that they did not need his help . Petre credits the Prussian success to Yorck ' s tactical competence and the fact that his troops missed the Jena - Auerstedt disaster . Yorck sensed when each of his positions became untenable and issued orders to fall back just in time . In his after battle report , Bernadotte admitted that his enemies fought well , but tried to minimize the action . Savary criticized Bernadotte for not supporting his cavalry with infantry attacks . The French pursuit continued until Blücher was crushed at the Battle of Lübeck on 6 November .