On this day 210 years ago the Battle of the Nations started in Leipzig. It was the largest and bloodiest battle in Europe until WW1 and marked one of the turning points of the Napoleonic wars
by Mynameaintjonas
On this day 210 years ago the Battle of the Nations started in Leipzig. It was the largest and bloodiest battle in Europe until WW1 and marked one of the turning points of the Napoleonic wars
by Mynameaintjonas
2 comments
„Many (injured people) were pushed out of the sickbay into the hustle of the fleeing mass by force. It was a moment which must disgust (even) the crudest human! Tormented by hunger and thirst, by the burning pain in their festering wounds, by the grisly frost of fever in every limb these unluckiest were pushed into certain doom like a flock to a slaughterhouse. Those who hesitated or wavered were thrust with the butt end of guns without concern for their screaming. As early as (they reached) Hain street – where I lived – two of these armies fell over dead. With indifference horses and humans stepped over their bodies. Indeed, already on the next day they were so trodden and overrun that you could barely see them and their crushed remains stayed buried underneath the high piled up feces on the street. In spite of that the majority of the wounded and sick had to be left behind in the sickbays, because there were not enough carriages and horses to carry away more than (just) the esteemed officers of the badly wounded.“
Ferdinand Heinrich Grautoff (citizen of Leipzig) describing the attempt of evacuated the wounded out of the city
If you’re in the region, make a visit to the “Völkerschlachtdenkmal”, a monument dedicated to this battle. Its absolutely massive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Battle_of_the_Nations