37. Incompetence Turns an Orderly Retreat Into a Catastrophic Rout
Entrusting the fate of an army to a lowly corporal turned out to be a bad decision. Around 1 PM on October 19th, 1813, Corporal Lafontaine, temporarily in sole charge of the explosives-rigged up to blow up Leipzig’s bridge, heard distant gunfire. Discombobulated, the corporal immediately blew up the bridge – while it was jam-packed with Napoleon’s retreating men.
Most of those on the bridge were either killed by the explosion, or drowned. That was just the tip of the iceberg. The unexpected detonation caused a panic, during which thousands of French troops were killed. Tens of thousands of Napoleon’s men were still on the far side of the bridge, when they found themselves suddenly cut off from retreat, and on the same side as the enemy. Many more drowned as they tried to swim across. 30,000 of those stranded on the wrong side of the bridge were forced to surrender.