This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(June 2023) |
Battle of Bov | |||||||
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Part of the First Schleswig War | |||||||
![]() Battle of Bov by Georg Bleibtreu | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
7,000 Freikorps | 15,000 soldiers | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,096 killed, wounded or captured | 103 killed or wounded [1] |
The Battle of Bov (German : Schlacht von Bau, Danish : Slaget ved Bov) was a battle between troops fighting for Schleswig-Holstein, and those for Denmark, which happened on the 9 April 1848 near the town of Flensborg in Denmark, during the First Schleswig War. The Danes won the engagement. It was the first battle of the First Schleswig War. [1]
In 1848, the First Schleswig War began. Schleswig-Holstein was trying to separate from Denmark, and Denmark considered it a part of the country. The Kingdom of Prussia, the Austrian Empire and the German Confederation, [lower-alpha 1] sent troops to support Schleswig-Holstein in its attempt to secede from Denmark, and become a part of the German Confederation. Wishing to defeat Denmark before the German, Austrian, and Prussian troops arrived, 7,000 Schleswig-Holsteinian soldiers under General Krohn occupied Flensborg on March 31, 1848. [1]
Danish troops landed on the Holdnaes peninsula east of Flensborg and, worried that he would be surrounded, Gen. Krohn asked for permission to withdraw his soldiers from the settlement. His request was approved, and he planned to fall back during April 9. Danish commanders had decided their attack would start before Krohn withdrew. They decided that the left flank of the Danish army would launch a diversionary attack, whilst the right wing and cavalry would encircle the enemy. Their attack would be supported by a naval squadron in Flensborg Fjord. The Schleswig-Holsteinians were arranged according to the plan that they were going to withdraw, and were not prepared to put up a coordinated resistance. [1]
On the morning of April 9, the Danish forces advanced. The avantgarde under von Magius with 3rd Hunter Corps and 12th Battalion, supported by 4 guns, attacked from the northeast the Schleswig-Holsteinian main position at Bov. From the east, the 1st Hunter Corps and a couple of companies of the 5th and 9th Battalions carried out an attack on the Schleswig-Holsteinian position in the forest around Kobbermøllen. It was defended by a hunting corps and the Kiel students under the command of Major Michelsen.
Bov eventually fell to the Danish avantgarde, and the Schleswig-Holsteinians withdrew, first to Nyhus and then to Harrislev, where they had barricaded the entrances to the town and arranged the houses for defense. Around 12 p.m, The 1st and 11th Battalion attacked from the north and west and the 2nd Battalion from the south, while two guns supported the attack. The Schleswig-Holsteinians were forced back to Flensburg, where they occupied a new position in the woods north of the town, in some brickworks and houses on the northern outskirts. After repeated attacks by the 2nd Battalion, the Schleswig-Holsteinians were forced to surrender or flee south. While this was going on, Major Michelsen's forces were still standing at Kobbermøllen, not knowing that their main force had to withdraw from Bov. Around 12 p.m he was finally informed that Nyhus had been abandoned, and his strength was thus in danger of being cut off. He ordered a retreat, but his position was shelled by Danish warships from Flensburg Fjord, and he was mortally wounded.
Some of the Schleswig-Holsteinians took a position on Møllebakkerne north of the town, while others managed to reach back to the outskirts of Flensburg. Here they managed to repel some attacks by the 2nd Battalion. Only when the Danish 4th Battalion came from the west, they were forced out. Shortly afterwards, the Schleswig-Holsteinian forces on Møllebakkerne also surrendered. Michelsen himself fell badly wounded in Danish captivity and died shortly after. Fortunately for the Schleswig-Holsteinians, the Danish commander-in-chief Hedemann could not prevent their withdrawal. Still, the Danish victory was secured. Around 14:30 p.m the fighting was over, and the Schleswig-Holsteinians fled south.
The Danish army followed and took up the position at Dannevirke. Hedemann's planned encirclement of Krohn's army succeeded only in part, so that the Schleswig-Holsteinian main force could escape back to Rendsburg; its losses were 16% of its total strength; the Danish losses were 0.8%. The victory at Bov was greeted with cheers in Denmark and gave rise to great optimism regarding the Danish chances of victory in the impending war.
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig. Its capital city is Kiel; other notable cities are Lübeck and Flensburg. It covers an area of 15,763 km2 (6,086 sq mi), making it the 5th smallest German federal state by area. Historically, the name can also refer to a larger region, containing both present-day Schleswig-Holstein and the former South Jutland County in Denmark.
Southern Schleswig is the southern half of the former Duchy of Schleswig in Germany on the Jutland Peninsula. The geographical area today covers the large area between the Eider river in the south and the Flensburg Fjord in the north, where it borders Denmark. Northern Schleswig, congruent with the former South Jutland County, forms the southernmost part of Denmark. The area belonged to the Crown of Denmark until Prussia and Austria declared war on Denmark in 1864. Denmark wanted to give away the German-speaking Holsten and set the new border at the small river Ejderen. Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck concluded that this justified a war, and even proclaimed it a "holy war". He also turned to the Emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph I of Austria for help. A similar war in 1848 had gone poorly for the Prussians. With Prussia's modern weapons and the help from both the Austrians and General Moltke, the Danish army was destroyed or forced to make a disorderly retreat. The Prussian-Danish border was then moved from the Elbe up in Jutland to the Kongeåen creek.
The Duchy of Schleswig was a duchy in Southern Jutland covering the area between about 60 km north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been divided between the two countries since 1920, with Northern Schleswig in Denmark and Southern Schleswig in Germany. The region is also called Sleswick in English.
Flensburg is an independent town in the far north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. After Kiel and Lübeck, it is the third-largest town in Schleswig-Holstein.
Flensburg Firth or Flensborg Fjord is the westernmost inlet of the Baltic Sea. It forms part of the border between Germany to the south and Denmark to the north, on the eastern side of Schleswig Holstein and Jutland, respectively. Its length is between 40 and 50 km, depending on where it is considered to begin. It has the largest area of all the fjords of East Jutland, which are a special type of inlet, different from geological fjords.
Glücksburg is a small town northeast of Flensburg in the district Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and is the northernmost town in Germany.
The history of Schleswig-Holstein consists of the corpus of facts since the pre-history times until the modern establishing of the Schleswig-Holstein state.
The First Schleswig War, also known as the Schleswig-Holstein Uprising and the Three Years' War, was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question: who should control the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, which at the time were ruled by the king of Denmark in a personal union. Ultimately, the Danish side proved victorious with the diplomatic support of the great powers, especially Britain and Russia, since the duchies were close to an important Baltic seaway connecting both powers.
The Second Schleswig War, also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War, was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. The war began on 1 February 1864, when Prussian and Austrian forces crossed the border into the Danish fief Schleswig. Denmark fought troops of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire representing the German Confederation.
The Battle of Sehested was fought between Danish and Russian-Prussian-British troops at Sehested on 10 December 1813 during the War of the Sixth Coalition. The Danish Auxiliary Corps, which fought on the side of the French defeated the coalition forces commanded by Major General Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn.
Als is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea.
The Treaty of Ribe was a proclamation at Ribe made in 1460 by King Christian I of Denmark to a number of Holsatian nobles enabling himself to become Count of Holstein and gain control of the Duchy of Schleswig. The most famous line of the proclamation was that the Danish Duchy of Schleswig and the County of Holstein within the Holy Roman Empire, should now be, in the original Middle Low German language, Up Ewig Ungedeelt, or "Forever Undivided".
Kupfermühle is a village located north of Flensburg in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located near the Flensburg Fjord just south of the easternmost part of the Danish-German border.
The Battle of Fredericia was fought between soldiers of Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark on 6 July 1849 at Fredericia in Denmark. The battle was a part of the First Schleswig War, which was a conflict between Schleswig-Holstein, supported by several German states, and Denmark. The Danes won the battle.
The Battle of Isted took place on 25 July 1850 near the village of Idstedt, in what is today Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The battle was part of the First Schleswig War, and is the largest battle ever fought in northern Europe.
The DGF Flensborg is a German association football club from the city of Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein.
The Battle of Schleswig occurred near Dannevirke on Easter morning, 23 April 1848 as the second battle of the First Schleswig War of 1848–1850.
The Battle of Kolding was fought between a Prussian army under Eduard von Bonin and the Danish army under Frederik Rubeck Bülow in Eastern Jutland. The Prussians were victorious and the Danish army were forced to retreat towards Vejle and Fredericia.
Hans Christopher Georg Friederich Hedemann (1792–1859) was a Danish officer who became lieutenant general in the Danish army.
The Danish Unitary State was a Danish political designation for the monarchical state formation of Denmark, Schleswig, Holstein, and Saxe-Lauenburg, between the two treaties of Vienna in 1815 and 1864. The usage of the term became relevant after the First Schleswig War, when a need for a constitutional framework for the monarchy was present, which ought to follow the premises of the London Protocol, which prohibited a closer connection between two of the monarchy's possessions. The political designation was ultimately eliminated after The Second Schleswig War and was replaced by the national state in 1866.
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