Battle of Dresden The Battle of Dresden was fought on 26 – 27 August 1813 around Dresden , Germany , resulting in a French victory under Napoleon against forces of the Sixth Coalition of Austria ns , Russia ns and Prussia ns under Field Marshal Schwartzenberg . However , Napoleon ' s victory was not as complete as it could have been . Substantial pursuit was not undertaken after the battle , and the flanking corps was surrounded and forced to surrender a few days later at the Battle of Kulm . Prelude . On 16 August , Napoleon had sent Marshal Saint - Cyr ' s corps to fortify and hold Dresden in order to hinder allied movements and to serve as a possible base for his own manoeuvres . He planned to strike against the interior lines of his enemies and defeat them in detail , before they could combine their full strength . He had some 300 , 000 men against allied forces totaling over 450 , 000 . But the Coalition avoided battle with Napoleon himself , choosing to attack his subordinate commanders instead ( see the Trachenburg Plan ) . On 23 August , at the Battle of Grossbeeren , south of Berlin , Crown Prince Charles of Sweden ( formerly French Marshal Bernadotte , Napoleon ' s own Marshal ) defeated his old comrade Marshal Oudinot . And on 26 August , Prussian Marshal Blücher defeated Marshal MacDonald at the Katzbach . Battle . On the same day as Katzbach , Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg , the commander of the Austrian force of over 200 , 000 men of the Austrian Army of Bohemia ( and accompanied by the Austrian emperor , the Russian tsar and the Prussian king ) , attacked Saint - Cyr . Napoleon arrived quickly and unexpectedly with reinforcements to repel this assault . Although outnumbered two to one , Napoleon attacked the following day ( 27 August ) , turned the allied left flank , and won an impressive tactical victory . The flooded Weisseritz cut the left wing of the Allied army , commanded by Johann von Klenau and Ignaz Gyulai , from the main body . Marshal Joachim Murat took advantage of this isolation and inflicted heavy losses on the Austrians . A French participant observed , " Murat . . . cut off from the Austrian army Klenau ' s corps , hurling himself upon it at the head of the carabineers and cuirassier s . . . . Nearly all his [ Klenau ' s ] battalions were compelled to lay down their arms , and two other divisions of infantry shared their fate . " Of Klenau ' s force , Lieutenant Field Marshal Joseph , Baron von Mesko de Felsö - Kubiny ' s division of five infantry regiments was surrounded and captured by Murat ' s cavalry , which amounted to approximately 13 , 000 men , and 15 colours . Gyulai ' s divisions also suffered serious losses when they were attacked by Murat ' s cavalry during a rainstorm . With damp flints and powder , their muskets would not fire and many battalions became an easy prey to the French cuirassiers and dragoons . Then suddenly , Napoleon had to leave the field by virtue of a sudden fit of gastric spasma and the failure to follow up on his success allowed Schwarzenberg to withdraw and narrowly escape encirclement . The Coalition had lost some 38 , 000 men and 40 guns . French casualties totaled around 10 , 000 . Some of Napoleon ' s officers noted he was " suffering from a violent cholic , which had been brought on by the cold rain , to which he had been exposed during the whole of the battle . " Aftermath . On 27 August , General Vandamme received orders to advance on Pirna and bridge the Elbe there . This was accomplished in a pouring rain , without disturbing the Russians drawn up on the heights of Zehista . This advance by Vandamme resulted in the Battle of Kulm three days later . Interestingly Napoleon ' s old rival Jean Victor Marie Moreau who had only recently returned from his banishment from the United States was talking to the Tsar ( who wished to see Napoleon defeated ) and was mortally wounded in the battle and died later on 2 September in Louny .