Battle of Montereau

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Battle of Montereau

Part of: Wars of Liberation

The battle of Montereau

date	February 18 , 1814
place	Montereau-Fault-Yonne in France
output	French victory

Parties to the conflict
France	Austria Württemberg
Commander
Napoleon I.	Karl Philipp zu Schwarzenberg Crown Prince Wilhelm
Troop strength
30,000-40,000	18,000 men
losses
2,500	3,000 dead and wounded, 3,000 prisoners

The Battle of Montereau was a battle during the winter campaign of 1814 as part of the Wars of Liberation between French troops under the personal command of Napoleon and the Württemberg corps of the Bohemian Army , reinforced by an Austrian brigade. It took place on February 18, 1814 near Montereau-Fault-Yonne on the Seine in France.

The approach of the French troops

Plan of the battle to Rothenburg

By February 16, 1814, Napoleon had assembled a force of 65,000 men north of Nangis and on February 17, 1814 personally led their advance south. In the battles at Mormant and Valjouan, he inflicted the first noticeable losses on the coalition forces on February 17, 1814.

In Nangis, Napoleon divided his troops in order to achieve his first strategic goal, the crossing over the Seine, without delay.

• Marshal MacDonald was supposed to march against Bray-sur-Seine and by the evening of February 17, 1814 still reached Donnemarie ,
• Marshal Oudinot was supposed to march against Nogent-sur-Seine , but initially only got as far as Provins ,
• Marshal Perrin (called Victor) was given the important task of taking the bridges over the Seine and Yonne at Montereau by the morning of the next day . Victor stayed with his corps in Salins and provoked a long rift with the French emperor.
• The smaller Pajol Corps was supposed to support Marshal Victor. It was on the morning of February 17, 1814, near Melun, with an infantry division under Pacthod and three cavalry regiments under officers Delort , Coëtlosquet and Grouvel . That day this corps reached Valence on the road to Montereau.

Napoleon knew that the two Austrian corps Bianchi and Gyulay of the Bohemian Army and parts of the Austrian reserve had already crossed the Yonne from east to west and had advanced as far as Fontainebleau . Should the French army succeed in taking the bridges over the Yonne in Montereau, Pont-sur-Yonne and Sens in a single stroke , the Bohemian army was divided for days, and its outnumbered fragments had to join the French army individually To fight.

Prince Schwarzenberg , the commander-in-chief of the Bohemian Army , had recognized the impending danger and had urgently instructed his corps, which were standing on the Seine bridges in Montereau, Bray-sur-Seine and Nogent, to defend these crossings until the other corps had withdrawn again across the Yonne.

Among the bridges over the Seine mentioned, the one at Montereau was of particular importance, since the Yonne flows into the Seine there and from there the paths to the more southern crossings over the Yonne were short. For this reason Napoleon concentrated his forces on Montereau the next day, February 18, 1814, and personally led the battle that afternoon.

The topography of the battlefield

The confluence of the Seine and Yonne in front of the Montereau Cathedral with the equestrian statue of Napoleon in the middle

Montereau is located at the mouth of the Yonne in the Seine . In 1814 the city was in the corner south of the Seine and west of the Yonne. Out of the city, a bridge first led over the Yonne to the east and from there directly north over the Seine. Both bridges were made of stone.

Immediately north of the Seine, behind a narrow strip of banks that was already built on, rises a steep, high, approximately 2,000 meter wide mountain wall. Along this leads to the west via Valence to Melun and Paris , to the east via the town of Courbeton the road to Nangis .

To the north of the mountain face, a plateau stretches 3 kilometers to the north, largely free of forests. From Pariser Straße two paths led up to this plateau, the first to the Château Surville , a mansion above the mountain wall described, the second further west to the village of Ormeaux , today the northernmost district of Montereau. To the northwest of Ormeaux are the two hamlets of Plat Buisson and Les Coureaux , further to the northeast the village of Forges .

The positions of the coalition forces on the morning of February 18, 1814

The Crown Prince of Württemberg , who commanded the coalition troops around Montereau, was faced with a dilemma: if he destroyed the Seine Bridge and took up a position south of the river, the French could position their superior artillery on the edge of the plateau, from where they dominated the entire terrain would - as it happened later. But if he and his troops occupied the plateau north of the river, they had no recognizable line of retreat: behind them lay the mountainside and behind them the river. Nevertheless, Crown Prince Wilhelm decided to occupy the southern part of the plateau from Château Surville to Ormeaux. He had 8,500 infantry, 1,000 horsemen and 40 guns positioned there, including the Austrian brigade. South of the Seine were two Austrian batteries that dominated the roads on the opposite side of the river. Other troops were in reserve behind Montereau or were still advancing. The majority of these troops stood on the road to Bray near Motteux and Marolles . They also had the task of preventing the French from crossing the Seine upstream from Montereau.

The Battle of Montereau on February 18, 1814

Plan of the battle according to Kausler and Woerl

The skirmishes from dawn to 1:00 p.m.

With the first light of day, Marshal Victor had his corps line up at Salins and march on Montereau. The first French attack took place along the Strait of Salins on Courbeton . It was soon repulsed, and the Austrian guns south of the Seine proved their worth. In the meantime a first French brigade had reached Ormeaux and attacked the positions of the coalition troops there. Soon the attacking French were reinforced by another division, and a tough, loss-making battle for the place broke out, which was not decided until later that afternoon.

A French brigade managed to bypass Ormeaux and to advance down the slope to the banks of the Seine. But here their commanding general was fatally wounded. After the commanding officer's failure, the French brigade withdrew again.

During the morning the Pajol corps also advanced from Valence along the Paris road towards Montereau. Although it brought 24 guns into action, it successfully prevented the Württemberg infantry and cavalry from making rapid progress.

The battles from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Area map of Montereau

At 1:00 p.m., Gérard's corps reached the battlefield with two infantry divisions. Gérard had the artillery reinforced and 40 guns deployed against the coalition troops. Then another infantry attack began on Ormeaux, which could be repulsed again by the Württemberg Crown Prince using his reserves as far as they were ready north of the Seine. It was also possible to stop the advance of the Pajol Corps on Pariser Strasse.

The battles from 3:00 p.m. until evening

Napoleon arrived in person before 3:00 p.m. He was followed by other artillery and two regiments of the Old Guard , but they stopped at Forges . The coalition troops were now facing 30,000 French with 60 guns, three to four times the superiority.

Napoleon arranged the attack in four columns: one under Pajol along Pariser Strasse, one against Ormeaux and one against the heavily defended Château Surville. The fourth along the road from Nangis towards Courbeton. The attack was supported by 60 guns.

At around 4 p.m. the Crown Prince of Württemberg had to give the order to withdraw. Initially, cavalry and artillery were brought across the Seine Bridge with little loss. Without their protection, however, the infantry's situation became untenable. The Austrian brigade was instructed to hold Château Surville as long as possible, then the Wuerttembergians tried to reach the bridge, a movement which, under the pressure of the pursuing French, quickly turned into an escape down the mountainside. In the midst of his men was the Crown Prince, who was personally in danger of death when the French brought their first guns into position on the edge of the mountainside and shot at those who were hurrying away from there.

Memorial plaque for the cavalry attack by the French Hussars on the Seine bridge in Montereau

At this point in time, the Delort cavalry regiment of the Pajol corps succeeded in one of the most acclaimed acts of war of the Napoleonic wars when it stormed through the enemy and captured the Seine Bridge. Once again, the Württemberg reserves were able to clear the bridge in a bayonet attack and give their comrades space to escape, then Pajol and his other cavalry regiments came up and occupied the bridge. The crush there was so great that there was no more fighting. However, the residents of Montereau began shooting at the fleeing coalition troops from the windows of their houses.

An orderly demolition of the mined bridge was no longer an option. A single explosive charge detonated and only slightly damaged the structure.

General Pajol was hit hardest: he was so badly injured in a fall from his horse that he had to be brought back to Paris to recover and did not appear again during this campaign.

The Württemberger later stated their losses as 92 dead and 714 wounded. But the Austrians, who the Crown Prince had left behind to defend Château Surville, lost 2,000 men dead and wounded. 3,000 coalition troops were taken prisoner. The French put their losses at 2,500 men.

The Württemberg people withdrew on the road to Bray-sur-Seine. Their rearguard still held Bazoches that evening .

Painting of the Battle of Montereau by the French painter Langlois

Napoleon immediately sent two cavalry regiments along the Yonne to Pont-sur-Yonne , followed by an infantry division. At Pont-sur-Yonne these troops met the rearguard of the Austrian Corps Bianchi, which had already crossed the Yonne from west to east and destroyed the bridge in Pont-sur-Yonne behind it. The next day, February 18, 1814, the two Austrian corps Bianchi and Gyulay were already back at Villeneuve-l'Archeveque . With that, Napoleon's plan to divide the Bohemian Army had failed.

Napoleon took his headquarters in the Château Surville and stayed there for two days.

Further skirmishes and movements on February 18, 1814

The battle at Mouy

The French Corps MacDonald had moved on the morning of February 18, 1814 via Donnemarie towards Bray-sur-Seine . In front of the town, however, there was strong resistance from the Bavarians of the Wrede Corps, who had established themselves around Mouy and positioned their guns. The French could not develop in the swampy river landscape on the Seine and contented themselves with an artillery duel. The next day the French corps even withdrew and marched to Montereau, there to cross the Seine.

The passage of the Wittgenstein corps over the Seine

That day the Russian corps Wittgenstein crossed the Seine in Nogent-sur-Seine from north to south. He was followed at a respectful distance by the French corps Oudinot, which that day only got as far as Sourdun and the next day moved to Bray-sur-Seine to cross the Seine there after the Bavarians had withdrawn.

Equestrian statue of Napoleon on the headland between the rivers and the bridges

The days after

Napoleon stayed in Montereau until February 20, 1814 and rearranged his troops: the corps of the wounded General Pajol was disbanded.

On February 19, 1814, Marshal Ney and his corps of young recruits arrived in Montereau. To do this, Gérard's corps moved along the Yonne to Pont-sur-Yonne that day, where it was stopped because it had to repair the bridge that the Austrians had destroyed the day before.

The MacDonald Corps also marched on February 19, 1814 to Montereau and crossed the Seine there. The Oudinot corps moved on the same day to Bray-sur-Seine and there passed over to the southern bank of the Seine.

The Bohemian Army withdrew to Troyes on February 19 and 20, 1814 , where their headquarters were relocated on February 19, 1814. Their retreat was facilitated by the severe frost that set in again and froze the sodden ground. You could march over it and even let the wagons roll; the troops no longer had to rely on the few good roads. The Bohemian Army stood between Fontvannes and Malmaison on the evening of February 20, 1814 . She did not stop there, however, but continued to withdraw. Napoleon entered Troyes again on the morning of February 24, 1814.

References and comments

1. ↑ the alternative would have been Bray-sur-Seine. But the roads there were worse.
2. ↑ so-called double bridge
3. ↑ an older name Villaron went under today. See also Hourtoulle on this
4. ↑ cf. Damitz
5. Jump up ↑ Brigade-General Chateau died on May 8, 1814 in Paris. He was Marshal Victor's son-in-law. Some authors report that he was only wounded that afternoon. See Koch and the explanations in Sporschill
6. ↑ The mayor of Montereau had already been involved in the battle on the French side during the day
7. ↑ cf. MacDonald
8. ↑ cf. on this Uffindell

literature

in order of appearance

• Alphonse de Beauchamp : Histoire des campagnes de 1814 et de 1815 , Le Normant, Paris 1817. Therein on Combat de Montereau : pp. 304-318.
• Carl von Plotho : The war in Germany and France in the years 1813 and 1814 , vol. 3. Carl Friedrich Amelang, Berlin 1817. Therein: battle near Monteraux , pp. 215-217.
• Frédéric Koch: Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la campagne de 1814, accompagnés de plans, d'ordres de bataille et de situations , vol. 1. Magimel, Anselin et Pochard, Paris 1819, therein chapter 11.
• Guillaume de Vaudoncourt : Histoire des campagnes de 1814 et 1815 en France , Vol. 1. Avril de Gastl, Paris 1826. Therein on Combat de Montereau : pp. 386-393.
• Karl von Müffling : On the history of the war in 1813 and 1814 , Berlin 1827.
• Alexander Iwanowitsch Michailowski-Danilewski : History of the Campaign in France in the Year 1814 . Smith, Elder and Co., London 1839 (from the Russian).
• Johann Sporschil: The great chronicle. History of the war of the allied Europe against Napoleon Bonaparte in the years 1813, 1814 and 1815 , Vol. 2/1, Westermann, Braunschweig 1842. Therein: Meeting of Monteraux. On February 18 , pp. 334-344.
• Karl von Damitz, Karl von Grolman : History of the campaign from 1814 in eastern and northern France to the capture of Paris , Vol. 2. Ernst Siegfried Mittler, Berlin 1843. Therein: Meeting at Monteraux on February 18 , p. 285– 291.
• Heinrich Ludwig Beitzke : History of the German Wars of Freedom in the years 1813 and 1814 , Vol. 3: The campaign of 1814 in France , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1855.
• Maximilian Thielen: The campaign of the allied armies of Europe in 1814 in France under the supreme command of the Imperial and Royal Field Marshal Prince Carl zu Schwarzenberg. Represented from authentic Austrian sources , KK Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1856.
• Karl von Müffling: From my life , Ernst Siegfried Mittler, Berlin 1851.
• Friedrich Christoph Förster : History of the Liberation Wars 1813, 1814, 1815. Represented from partly unpublished sources and oral explanations of important contemporaries, as well as many contributions from fellow combatants, sharing their own experiences , Gustav Hempel, Berlin 1858.
• Karl Rudolf von Ollech : Carl Friedrich Wilhelm von Reyher, General of the Cavalry and Chief of the General Staff of the Army. A contribution to the history of the army with reference to the Wars of Liberation in 1813, 1814 and 1815 , Berlin 1861.
• Theodor von Bernhardi : Memories from the life of the imperial Russian general von der Toll , Vol. 4/1: The campaign in France in 1814 . Otto Wigand, Leipzig 1866.
• Modest Iwanowitsch Bogdanowitsch : History of the war in France in 1814 and the fall of Napoleon I. According to the most reliable sources , Vol. 1, Schlicke, Leipzig 1866.
• Maurice Henri Weil: La campagne de 1814 d'après les documents des archives impériales et royales de la guerre à Vienne. La cavalerie des armées alliées pendant la campagne de 1814 , vol. 2, Baudoin, Paris 1892. Therein: Bataille de Montereau , pp. 299-309.
• Laurent-Louis-Mathieu-Henri Tondu-Nangis: La bataille de Montereau , published by Paul Quesvers, Georges Zanote, Montereau 1900.
• August von Janson : History of the Wars of Liberation 1813–1815. History of the 1814 campaign in France . Vol. 1: The campaign up to the second separation of the Silesian Army from the main army . Ernst Siegfried Mittler, Berlin 1903.
• Francis Loraine Petre: Napoleon at Bay 1814 , Lane, London, 1913.
• Agathon Fain : Souvenirs de la campagne de France (manuscrit de 1814) , published by Georges Lenotre, Paris 1914.
• Gregory Fremont-Barners: The Napoleonic Wars. The Fall of the French Empire 1813-1815 . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2002, ISBN 1-84176-431-0 .
• François Guy Hourtoulle, Jacques Garnier, André Jouineau: 1814, la campagne de France. L'Aigle blessé , Histoire & Collections, Paris 2005. ISBN 2-915239-55-X .
• Michael V. Leggiere: The Fall of Napoleon. The Allied Invasion of France 1813-1814 , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-87542-4 .
• Andrew Uffindell: Napoleon 1814. The Defense of France, Pen & Sword, Barnsley 2009. ISBN 978-1-84415-922-2 .
• Frank Bauer: Montereau February 18, 1814. A Pyrrhic victory by Napoleon . Edition König und Vaterland, Potsdam 2010 (= Brief Series History of the Wars of Liberation 1813–1815, Issue 30).