Sixth coalition war

The Sixth Coalition War was the last from 1792 to 1815 led coalition wars . The coalition was formed in February 1813 through the transition of Prussia to Russia after the defeat of France in the campaign against Russia . The Wars of Liberation began with the Alliance . Great Britain and Sweden joined the coalition in June 1813, Austria in September and Bavaria in October . The war ended in 1814 with the first abdication of Emperor Napoleon . In the spring of 1815 the war flared up again when the coalition prevented Napoleon from returning to power .

Germany 1812

For years France had been waging a global sea and colonial war with Great Britain, which was allied with Spain and Portugal , for years, and a land war in Europe on the Iberian Peninsula . Doubts about Russia's future position prompted Napoleon to eliminate this single continental European power, which he did not subjugate, as a threat. In 1812 he forced Prussia and Austria to form alliances with them and France's satellite states , including the Rhine Confederation and the Duchy of Warsaw , to invade Russia in the summer of 1812.

After the defeat and the withdrawal of the Grande Armée , the Prussian-Russian Convention of Tauroggen came about in December 1812 , which led to an alliance in the Treaty of Kalisch in February 1813 , combined with the Prussian declaration of war on France and the call to Great Britain and Austria Accession. Sweden, which had already entered into an alliance with Russia in April 1812, joined the Prussian-Russian coalition in the spring of 1813. When the fighting reached the Elbe line in June 1813 , the coalition and France signed the three-month armistice at Pläswitz . Meanwhile, Austria resigned from the alliance with Napoleon after a failed peace initiative and switched to the coalition in the Treaty of Teplitz . In the autumn campaign of 1813 the allies won the battle of Leipzig , which was decisive for the war . As a result, the Rhine Confederation dissolved. Napoleon, to whom only Saxony and the Duchy of Warsaw were loyal, escaped to France, but was defeated in the campaign of 1814 and had to abdicate in April 1814.

At the Congress of Vienna after the war, France lost its supremacy and lost almost all of the colonies and territories it had acquired between 1800 and 1812.

The starting position in 1812: France and allies (red), coalition (blue)

Russian campaign

France and Russia began preparing for war as early as 1811. The tsar had gathered three armies with around 193,000 men and 983 guns to protect his empire. In February 1812, five additional Russian divisions were moved to the border with Poland, and the troops on the western border were reinforced with 180 cannons. On April 21, Tsar Alexander I left Saint Petersburg and traveled to Vilnius to take command of the advancing Western Army. The Northern Army under Baron Essen stood with 21,000 men south of St. Petersburg and in Courland, in the southern Baltic States it was connected to the 1st Corps under General Wittgenstein . The 1st Western Army under Prince Barclay de Tolly covered with about 77,000 men directly threatened by the enemy Daugava - line. More than 150 km south of the line from Grodno to Minsk were the 2nd Western Army under Prince Bagration with about 35,000 men and 16,000 horsemen under General Miloradowitsch . The southern army under Tormasov numbered around 44,000 men and was waiting for the union with the army under Admiral Tschitschagow, which was only advancing from Moldova (not counting another 38,000 men).

The Grande Armée of the French under Emperor Napoleon, destined for invasion , comprised 392 battalions and 347 squadrons, around 397,300 men and 37,000 horsemen. The campaign began with the Nyemen crossing at Kovno on June 23 and 24, 1812. The invading army consisted of around 40,000 Italian and Polish and 150,000 German soldiers, 30,000 of them from Bavaria, 27,000 from Westphalia, 15,800 from Württemberg and other strong contingents of the Confederation of the Rhine . To cover the northern flank, 23,000 Prussians and the French 10th Corps under MacDonald (12,800 men) advanced on Riga. In addition, a 33,000-strong allied Austrian auxiliary corps under Field Marshal Schwarzenberg broke south of the Pripyat Marshes to cover the southern flank in Volhynia . While on the right wing the French Corps Macdonald operated together with the Prussians under General von Grawert against the Russian Northern Army, on the left wing the Franco-Saxon VII Corps under General Reynier tried to unite with the Austrians in order to bring the Russian Southern Army under General Tormassow in to push Ukraine away.

The advance

The first battle between Russian and French troops took place near Deweltowo on June 28th . On the same day, French cavalry under Marshal Murat occupied Vilna , which was immediately set up as a supply base for the main force advancing further east. To secure this place the 6th Corps under Marshal Saint-Cyr was left behind and later supported the operations of the 2nd Corps under Marshal Oudinot against the Russian army Wittgenstein in the Polotsk area . While the French 1st Corps under Davout marched into Minsk on July 8th, the 10th Corps and the Prussians began their advance north on Riga . On July 14th the main Russian army evacuated their camp near Drissa , they evaded the battle with Napoleon's main power as planned and withdrew further inland. Barclay took over the supreme command of the Western Army in mid-July, leaving the 1st and 2nd Corps under General Wittgenstein in Polotsk to secure the route to Saint Petersburg . Barclay moved with the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Corps on to Vitebsk, where he wanted to unite with the 2nd Western Army (7th and 8th Corps). On July 23, the Russian 7th Corps under General Rajewski in the battle of Mogilev was able to hold up Marshal Davout's troops for only one day and then had to withdraw. As a result, the march north to Vitebsk was no longer possible. Prince Bagration had to withdraw to Smolensk . Barclay had meanwhile reached Vitebsk and pulled the 4th Corps under General Ostermann-Tolstoy forward to secure it. After three days of fighting, it was defeated on July 25th and 26th at Ostrowno . On July 26th, the French 2nd Corps under Oudinot reached the Daugava at Polotsk and was stopped by Wittgenstein on July 28th at Kljastizy during the further advance on Sebesk . On July 28th, Napoleon's vanguard entered Vitebsk without a fight , on July 30th the Prussians occupied Daugavpils , but remained standing on the southern Dauper. On July 27th, the Russian army Tormassow threw back the French-Saxon 7th Corps Reynier in the battle of Kobryn in the south , but was repulsed two weeks later on August 12th by Schwarzenberg's intervention in the battle of Gorodeczno . Barclay de Tolly took over the united western army after the departure of the tsar in mid-August and tried to hold the Dnieper line. Prince Bagration, however, was the senior general and was not directly subordinate to Barclay de Tolly. On August 7th, the Russian Western Army advanced from Smolensk towards Rudnia. The following day there was a skirmish at Inkowo between cavalry units of General Sebastiani and Cossacks under General Platow . The Russian rearguard under General Newerowski was involved in a skirmish with the 3rd Corps of the French Army near Krasnoi on August 14 , in which they suffered considerable losses and lost nine cannons. Napoleon marched with about 175,000 men in front of Smolensk. On the night of August 17-18, the French artillery breached the inner defensive ring of the city, which was stormed the following day. The French pushed the Russian rearguard under General Rajewski back through the city to the east, but at this point the city had already been largely cleared. As the successor to the defeated Barclay, the Tsar appointed Prince Mikhail Kutuzov as the new Russian commander-in-chief. Napoleon's supply routes became longer and longer, and the dry summer led to considerable losses in the supply of Murat's cavalry and the horses in the train. Meanwhile, Wittgenstein's army was defeated in the First Battle of Polotsk on August 17 and 18, 1812 and was forced to withdraw. The Bavarian General Deroy was seriously wounded, as was Marshal Oudinot.

On August 20, Napoleon's main power reached Vyazma without a fight and prepared the advance on Moscow. On August 31, the Russian army stood at Gschatsk and began building entrenchments. General Bennigsen , meanwhile Chief of Staff, advised Kutuzov against a premature battle because of his insufficient position, and the retreat was continued.

To protect the Russian metropolis, Kutuzov was finally forced to give the French a large meeting. On September 7th, Napoleon commanded 128,000 men in the Battle of Borodino , including around 28,000 cavalry and 587 cannons. On the right wing, in the north, Barclay held a hill with 75,000 men, which was reinforced by entrenchments. In the heavily entrenched center, the Western Army defended under Prince Bagration, who had a total of 30,000 men available. The heavily wooded area above the village of Utiza, where the 18,000-strong 3rd Corps under General Tutschkow held position, was connected to the south . A bypassing of the Russian southern flank near Utiza by the Poniatowski corps was thwarted by Miloradowitsch's cavalry. The French mass storm in the center of Semenovskoye led to heavy losses on both sides, the 7th and 8th Russian corps held the entrenchments there. The Grande Armée lost less than 30,000 men and the Russians lost around 45,000 soldiers. The French army had maintained the battlefield, but the Russians who withdrew the next day had proven to be equal.

The decision to evacuate the city of Moscow was not made until September 13th. When Murat wanted to enter Moscow on September 14th, the city had not yet been completely cleared, many citizens of Moscow and soldiers of the Russian army were still in it. Even while the French were advancing into the city, which was largely deserted by the inhabitants, serious fires broke out (see fire in Moscow ). The action, secretly ordered by the Governor of Moscow, Count Rostopchin, was intended to deprive the enemy of his quarters. Alexander I stubbornly refused to take up the negotiations conducted by Napoleon. A storm on September 16 caused the fire to spread rapidly in Moscow. Many people died in the flames, including wounded or sick Russian soldiers. The fire began the looting of the French army, which was officially prohibited. Because of the impossibility of supplying his army, Napoleon had to withdraw before the onset of winter and was forced back onto the devastated Smolensk route by the Russians who immediately went into pursuit.

On October 18, Wittgenstein, who had received reinforcements from Finland, attacked the French troops in the Second Battle of Polotsk . The Russian plan provided that Wittgenstein should repulse the French in the north, in order to later unite with the Russian southern army under Chichagov. This would have blocked the route of retreat for Napoleon's main army. The 2nd and 6th Corps of the Grande Armée had to withdraw from Polotsk.

The Russian Army of the South under Admiral Tschitschagow received the order on September 29th to push the corps of Austrians and Saxons west of him into the Duchy of Warsaw . His army now consisted of 60,000 men, including the soldiers he took over from General Tormasov. Tschitschagow left General Osten-Sacken with 27,000 men, almost half of his army, in Volhynia. Then his army hurried through Minsk to meet the main army in Borisov.

The withdrawal

On October 18, Murat was defeated by Russian troops in the Battle of Tarutino , and Napoleon left Moscow a day later. As the rearguard, the Young Guard under Marshal Mortier stayed in town until October 23. The French army initially withdrew towards the southwest, against the old approach route. The Russian general Dochturow tried to stop the Italian 4th Corps under Eugène de Beauharnais on October 24 in the battle of Malojaroslavz , but had to withdraw in the afternoon. Kutuzov avoided the decisive battle and ordered the retreat towards Kaluga . Napoleon did not want to pursue Kutuzov and withdrew on October 26th. His march back took place at the outbreak of winter on the looted route to Smolensk, on which there was neither enough food for people nor for horses. On November 3rd there was the battle of Vyazma , Russian cavalry under Miloradowitsch initially faced a superior force of the French, but in the course of the morning the division of Duke Eugene of Württemberg intervened in the battle. Kutuzov, only a few kilometers from the battlefield, intervened in the battle with only weak forces. On November 13th the French retreat through Smolensk began; 10,000 sick, wounded and stragglers were left behind in the city. They were followed by 70,000 men from the main Russian army. Since between the individually retreating corps (first Napoleon's Guard Infantry, then the IV. Corps under Beauharnais, then the I. Corps under Davout and finally the III. Corps under Ney as rearguard) there were intervals of one day's march, Kutuzov hoped the French units to be able to cut off individually.

On November 15, Miloradovich attacked Napoleon and his guards on the road between Smolensk and Orsha . The Young Guard under Mortier counterattacked south of Krasnoye to cover the retreat of the other corps. About half of the 6,000 men in the Young Guard had fallen by the day after next. On November 16, the Russians attacked Beauharnais' corps, but its troops managed to make their way to Krasnoye with great losses. In the meantime the Poles under Dąbrowski had not been able to hold Minsk, the army of Admiral Tschitschagow occupied the city and captured large amounts of supplies that Napoleon had hoped for. While Kutuzov believed that Napoleon had meanwhile withdrawn, and therefore planned to cut off the Davout that followed him at Dobroje (west of Krasnoye), on November 17th all the troops of Napoleon and Beauharnais still in Krasnoye counterattacked. Mortier advanced southeast on Uvarowo, Davout east on Eskowo. The exhausted French were beaten back, but with heavy losses, Davout was also able to make his way to Napoleon's column. With another attack near Dobroje, General Tormassow succeeded on November 18 in cutting off the 3,000-strong 3rd Corps under Marshal Ney . Ney could break out with 3000 men. About 2000 French drowned while retreating over the frozen Dnieper. With only 500 men left, Ney was able to unite with Napoleon's main power on November 20 in Orsha.

The retreat over the Berezina

In mid-November, Napoleon, who was violently persecuted by the Russians, had only about 70,000 soldiers left, who between November 25 and 28 were able to fight their way across the Berezina with heavy losses (another 30,000 soldiers) . The Chichagov army reached Borisov on November 22nd and established its headquarters there. With three Russian armies, Kutuzov was unable to prevent the passage of 28,000 soldiers from the Grande Armée across the Beresina, although Russian troops were on both banks. The 2nd Corps under Oudinot advanced from the west towards the Berezina in order to cover the main force, which was returning to the river, against Russian attacks from the south; his intervention ensured further retreat. While the guard and the Ney corps passed over to the west bank at Studienka on the 27th, the rearguard of the French 9th Corps under Victor sacrificed itself on the east bank on the 28th to stop the attack of the Russian Northern Army under Wittgenstein near Weselowo. After the defeat of the main French power, the Austrian Schwarzenberg corps had to withdraw quickly to Krakow via Białystok at the end of November .

On December 19, 1812, Napoleon, who had hastily left his army, which had been reduced to around 35,000 men, arrived in Paris. A total of 275,000 men and around 100,000 prisoners in Napoleon's great army were lost. There are few sources on the Russian losses; they amounted to about 210,000 men. The Russian victory over the French strengthened the Russian national feeling and was later artistically processed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky in the 1812 overture .

Wars of Liberation in Central Europe

The Prussian Auxiliary Corps under General Yorck concluded the Tauroggen Convention with Russian troops under General Diebitsch on December 30, 1812 and declared itself neutral. The Russian army under Kutuzov was able to advance unhindered to East Prussia . At the turn of the year Prussia had only about 28,000 men in addition to the auxiliary corps, these troops were mostly in Silesia . King Friedrich Wilhelm III . arrived in Breslau on January 25, 1813, and secretly prepared to defeat Napoleon. Tsar Alexander I urged his generals to continue the war until Napoleon's final defeat. The French occupying power in East Germany, under the command of the Italian viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais , stood with 13,000 men in the Posen area to accommodate the remnants of the Grande Armée . On February 28, 1813, Prussia and Russia signed the Treaty of Kalisch and officially consolidated a coalition against Napoleon. The aim was the dissolution of the Rhine Confederation , the former independence of the princes and the restoration of German freedom.

Campaign of 1813

Map showing the course of the campaign in spring 1813

On March 4, 1813, Russian troops liberated Berlin from French occupation, and on March 17, Prussia declared war on France. In total, Prussia mobilized around 280,000 men in a short time, almost half of which consisted of Landwehr troops. As early as February 24, there had been revolts against the foreign occupation in Hamburg , the French evacuated the city on March 12, and the rebellion spread to Lübeck and Stade . On March 14th, Russian cavalry with 1,300 Cossacks reached Ludwigslust and persuaded the Duke of Mecklenburg to desert the Rhine Confederation. General Tettenborn pushed the French forces withdrawn from Stralsund under General Morand back across the Elbe and briefly occupied Hamburg on March 18 . On Napoleon's orders, General Vandamme concentrated 25,000 men on the lower Weser , at the same time he was supposed to restore order in the Hanseatic departments. He arrived in Bremen on March 27, and General Morand was ordered to carry out a punitive expedition against Lüneburg . There, on March 28, Cossacks under General Benckendorff prevented General Wathier from occupying the city.

Napoleon was meanwhile at the main theater of war unable to maintain the planned position on the Oder against the advancing Prussians and Russians, the French had to withdraw behind the Elbe . The main French army gathered near Hanau in mid-March , and further reinforcements under Vandamme were on the march. In return, Napoleon planned to cross the Elbe near Havelberg to relieve trapped garrisons in Danzig and Stettin. On the northern wing of the coalition, the Russian General zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was in command , reinforced by the Prussian corps under General Yorck. This army had orders to march 45,000 men over Berlin on Magdeburg. On the left wing, the Silesian Army was formed under the old Prussian General von Blücher , also around 45,000 men, including a Russian corps under General von Wintzingerode . This army was supposed to advance through the Lausitz towards the Elbe. The main Russian army under Prince Kutuzov followed in the middle between the winged armies on a broad front at intervals of several days.

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the "Marshal Forward", painting by Emil Hünten

The troops from Blücher and Wintzingerode crossed the Elbe near Dresden . The weak French troops stationed there had previously withdrawn. The Allies advanced towards Leipzig . The kingdom of Saxony fell temporarily into the hands of the allies, only in the fortress Wittenberg was there an enemy garrison.

In the battle near Lüneburg on April 2, 1813, Morand's corps was destroyed, but the next day the victors had to retreat across the river in front of the 11,000 men brought by Marshal Davout to the left of the Elbe. When Vandamme had to withdraw from the turmoil between the Elbe and Aller, General Dörnberg was able to occupy Lüneburg again at short notice on April 11th. On April 3, the French 11th Corps under General Grenier crossed the Elbe and pushed back Prussian security under General Borstell. French troops under Beauharnais met the weak vanguard of Wittgenstein's army in the battle near Möckern on April 5, but were repulsed at Dannigkow, Vehlitz and Zeddenick.

After Wittgenstein had crossed the Elbe, the Prussian III. Corps under General Bülow instructed to cover the Elbe crossing at Roßlau and the roads to Berlin and to establish the connection between the siege corps of Wittenberg and Magdeburg. On April 28, the Lauriston Corps and the 19th Division (Rochambeau) carried out an attack against Halle , which General Friedrich von Kleist had occupied with about 5,000 men. He maintained the Saale crossing at Halle until April 28, but then had to back off from the French via Schkeuditz. The French garrison, which had moved into Halle on April 30, were caught off guard on May 2 by a counterattack by Bülow.

On April 25, Emperor Napoleon arrived in the French main army in Saxony, after the union with Beauharnais in the Erfurt area he had about 151,500 men. General von Wittgenstein, who was in command of the Russian troops after Kutusov's death at the end of April, tried to cross the Elbe near Roßlau and to unite with Blücher's Silesian army. In the Battle of Großgörschen on May 2, 1813 and in the Battle of Bautzen on May 20/21. May the French succeeded in throwing the Russo-Prussian troops, reoccupying Saxony and pushing the enemy back to Silesia. The coalition troops concentrated on this in the Schweidnitz area and, through reinforcements, came back to 122,000 men; new Russian commander-in-chief was again Count Barclay de Tolly . On July 12, the allies in the Trachenberg Plan agreed on a common strategy . An attempt by Marshal Oudinot to advance into Berlin was repulsed by the Prussians on June 4th in the battle near Luckau .

On June 4, the Pläswitz armistice lasted for six weeks . Great Britain and Sweden joined the coalition against Napoleon. In the Reichenbach Convention of June 27, Austria reached an initial agreement with the coalition.

A free corps under Major von Lützow consisted of over 3,000 mostly non-Prussian volunteers and operated mainly in the rear of the enemy. With the armistice in the early summer of 1813, Lützow let the given deadline for reaching his own lines pass and was attacked with parts of his free corps on June 17th at Kitzen near Leipzig by Napoleonic cavalry without warning. Lützow and his adjutant Theodor Körner were seriously wounded in the battle near Gadebusch .

During this time the French Marshal St. Cyr fortified lines in the eastern and southern apron of Dresden. After the end of the armistice on August 17, Austria declared war on France. On August 22nd, the main Austrian army under Prince zu Schwarzenberg crossed the Bohemian border with 200,000 men and marched on Dresden.

Crown Prince Bernadotte had assumed the supreme command of the approximately 100,000 strong Northern Army, it was formed from two Prussian corps under Generals Bülow and Tauentzien , around 30,000 Swedes and three Russian corps under Voronzow , Wintzingerode and Tschernyschow . The Russians camped near Brandenburg an der Havel , the Swedes had their deployment area between Berlin and Spandau with a thrust towards Potsdam , while Bülows III. Corps south of Berlin and Tauentziens IV. Corps on the Oder. The allies took up positions on August 23 at the Battle of Großbeeren - the Prussians on the left, the Russians on the right, the Swedes in the center. After the battle, the French corps Reynier and Oudinot were forced to retreat to Wittenberg. The French attack on Berlin had failed. The French Marshal MacDonald advanced east again with about 100,000 men, but was defeated by the Prussians under Blücher an der Katzbach on August 26th. The Girard division, which had advanced from Magdeburg, was wiped out on August 27, 1813 near Hagelberg .

In the Battle of Dresden , Napoleon won one last great victory in Germany on August 26th and 27th, and Schwarzenberg's main army had to withdraw to Bohemia with heavy losses. Napoleon's plan to encircle the allies was thwarted by the defeat of General Vandamme at the Battle of Kulm on August 30th. The northern French attack under Ney was thrown back on September 6 at Dennewitz by the Prussian corps under General Bülow .

A corps under General Wallmoden advanced on September 15 with 12,300 men to Dömitz and crossed the Elbe at Dannenberg . In the Battle of the Göhrde on September 16, it interrupted the connection between General Davout, who was in command in the Hamburg area, and the French main army in Saxony, thus also cutting off an important supply line from Napoleon via Hanover to Magdeburg.

For the autumn campaign , Napoleon strengthened his army with supplies from France to around 380,000 field troops, plus around 80,000 men in the fortresses held on the Elbe and behind the enemy. The Prussian army came to 271,000 men through new formation, of which 192,400 men immediately went to the front. The Russian army in Germany and Poland comprised 296,000 men. On October 8, the Austrian Chancellor Metternich succeeded in persuading the Kingdom of Bavaria to change the fronts in the Treaty of Ried , so that the military preponderance of the Allies over Napoleon became overwhelming. The Northern Army advanced south from Brandenburg. To the east of the French army stood the Silesian army of the Allies. The main army under Schwarzenberg came from the south.

Battle of the Nations near Leipzig

In the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig from October 16 to 19, 1813 (210,000 French, up to 310,000 allies, over 110,000 dead and wounded) the allied Russian, Prussian, Austrian and Swedish troops inflicted the decisive defeat on Napoleon. To cut off the way to the west of Napoleon's retreating army, 43,000 Bavarians and Austrians tried to stop him under the orders of General Count Wrede. Once again victorious in the Battle of Hanau on October 30th, Napoleon forced his retreat to France. On November 5th, Tsar Alexander I and his troops marched into Frankfurt am Main . On November 1st and 2nd, 1813, the main French army had withdrawn across the Rhine near Mainz . On the right bank only Mainz and until November 9th Hochheim were held as bridgeheads.

One after the other the permanent places still held by the French such as Torgau , Wittenberg, Dresden, Küstrin and Stettin fell . In November 1813 the Prince of Württemberg took over the siege of Danzig , the fortress, which had been enclosed since January, had to surrender in January 1814 under General Rapp . The Swedes, already hesitantly operating in Saxony, tried to avoid further participation in the war against Napoleon. Crown Prince Bernadotte used the invasion of northern Germany to gain his own political advantage. The Swedish troops occupied Holstein and Schleswig almost without a fight and thereby forced Denmark to the Peace of Kiel on January 14, 1814 , in which the Danes had to cede Norway to Sweden and the island of Heligoland to England.

Campaign of 1814

As early as December 2, 1813, the monarchs present in Frankfurt had agreed on a manifesto that provided for the continuation of the war across the French frontier until the fall of Napoleon. In the last days of December, the main Allied army under Prince Schwarzenberg managed to cross the Rhine at Basel and Hüningen without any particular difficulty . The Rhine crossing of the Russian Sacken Corps began on January 1, 1814 in the presence of the Prussian King near Mannheim . The transfer of the Yorck and Langeron corps took place in the presence of Blucher and his general staff at Kaub am Rhein . The troops of the Russian Corps Saint-Priest crossed the river near Koblenz . At the beginning of the year, Napoleon was only able to muster around 150,000 men to defend the Rhine border: the Victor Corps was on the Upper Rhine , Marmont's troops faced the Allies in the middle near Koblenz. In the north was the Macdonald corps and covered the lower reaches of the Rhine as far as Nijmegen . The Russian corps Langeron had enclosed Mainz. Marmont's troops withdrew from the opposing forces over the Saar to Saint-Avold in Lorraine . The allies won the first major battles on January 10 at St. Die . On January 12th, French troops arrived in Metz , where Marmont moved his headquarters under the protection of the fortress at Gravelotte . Marmont remained in front of Metz until January 16 and tried in vain to build a line of defense there. On January 18, the majority of the Prussians stood at Verdun on the Meuse . Before the approaching Silesian Army under Blücher, Marmont's troops had to retreat to Champagne . On January 17th, Blücher had occupied Nancy and on January 20th ordered the subordinate Russian Corps Sacken to proceed against the fortress of Toul . On January 24th, Sacken's vanguard reached Saint-Dizier . Meanwhile the main Austrian army under Schwarzenberg had reached the plateau of Langres , from which the Seine , Aube and Marne flowed down to Paris, the goal of all operations. On January 29th, Napoleon threw himself at the Battle of Brienne with 41,000 men at Blücher, who, relying on only 27,000 Russians, had to withdraw because the Yorck corps was not yet available. Napoleon pursued him and attacked the enemy again on February 1 in the battle of La Rothière . But Blücher had already strengthened himself with the corps of the Crown Prince of Württemberg and the Austrian corps under Ignácz Gyulay . The Württemberg people stormed the forest of Eclance, the Russians invaded the fiercely contested La Rothiere and the Austrians pushed the enemy away from the Aube .

Peace negotiations had already started on February 5th at the Châtillon Congress. The demand that France should be satisfied with the borders of 1792 was rejected by Napoleon. He had called in the corps under Mortier and parts of Soult's troops from southern France and launched a brilliant counter-offensive in Champagne with 70,000 men .

The Silesian army under Blücher was defeated several times in a five-day campaign: the Russian corps Olsufjew at Champaubert , the Sacken corps on February 11 at Montmirail, the Prussians under Yorck at Château-Thierry and Blücher's vanguard on February 14 at Vauchamps. On February 11th, the Wuerttembergians succeeded in storming Sens. On February 18, Napoleon defeated the Wuerttembergians in the battle of Montereau and forced the Austrians to retreat behind the Aube. On February 27th, Napoleon was defeated in the battle of Bar-sur-Aube . On March 7th, the Russian Voronzow corps, defeated at Craonne, had to withdraw from the Chemin des Dames on Blücher's orders, but two days later Blücher gathered his army and repulsed all of Napoleon's attacks on March 9th in the battle of Laon . The Marmont corps tried to threaten Blucher's left flank via Reims, but the Yorck corps successfully rejected this opponent at Athies .

In the Treaty of Chaumont on March 9, 1814, the allies vowed to make peace with the French only after the victory, to depose Napoleon and to bring the Bourbons back to the French throne.

Napoleon's last attempt to take the initiative again and cut off the enemy supply lines failed. He ordered 30,000 national guards to be set up to protect Paris and the south-eastern apron of Paris to be secured by raising entrenchments. He turned his main force against Reims first and destroyed the Russian corps that stood in the way under St. Priest. Then he made the mistake of dividing his army: he left Marmont at Reims against Blücher with only 6,000 men and left 15,000 men under Mortier in the Soissons area to secure the crossings on the Aisne . With the rest of his army, which he brought to only 38,000 men by drawing on the weak corps under Macdonald and Oudinot, he tried to move Schwarzenberg to Paris. On March 19, he defeated the Bavarians under Wrede , but was defeated on March 20 in the battle of Arcis-sur-Aube against the main Austrian army. On March 25, the vanguard under the Crown Prince of Württemberg pushed inexorably on to Paris and with his cavalry broke through the French lines in the battle of Fère-Champenoise . Because Tsar Alexander I, at the head of his guard corps, wanted to move into the French capital first as a revenge for the French capture of Moscow, Blucher’s army had to open the great advance road to Meaux . This gave Marmont a day to face the allies with his troops again on March 30th in the Battle of Paris on the heights of Montmartre . At Pantin , a Russian corps under Duke Eugene of Württemberg was driven back again, but then the arrival of Barclay de Tolly broke the French resistance. At the same time the Prussian corps Yorck and Kleist had advanced against Mortier, while the Russians under Langeron threatened Paris from the west pushing St. Denis .

After Marmont was forced to an armistice, Allied troops took Paris on March 31st. Emperor Napoleon had to abdicate on April 6 with the Treaty of Fontainebleau . Bourbon rule was restored and Napoleon banished to Elba . After the end of Napoleonic rule, the victorious powers convened the Congress of Vienna to restore order in Europe according to old, pre-revolutionary standards ( restoration ).

The war in Spain

After the destruction of the Grande Armée in Russia and the beginning of the fighting in Germany in the spring of 1813, the French troops in Spain no longer received any reinforcements. In May 1813, the English Commander-in-Chief Wellington began the final offensive in which he first conquered the northern provinces of Spain and moved his headquarters from Lisbon to Santander . In the Battle of Vitoria on June 21, 1813, he defeated the French under King Joseph Bonaparte . The French counter-offensive under Marshal Soult brought some victories, but no strategic advantage. Wellington drove the French Spanish army across the Pyrenees and by October 7th was already on French soil. Shortly before Napoleon's abdication, on April 10, 1814, at the Battle of Toulouse , he succeeded in forcing the French to retreat and to conquer the city. The French had to withdraw from Spain. Ferdinand VII obtained the Spanish crown after negotiations with Napoleon in the Treaty of Valençay .

Acts of war in Italy

Count Nugent after a lithograph by Josef Eduard Teltscher, 1826

After Napoleon's defeat near Leipzig, Marshal Murat left the French army. In order to maintain his own position of power as King of Naples, he signed a treaty with Austria on January 11, 1814, in which he undertook to support the Allies with an army of 30,000 men. In return, England and Austria guaranteed him his rule. In November 1813, King Max Joseph of Bavaria urged his son-in-law Eugen Beauharnais , the French viceroy in Italy, to give up Napoleon's lost cause. Field Marshal Graf Bellegarde took command of the Austrian army on December 15, 1813 in Vicenza and led his troops across the Adige. While Lieutenant Field Marshal Count Nugent led the advance through Ferrara to Ravenna and Forlì , Bellegarde showed his diplomatic skills and managed to get Murat to march to Northern Italy with 20,000 reinforcements and to open the war against Beauharnais. Bellegarde had designated Count Nugent's corps (around 9,000 Manu, 800 horsemen and 21 artillery pieces) for operations on the right bank of the Po in order to threaten the right flank of the Viceroy of Italy standing on the Mincio. On February 8, 1814, the viceroy was able to maintain the field against the Austrians in a battle on the Mincio , but his position was permanently lost. On February 11, Murat had the citadel of Ancona, which was occupied by the French, bombarded. The right wing of the Austrians faced Parma in early March . In agreement with King Murat, Nugent decided on March 6 to attack the enemy at Reggio. On March 7th, the Austrians marched under Major General von Starhemberg and the Neapolitan Division under General Carrascosa to Reggio, where the opposing General Severoli and 7,000 men had holed up near San Maurizio . By March 10, the Austrians had reached the Taro , occupied Fornovo and pursued Piacenza . After receiving Napoleon's renunciation of the throne, Eugene signed a convention with the Austrian general Count Ficquelmont , as a result of which he surrendered his arms on April 17, surrendered Milan and ceded the supreme command of the Italian troops to Bellegarde. Venice was occupied by the Austrians on April 20th, Genoa by the British on April 21st. The Austrians entered Milan on April 28, and King Victor Emanuel of Sardinia entered Turin on May 20 . On April 27, the French garrisons surrendered Piacenza and on April 28 the fortress of Mantua .

After the Congress of Vienna was by no means ready to confirm Murat as King of Naples, Murat began again to contact Napoleon on Elba. After he had left the island and began to take power again in France, Murat occupied the Papal States in February 1815 and attacked the Austrian troops on March 30th. On March 15, the Austrians began the advance southwards under the new Commander-in-Chief Bianchi . On April 12th, Murat was defeated near Ferrara and escaped south. The Neipperg division , with around 16,000 men and 1,500 riders, pursued the Neapolitans who were returning along the coast to Ancona. The Mohr division advanced south with 11,800 men and 1,380 horsemen via Bologna , the troops of General Nugent marched with 3,300 men and 200 horsemen over Florence , occupied Rome and defeated the Neapolitans again at Ceprano and San Germano. On May 2, Murat's troops were finally defeated by the Austrians under Bianchi at the Battle of Tolentino . The battle was not yet decided on May 3, when Murat learned that Austrian troops under General Neipperg had defeated the Neapolitans under General Carrascosa in the Battle of Scapezzano and were already approaching. Little did Murat know that the British fleet was on its way to block Naples and Ancona. Since defeat seemed inevitable, Murat went back to Naples and finally had to flee after the battle of San Germano . As early as May 20, 1815, the Casalanza Convention was concluded, with which the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was established under the rule of Ferdinand I.

In the Seventh Coalition War of 1815, the returned Emperor Napoleon was finally militarily defeated by the English under Wellington and the Prussians under Blücher after several battles in Belgium and exiled to Saint Helena . On October 13, 1815, Murat was shot in Pizzo by order of the Bourbon King Ferdinand I as a high traitor.

literature

Friedrich Christoph Schlosser: World History Volume XV. Recent history supplemented by Dr. Oskar Jäger, Verlag Oswal Seehagen, Berlin 1891.
Friedrich Steger: The campaign of 1812. Oehme and Müller, Braunschweig 1845.
Heinrich Beitzke: History of the German Wars of Freedom in the years 1813 and 1814. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1860.
Konrad Sturmhoefel: Spamers World History Volume IX. Modern History 1808–1852. Otto Spamer, Leipzig 1897.

Web links

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