Battle of Brienne

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Battle of Brienne

Part of: Wars of Liberation

The deployment area of ​​the French army and the
Silesian army with Brienne in the middle in the south

date	January 29, 1814
place	Brienne-le-Château
output	French victory and withdrawal of the Russian troops of the Silesian Army on Trannes

Parties to the conflict
France	Prussia Russia
Commander
Napoleon Bonaparte	Gebhard von Blücher
Troop strength
more than 30,000 men	25,000 men
losses
3,000 dead and wounded	4,000 dead and wounded

Napoleon was almost captured by the Cossacks after the Battle of Brienne, but was saved from it by the French General Gourgaud .

The positions of the armies involved on the evening of
January 28, 1814, portrayed by Loraine Petre

The Battle of Brienne was fought on January 29, 1814 during the winter campaign of the Wars of Liberation in France between a French army under Napoleon and the Russian corps of the Silesian Army under Field Marshal Blücher . The battle took place near Brienne-le-Château, where Napoléon had studied. When the Allied armies marched on the French from three directions, Napoleon planned to attack and defeat each part individually. His first intention was to disperse the Prussian and Russian soldiers of the Silesian Army under Blücher. Napoléon had more than 30,000 soldiers, but many were just emerging from the recruitment camps and had no war experience.

During the fighting for the castle, Blücher and his chief of staff , August von Gneisenau, narrowly escaped captivity. Napoleon, for his part, was almost captured by Russian Cossacks during heavy fighting.

In older literature this battle and the subsequent battle at La Rothière on February 1, 1814 are seen as a common event, which is referred to as the Battle of Brienne .

prehistory

The positions of the French troops on the left bank of the Rhine at the turn of the year 1813/1814

After their defeat in the Battle of Leipzig , the remnants of the French army had withdrawn completely to the west. On November 1st and 2nd, 1813, most of the army crossed the Rhine near Mainz. On the right bank of the Rhine, the French then only held Mainz-Kastel and until November 9, 1813 Hochheim am Main .

There were still around 70,000 men who were able to save themselves across the Rhine. Of these, however, many fell victim to the diseases that spread among the soldiers as well as the civilian population. Most terrible that raged spotted fever ( typhoid ambulatorius ), the typhoid de Mayence .

Napoleon positioned his available troops in November 1813 as follows:

The Napoleonic Army on the left bank of the Rhine in December 1813

section	commander	headquarters	Troop strength
Upper Rhine: Basel to Landau	Marshal Victor	Strasbourg	10,000
Middle Rhine: Landau to Koblenz	Marshal Marmont	Mainz	13,000
Mainz fortress :	General Morand	Mainz	initially 30,000, almost all of them sick, fewer than 15,000 survivors
Middle Rhine: Koblenz to the Lippe	General Sebastiani (under the supreme command of MacDonald)		4,500
Lower Rhine: from the Lippe to Nijmegen	Marshal MacDonald	Cologne	10,000
Total combatable troops			37,500

The coalition troops of the Silesian Army on the right bank of the Rhine in December 1813

The battle of Brienne in a representation by Jean-Baptiste Madou

The coalition troops moved their headquarters to Frankfurt am Main on November 5, 1813. Intensive consultations between the allied powers began there on the further progress of the joint military campaign. On December 1, 1813, in the presence of Tsar Alexander and the Austrian Emperor Franz , it was decided to carry out a winter campaign into France. In the joint operation plan it was determined that the Silesian Army should cross the river on the Middle Rhine at the turn of the year. Then by January 15, 1814, she should have reached and enclosed the fortress of Metz .

The units of the Silesian Army at the end of 1813 were:

The Silesian Army on the right bank of the Rhine in December 1813

Unit	Country of origin	Troop strength	Position at the end of December 1813
Corps sack	Russia	26,600	from Darmstadt to Heidelberg
Corps Langeron	Russia	23,000	west of Frankfurt am Main
Corps Saint-Priest (under the command of Langeron)	Russia	4,000	near Lahnstein
Corps Yorck	Prussia	19,000	from the mouth of the Lahn to the mouth of the Main
Kleist Corps	Prussia	20,000	Erfurt
Total combatable troops		approx. 92,600

Field Marshal Blücher's headquarters were in Frankfurt am Main. In secret orders, he had set New Year's Eve as the time of the Rhine crossing.

The troops of the Silesian Army were poorly supplied and fed. Above all, there was a lack of food. The military leadership was helpless and helpless and did not intervene when the troops provided themselves with violence. There were also cases of typhus in the Silesian Army , which also spread locally to the civilian population.

The Rhine crossing of the Silesian Army

The Rhine crossing of the Russian Sacken Corps near Mannheim

Map of Mannheim with the mouth of the Neckar from 1794

The crossing of the Rhine by the Russian Sacken Corps began in the early morning hours of January 1st, 1814 in the presence of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. at the mouth of the Neckar near Mannheim . A ship bridge had been prepared on the Neckar to be pushed across the Rhine. On the opposite side of the Rhine but French troops had a redoubt built, called Friesenheim he Redoute , which was strongly backed, equipped with six guns and 300 men occupied. From 3:00 a.m. onwards, several Russian fighter regiments crossed the river in boats. At around 6:30 a.m. the Russians were noticed by the French and the guns set up in the hill began to fire. The Russian hunters then stormed the hill: they took it after 30 minutes, in the fourth attempt with their own losses of 400 men.

In the hours that followed, the Russians put barges together and began to bring Karpov's Cossacks and the riders of Prince Biron von Curlan across the Rhine after 2 p.m. The construction of the prepared ship bridge over the Rhine was completed by 6:00 p.m. on New Year's Day 1814. The corps crossed over to the left bank of the Rhine that night, the first contingents occupied Worms and Speyer and Prince Biron to Curland's cavalry reached Alzey without encountering any resistance worth mentioning. Only at Mutterstadt was there a cavalry battle in which 2,000 Karpow Cossacks prevailed against eight French squadrons under General Audenarde and took 200 cavalrymen and 25 officers prisoner.

The Blüchers Rhine crossing near Kaub

The Rhine island of Falkenau , on which Pfalzgrafenstein Castle stands near Kaub in the Rhine, served as a support for the pontoon bridge over the Rhine

The transfer of the Yorck and Langeron corps took place in the presence of Blucher and his general staff at Kaub am Rhein using the small Rhine island of Falkenau , on which the Pfalzgrafenstein Castle stands. The Prussian and Russian troops were crowded together on the clear winter night, the Prussians on the banks of the Rhine and its immediate vicinity, the Russians in the side valleys towards the Taunus, the majority between Nast Orte and Weisel . After midnight, the Russian line pontoons arrived to the bridge and began from the south, down the Rhine, in bringing barges silently as possible, where from 2:30 2000 brandenburger Fusiliers over the Rhine translated, the Rhine island Falkenau manned by snipers and French guard of a Displaced customs house on the left bank of the Rhine.

The Rhine near Kaub, in the middle the Pfalzgrafenstein Castle

While the bridge construction progressed undisturbed, Prussian troops were transferred on all available barges, which first occupied the heights above the left bank of the Rhine, then the nearest towns of Oberwesel and Bacharach . Small contingents of French troops up to a few hundred men showed up repeatedly until 8:00 a.m., but these could be driven out by the Prussian snipers on the Rhine island of Falkenau and the Prussian troops on the left bank of the Rhine.

At 9:00 in the morning, the pontoon bridge from the right bank of the Rhine to the Rhine island was completed. This shortened the way that the barges had to cover when crossing the river, and the first horses and smaller guns were now being carried over on these barges.

The Rhine is narrowed somewhat by the island of Falkenau and its flow speed increases, which caused problems for the Russian pioneers

At 4 p.m. in the afternoon the anchors of the already completed part of the pontoon bridge tore and forced the Russian pioneers to make extensive improvements to their work. The Prussian troops that had already been transferred moved their posts to Rheinböllen and Bingen .

On January 2, 1814 at 9:00 in the morning, the entire length of the pontoon bridge was completed. From the right bank of the Rhine to the Rhine island, 27 pontoons had been installed, and from the island to the left bank of the Rhine a further 44 pontoons. This marked the beginning of a much more rapid transition for the Prussian troops, but this dragged on for another 24 hours, as the heavy artillery and wagons had to be driven over individually. At dawn on January 3, 1814, the transition of the Russian corps to Langeron began.

After crossing the Rhine, Langeron's troops marched south towards Bingen, where they drove out a French contingent of 1,000 infantry and a cavalry brigade of the Guard of Honor (Gardes d'Honneur) under General Choisy. The French infantrymen escaped from the overwhelming Russian forces in the fortress of Mainz , the cavalrymen fought their way to the Saar and placed themselves there under the command of the French Marshal Marmont. Langeron's corps was moving further towards Mainz . As early as January 5, 1814 , the Russians enclosed Mainz , after some stubborn battles with French troops.

The Prussians under Yorck marched via Stromberg to Bad Kreuznach , where Blücher moved his headquarters on the evening of January 4, 1814. A Prussian contingent under Henckel von Donnersmarck moved towards Trier and forced the rearguard of the French Ricard division to evacuate the city and withdraw in a night battle in Simmern on January 3, 1814 between 2:00 and 4:30 .

The Rhine crossing of the Russian Corps Saint-Priest near Koblenz

Koblenz around 1700: Even in 1814, the urban area was still squeezed into the corner between the Rhine and Moselle. Since the wall had been abandoned by the construction of the castle, the city could be occupied from the south

On New Year's Eve from 1813 to 1814, the first infantrymen of the Russian Corps Saint-Priest crossed the Rhine near Lahnstein on 82 boats that had been requisitioned on the Lahn and stormed the redoubt that French troops had erected opposite the mouth of the Lahn. At 4:00 am the Russians were able to occupy the city of Koblenz , which had been evacuated by the French that night, and several hundred French soldiers were taken prisoner. The French Durutte division , which had stood near and in Koblenz and had only arrived there on December 30, 1813, withdrew via the Hunsrück to the Saar .

Since ice began to fall on the Rhine on the following days, the passage of further units of the Corps Saint-Priest was delayed.

When it was reported that a French contingent of troops was approaching from the north, 200 Russian fighters with 25 Cossacks and one gun were sent there. Before Bonn they were wiped out by French troops of the Sebastiani corps under Generals Jacquinot and Albert . The French did not advance further south and no further threat to the Silesian Army from this direction followed.

The bulk of the Corps Saint-Priest spent several days in Koblenz, it is divided: some went under the command of General Saint-Priest to Mainz and participated in the siege of the fortress of Mainz , another part passed over Andernach and Malmedy by the Ardennes on the Meuse and Marne . The task of this unit was to secure the Silesian Army against the French corps of Marshal MacDonald.

The withdrawal of the French Marmont Corps

Marshal Marmont was entrusted by Napoleon in November 1813 with command of all French troops on the Rhine from Landau to Andernach . On New Year's Day 1814 he was near Landau and soon learned of the Sacken Corps crossing over the Rhine near Oggersheim . With all the troops he had on that day, he first moved towards Mother City . General Audenarde's cavalry led the way, encountering Russian Cossacks whom they were initially able to drive out. Behind Mutterstadt, however, stood the majority of the Karpovian Cossacks with 2,000 horsemen, to whom the French cavalrymen had to give way, losing 225 horsemen. Marmont now recognized the superiority of the Russian troops and withdrew to Bad Dürkheim at the foot of the Palatinate Forest . As the Sacken Corps approached, Marmont's troops left their positions there on the night of January 3rd to 4th, 1814 and retired to Kaiserslautern , which they reached on the afternoon of January 4th, 1814. From there the French marched immediately on to the Saar, which they reached at Sarreguemines . On January 6, 1814, the troops Marmont had with him crossed the river there. The marshal himself went to Saarbrücken and tried to organize a line of defense along the Saar.

The Ricard division , which belonged to the corps of Marshal Marmont, was on New Year's Day 1814 near Bad Kreuznach on the march from Koblenz to the south, the advance guard already at Alzey. While his vanguard marched on to Marshal Marmont, General Ricard turned back with the bulk of his division, but came too late to defend Koblenz. Together with the remnants of the Durutte division , which had withdrawn from Koblenz with the loss of a few hundred men, the Ricard division marched over the Hunsrück, Simmern and St. Wendel to the Saar and met Marschall there on January 5, 1814 in Saarbrücken Marmont. On January 6, 1814, with the exception of a rearguard, both divisions crossed the Saar in Saarbrücken, while the bridge there was already being prepared for demolition.

Beginnings of the fortress Metz from the 17th century

On January 7, 1814, Mamont ordered all ships and barges to be sunk on the Saar. Then his last soldiers, who were still standing on the eastern bank, crossed the river and blew the bridge behind them. The corps marched as far as Forbach .

That day Marshal Marmont had 8,500 infantry, 2,500 horsemen and 36 cannons with him. The corps decimated itself through desertion . In particular, the soldiers, whose mother tongue was not French, proved to be unreliable - entire regiments disappeared overnight. A week later, Marmont had 2,500 fewer infantrymen. The same was true of the cavalry: the Dutch hussars set off and took their horses with them, which prompted Marmont to steal horses from all the Dutch in his corps.

The fortress of Metz was at times the strongest fortress in France

On January 9, 1814, the Marmont Corps went to Saint-Avold , on January 11, 1814 to Longeville , and it arrived on January 12, 1814 before Metz , where Marmont took its headquarters under the protection of the fortress Metz in Gravelotte .

Marmont stayed with Metz until January 16, 1814 and tried to organize the defense of the fortress; General Durutte received the high command in Metz.

Before the approaching Silesian Army , the Marmont Corps had to retreat further: on January 18, 1814, the bulk of them stood at Verdun on the Meuse. The Ricard division after already on January 13, 1814 Pont-à-Mousson had marched to destroy the bridge there over the Moselle, was recalled before carrying out this task, made a detour to Thiaucourt and occupied first Saint-Mihiel to to prevent the Silesian Army from crossing the Maas there.

Marshal Marmont tried to keep the Meuse as a defensive line, which failed when the Silesian Army was able to cross the river at Vaucouleurs west of Toul on the night of January 21, 1814 .

The Marmont corps then moved via Bar-le-Duc near Vitry-le-Francois on the Marne, while Ricard's division took up position at Les Islettes to block the direct route to Châlons-sur-Marne .

On January 26, 1814, Napoleon personally arrived in Vitry-le-Francois and took command of the French army.

The movements of the Silesian Army until January 17, 1814

The Saar

The movements of the Russian Sacken Corps

The Sacken Corps followed the French Marmont Corps through the Palatinate Forest :

• On January 5, 1814, Frankenstein was reached and occupied.
• On January 6, 1814, the corps passed Kaiserslautern and moved to Homburg (Saar) . Lanskoi's hussars operated further south on the road to Pirmasens .
• Zweibrücken was reached on January 8, 1814 .
• On January 9, 1814, the corps stood on the Saar and guarded the eastern bank from Saarbrücken to Sarrealbe . Karpov's Cossacks crossed the river in the evening near Sarreguemines , where there were no more French troops, and explored the opposite bank to Puttelange .
• On January 11, 1814, the corps' cavalry crossed the Saar, and Lanskoi's hussars rode to Saint-Avold . Most of them gathered between Sarreguemines and Sarrealbe and then crossed the Saar.
• On January 12, 1814, the corps was already between Puttelange and Faulquemont, southeast of Metz.
• On January 13, 1814, Sacken's vanguard reached Pont-à-Mousson .
• On January 14, 1814, Prussian cavalry under Prince Biron of Curland occupied the old Lorraine capital of Nancy , which had been left shortly before by the French troops of Marshal Ney . Prince Biron of Curland did not stay in the city, but formally handed it over to General Sacken.
• By January 16, 1814, the Sacken Corps had quarters between Nancy and Château-Salins and further back to Morhange , thus securing supplies for the Silesian Army , which could reach Nancy via these cities without having to pass the fortress of Metz .
• On January 17, 1814, Blücher and Sacken moved their headquarters to Nancy.

The movements of the Prussian Corps Yorck

Plan of the Saarlouis fortress from the 17th century

Blücher initially set the Yorck Corps the task of tracking the French troops to the Saar and, if possible, preventing the reunification of the Ricard and Durutte divisions with the bulk of the Marmont Corps.

• On January 4, 1814 contingent under Henckel von Donnersmarck reached over Kirchberg and Morbach place Thalfang and sent an advance party to the gates of Trier.
• On January 5, 1814, most of the Yorck Corps held a day of rest, but the troops under Henckel von Donnersmarck occupied Trier, which all French troops had fled.
• On January 6, 1814, the thaw, which made the roads muddy, made it difficult to get ahead. The corps reached the Kusel area .
• On January 7, 1814, the corps reached Birkenfeld and St. Wendel , and the vanguard reached the Saar at Saarlouis .
• On January 8, 1814, the corps approached the Saar and observed the eastern bank from Saarbrücken to Saarwellingen . There was no way for infantry and artillery to cross the river. At that time there were fixed, permanent bridges only in Sarreguemines, where the Sacken corps passed over, in Saarbrücken, whose bridge had already been destroyed the next day, and in Saarlouis. The latter was unusable for the Prussians because it was under the protection of the strong French fortress, which was occupied by at least 1,000 French. In addition, the river was swollen from the thaw and persistent rainfall.
• On January 9, 1814, Merzig was occupied and the Prussian pioneers reported to Blücher that they could build a block bridge over the Saar near Beckingen by the next morning . That was too much of a promise, because building a block bridge in high water in winter was a difficult and dangerous task. General Yorck went personally to Beckingen to observe the progress of the work. As time was pressing, as much cavalry as possible crossed the river in two unguarded fords and secured the other bank. Some Prussian hunters also took courage and swam through the river.

Old plan of Thionville Fortress

• On January 10, 1814, the Prussian Colonel Stutterheim near Saarbrücken had all the boats sunk in the river lifted and a ship bridge was built from them. This was completed around noon and usable for all branches of service. Via this bridge the Prussians were able to occupy the parts of Saarbrücken west of the river and also advance on Forbach .
• On January 11, 1814 at 3:00 p.m., the pioneers finished building the block bridge near Beckingen and all parts of the York Corps, as long as they were not needed to observe the Saarlouis fortress on the eastern bank, could cross the river. Those contingents of the corps that had crossed the river at Beckingen reached Bouzonville that day . They had received the order from Blücher to enclose the fortress Thionville . Those Prussian troops who had crossed the Saar the day before in Saarbrücken still had a battle with the rearguard of the Marmont Corps near Saint-Avold .

Old defense tower in Thionville

• On January 12, 1814, the Yorck corps had split. One column reached Thionville and enclosed it, the other stood west of Saint-Avold just before the fortress of Metz.
• On January 13, 1814, the greater part of the corps arrived in front of the fortress of Metz and remained there for 9 days. During this time Metz was enclosed on all sides; But because the Moselle valley was flooded due to the heavy rainfall and the bridges over the river were no longer accessible, this lasted until January 18, 1814. On January 15, 1814, the troops under Henckel von Donnersmarck in Trier were replaced by those of the Kleist corps relieved and moved on to Thionville. On Blücher's express orders, strong contingents were also sent to Luxembourg and even Verdun to find out whether one of these Moselle fortresses should be stormed. But this turned out to be completely impossible. Luxembourg in particular was the largest and strongest fortress in Europe at the time and was not impressed by a handful of Prussian battalions. Due to the delay caused by these investigations, however, this corps was missing when the first battles between the Silesian army and the French army took place. When the Yorck Corps came into serious use for the first time in this campaign on March 11 and 12, 1814, it was bloodily decimated by the French army under Napoleon's leadership.

Plan of the fortress of Luxembourg around 1794

The movements of the Russian Corps Olsufiev

The Corps Olsufjew was part of the Langeron Corps, which had enclosed Mainz. But there it was not needed and therefore followed the Russian Sacken Corps with a strength of 6,000 men. However, Olsufiev's corps was not under Sacken's command, but directly under the command of Field Marshal Blucher.

The movements of the French corps until January 25, 1814

Marshal Victor's corps was still in the Vosges between Rambervillers and Luneville on January 11, 1814, the day of the battle at Épinal . This corps returned to Saint-Nicolas-de-Port in the following days . On the way down the slopes of the Vosges, the corps lost 300 riding horses through falls because of the wintry conditions alone. When the troops marched through Nancy on January 14, 1814, shortly before the first Prussians appeared there , Victor demanded 15,000 francs from the townspeople to have the horses of his cavalry re-shod. Without waiting for the money, the corps moved on to Toul . There, in the formerly fortified city, the walls of which were half crumbled, Marshal Victor left a small garrison behind and went on to Ligny-en-Barrois with the bulk of his corps . From there, the Corps Victor was driven out on January 23, 1814 by Russian troops of the Sacken Corps in a tough battle with the loss of 200 men and withdrew directly to Saint-Dizier on the Marne, where it arrived on January 24, 1814.

On January 25, 1814, the Victor Corps in Saint-Dizier was attacked again by the Sacken Corps and moved on to Vitry-le-Francois without entering into a battle .

The in Nancy newly formed corps of Marshal Ney the young guard had left Nancy on 13 January 1814 and took the same path as the Corps Victor, only it was always preceded by a period of time.

On January 25, 1814, the following troops were at the Marne and Seine:

The French army in eastern France on January 25, 1814

Unit	Troop strength	Position on January 25, 1814
Corps Victor with the Duhesme and Gérard infantry divisions and the Milhaud cavalry division	14,750	at Vitry-le-François
Corps Ney with three Young Guard divisions under Generals Meunier , Decouz and Rottembourg	14,500	at Vitry-le-François
Corps Marmont with the Doumerc cavalry division and the Lagrange and Ricard infantry divisions and new reinforcements from Metz	12,050	at Vitry-le-François
Corps Mortier with two divisions of the Old Guard under Friant and Michel	20,000	in Troyes
The guard cavalry under Lefebvre-Desnouettes arrived from Paris	1,700	at Vitry-le-François
Total combatable troops	approx. 63,000

To the north, Marshal MacDonald's corps was advancing with Sebastiani's division , too far away to play a role in the events of the following days.

The troop strengths changed from day to day, as young recruits kept arriving to reinforce them and others ran away.

Napoleon takes command of the French troops on January 26, 1814

Remains of the fortress in Saint-Dizier,
which was largely destroyed in a major fire in the 18th century (1775)

On January 25, 1814 at 6:00 am, Napoleon left Paris to travel to his army and personally take command. He traveled with 5 carriages; his close confidante General Bertrand had taken his place with him in his personal carriage . At that time, Bertrand was already Grand maréchal du palais .

Napoleon's staff had traveled ahead. Chief of staff was again Berthier , Napoleon's personal adjutants Generals Drouet , Flahaut , Corbineau and Dejean .

Napoleon already had breakfast on the first day of his journey in Château-Thierry , which had to accept many visitors during this campaign. Late in the evening, Châlons-en-Campagne , 170 km from Paris, was reached. Napoleon found neither his marshals nor significant troops there and traveled on the next morning, January 26, 1814, to Vitry-le-Francois to join his troops. In the days that followed, Napoleon issued a flood of orders and orders, the majority of which were not and were not carried out. However, he directed the main actions himself: on the morning of January 27, 1814, he ordered the cavalry under Milhaud to drive the vanguard of the Sacken corps under General Lanskoi from Saint-Dizier , which they did immediately. On behalf of Napoleon, Berthier reported this rather small success of his troops as a great victory to Paris.

Remains of the fortress in Saint-Dizier,
now used by the prefecture

Napoleon himself left Saint-Dizier at 11 a.m. the next day, January 28, 1814, after he had arranged the further movements of his troops, and went to Montier-en-Der . Following the orders of Napoleon

• Marmont and his corps initially remained behind at Saint-Dizier as the rearguard and secured the French army against the Prussian Corps York, which was advancing southwards. At 4:00 p.m. on January 28, 1814, Marmont also set out for Wassy with the heavy cavalry and 1,200 infantry ; the remnants of the Lagrange division and the light cavalry remained in Saint-Dizier;
• The Corps Victor marched on the Joinville road to Rachecourt , from there to go strictly west via Wassy to Montier-en-Der;
• the Corps Ney used the direct road from Saint-Dizier to Montier-en-Der;
• The rest of the troops, including the Ricard division, who had moved up, marched immediately south under the command of General Gérard von Vitry-le-François .

The roads were in poor condition and the troops were making slow progress. The guns had to be pulled out of the mud again and again with great difficulty. Victor and his men didn't arrive at Montier-en-Der until late at night . There were hardly any quarters to be found in the densely wooded, sparsely populated area. The officers took the few more comfortable houses. The young French recruits, who were still reluctant to take what they needed by force, went from house to house, begging, asking for something to eat that the peasants, poor as they were, could not give them.

Napoleon spent the night in Montier-en-Der . The next morning he gave the order to march directly to Brienne and to attack the troops of the Silesian Army there.

The movements of the Silesian Army until January 28, 1814

The structure of the Vauban's fortress of Toul can still be seen today in aerial photographs; right the Moselle

On January 20, 1814, Blücher ordered the Russian Sacken Corps, which was still standing near Nancy, to occupy the city ​​of Toul , 15 miles away . Toul had been fortified by Vauban at the end of the 17th century , but the fortifications had no longer been maintained and parts had already fallen into disrepair. General Liewen's division from the Sacken corps surrounded the city on two sides and prepared a siege. Faced with this threat from far superior forces, the 400-man crew surrendered and were taken prisoner. Blücher now ordered that the Sacken Corps, which was divided into two infantry divisions, should be divided: one contingent under General Shcherbatov should advance directly west to Saint-Dizier, the other under General Liewen to the south-west on Joinville . Both cities lie on the Marne and offered a good starting point to join forces with the Bohemian Army to the south via Chaumont . An undertaking that Napoleon immediately tried to stop.

Already on the night of January 21, 1814, the vanguard of the contingent marching south at Vaucouleurs was able to cross the Meuse unmolested, the other reached Void-Vacon on January 22, 1814 .

The 14th century defense tower Tour Valéran in Ligny-en-Barrois

On the express orders of Napoleon, the French marshal Victor tried to assert himself on the Ornain , whereupon on January 22, 1814 at Saint-Aubin-sur-Aire , a battle between Russian cavalry under Vasilchikov and the French cavalry division Milhaud broke out. It began with a duel of the mounted artillery, which turned into an attack by the entire Russian cavalry available there. The French had to leave the field and withdraw most of the Corps Victor at Ligny-en-Barrois .

On the evening of that day, Ofsufiev's corps moved to Toul, and Blucher moved his headquarters there. On that day Blücher sent new orders to General Yorck and ordered that all actions against the Moselle fortresses be broken off and that they should follow immediately south.

On January 23, 1814, the Russian Shcherbatov Division of the Sacken Corps attacked the French troops in Ligny-en-Barrois: The Russians stormed the city and drove the French out of it with the bayonet in a heated, bloody battle. Several hundred men fell on both sides.

On January 24, 1814, the vanguard of the Sacken corps stood before Saint-Dizier , the Liewen division reached Joinville and the Shcherbatov division stood on the Ornain. The Corps Olsufiew was also at Gondrecourt-le-Château on the Ornain.

On January 25, 1814, weak forces of the Shcherbatov division of the Sacken corps attacked the French troops at Saint-Dizier . Although the French were by far in the majority, there was only one brief engagement, and then all French forces moved north to Vitry-le-Francois. The Russian light cavalry under General Lanskoi occupied Saint-Dizier, and Shcherbatov's infantry remained at Saint-Dizier that day. The Liewen division moved on from Joinville to the Aube and reached Dommartin that day . The Olsufiev Corps occupied Joinville .

On January 26, 1814, the Liewen division moved to Tremilly and the Shcherbatov division to Giffaumont .

On January 27, 1814, the Sacken corps was at Brienne, the Olsufiew corps in Brienne-le-Château , and Blücher's headquarters were in the Château de Loménie de Brienne . Only General Lanskoi and his hussars were still in Saint-Dizier.

Blücher did not know the exact position of the French troops, nor did he know that Napoleon had arrived and personally assumed command. He was best informed about the position of the Mortier Corps in Troyes and that the Bohemian Army was slowly approaching this city from the south. Blücher therefore decided to go to Arcis-sur-Aube , just north of Troyes, to include Mortier's corps. To implement this plan, General Sacken received the order to march there and to cross the Aube at Lesmont , because there was still an undamaged, solid bridge there.

In the early morning of the same day, Lanskoi's cavalrymen in Saint-Dizier were attacked by strong, far superior French forces and had to flee the city. The only way for them to retreat was the Joinville road, where they were followed widely. Lanskoi immediately sent couriers to Blücher, but they had to go long detours and did not arrive at the headquarters of the Silesian Army until the morning of January 28, 1814 . At last, knowing this unexpected attack, Blücher immediately ordered Sacken Corps to stand at Lesmont and await the arrival of Lanskoi and his horsemen.

Also on January 28, 1814, Blücher positioned four regiments of Platov's Cossacks, a total of 900 horsemen, at Maizières halfway between the roads to Vitry and Mortier-en-Der, in order to have both roads monitored from there. These Cossacks belonged to the Bohemian Army and had been sent down the Aube by Prince Schwarzenberg to investigate.

Furthermore, Blücher called the cavalry division of Count Pahlen from the Russian corps Wittgenstein of the Bohemian Army to his help.

The movements of the Russian cavalry under Count Pahlen

Count Pahlen's cavalry division with more than 2000 riders formed the vanguard of the Russian Wittgenstein corps of the Bohemian Army , which crossed the Rhine at Fort-Louis southwest of Rastatt in the first days of January 1814 , and thus initially the Bohemian corps Army closest to the Silesian Army . Because of the bad weather and fierce French resistance, the Rhine crossing of this corps dragged on for a long time. On January 15, 1814, the riders of Count Pahlen were still in Saverne , on January 17, 1814 attempts were unsuccessful to capture the fortified Phalsbourg , on January 18, 1814 the riders were in Sarrebourg , and on January 20, 1814, Count Pahlen reached with his Men Luneville , where he ordered a day of rest. On January 22nd, 1814, the cavalrymen crossed the Moselle in Flavigny and rode as far as Vézelise , with which they had arrived in the immediate vicinity of the Corps Olsufiew. On January 23, 1814, Pahlen von Wittgenstein received the order to establish contact with Blücher's headquarters and to remain in constant contact. On January 24, 1814, the Pahlens riders crossed the Meuse in Maxey-sur-Meuse and stood in Donjeux on the Marne on January 25 .

On January 28th, Blücher sent a messenger to Count Pahlen, who on that day was only 16 km away in Eclance , and asked him to come to Brienne with his riders and to be at Blucher’s disposal. Count Pahlen immediately complied with this request. In Brienne, Blücher not only had Olsufiev's infantrymen at his disposal, but also cavalry.

The topography of the battlefield

Château Brienne above the rooftops of the village

Brienne-le-Château borders in the south on a wide plain that extends as far as Trannes. To the east and north the terrain rises gently at some distance from the place. The place is dominated by the castle, which, built on a hill in the west of the city, dominates the entire area and can be seen from afar. To the west of the castle lies a dense, stately forest area that extends to the Aube, which flows from south to north-west less than 2 km away.

Five streets lead into the village: the first, coming from the east of Montier-en-Der, runs straight through the entire urban area towards the castle, which can be reached from this direction via a long driveway. This street is crossed twice by thoroughfares in the urban area. The first time on the road that goes from Vitry-le-Francois via La Rothière to Bar-sur-Aube, the second time on the road that goes from Arcis-sur-Aube via Lesmont to Dienville.

In 1814 there was a lot of viticulture in higher elevations, the lower elevations were difficult to use for agriculture because they were regularly flooded by the Aube. This situation only changed significantly in the 1970s when the Aube reservoir Lac Amance near Dienville was built to regulate the flood .

In mid-January 1814 it had rained for days and the Aube had flooded, but it had already drained away. But the ground in the whole area was still sodden and deep for no reason. With the usual covering, guns could only be moved on paved roads.

The course of the battle on January 29, 1814

The retreat of the Russian Sacken Corps

Outstanding: Château Brienne with outbuildings.
The driveway leads from the left from the city up to the castle, the French conquered the castle from the rear (right rear)

On the evening of January 28, 1814, a French officer was caught by roaming Cossacks west of the Aube, who wrote three almost identical letters from Marshal Berthier, Napoleon's chief of staff, to the French generals Bourdesoulle in Arcis-sur-Aube, Mortier in Troyes and Colber in Nogent -sur-seine with him. Although the letters were immediately sent by courier to Blucher’s headquarters, they did not arrive there until the morning of January 29, 1814. In these letters Napoleon's intentions were revealed for the next few days and they brought the certainty that the French emperor was personally with his troops. Blücher immediately ordered the Sacken corps to return by express march from Lesmont and to line up for battle south of Brienne on the flat terrain on both sides of the road to Trannes. The Sacken Corps began their retreat immediately, but a few hours passed before the whole Corps had passed Brienne. Lesmont itself is less than 10 km from Brienne.

Marshal Berthier's letters also contained completely false news, for example that both Bar-le-Duc and Joinville were occupied by French troops. These false reports caused great concern at the headquarters of the Bohemian Army when they became known there.

From 2 p.m .: attack by the French cavalry

It was 22 km that the French troops, having set out from Montier-en-Der at dawn , had to cover to Brienne-le-Château. The roads were bad and the French made slow progress. The entire cavalry preceded the infantry. At Maizières , about 17 km from Montier-en-Der, she came into first contact with the Cossacks whom Blücher had sent there the previous evening to observe the road.

To cover the return march of the Sacken corps, Count Pahlen had set up his Russian horsemen northeast of the two roads to Lesmont and Vitry-le-Francois, from the heights south of Perthes-lés-Brienne to Lassicourt . He had sent his Uhlans from Chuguev and half a battery of mounted artillery to support the Cossacks.

Large numbers of French riders had arrived at Maizières by 2 p.m. They had three batteries of mounted artillery with them, which they immediately deployed. Two French cavalry divisions attacked Cossacks and Uhlans, forcing them to give way and retire to the ranks of the Pahlen cavalry. The French used the space gained to advance further west onto the Lesmont Strait. The Russians had to keep this road clear for the Sacken Corps to march back. Therefore Blücher sent the artillery of the Corps Olsufiev from Brienne to the north with the order to keep the French cavalry off the road. The Russian artillerymen took up position along the roads to Lesmont and Montier-en-Der, and as the French also brought their guns, a fierce artillery duel began. With the support of his own guns, Count Pahlen managed to repel repeated attacks by the French horsemen. His Uhlans even managed to capture some French cannons that got stuck in the morass. By 3:00 p.m. the superiority of the French troops had grown so much that Count Pahlen decided to retreat with his horsemen to the city of Brienne.

At 4:00 p.m. the main body of Sacken's Corps had withdrawn behind Brienne and positioned themselves there. The bulk of his cavalry stood ready southeast of Brienne. Only the Russian dragoons remained behind, had finally destroyed the bridge over the Aube in Lesmont and then joined Count Pahlen's horsemen.

From 3 p.m .: French infantry attack on Brienne

After 3 p.m. a division of the Victor Corps appeared as the first infantry unit in front of Brienne, immediately attacked, was able to penetrate the village and was driven out of it again.

At 4:00 p.m. French infantry had arrived in large numbers in front of Brienne, especially the young recruits of the newly formed Corps Ney. Napoleon ordered a joint attack on the city. This began immediately and the French troops advanced to the center of Brienne. The French cavalry, however, had stopped completely in front of the road leading west to Lesmont. The hill with the castle rose there in front of the French horsemen, where there was no action at that time. The Russian cavalry under Count Pahlen's high command, on the other hand, had moved to the eastern side of the village at dusk, following the last infantrymen through Brienne, where all the other Russian riders were ready. As darkness fell, the entire Russian cavalry attacked the mass of French infantry that was still standing in front of Brienne and that not a single French horseman came to the rescue, causing them considerable losses and driving them far back in great disorder. On that day, this was the coalition troops' most successful action.

The French infantrymen who had already penetrated Brienne now lacked any support and tried to get away in a hurry without being tracked down by Russian horsemen.

Since it was already dark after the cavalry attack was over, Blücher and his staff said the fighting had ended and went back to the castle. This was a serious mistake. Even after many years of Napoleonic wars, Blücher did not understand that the French emperor would never accept a disadvantage of his own as long as he had the means to remedy it.

From 5 p.m .: the French conquered the castle

The driveway to Château Brienne

In the meantime, a French infantry unit of 400 men had approached the castle unnoticed through the forest from the west side facing away from Brienne. This park side of the palace was only observed by a few men from the Prussian staff guard, who were quickly overtaken by the French. Blucher and his staff were back in the castle when rifle fire started and the French entered. Blücher only barely succeeded in bringing himself into provisional safety in the city with most of his staff. He still had to look for sheltered side paths, as Brienne was on fire and the fire brightly lit the driveway to the castle.

In the night: battle for Brienne and the castle

The Château Brienne from the city side

The French occupiers of the castle did not all stop there; some of them stormed down the driveway into Brienne to resume the battle there. At this time, the French Guards cavalry attacked: on the Strait of Lesmont, they penetrated the fire-lit Brienne, without encountering great resistance, which the French infantry used to push back into the place from the north . Blücher sent the troops of Sacken Corps, which were ready south of the village, into Brienne to drive out the French. At the same time, the Olsufiev Corps received orders to retake the castle.

Now began a tough and bloody fight for the city and castle that lasted for hours. Sacken's troops finally succeeded in driving the French out of Brienne. Olsufiev's men, however, did not succeed in regaining control of the castle. The French defenders stood in the dark while the Russians had to go up the slope, which was brightly lit by the fire. They competed twice, got to the castle and had to give way again. Driveway, courtyards and terraces were then full of dead and wounded. However, since the castle dominated the surrounding area and from there it was possible to repeatedly drop out to Brienne and Dienville , Blücher ordered the retreat at 2:00 a.m. the next day.

The day had far-reaching consequences for General Olsufiev: He was accused of deficiencies in the leadership of his troops from various quarters. Sacken, 20 years his senior, even threatened him with a court martial. 12 days later in the Battle of Champaubert , Olsufiev wanted to prove himself, but lost his corps and was himself captured.

From 2:00 a.m. onwards, the Russians withdrew

The Corps of Olsufiev marched another 18 km to Arsonval , where Blucher went with his staff.

The infantry of Sacken Corps went back to Bossancourt , but its cavalry stopped south of Brienne to watch the French at daybreak. In the event of an attack by the French troops, it should go back to Trannes .

Napoleon spent the night in Maizières .

The days after

The advance of the French army

On January 30, 1814, the French Emperor moved his headquarters to Brienne Castle.

contemporary medal on the Battle of Brienne

On the morning of that day, thick fog covered the entire area and made observation of troop movements impossible. Napoleon used the time to inspect his troops, which he had on the battlefield of the day before Brienne. During the night frost had frozen over the previously softened ground. Inside were the dead and injured, who - as usual with Napoleon - had been left to their fate, frozen solid, could not move and could not be moved aside. Napoleon, who by his own admission felt absolutely no sensation at the sight of human suffering, was not impressed by this either. So the newly called up French recruits stood in line with the dead and dying between them and their legs. This experience made a deep impression on them and contributed to the massive desertions over the next few days.

From 11:00 a.m. the fog cleared and the French realized that the plain south of La Rothière was occupied by the Russian cavalry and their mounted artillery. Napoleon's Guard Cavalry and the French Milhaud Cavalry Division entered an artillery duel with the Russians with their mounted guns, which caused both sides considerable losses by the evening. A more aggressive attack was not possible for the riders because of the very poor ground conditions. It was a long time before infantry could be brought in for reinforcement.

During the day the last Russian cavalrymen of the Sacken Corps, who had not made it to the bridge in Lesmont in time the day before, returned via the Aube bridge in Dienville . Then before dark the Corps occupied Gérard with two infantry divisions, including Ricard's Division, Dienville, and the Bridge, while Victor and Ney's Corps occupied La Rothière and Chaumesnil and drove out the Karpov Cossacks who had tried to establish themselves in Chaumesnil.

The bulk of Marmont's corps - excluding Ricard's division - was still in Wassy , the vanguard in Sommevoire .

The meeting of Blucher with the Crown Prince of Württemberg

As early as January 29, 1814, during the battle, Blücher had sent a courier to Prince Schwarzenberg, the commander of the Bohemian Army and commander in chief of the coalition troops. On the morning of January 30, 1814, he sent another courier there with a detailed report. On the evening of January 29, 1814, Crown Prince Wilhelm von Württemberg had pushed the bulk of his strong corps to Ailleville to be ready to support the Silesian Army . For the same reason, Count Ignácz Gyulay concentrated his corps at Bar-sur-Aube , only 24 km south of Brienne.

When on January 30, 1814 at 7:00 a.m. the rumor arose due to the movement of the train that the Silesian Army wanted to withdraw even further south, the Crown Prince visited Blücher at his headquarters in Arsonval that morning and urgently suggested that to offer the French emperor a joint battle in the plain between Trannes and La Rothière over the next few days. The Crown Prince had already had the area explored in the past few days and was able to point out some advantages of the positions already taken. This offer came in handy for Blücher and it was agreed that the Württemberg corps should form the right, eastern wing and that the Gyulay corps would initially move up in the center. As a consequence of this agreement, the Württemberg Corps immediately occupied the places east of the main road from Bar-sur-Aube to Trannes, while the Gyulay corps advanced further north on this same main road.

The Yorck Corps occupies Saint-Dizier

On the morning of January 26, 1814, the Prussian Corps Yorck arrived in Pont-à-Mousson , on January 28 the Corps occupied Bar-le-Duc and drove out the rearguard of the French Corps Marmont, which should have defended and held the place. On January 29, 1814, the Yorck Corps was at Ligny-en-Barrois , on January 30, 1814 at 5:00 p.m. the Prussians occupied Saint-Dizier and drove out the rearguard of the Marmont Corps, which had established itself in this town. The French withdrew southwards via Eclaron to Montier-en-Der .

Although Napoleon had just proven that it was no more than 2 days' march from Saint-Dizier to Brienne, the Yorck corps did not move further south and had no influence on the events of the next few days. The reason was the Prussians' fear of the small, shrunken French corps of Marshal MacDonald , which had arrived after long marches from Holland in Châlons-sur-Marne, 63 km further north on the Marne .

Trivia

The Briennerstraße in Munich is named for the Battle of Brienne, to commemorate the Bavarian share in the victory. Bavarian troops under Carl Philipp von Wrede did not intervene until February 1, 1814 during the battle of La Rothière , but then did indeed intervene decisively. Here is one of the examples where the two skirmishes of January 29, 1814 and February 1, 1814 were seen as one event under the heading of the Battle of Brienne .

Old fortifications in the Upper Town of Longwy, the World Heritage Site by UNESCO Vauban fortifications belongs

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Supplements and individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Beitzke, Petre and Marmont, 19th book
2. ↑ cf. Thielen
3. ↑ cf. Legge
4. ↑ cf. Damitz, Sporschill, Beitzke, Plotho
5. ↑ Generals Talisin and Sass were injured
6. ↑ The Prussian king immediately followed the Russian hunters across the Rhine in a boat and was one of the first on the left bank of the Rhine
7. ↑ cf. Damitz, Sporschill, Beitzke, Plotho
8. ↑ This place was plundered by the soldiers passing through, who left the defenseless inhabitants with typhus as a souvenir, which killed 70 inhabitants in the next few weeks
9. ↑ cf. also Rhine pilot
10. ↑ cf. also fortress Koblenz
11. ↑ cf. Damitz, Sporschill, Beitzke, Plotho
12. ↑ the routes of this corps could never be exactly reconstructed: at the beginning of March 1814 it was at Châlons-sur-Marne , then on March 13, 1814, in the battle near Reims, it was almost completely wiped out by Napoleon and ceased to exist as an independent military unit .
13. ↑ cf. Mamont 19th book, Legggiere, Koch, Weil, Petre
14. ↑ cf. also fortress Metz
15. ↑ cf. Damitz, Sporschill, Beitzke, Plotho, Bogdanowitsch
16. ↑ cf. Sporschill, Damitz, Plotho, Leggiere
17. ↑ there was still a bridge far too far to the north near Konz
18. ↑ the Prussians had no pontoons
19. ↑ others do not report until the next morning
20. ↑ sporadically in the literature as Battle of Saint-Avold referred
21. ^ The large Moselle fortresses were Luxemburg , Thionville , Metz and Longwy
22. ↑ cf. Koch, Weil, Olech, Petre, Bogdanowitsch
23. ↑ cf. Petre
24. ↑ Gerard received his own corps in January
25. ↑ Ricard's division had brought up the rear and was still on the march
26. ↑ cf. Fain, Koch, Weil, Petre, Thielen, Sporschill, Chandler. Dictionary.
27. ↑ At that time the place was still called Châlons-sur-Marne
28. ↑ today's D336
29. ↑ today D9, D4
30. ↑ today D384
31. ↑ today's D396
32. ↑ cf. Octave Levavasseur: Souvenirs militaires, Paris, 1914
33. ↑ cf. Sporschill, Thielen, Bogdanowitsch, Damitz
34. ↑ after the war in 1870/71 the fortifications were repaired and expanded; Parts of it can still be viewed today
35. ↑ detailed description in Damitz
36. ↑ At that time, the Lac du Der reservoir did not yet exist
37. ↑ the content of one of these letters is given in full in the appendix to the relevant chapter in Bogdanowitsch (in French)
38. ↑ Allegedly they were commanded by a general "Château". However, there is no evidence of such in French sources. Perhaps a play on words that Napoleon later thought of and liked.
39. ↑ two officers fell, one was taken prisoner
40. ↑ cf. Octave Levavasseur: Souvenirs militaires, Paris, 1914
41. ↑ Reproduced from Thielen.
42. ↑ Thielen, who was personally present at the battle that followed, reports that Count Gyulay and his Chief of Staff Latour were also present at the meeting
43. ^ Petre, Marmont 19th book

Web links

• Description of the battle