The Campaign of France

The Grande Armée was destroyed in Russia in 1812 and beaten again at Leipzig in October 1813. Now the Coalition armies have crossed the Rhine. Schwarzenberg’s Army of Bohemia comes through Switzerland and the Langres plateau. Blücher’s Army of Silesia comes through Lorraine.

On 25 January Napoleon leaves Paris for Châlons. He has about 41,000 men on hand, many of them conscripts in their teens, nicknamed the "Marie-Louises".

Napoleon hurries south to catch Blücher before he can join Schwarzenberg. The fight comes at Brienne, where Napoleon had studied as a cadet. It goes on into the night, and Blücher only just escapes capture in the château.

Each side loses about 3,000 men. Blücher slips away south, and the two Allied armies draw together.

About 85,000 Allied soldiers attack some 45,000 French in a snowstorm. The muskets will not fire, so the fighting is done with bayonets. Napoleon loses about 6,000 men and between 50 and 60 guns. It is his first defeat on French soil.

He retreats over the Aube towards Troyes. The Allies are confident they have won, and they make a fateful choice: to separate again and race each other to Paris.

Schwarzenberg moves cautiously down the Seine through Troyes. Blücher swings north to the Marne. He plans to trap Macdonald, who is falling back from Châlons, and then march on Paris by the "little" road through Champaubert and Montmirail.

Napoleon falls back to Nogent-sur-Seine and watches. As early as 2 February he has guessed that the Allied armies will separate. Now they have.

By the evening of the 8th, Blücher’s army is strung out along about forty-four miles of road. Sacken is at Montmirail, Olsufiev twelve miles behind at Étoges, Blücher nine miles further back at Vertus, and Kleist and Kapzevich another sixteen miles back at Châlons. Yorck is off to the north on the Marne.

Napoleon leaves Victor and Oudinot, with about 39,000 men, to hold Schwarzenberg on the Seine. He marches north with about 30,000. The guns are dragged through the thawing mud of the forest of Traconne with the help of peasants’ horses. On the night of the 9th the Emperor reaches Sézanne. Blücher’s headquarters suspect nothing.

French cavalry seize the bridge at Saint-Prix, and Marmont and Ney climb onto the plateau. Olsufiev has about 4,000 infantry and no cavalry, but he has been criticised once too often, and he decides to stand his ground.

By evening his corps no longer exists. Olsufiev is a prisoner, and only 1,600 to 1,700 of his men escape through the woods towards Épernay. Napoleon now stands between the two halves of Blücher’s army.

Napoleon leaves Marmont to watch Blücher in the east and turns west against Sacken. Yorck urges Sacken to retreat over the Marne, but Sacken decides to fight his way back along the road.

Marchais changes hands again and again until the Guard breaks the Russian centre. Yorck arrives too late. Sacken loses about 2,800 men and 13 guns, and both corps stumble north towards Château-Thierry.

The French pursue to the Marne. Yorck’s rearguard is broken on the plateau above Château-Thierry, and two Russian regiments surrender. A heavy battery across the river covers the crossing, and the Allies destroy the bridge behind them.

Between them Yorck and Sacken have lost another 2,750 men. Mortier is sent after them with the Old Guard. Meanwhile, word comes from the east: Blücher is on the move.

Blücher doesn’t know how badly his western corps have been beaten. He advances from Vertus with Kleist and Kapzevich and pushes Marmont back through Étoges and Champaubert to Vauchamps.

Napoleon leaves Mortier to pursue Yorck and Sacken, and turns the Guard round. They march back east through the night to Montmirail.

Marmont turns and counter-attacks, with the Guard close behind him. Grouchy’s cavalry go round through the woods. Blücher orders a retreat, and for hours his men fall back across the open fields in squares while the French cavalry charge them again and again.

At Étoges, after dark, the last French attack falls on men who are foraging for food. The Prussians lose about 4,000 men and Kapzevich more than 2,000. In four battles an army of 56,000 has lost more than 16,000 men and 47 guns. Napoleon has lost about 4,000.

While Napoleon was fighting on the Marne, Schwarzenberg crossed the Seine and drove Victor and Oudinot back towards Paris. Their line is now the Yerres, painfully close to the capital.

The Emperor leaves Marmont and Mortier to watch Blücher and drives the Guard south through Meaux. Some of the infantry ride in requisitioned carts. On the 16th he joins Macdonald, Victor and Oudinot at Guignes.

Napoleon turns at once to the attack. Gérard leads the advance against Pahlen’s Russians at Mormant, and French cavalry outflank them on both sides. Pahlen loses about 2,000 men and ten guns.

The French columns fan out east towards Nangis, Provins and Montereau. Napoleon orders Victor to take the bridges at Montereau that night. Victor stops short, and Napoleon is furious.

The Crown Prince of Württemberg holds the heights of Surville. He has about 9,500 men and only one bridge behind him. Pajol’s raw cavalry and Victor’s infantry attack all morning without success. At three in the afternoon the Emperor arrives with the Guard and 70 guns.

Surville is stormed. Pajol charges down the main road, across the Seine bridge and then the Yonne bridge, sabring the fugitives, before either bridge can be blown. The Allies lose nearly 5,000 men and 15 guns.

Schwarzenberg falls back up the Seine. On 24 February Napoleon re-enters Troyes, and by the end of the month the Army of Bohemia is behind the Aube. It is a retreat, but not a rout.

Blücher’s army was hit so hard in February, yet it is reinforced at Châlons and is soon 53,000 strong again. Instead of waiting for Schwarzenberg, it strikes out once more for the Marne and Paris.

Napoleon chases Blücher north across the Marne and the Aisne. He wins a costly victory at Craonne on 7 March, then fails against Blücher’s reinforced army at Laon on 9–10 March. He takes back Reims in a final flash of brilliance on 13 March. At Arcis-sur-Aube on 20–21 March he runs into the whole Army of Bohemia.

He then gambles on marching east against the Allied supply lines, hoping they will follow him away from Paris. The Allies refuse to follow. On 25 March they brush Marmont and Mortier aside at Fère-Champenoise and march on the capital.

Marmont and Mortier, with the National Guard, fight for the heights of Belleville and Montmartre. Moncey holds the barrier of Clichy. Joseph authorises the marshals to negotiate and then leaves the city. That night Paris capitulates.

Napoleon has been racing back by way of Troyes and Sens. Late on the 30th, at Juvisy, he learns that he is too late. He turns back to Fontainebleau.

His marshals refuse to march on Paris. Marmont’s corps goes over to the Allies, and on 6 April Napoleon abdicates unconditionally. The Treaty of Fontainebleau gives him Elba.

On 20 April, in the Cour du Cheval-Blanc, he says farewell to the Old Guard: "Soldiers of my Old Guard, I bid you farewell…" Then he leaves for the south and the sea.