The battle began at twelve o'clock with an exchange of artillery fire. Tilly's artillery concentrated their fire against the Saxon troops and the Swedish centre and left wing. The Saxons and Swedes returned fire with their own guns. It took some time before Torstenson's heavy artillery were brought into position to launch its own bombardment. The Swedes demonstrated firepower in a rate of fire of three to five volleys to one Imperial volley. Torstenson later changed direction to aim his guns more accurately against the enemy. Tilly's tercios were easy targets for Torstenson's guns, while the Swedish troops were much sparsely spread and stood "as firm as a wall". During the approximately two-hour long cannonade, about 1,000 Swedish soldiers were killed, about the same number of Saxon soldiers and about 2,000 Imperial-League soldiers. Colonel von Baumgarten was among the first to die from a Saxon cannonball. Both forces on the battlefield remained stationary throughout the cannonade and refused to advance against their adversary. Tilly did not want to abandon the Galgenberg, whose advantageous position Gustavus Adolphus feared to attack. Furthermore, the gunpowder smoke from the cannons and the advance of the troops accumulated large clouds of dust and smoke, which with strong south-westerly winds blew straight into the faces of the Swedish soldiers. To circumvent this and attempt to get the wind on their side, the King ordered his right wing to pivot to the left. This movement was observed by both Tilly and Pappenheim. The latter's cavalry was struck hard by the heavy Swedish artillery fire. The impetuous Pappenheim wanted to immediately unleash his cavalry upon the Swedes, while the latter was busy regrouping their ranks.
Pappenheim's assault Without receiving any orders from Tilly, Pappenheim went on his own initiative with his cuirassiers and attacked the Swedish right wing at two o'clock. He executed a
flanking maneuver to avoid the fire of the Swedish guns. His harquebusiers and the Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp regiment advanced behind his cuirassiers. Pappenheim's aim was to employ
caracole tactics to
penetrate Gustavus Adolphus' front. Banér and the King had by this time fully deployed their troops into lines, and were fully prepared to defend themselves against Pappenheim's assault. As soon as Pappenheim's cuirassiers approached Gustavus Adolphus' front and discharged their pistols at them, the Swedish commanded musketeer platoons fired a concentrated
volley at point-blank range. Short after, the Swedish cuirassiers fired their pistols at the approaching Imperial cuirassiers. The surprisingly accurate Swedish fire disrupted the charge of the Imperial cuirassiers and forced them to withdraw. Pappenheim regrouped his cuirassiers for a renewed attack, with
fire support from musketeers of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp regiment and Piccolomini's and Merode's harquebusiers. While the Swedish musketeers reloaded their muskets, the Swedish cavalry mounted swift counter-charges against Pappenheim's scattered cuirassiers. The horsemen then fell back to their previous positions to avoid the fire from Pappenheim's harquebusiers and musketeers, allowing the Swedish musketeers to fire a new volley at Pappenheim's cavalry. This process was repeated each time Pappenheim made a new attempt to penetrate Gustavus Adolphus' lines. Within an hour Pappenheim made three frontal caracole attacks, all of which were repulsed by the cooperation between the Swedish musketeers and horsemen. Despite this setback, his offensive power was still strong and he was able to quickly recoil and regroup his dispersed cuirassiers. As the firepower from the King's front proved extremely taxing, he decided to extend his cavalry line leftward and go around the King's front to
envelop his right flank. By performing this evasive maneuver, he directed his attacks against the King's right flank, as well as Banér's troops in the second line. Gustavus Adolphus promptly responded to this threat by ordering his reserves and Banér's units from the second line to reinforce his exposed flank, allowing him to gradually extend his own line rightward. First to deploy on the King's right flank was the Rhinegrave's cuirassiers, later followed by Aderkas' Livonians, Dönhoff's Curonians and Kochtitzky's Slavic and Pomeranian cavalry. Pappenheim made three flanking attacks against the Swedes. The regimental commanders Aderkas and Damitz fell during this action. Both Gustavus Adolphus and Banér encouraged their horsemen and musketeers to remain steadfast. With all his attacks repulsed, Pappenheim fell back with heavy casualties and left his remaining cuirassiers demoralized and exhausted. Meanwhile, the Yellow Brigade launched their own attack and were able to create a gap between Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp's regiment and Piccolomini's harquebusiers on Pappenheim's right flank. Following Pappenheim's seventh repulse at about four o'clock in the evening, Gustavus Adolphus ordered Banér to rally the cavalry of Sperreuth, Stenbock, Soop, Tott, Stålhandske and Wunsch. Banér led them in a broad counter-charge against both Pappenheim's cuirassiers and Piccolomini's and Merode's harquebusiers. His
shock attack immediately threw Pappenheim's exhausted cuirassiers back in disarray, with some units under Pappenheim falling back to the Imperial artillery positions at Galgenberg, while others accompanied Piccolomini in his retreat from the battlefield. The Livonian and Curonian cuirassiers pursued Piccolomini's cuirassiers through Breitenfeld and Halle. With Pappenheim's cavalry taken out of action, only Colonel von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp's infantry regiment remained on this front. The regiment formed into a tercio to stand their ground against attacks from Stålhandske's and Wunsch's Hakkapeliitta. The Finnish horsemen met stubborn resistance, forcing Banér to bring in Ortenburg's cuirassiers and the Yellow Brigade's commanded musketeers at five o'clock, who pulverised the tercio with musketry fire and canister charges from their regimental artillery. Their combined firepower were able to finally bring down the tercio. Out of 1,500 men, only 300 men of the Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp regiment survived after the battle. Colonel von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp was mortally wounded during this action and was escorted as a Swedish prisoner of war to Eilenburg for treatment. He succumbed to his wounds two days later.
Tilly's main assault and Saxon retreat Tilly's infantry remained stationary on the Galgenberg while Pappenheim's made his assault against the Swedish right wing. Half an hour after Pappenheim's first charge, Fürstenberg's and Isolani's cavalry, on the Imperial-League right wing, made a direct assault of their own against the Saxon centre and left wing. They were spearheaded by Cronberg's and Schönburg's cuirassier regiments. Schönburg attacked the Saxon Horse Guards, which were quickly routed after a brief struggle. Saxe-Altenburg's and General Bindauf's regiments resolutely defended themselves against Baumgarten's cavalry attack, with the latter soon being reinforced by Cronberg's cavalry. General Bindauf and Colonel Starschedel were both shot to death, resulting in their regiments disintegrating and routing from the battlefield. Colonel Steinau was captured by the Imperial-League troops during the commotion, along with most of his regiment. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Tilly recognized an opportunity for a main assault with his Imperial-League infantry against both the Saxon army and the left flank of the Swedish centre. Tercios spearheaded by Philipp von Pappenheim's and Göss's regiments, supported by Wangler's regiment and Erwitte's reserve cavalry, marched down the Galgenberg and made an
oblique advance to the right, concentrating on the Saxon troops. Meanwhile, Gallas' tercios advanced to put pressure on the Swedish centre, while Tilly's tercios acted as a "hinge" between Gallas' and Göss's tercios. The marching tercios were immediately exposed to Torstenson's artillery fire, which tore huge holes among the tightly packed formations. Owing to the pressure of Fürstenberg's cavalry, coupled with the advance of Tilly's infantry, the rest of the Saxon army started to panic. The greater part of the army routed from the battlefield at four o'clock. Even the Elector John George, who made desperate attempts to incite his troops to fight back, was dragged along in their flight towards Eilenburg. Some Saxon soldiers took the opportunity to plunder their own
tross, as well as the nearby Swedish one, who during the rush was also dragged along in the flight. The Saxon artillery was captured by the Imperial cavalry, who used the pieces to bombard both the fleeing Saxon troops and the Swedish left wing. Parts of Fürstenberg's and Isolani's cavalry, whose men cried out "Victoria" in triumph, chased after the Saxons and plundered their abandoned
tross. Almost the entire Saxon army fled the battlefield over the course of merely an hour. Only Colonel Taube's Life Regiment and Arnim's Life Guards remained, who later regrouped behind the Swedish left wing. In a short time, the united Protestant army lost a third of its strength, with the remnants now being numerically inferior to Tilly's army.
Regroupment . The Swedish army extends it's left wing with auxiliaries to meet the threat. Tilly's plan was that his centre would launch a broad frontal assault on Horn's open left flank, with fire support from the Imperial batteries on Galgenberg and the captured Saxon artillery. Both Fürstenberg and Isolani were to support Tilly's infantry assault. They gave strict orders to their cavalry to break off their pursuit of the Saxon troops and to attack the open flank and rear of the Swedish centre. While his both cavalry wings made their assaults, Tilly planned to execute a
pincer movement against Horn's troops. If successful, he would outflank the Swedish army on their left flank and ultimately drive them back towards the marchlands at the Lober stream. Arriving at the former position of the Saxons, Tilly slowly pivoted his Imperial-League tercios to the left. The movement of such large amount of troops on the trodden earth stirred up huge clouds of dust. These clouds were spread out with the wind towards the Swedish left wing, thus obscuring the visibility among Tilly's and Horn's troops. The left-turn movement and the difficult visibility resulted in Pappenheim's, Wahl's, Wangler's and Reinach-Comargo's infantry regiments, comprising 7,800 men and about 1,000 soldiers from nearby regiments, being pushed too far to the right. Owing to the size of the tercios, the turning manoeuver became a very time-consuming process. Many soldiers were crowded together and placed too far back to fully participate in the fighting on the far left. The agile Swedish troops now saw their opportunity. Horn observed the new situation occurring before his eyes and immediately reacted to Tilly's attempt to outflank his troops. He took the initiative by ordering his left flank (Baudissin's and Caldenbach's cuirassiers) to pivot sharply to the left, allowing his rear line (Taupadel's dragoons and Efferen-Hall's and Courville's cuirassiers) to advance and extend his front line on both flanks. Waldstein's commanded musketeers were also lined up in the gaps between the squadrons. Horn thus re-aligned his troops in a new defensive front at a 90-degree angle, which ran perpendicularly along the country road between Düben and Leipzig. The road was surrounded by deep ditches, which Horn used as a defensive obstacle. His hastily improvised maneuver was carried out in just 15 minutes, and he exploited the surrounding smoke and dust clouds to conceal his deployment. Before the maneuver could be completed, Fürstenberg made an attempt to charge Horn's flank. But since his cavalry, having chased away the Saxon troops, had not yet regrouped his ranks effectively, he was unable to mount a concentrated attack. Thus his attack was quickly repulsed by a concentrated volley from Waldstein's musketeers.
Action at Horn's front Horn was well aware that his thin lines alone could not hold their ground against the crushing force of the Imperial-League infantry, which now numbered some 20,000 men and reinforced by thousands of Fürstenberg's cavalry. While Tilly slowly regrouped his tercios for his decisive infantry assault, he wanted to put pressure on Horn by sending Fürstenberg's remaining cavalry, mainly Baumgarten's and Cronberg's cuirassier regiments, in several
columns to attack the Swedish left wing from the flank and the rear. Horn responded to Tilly's regroupment by having Baudissin's and Caldenbach's cuirassiers engage in delaying actions against the Imperial-League infantry, with fire support from Waldstein's musketeers. His aim was to disrupt Tilly's attack preparations in order to buy himself time to call for reinforcements. In some places, Horn's rapid-firing regimental artillery was able to unleash a blast of close-range
grapeshots and canister-charges against the slow-moving Imperial-League infantry. At the same time, Efferen-Hall's and Courville's cuirassiers managed to repulse Fürstenberg's cavalry charge. Fürstenberg responded by using the captured Saxon artillery to bombard the Swedish cuirassiers, killing colonel Efferen-Hall and several of his men in the process. Tilly ordered Fürstenberg to renew his attacks on Horn's front, while his infantry moved into fighting positions. When these began to march across the deep trenches, Colonel Caldenbach and his regiment decided to sally out against the Imperial-League infantry in a suicidal assault. Caldenbach and nearly all of his men were killed during this delaying action, however, their assault stalled the advance of several enemy infantry regiments. This gave Horn more time to organize his defense. . Horn reported his situation to Major General Teuffel, who in turn forwarded the report to Gustavus Adolphus while he was busy with his own defense against Pappenheim's assaults. The King hastened to the centre where he received a direct report from Field Marshal Arnim that the Saxon army had retreated and the entire Imperial-League army had turned their attention towards Horn's isolated troops. The King immediately ordered Teuffel to send auxiliaries to Horn's aid. As Teuffel was about to carry out the King's order, he was killed by a stray bullet fired from Tilly's infantry regiment, who advanced to confront the stationary Blue Brigade. This forced Gustavus Adolphus to alone ride to Colonel Hepburn at the centre's second line. He ordered him to march to Horn's aid with all three brigades of the second line, along with the reserve units from the first and second lines. In columns, Hepburn's, Eckstädt's, and Thurn's brigades and the reserve troops pivoted straight to the left and deployed themselves on Horn's left front, bringing with them their 18 regimental guns. Furthermore, Efferen-Hall's and Courville's cuirassier regiments were reinforced with Schaffman's and Kochtitzky's cavalry companies. With their arrival at his position, Horn was able to dispose of around 10,000 soldiers, whereby his front line could no longer be outflanked by Tilly's onslaught. As the Swedish auxiliaries arrived at Horn's front, Philipp von Pappenheim's tercios advanced in columns to confront the Green Brigade. Although Pappenheim's veteran regiments were three times the size of the Green Brigade, the latter had brought several regimental guns and had both the sun and the wind behind their backs. Isolani's Croats employed the caracole to stall the Green Brigade, but they were repulsed by heavy musket volleys and canister shots from Hepburn's regimental guns. When Pappenheim's tercios was within range, Hepburn lined up his Scottish musketeers with their three front ranks kneeling and three rear ranks standing upright. In a short time they were able to fire concentrated platoon volleys, which together with the canister shots from their regimental guns inflicted mounting casualties on Pappenheim's advancing columns. These in turn returned fire with their own muskets. At the same time, Göss' tercios clashed with Eckstädt's brigade and Erwitte's reserve cavalry advanced against Horn's cavalry. Horn's cavalry acted as a "hinge" between Eckstädt's brigade and the Blue Brigade in the centre. As Göss's and Pappenheim's tercios approached their opponents, the pikemen of both sides clashed against each other, both supported by Baudissin's and Cronberg's cavalry who swept across the open terrain. The musketeers also took part in the fierce melee, using the butt end of their muskets as
clubs. Erwitte's arquebusier regiments also attacked Horn's cavalry with the use of caracole and artillery support. Horn responded to Erwitte's attack with infantry musketry and cavalry countercharges. The fierce fighting along Horn's front accumulated thick clouds of gunpowder smoke and dust, which with strong westerly winds spread across the entire battlefield. These greatly obscured both the commander's ability to survey the battle and the soldiers' ability to recognize their own comrades. At five o'clock in the afternoon, the action at Horn's front had been going on for an hour. Hepburn signaled his musicians to play Scottish marching music to prevent his Scottish troops from getting lost in the smoke. The repeated and concentrated volleys from Horn's and Hepburn's musketeers, coupled with the heavy cannonade from their regimental artillery, forced the remnants of the Imperial-League infantry to stall their attacks, leading to the men being crowded together and losing their momentum. Despite the heavy resistance, Tilly refused to withdraw and his infantry continued to put up heavy pressure on Horn's troops. But his positions had very limited room to manoeuvre and were slowly being pushed back by strong counterattacks made by Horn's and Hepburn's troops.
Annihilation of the Imperial-League force after a drawing by Olof Örnehufvud. At five o'clock in the afternoon, the battle had been going on for five hours. Following Banér's successful cavalry charge against Pappenheim's cavalry, Gustavus Adolphus noticed a gap had opened up between the Imperial-League centre and the fleeing left wing. He now recognized an opportunity to launch a major counteroffensive to
break through Tilly's army. After he had sent auxiliaries to Horn's front, the King rode over to Banér on the right wing to rally his remaining cavalry. He ordered Soop and his Västergötland cavalry to charge against Erwitte's open left flank. Along with Horn's cavalry, Soop's regiment were able to drive Erwitte's cavalry back into Tilly's infantry, causing disorder among the tightly packed tercios. Meanwhile, the King rode at the head of the Hakkapeliitta and Stenbock's, Sperreuth's and Rheingrave's cavalry. He led them into a flanking charge against the Imperial artillery. Small remnants of Pappenheim's cuirassiers, who had retreated to the Galgenberg, were chased off by the King's cavalry. The Swedes rode up the slopes, cut down the imperial artillerymen and seized their guns. They then rode down the slopes to join up with Soop's cavalry and roll up the remnants of the Imperial-League centre from its left flank. To complete his counter-offensive, Gustavus Adolphus ordered the rest of his right wing and the brigades on the first line of the centre to pivot perpendicularly to the left. This manoeuvre allowed the brigades to occupy the Galgenberg, push back Tilly's Imperial-League infantry, and cut off their line of retreat towards Leipzig. At the same time, Torstenson moved his light artillery forward and Mackay's and Monro's regiments were able to recapture the Saxon artillery. Together with the captured Imperial artillery, the tightly packed Imperial-League infantry were now exposed to a heavy artillery
crossfire. Between six and seven o'clock, Horn made his last cavalry charge against the enemy. Hepburn's brigade led an infantry attack, and the King sent the Blue Brigade to support him. These two-fold attacks, coupled with the destructive crossfire from the Swedish artillery, finally led to the collapse of Tilly's army. The Imperial-League tercios suffered heavy losses and lost all cohesion. The remnants of Tilly's army was thus forced into a disorderly retreat. The regimental commanders Erwitte, Caffarelli and Philipp Pappenheim where killed during this action, while Coronini became a Swedish prisoner of war. Thus both Erwitte's reserve cavalry and Philipp Pappenheim's regiment fell apart and fled in panic from the battlefield. At this point, Tilly had been wounded in the chest and neck by three musket bullets, and received two blows to the head by a German officer, belonging to the Rheingrave's regiment, who attempted to capture him. Tilly was saved when the German officer was shot down by Imperial Colonel Rudolf Maximilian von Sachsen-Lauenburg. Cronberg's and Schönburg's cuirassiers escorted Tilly to safety in Halle. Meanwhile, Field Marshal Pappenheim managed to return to the fray and tried to gather every remaining cuirassier he could find. But by this time, most of the Imperial cavalry had fled the battlefield. With limited room for maneuver, Pappenheim undertook the task of protecting Tilly's retreat. Scattered Imperial-League troops fled towards Leipzig,
Merseburg and Halle. Both the King's and Horn's cavalry launched a determined pursuit, cutting down or capturing any Imperial-League soldiers who failed to escape the battlefield. Large parts of the Swedish army, however, were too exhausted to partake in the pursuit. Tilly's army was thus spared from total annihilation. At six o'clock in the evening, Pappenheim formed tercios at the brow of the Linkelwald forest with the last cohesive remnants of Baldiron-Dietrichstein's, Göss's, Chiesa's and Blankart's regiments. The tercios put up dogged resistance against Tott's and Stenbock's attacking cavalry. Their resistance also gave respite to the remaining Imperial-League troops scattered around the battlefield to escape with their lives. The tercios were subjected to artillery fire from their own artillery pieces, which had now been turned against them by Gustavus Adolphus and Horn's cavalry. By sundown, the 4,100 men of the four Imperial regiments from the start of the battle had now been reduced to a mere 600 men. The fighting finally subsided during nightfall at nine o'clock in the evening. Under the cover of darkness, Pappenheim was able to retreat from the battlefield along with the last Imperial-League soldiers. The flight proceeded in good order through the Linkelwald and in the direction of Halle. The exhausted Swedish infantry spent the night on the battlefield, while the Swedish cavalry and Taube's Saxon cuirassiers continued their pursuit along the roads towards Leipzig and Halle. ==Casualties==