9:00 French turn
The half hour from 9-9:30 am saw the French continue their deployment. The only action on the field of battle was around the village of Krippendorf by the shattered forces of Taunzien’s detachment and the exhausted units of Lannes’ Vth Corps. Long range fire from Prussian artillery broke the much reduced 17th Light Infantry and even with Lannes trying to steady them, they broke and fell back – with Lannes reluctantly in their midst. Other fire between units around the village was ineffective.
Lannes Vth Corps by not moving or engaging the enemy in melee reduced its fatigue, from 10 to 9 and so now only had a -1 morale penalty. All the other French corps gained a fatigue due to using their full movement allowance.
Soult’s 3rd Division arrived at Jena and begun to follow the route of their fellow IVth Corps’ divisions. Napoleon, taking personal command of the Guard 1st and 2nd Chasseurs infantry, began to relocate his command to the village of Lutzeroda, which was now positioned in the heart of the French battle line.
Top: Lannes and the heavily depleted 17th Light Infantry had fallen back from Vth Corps’ defensive line. Lower: Napoleon and elements of the Guard approach Lutzeroda to establish a new headquarters.
Most of the disorganized troops from the initial fighting in the centre began to rally, only some hussars and chasseurs failed to return to good order.
9:00 Prussian turn
At exactly 9am a chorus of, ‘Charge!’ rang out from the combined cavalry of the 1st & 7th Hussars as they saw, in the rapidly dispersing fog, French light cavalry up on the slopes, west of Lutzeroda village. The French 7th Chasseurs rode out to meet the charge but the 20th Chasseurs were less prepared and met with the Prussians before they had formed into line of battle.
The Prussian horse outnumbered the French, who had compounded their trouble by not getting the 20th Chasseurs organised for a counter charge.
The French chasseurs showed their mettle by seeing off the larger Prussian cavalry force and to add insult to injury the supporting French horse artillery felled many Prussian hussars at they retreated.
Holtzendorf’s detachment, situated at Rodigen, had been completely ignored by Napoleon so far but now gained freedom of movement. As this force was well out of command range its only options were to remain where it was or move towards Hohenlohe’s position – a route that would take them just north of the village of Krippendorf and possibly encounter elements the fast arriving of Ney’s VI Corps. After considering the options and being concerned that the detachment might become a sideshow, it was ordered to make their way back towards Hohenlohe.
The horse artillery rode quickly forward and unlimbered within sight of the disorganized French 21st Chasseurs and opened fire. Accurate gunnery dispersed the French horse and the unit completely lost its cohesion.
The moment before the Prussian volley decimated the French horse.
Hohenlohe was now receiving reports that Soult’s entire IV Corps was moving towards Ruchel’s position. His earlier hopes that this area could have been have be more lightly defended by the French and prove to be an important avenue of attack were now dashed. He agonised over whether to order Ruchel to halt his planned attack or to hasten it and attack before the full might of the French corps were deployed. Hohenlohe decided to continue with the original plan as calling off the assault might allow Napoleon time to transfer some of IVth Corps to the area the Prussians really were targeting, the line between Krippendorf and Lutzeroda.
The situation at approximately 9:30am
9:30 French turn
The French continued their deployment. The guns south of Krippendorf finally eradicated the final few remaining soldiers of the Prussian 3rd Grenadiers who had stood so steadfast in resisting Lannes’ Vth Corps. Napoleon installed himself in Lutzeroda, and after reading reports about the movement of Holtzendorf’s detachment, issued the following orders to Ney:
Ney’s orders:
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Primary order: Tactic: attack. Objective: ensure that Holtzendorf’s detachment does not reach the main Prussian force. Conditions: Do not pursue further east than Lehesten. Leave the 69th & 76th Infantry in reserve to support Lannes’ battle-weary Vth Corps.
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Secondary order, if primary order succeeds: Tactic: Attack. Objective: capture the southern half of the track running from Krippendorf to Stobra. Conditions: If Lannes Corps becomes demoralized then replace its position with a defensive line.
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Secondary order, if primary fails: Tactic: defense. Objective: establish defensive line on the slopes of the high ground that includes the Dornberg hill. Conditions: none.
Napoleon’s Aide de Camp delivering Ney’s revised orders. Ney will start to put them into practise within the next half hour (he passed his obedience check)
Murat and his strong cavalry corps arrived at Jena – Napoleon immediately ordered him to take his forces to the high ground on which Rodigen is situated:
Murat’s orders:
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Primary order: Tactic: march. Objective: position the cavalry on the high ground between the village of Rodigen and the woods east of the Dornberg hill. Conditions: as a cavalry corps, Murat retains the ability to change to an attack order if an advantageous situation arises.
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Secondary order, if primary order succeeds: Tactic: defense. Objective: keep cavalry in a state of readiness ready to exploit any weakness in the Prussian line. Conditions: none.
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Secondary order, if primary fails: Tactic: defence. Objective: pull back and deploy between Closewitz and Lutzeroda. Conditions: none.
Murat and the cavalry corps begin movement towards the high ground around Rodigen.
Lannes’ Corps recovered another fatigue, whilst the rest of the French corps gained a fatigue as they continued to maneuverer into position.
9:30 Prussian turn
A quiet half hour for the Prussians as 1st & 2nd Division continued to deploy into position. Both sides artillery fired on enemy lines, neither had the range yet and so it was mainly ineffective. Ruchel began to deploy for his attack.