The Battle of Saalfeld took place on 10 October 1806, at which a French force of 12,800 men commanded by Marshal Jean Lannes defeated a Prussian-Saxon force of 8,300 men under Prince Louis Ferdinand. The battle took place in Thuringia in what was the Ernestine duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The battle was the second clash in the Prussian Campaign of the War of the Fourth Coalition. Background French Movements Napoleon had arranged the Grande Armée into three columns to cross the Thuringian Forest to attack the Prussian-Saxon army. The westernmost column was headed by V Corps commanded by Jean Lannes, with Pierre Augereau's VII Corps following behind. They had orders to march from Coburg via Gräfenthal due at Saalfeld on 11 October. V Corps set out on 8 October, and by the end of 9 October was at Gräfenthal with light cavalry on the road to Saalfeld. At 5am on 10 October, Lannes with Louis-Gabriel Suchet's division and Anne-François-Charles Trelliard brigade of light cavalry of V corps began advancing down the road to Saalfeld, aware that a Prussian-Saxon force was in front of them. Prussian-Saxon movements Prince Louis Ferdinand commanded the Advanced Guard of Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen's army and on 9 October the Prince his headquarters at Rudolstadt, with detachments at Saalfeld, , and Bad Blankenburg. The Prince had received a message from Hohenlohe that the Prussian-Saxon army would be advancing across the River Saale to support Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien's force after the Battle of Schleiz, and that Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel's main army would be advancing to Rudolstadt. In the evening of 9 October Oberst Leopold Ludwig Maximilian Nordeck zu Rabenau (who commanded a detachment at Saalfeld) reported to Prince Louis that a French column of between 16,000 and 20,000 men had left Coburg heading for Saalfeld and that a post of 30 hussars stationed at Gräfenthal and the Jäger Company "Valentini" stationed at had both retreated to Arnsgereuth after clashing with the French. Knowing that the main body of the army under Hohenlohe was due to advance across the River Saale on 10 October, Prince Louis therefore decided that his forces needed to stop the French column from either crossing the Saale at Saalfeld and interfering with Hohenlohe’s movements or from moving up the western side of the Saale to Rudolstadt, which they would reach before Brunswick’s army. During 9 October a fusilier company commanded by