Battle of Torgau
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| Battle of Torgau | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Seven Years' War | |||||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||||
| Prussia | Austrian empire | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Frederick II of Prussia | Field Marshal Leopold Josef Graf Daun | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 50,000 | 53,400 | ||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||
| 16,600 | 15,700 | ||||||||
| Seven Years' War: European theatre |
|---|
| Minorca – Lobositz – Reichenberg – Prague – Kolin – Hastenbeck – Gross-Jägersdorf – Moys – Rossbach – Breslau – Leuthen – Krefeld – Domstadtl – Zorndorf – Hochkirch – Bergen – Kay – Minden – Kunersdorf – Hoyerswerda – Maxen – Meissen – Landshut – Warburg – Liegnitz – 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 50,000 men under Frederick II fought an Imperial army of 53,400 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 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 16,600 men or about 40%. The Austrian losses were 15,700 men (about 30%) and 43 guns.
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