During the Napoleonic Wars the forces of the First French Empire, under Marshal MacDonald, were defeated by a Russo-Prussian army under the Prussian Marshal Graf von Blücher. The engagement took place on 26th August 1813, at the Katzbach river in in the Prussian province of Silesia, during a heavy thunderstorm. Marshal Blücher, in the centre, rides towards the right on a chestnut horse, followed by a party of horsemen on galloping and rearing horses; in the distance, on the right, a battle rages and in the foreground, dead and wounded soldiers and a conifer on the right

Written on a stone, lower right: 'Schlacht an der (sic) Katzbach erfochten vom Gen: von Blücher gegen Bonaparte den 28ten Aug: 1813' (The battle at the Katzbach won by General von Blücher against Bonaparte on the 28th August, 1813). A date and signature, referring to an unknown artist, 'F.G.Wütsch 1814' was recorded by Richard Redgrave, but is no longer visible.