In the streaming rain, Blücher rode back to Brechelshof accompanied by Gneisenau. Initially silent, he then joked with his companion. “No, Gneisenau,” he purportedly exclaimed, “we have won the battle and nobody can deny us that. Now, they will demand to know how we did it so well and I will have to teach them!” Unable to find a structure large enough to accommodate Army Headquarters because the few buildings on the estate housed the wounded, they went to the Rittergut (manor), which now served as the army’s main hospital. Karl Ernst Friedrich, Baron von Richthofen, had purchased the estate, previously the Leubus Seminary, in 1811 during Prussia’s liquidation of religious holdings. At a long table in the large, arched great room, Blücher and his staff sat down to a meager victory dinner consisting of boiled potatoes served in large clay bowls. Although the potatoes were freshly dug, no spices could be found to add flavor. Seated at the far end of the table, young Scharnhorst seemed restless and looked around disappointingly. Blücher noticed and asked the lieutenant what troubled him. When Scharnhorst declared he desired salt, Blücher bellowed: “He is such a gourmand that he even needs salt!”

After dinner, work continued deep into the night. Blücher wrote his own report to the magistrate of Breslau announcing the victory as well as requesting care for the wounded and food for his troops. Despite his exhaustion, he also penned private letters. “Today was the day that I have so long wished for,” he divulged to his wife; “we have completely defeated the enemy, capturing many cannon and taking many prisoners.