20. An Audacious Plan to Capture a City
After the French victory over the Prussians in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806, Napoleon ordered a vigorous pursuit of the defeated foe. As the Prussian field forces retreated, they were constantly harried. Simultaneously, their static garrisons were rounded up, lest they link up with and reinforce their Russian allies, who still posed a threat. The once-proud Prussian army, less than two decades removed from its glory days under Frederick the Great, was demoralized after its disastrous defeat. It was against that backdrop that a French cavalry brigade under General Antoine Lasalle approached the Prussian port city of Stettin.
Lasalle had about 500 hussars under his command and two light field guns. Stettin was a well-fortified port city with a garrison of nearly 10,000 men, protected by 281 cannons. They were under the command of a General Friedrich von Romberg, a veteran with over half a century of experience. His military career stretched back to the Seven Years War, in which he had fought under Frederick the Great. Stettin was well provisioned by the British Royal Navy, whose supply-laden ships sailed in and out of the port with no hindrance. Given the disparity in numbers, Lasalle could not seize the city by force. So he improvised a plan to bluff Romberg into surrender.
