18 April 1813 – North Germany - Day 6

Having destroyed 1^st Prussian army, Napoleon has won the campaign

The sensible thing to do would be to redeploy his army to the south

In one day 3^rd French army would be able to support 1^st French army

2^nd French army would replace them to pin 2^nd Prussian army at Schwerin

 

However Napoleon was in no mood to wait.

The defeat of 1^st (Old Guard) corps at Fletchingen was unacceptable

1^st and 3^rd corps were still recovering and had only one days supply left

Despite this he ordered them to retake Fletchingen immediately

A victory would be the destruction of the whole Prussian army

A defeat would force 1^st French army to abandon Wolfsburg and the area south of the river Elbe.

All of the fighting fell on the French guard, and the result was a convincing French victory.  Both sides suffered light casualties, but they were already fragile due to earlier casualties.   The French lost 100 casualties, the Prussians lost 1500.