Napoleon's Downfall: Germany 1813 (Full Documentary)

a colossal challenge. He has just suffered  a devastating defeat in Russia – his Grande Armee lost sconstaome 500,000 men and 175,000  horses in just 6 months, and his best remaining troops are mostly tied down in a grinding  war in Spain. Now, he has to find a way to rebuild the army to maintain his hold on most of  Europe. But military defeat changes the political balance. Napoleon’s control of the Continent  Depends on his alliances: with the satellite German states of the Confederation of th

e Rhine,  and those he forced on defeated former enemies Prussia and Austria, and he firmly believes he  can restore his fortunes on the battlefield. Russia is also facing a challenge after its  victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. Some influential figures like Grand Duke Constantine,  favour stopping at Russia’s borders since Napoleon is unlikely to invade Russia again. They  argue that if Russia weakens France too much, Britain will benefit along with ungrateful  former Russian allies Prussia

and Austria. The Tsar and State Secretary Karl von  Nesselrode believe that Napoleon will remain a danger for Russia. The Tsar  insists that Europe must be liberated, which will also increase Russia’s  influence in creating a new order: “Having successfully secured the safety of  my Empire, I can turn to the great goal of liberating Europe. Never before has there  been an opportunity for liberation like those that are being created now due to the total  destruction of the French army.” (Mogilev

skii, 22) After a decade of defeats at the hands of  Napoleon, many educated Russians see the victory of 1812 as a chance to grow Russian  prestige in Europe, and support the Tsar. In the Austrian Empire and the many  German speaking states to its north, the political sands are also shifting now that  France has been weakened. Many in Austria and Prussia want to throw off the forced alliance  with France, and regain the territories they lost at the hands of Napoleon in years past. Events in Prus

sia take a dramatic turn even as their army retreats from Russia alongside the  French. Prussian General Ludwig Yorck and Russian Empire General Hans Karl von Diebitsch sign the  Convention of Tauroggen and negotiate a deal for Prussian forces in the east on December 30, 1812,  which commits the Prussian Corps that had invaded Russia alongside Napoleon to neutrality. But Yorck  is acting without the permission of Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm. The King is under pressure  from Prussians who wan

t to join the Russian, British and Swedish alliance against France,  but he is afraid of the potential consequences of switching sides. Yorck explains  his actions to his king in a letter: “I eagerly await a word from Your Majesty whether  I shall advance against the real enemy or whether political circumstances require Your Majesty to  condemn me. I will accept either outcome with faithful devotion, and I swear to Your Majesty  that, whether facing the firing squad or on the battlefield where I

have grown old and grey, I  await the bullet with equal calm.” (Platthaus 47) The King still hesitates to leave the alliance  with Napoleon, but with pressure building from his generals and from patriotic Prussians who  wanted to, in their view, free all of the German lands from French domination, he finally agrees. At the end of February Prussia changes sides and allies itself with Russia with the Convention of  Kalish. The anti-Napoleonic alliance now includes Prussia, Russia, Britain, Sweden

, Portugal, and  the Spanish rebels. At first the Kalish agreement remains a secret due to Prussia’s fear of France,  but it calls for Prussia to be restored to its pre-1806 borders with some gains for Russia in the  Polish lands, and for Prussia to field an army of 80,000 men alongside 150,000 troops from Russia. Prussia finally officially joins the war against France in March, and the King issues  a dramatic statement to his subjects, one of the first times a Prussian monarch  addressed the pu

blic in such a way: “Brandenburgers, Prussians, Silesians,  Pomeranians, Lithuanians! You know what you have borne for the past seven years; you know the  sad fate that awaits you if we do not bring this war to an honorable end. […] Whatever sacrifices  may be required of us as individuals, they will be outweighed by the sacred rights for which we make  them, and for which we must fight to a victorious end unless we are willing to cease to be Prussians  or Germans. […] This is the final, the dec

isive struggle; upon it depends our independence, our  prosperity, our existence.” (Robinson 522-523) The entry of Prussia into the war  is considered by many in Germany as the beginning of what have been called the  Befreiungskriege, the “Wars of Liberation.” Some German patriots want to call the  new phase of the war the Freedom War, but the King feels this might give his  subjects troublesome ideas beyond the defeat of the French. The conflict is also  known as the War of the 6th Coalition. O

ther German kings and princes of the  Confederation of the Rhine stay loyal to Napoleon – often to preserve their own  position in spite of the patriotic feelings of many of their subjects. Grand Duke Carl  August von Weimar sums up his own fears: “We small kings will need all our  wits and caution to remain calm, non-partisan and loyal to Napoleon –  lest we also fall.” (Von Weimar 162) Austria also wants to get out of its alliance with  France, but emperor Franz II and Foreign Minister Count M

etternich are cautious. For one thing, they  don’t want to encourage German patriotic uprising as it might spread to their own empire as well.  They strike a secret deal with the Russians so that the Austrian corps serving until now with  the French is allowed to withdraw from Warsaw south into Austrian Galicia, rather than west as  Napoleon intended. The Austrians then propose that they act as mediators between the Russians and  the French – a way to position Austria as neutral. So Prussia has

joined Russia against France,  Austria is hedging its bets, and the German lands are on the brink of popular rebellion. And while  the diplomats are feverishly sending messages and arguing late into the candlelit nights of  Europe, the Russian army is marching west. Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov wants  to be very careful with his army, but the Tsar pressures him to advance, which he does with no  hurry. Russian troops take Königsberg January 6, then they besieged Thorn, and take Warsaw o

n  February 7. French-led troops under Vice-Roy of Italy Eugene de Beauharnais are still too weak  to oppose the Russians in open battle, so they withdraw westwards across the frozen Oder river  – though Napoleon is not happy and would have preferred them to make a stand. All that is left  of Napoleon’s once vast zone of control in the east are isolated and besieged French garrisons. In Prussia, Russian officer Gavriil Meshetich notes the reaction of the population  to the arrival of Russian for

ces: “The people greeted the  Russians with joyful faces, began to consider them their friends  and liberators from the French troops; they cried: “Long live Alexander!” — and  joined all their forces with the Russian troops.” (Gavriil Meshetich, 1812 год.  Воспоминания воинов русской армии, 55) Kutuzov doesn’t want to send the army too far, but  the Tsar urges him on. Napoleon is still in Paris, so Alexander hopes he can gain as much  ter-ritory as possible while Napoleon is far away to encoura

ge Austria to join  his alliance. As they had done in 1812, the Russians create flying Cossack columns of  several thousand horsemen, who penetrate beyond and between French positions. The French-led  troops are too few and lack cavalry to stop these raids behind their lines, and the Cossacks  are able to wreak havoc on French communications and supply. They even occupy Hamburg for a  time and tie down an entire French corps. Once the alliance between Russia and  Prussia is signed in late Februa

ry, the pace of operations picks up. The Russians  enter Berlin without a fight on March 4, and Leipzig April 3. Kutuzov decides to  concentrate his main army around Dresden before the coming reckoning with Napoleon’s  fresh armies, which are on their way east. The Field Marshal, however, receives  a wound and dies on April 28 from the resulting infection. The Tsar replaces  him with General Pyotr Wittgenstein. As the armies maneuver across Central Europe, both sides knew that much larger forces

  are needed for the coming battles, and both sides have been raising fresh  troops after the bloodletting of 1812. Despite France’s losses in Russia, many leading  Frenchmen still believe in the Emperor’s legendary abilities as a battlefield commander.  France has lost a major campaign in Russia, but the empire still has many resources. They  can draw on new units from satellite states like the Confederation of the Rhine, and the  Kingdoms of Italy and Naples, but even France’s own manpower res

erves are not yet exhausted. Before the Russian campaign comes to an end, the French government already calls up new  conscripts and searches for new sources of draft horses and mounts for the cavalry. General  and diplomat Armand de Caulaincourt is hopeful: “France was one vast workshop. The entire French  nation overlooked [Napoleon’s] reverses and vied with one another in displaying zeal and  devotion. It was as glorious an example of the French character as it was a personal  triumph for the

Emperor, who with amazing energy directed all the resources of which his  genius was capable into organizing and guiding the great national endeavor. Things seemed to  come into existence as if by magic.” (Chandler) Not all Frenchmen are as enthusiastic, and  the rebuilding of the army sees mixed success. Napoleon is able to raise large numbers of new  troops fairly quickly, by calling up the draft classes of 1813 and 1814 early. He also  drafts national guardsmen and gendarmes, transfers some

navy sailors to the army, and draws  on the reserves of units in Spain. But quantity is not quality. Even Napoleon believer Caulaincourt  is disheartened with the reality of the army, though he exaggerates when he says it is an  “organized mob” – it is better than that, but it is very inexperienced and poorly trained,  and a far cry from the army that marched into Russia in 1812. In theory the infantry can be  trained reasonably quickly, but there is not enough time to properly train new cavalry

men, and  not enough horses to replace those lost in Russia. The Russian army, on the other hand, is victorious  in 1812 but suffers such severe losses that it is badly depleted. This is why Kutuzov wanted  to be so careful when advancing west, and it takes time for new recruits to be trained  and reinforcements to be brought from the vast reaches of the empire to fill out the ranks. The Prussians are also busy expanding their army in early 1813, which includes not  only conventional units, but

also takes advantage of the wave of patriotism sweeping  the German-speaking lands for the Liberation War. Many young volunteers, especially  students and other educated urbanites, join the Freikorps – mostly irregular units who  also operated alongside regular troops. One of the most famous Prussian Freikorps is commanded  by Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm Freiherr von Lützow, which is incorporated into  the regular Prussian army. One of its most famous volunteers is Eleonore  Prochaska, a woman who enli

sts under a man’s name. Jewish-German Löser Cohen of Mecklenburg-Schwerin  decides to volunteer as well. Cohen’s patriotism is strengthened when Duke Friedrich  announces emancipation for the Jews, and he joins a light infantry Jaeger unit: “I presented my self to my beloved parents with the words ‘The time is now come  where we Jews have the opportunity to loyally serve the Fatherland.’” (Cohen 18) His training left no doubt about the enemy: “Target practice was in the afternoon. Our  targets w

ere rectangular, with a portrait of Napoleon on them. We shot at him; whoever  hit the heart was cheered three times. We had a lot of fun shooting.” (Cohen 21) Prussia also calls up older officers, and activates the Landsturm, a defensive militia  for all men aged 15 to 60. By April, the allied Russians and Prussians have about 100,000 men  in the field, while Napoleon commands 200,000. The freshly-raised Allied  and French-led armies now clash in the first major battle of the 1813  campaign nea

r the town of Lützen on May 2. Napoleon has joined his army and is now moving  with it towards Leipzig, but he does not expect a battle on his southern flank, under command  of Marshal Ney. Bonaparte orders Ney to send out reconnaissance parties to locate the enemy,  but the Marshal ignores the order. The Allied Russian and Prussian army, on the other hand, use  their superior and more numerous light cavalry to get a much more accurate picture of where  the French-led army Is located – though th

ey underestimate its strength. Wittgenstein decides  to concentrate on Ney’s corps, but the attack is delayed until May 2 because of confused night  marches to deploy Prussian and Russian forces. About mid day Prussian cavalry under Blücher  attack Marshal Ney’s corps, and are surprised to discover it’s larger than they thought. Both  sides quickly rush reinforcements to this part of the line, but it is Napoleon who gains a  numerical advantage, still the Allied troops manage to push the French-

led forces back.  Blücher is wounded and hands over command to Yorck. The Emperor arrives on the battlefield in  midafternoon, just as Ney’s exhausted corps is giving way under the weight of the Allied attack  – and he rides back and forth to encourage the conscripts to fight on. According to Marmont, this  is one of Napoleon’s finest moments as a leader: “This was probably the day, of his whole  career, on which Napoleon incurred the greatest personal danger on the field of  battle. He exposed

himself constantly, leading the defeated men of IIIrd  Corps back to the charge.” (Chandler) Slowly, Napoleon is able to bring up more and  more troops, who stop the Allied advance. The critical point of the battle rages back and forth  near the village of Kaya, where the French manage to stop the Allied advance with concentrated  artillery fire of a Grande Batterie of 70 guns. The diarist of a Prussian Guard Jäger battalion  describes the battlefield between two villages: “The field between Kle

in and Gross  Görschen resembled a bivouac where whole battalions had lain down.” (Petre) To make matters worse for the Allies – who think they are winning until they start to run  into trouble at Kaya – other French corps are approaching from both flanks, which puts the  Allied army in danger. Napoleon sends in the Imperial Guard at the critical moment in the late  afternoon, and despite a desperate uphill Prussian cavalry charge, they throw back the Russians and  Prussians to their original po

sitions. French-led forces then push the Prussians out of Leipzig,  creating an extreme threat of encirclement. The Tsar has been holding back reserves so he  could personally send them in at the dramatic moment to turn the tide, but now it is too  late. Wittgenstein asks the Tsar and the King for permission to retreat, which they grant.  The Allied force withdraws towards Dresden. The Battle of Lützen is a French victory, even  though they lose 15-20,000 killed and wounded to the Allies’ 10-15,

000. French officer Jean Coignet  recalls the scene after the fighting is over: “Near Lützen I saw many young men and women who  carried the wounded, regardless of their nation, into the city, and they returned again  and again to bring back new victims of the fighting.” (Handrick 80). One of  the wounded on the Coalition side is General Gerhard von Scharnhorst, whose minor foot  injury becomes fatally infected on the retreat. Napoleon has won an important victory at Lützen,  and the Coalition i

s in retreat. But the Emperor has failed to destroy the Allied army, and  could not pursue because he does not have enough cavalry. The weakened but determined Prussians and  Russians now prepare for a new defensive stand. After the Coalition defeat at Lützen, morale  is low. Napoleon has worked his magic again, and Allied command and control in combat does  not inspire confidence. As they retreat east towards better defensive positions, General  Gneisenau writes to his wife about the mood: “We

have abandoned the Elbe [river] unnecessarily.  The soldier is discontent with the constant retreat and I cannot blame him for this.  Should we deliver a new battle and lose, the rumor of it will reach you quickly enough.  In the meantime, do not be concerned. The fate of arms is sometimes quite odd but what I  know comes from the spirit of the soldier, which provides great hope. He is full of  fortitude. It is lively in the camp before us. Music and singing ring forth  and everyone is cheerful

because the retreat has stopped.” (Napoleon and  the Struggle for Germany, Vol. I, S. 304) Despite the new Allied headquarters created  on May 10, Allied commanders argue about what to do but eventually decide to select a  strong defensive position around Bautzen, just east of Dresden, to make their stand.  General von Bülow’s army at Magdeburg is assigned the task of protecting Berlin. Meanwhile, Napoleon sends most of his army to pursue the Coalition army eastwards. Marshal  Ney, however, move

s towards Berlin to threaten the capital and join forces with the Saxons.  The Emperor also hopes that this force will put pressure on the Prussians to protect their  capital and split them from the Russians. Some historians even argue that Napoleon still  hopes to get back to his original plan of sweeping through northern Prussia to Danzig and  beyond, in a grand encirclement. Regardless, the Emperor of the French recognizes that  the enemy he has just defeated at Lützen is far more capable tha

n the Prussian and  Russians he easily crushed in 1805 and 1806: “These animals have learned something.” (Chandler) This newfound respect of sorts for his enemies might also motivate the Emperor on the diplomatic  front. He hopes that his main army operating so close to the border with Austria might  sway the Austrians to join him again, and he sends Caulaincourt to visit the Tsar  with an offer for a ceasefire. Napoleon is not serious about peace, but he hopes that  the possibility might confus

e the Coalition and prevent Austria from joining them. When the Army of the Elbe reaches Bautzen, Napoleon tries to put his battle plan into  action. The main force would fix the Allies in a pitched battle, while Marshal Ney  would march around them and attack the Coalition positions from the north. This would  cut off the Russo-Prussian force and allow the French-led army to finally catch and destroy them. On May 20, all goes well for Napoleon. He crosses the river Spree at several places, and

after a  difficult battle, his 122,000 men are able to push back the far spread out 90,000 Allied forces,  and capture the town of Bautzen. The next day, Napoleon attacks again but he does not want to  commit his valuable reserves until the crucial moment – when Ney has swept in from the north and  cut off the Allied retreat. Still, the fighting on the ground is intense for those caught up in  it, like Prussian cavalry officer von Hüser: “I was alone on a hill in the midst of a hail  of bullets,

and tried to mount my horse which was spooked by the sound of the guns. Suddenly I  was laying on the ground, without at first knowing why I had fallen. I instinctively looked to my  lame foot, and was greeted by the gloomy sight of my foot lying next to me split in half by a  shell.” (v. Hüser, Denkwürdigkeiten, S. 117 ff.) While Allied troops try to hold on, the  Allied command thinks that Ney is still on the road to Berlin. Ney is supposed  to take them in the flank, but does not arrive on t

ime at Bautzen since he does not fully  understand his very brief orders from Napoleon, and wastes precious time and men assaulting a  village he should bypass. Staff officer Antoine Jomini and Ney have a heated discussion, in  which the Marshal makes his priority clear: “I don’t understand a thing about your  damned strategy; I just know I don’t turn my back to the cannons.” (Sainte-Beuve 136) The dogged defense put up by fresh Russian units under Barclay de Tolly who joined the  army after Lüt

zen also plays a role. One of the Russian wounded is Count Ostermann-Tolstoy,  whose injury is later described by Major Mikhail Petrov in his theatrically patriotic memoirs: “[Ostermann-Tolstoy] rode in front of his troops under the most dangerous fire and in  skirmishes, dragging everyone to victory and to destroying enemies. And when the bullet dug  deep into his chest near his left shoulder, he, with a bloodied white vest, […] seemed unscathed  and unaware about his wound due to the heat of h

is heroic aspiration, which brought into everyone  trust into victory, until he fell from his war horse because of the loss of blood.” (1812  год, воспоминания воинов русской армии, 227) The communication difficulties between  Napoleon and Ney, Ney’s stubborn attacks on a less-than-critical objective, and Russian  tenacity give Wittgenstein the time he needs to organize a retreat across the river Lebau and  avoid the dreaded encirclement. That is not to say Allied command performs particularly 

well. The Prussian King and General Blücher don’t communicate effectively, and neither do  the Tsar and Wittgenstein. Some historians have argued that the Coalition makes a mistake  by accepting battle at Bautzen instead of waiting for more reinforcements. The French and their allies once again defeats the Coalition army, but  cannot destroy it. Just like after Lützen, Napoleon does not have enough cavalry to pursue  his beaten enemy on a vulnerable retreat. Napoleon’s unfinished victory at Baut

zen is  bloody. He loses about 18,000 killed and wounded, while the Coalition forces only lose about 12,000. The realities of the war are far more mundane than Petrov’s prose, or the Prussian account  that compared their soldiers to Spartans. This latest Allied defeat causes the Tsar to replace  Wittgenstein with Barclay de Tolly, Napoleon’s old nemesis from the Russian campaign. Marshal  Ney offers to resign, but the Emperor refuses. The campaign in the spring of 1813 sees Prussia  join the 6th

Coalition against Napoleon, the Russian army cross its western border, and  the start of a German patriotic uprising against French domination. But for all the hopes of  the Allies, Napoleon has shown flashes of his old brilliance. His victories at Lützen and  Bautzen though, are incomplete, and he is unable to finish off the enemy army in dramatic fashion  as he did in years past. Napoleon has an army, but it is not the army of Austerlitz or Jena.  The Emperor is still confident he can win; bu

t the forces opposing him are growing stronger, and  the Tsar is still bent on breaking French power. For German people living in the  regions affected by the fighting, the plans of princes are far removed from the  hardships of daily life. Saxon Carl Gottfried expresses his fears even as the war begins: “I do not deny that my courage, which I have maintained for a long time – longer than  most – has started to leave me. It is a sad life to have to fear for one’s existence  every three or four y

ears.” (Gottfried 26) The Austrians, who are still French  allies on paper but hedging their bets, broker a tense summer armistice. The Allies want Austria to switch sides and join  them, tipping the balance of power in their favor. In the French-dominated German Confederation  of the Rhine, the ruling classes continue to support Napoleon’s war effort with troops  and supplies, while some of their subjects dreamt instead of an independent and united  Germany – another threat to French dominance.

While peace talks take place in Prague, Russian  diplomat Karl von Nesselrode meets in secret with the Austrians. Prince Schwarzenberg, Marshal  Radetzky and Prince Metternich favour joining the Coalition, but Kaiser Franz insists on a peace  offer. Napoleon rejects the Austrian terms, since he still believes he can turn  the tide on the battlefield and keep control of the Confederation of the Rhine. The  Emperor speaks frankly to Prince Metternich: “Your rulers, born on the throne,  can be def

eated 20 times and can simply return to their residences.  This I cannot do…my rule will not outlast the day when I have ceased to  be strong and feared.” (Handrick 168) Soon after, Austria declares war  on France, and joins the Sixth Coalition. In Napoleon’s own words, all  of Europe was marching against him now. The summer 1813 armistice came to an end  on August 10, and soon armies were on the march from Berlin to Bohemia, with the fate  of Napoleonic Europe hanging in the balance. The French

-led armies have been brought up to  strength, but many are new and poorly-trained recruits. The cavalry proves much harder  to rebuild after its destruction in Russia, and Napoleon is desperately short of horse.  Even so, he commands 400,000 Frenchmen, Poles, Italians, Germans, and others, and he still has  an experienced core of commanders and veterans. The French also have the advantage of interior  lines of communication and unified command. The Allied armies have more experienced  troops, b

ut their ranks are also filled with inexperienced men. Most Russian infantrymen  have seen little action, and the Prussian Landwehr militia is enthusiastic but unproven. What  the Coalition forces do not lack is cavalry, both light and heavy, which gives them a  powerful advantage in reconnaissance and pursuit. Their artillery officer corps is  not as skilled as the French, but they have many more guns. In all, the Coalition has  about a half a million men in the field. The Allied chain of comma

nd  though, is disorganized. In theory, Austrian Prince Karl von Schwarzenberg  will be in overall command, but Barclay de Tolly retains command of Russian forces.  The presence of Kaiser Franz, Tsar Alexander, King Friedrich Wilhelm, and the Crown Prince of  Sweden in the field will also complicate matters. In July, the Allies adopt a common war plan at  Trachenberg. The Allies may have the advantage in men and materiel, but after their defeats in  the spring, they retain a healthy respect for

Bonaparte’s generalship. The Trachenberg  Plan is in line with the advice of Tsar Alexander’s new advisor and former French  General under Napoleon, Jean Victor Moreau: “Avoid engagements with troops  led personally by Napoleon, and try to beat his marshals when their corps  are scattered throughout the theater of war. Only fight against Bonaparte with a considerable  preponderance of forces.” (Могилевский, 129) Once the Marshals’ forces have been worn down, the Coalition armies would unite  to

face the Emperor himself. Despite the Allied plans, it is the French  who strike first. Napoleon targets the Allied Northern Army defending Berlin, under the  command of Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johan – who formerly served Napoleon as Marshal Bernadotte.  If the French can threaten the Prussian capital, they might cause a split between the Prussians  and Russians. Marshal Oudinot advances on the Prussian capital with his optimistically-named  Army of Berlin. French troops struggle through the f

orests and marshes and do not carry out  proper reconnaissance, but the Swedish Crown Prince suggests a retreat. His Prussian  subordinate General Friedrich von Bülow refuses to give up the capital without a fight: “Unsere Knochen sollen vor Berlin bleichen, nicht rückwärts! Our bones should bleach in  front of Berlin, not behind it!“ (Handrick 194) On August 23, the two armies meet at Grossbeeren.  Marshal Reynier rushes his French and Saxon corps into an attack, but after hard fighting,  Pruss

ian and Swedish troops carry the day, and Oudinot cannot recover the situation.  The French pull back from Berlin for now, and Karl Johan decides not to pursue them,  much to the frustration of the Prussians. In Silesia, no one is holding back Prussian  General Gebhard von Blücher’s Army of Silesia, which starts operations before the truce  has even officially expired. On August 20, they run into Napoleon’s main army,  and withdraw to avoid combat. The Grande Armee gives chase, and over  three d

ays of a fighting retreat, the Prussian militia begins to  crack – a few thousand even desert. Suddenly, on August 23, Napoleon turns  around and moves west to deal with an Allied threats elsewhere. Marshal Macdonald takes  command of the remaining French-led forces, named the Army of the Bober, and advances  towards the Katzbach river. On the 26th, the two armies collide in a torrential  rainstorm at the battle of the Katzbach. As at Grossbeeren, French commanders bungle  the approach, and one

corps does not make it across the river in time for the battle. Allied  command and control also struggles, as Russian army General Alexandre de Langeron thinks he  is covering a retreat when Blücher’s plan is to attack. At first the French push the Russians  back, but then the Prussians smash the French facing them on the Allied right. Russian cavalry  then finds the French flank exposed by the missing units on the wrong side of the river, and charges  in. The driving rain means the French infa

ntry squares can hardly fire their muskets, and  there is not enough French cavalry to save them. Macdonald orders a withdrawal, which turns  into a torturous, rain-soaked retreat under constant attack from Allied cavalry. Including  the weeklong pursuit, the French suffer about 35,000 killed and wounded, plus an entire division  made prisoner, while the Allies lose about 20,000. For General Langeron, it’s just like the  chaos of the Russian campaign in 1812: “The level of losses and the disorde

r  in the enemy ranks reminded me of their disastrous flight from Moscow  to the Vistula.” (Lieven 387) The campaign has started badly for the French, with defeats at Grossbeeren and Katzabch.  Before things get any worse Napoleon decides to strike a decisive blow against the  main allied force: the Army of Bohemia. At the same time as the Allies were  chasing Macdonald after Katzbach, Schwarzenberg’s Army of Bohemia moves on Dresden.  The city is defended by Marshal St Cyr’s corps, but they’re

outnumbered almost 10 to 1. The Allies  attack because they think Napoleon is headed north to Berlin, but in fact he is moving towards  them to catch them from behind before they can concentrate their forces. His men march 120km in  just three days – but for the French plan to work, St Cyr must hold out for at least a  few days. When word reaches Napoleon that the city will probably fall, the Emperor  changes course and marches straight to St Cyr. Meanwhile, the Allies are slow to attack.  The T

sar wants to attack on August 25, but Schwarzenberg wants to wait for more troops  to arrive. The attack is postponed to the 26th, by which time Napoleon has arrived. Still, the  Coalition army goes against its own plan of avoiding Napoleon and tries to storm Dresden on  August 26 – and fails. Now the Coalition forces are in a vulnerable position, with the mountains  and narrow roads of the Erzgebirge at their back. Napoleon attacks on August 27, after a  night of rain that turns the ground to m

uck. Although badly outnumbered, Marshals  Murat and Victor smash Austrian Marshal Bianchi’s corps on the Coalition’s left flank,  taking an entire division prisoner. Then, Napoleon strikes the Coalition right. It’s all  too fast for Schwarzenberg’s communications, and he cannot react in time to the shifting blows. Allied reserves haven’t even arrived when  Schwarzenberg gives the order to retreat. The French lose 10,000 killed and wounded, the  Allies about 15,000 along with 10,000 prisoners. L

ong columns of Austrians, Prussians, and Russians  now begin winding their way through the narrow roads of the Erzgebirge. Pamfil Nazarov  of the Finland Guards, one of the very few Russian peasant soldiers to leave a record of his  experiences, recalls seeing the Tsar on the march: “The emperor began to cry bitterly and,  taking a white handkerchief out of his pocket, began to wipe his cheeks. Seeing  this, I also began to cry.” (Lieven 402) Napoleon has beaten the  Coalition’s main army at Dre

sden, but his marshals have been defeated  everywhere else. The Emperor has the chance to catch the Army of Bohemia  on the run, but will he take it? As the main allied army retreats through  the difficult terrain of the Erzgebirge, they are unaware of the grave  danger lurking behind them. When Napoleon rushed to save Dresden, he left  behind one corps under General Dominique Van Damme with orders to threaten the Allied rear.  Now, Vandamme’s 50,000 men are moving on the vital river crossing at

Königstein, defended  by just 13,000 Russian under Prince Eugen von Würtemberg. If they cannot hold, Van Damme  might block the passes out of the Erzgebirge, trapping the Army of Bohemia and the three  Allied monarchs between him and Napoleon. The Russian conduct a desperate fighting  retreat along the Teplitz valley to buy time, while Eugen and General Osten-Sacken  argue about who is really in command. Vandamme is overconfident and does not think  the Russians have much fight left in them: “T

he enemy has fought in vain  against our brave troops: he has been defeated on all occasions and is  in a state of complete rout.” (Lieven 409) But the Russians make a stand near the town  of Kulm on August 29. At the start of the battle the French have a two-to-one advantage in  numbers, and in extremely bitter fighting they are able to slowly push the Russians back.  Eugen wants General Aleksei Ermolov to send in the Ismailovsky Guards to turn the tide,  but once again there is an internal squ

abble: “The Prince is a German and doesn’t give a  damn whether the Russian Guards survive or not: but my duty is to save at least something  of his Guard for the emperor.” Lieven 409 Finally, General Ostermann-Tolstoy intervenes, and the Guards enter the fight. More Russian  reinforcements arrive under General Diebitsch, who orders a cavalry charge against Ermolov’s  wishes, and the French are driven back. The next day, disaster strikes for Vandamme,  now outnumbered thanks to Allied reinforcem

ents. Austrian and Russian forces quickly stop a  French attack and go over to the offensive, while a Prussian corps under von Kleist appears  in Vandamme’s rear – the hunter has become the hunted. Van Damme’s corps is half destroyed and he  and 15,000 of his men surrender. Each side loses about 10,000 killed and wounded, including half  of the Russian infantry in Eugen’s original force. Napoleon does not lead a pursuit  of the beaten Allies from Dresden, and the Army of Bohemia escapes the dang

er. There  is enormous relief at the Tsar’s headquarters: “The battle of Kulm changed into a cry of joy the despair which was spreading through  the valleys of Bohemia.” (Chandler) The Allies can consider themselves lucky  they avoided a disaster at Dresden, and triumphed at Kulm in spite of their command  troubles. Napoleon has missed an opportunity, but he wastes no time and continues offensive  operations in the north in early September. Here again the Allies are busy arguing. The  Swedish Cr

own Prince does not move his army south after the victory at Grossbeeren  on August 23, and Prussian commander von Bülow is livid. Marshal Ney cuts the dispute  short when his army again moves on Berlin, and the two forces meet at Dennewitz on September  6. The French attack the Prussian side of the Allied line first, and this time, the militia  holds alongside the regulars. They had gained more fighting experience in smaller battles in  the aftermath of Grossbeeren like at Hagelberg. Karl Johan

orders the Russians to help their  hard-pressed Allies, but some resentful Prussians think he reacts too slowly. As the fighting rages,  Ney becomes so focused on his own corps fighting the Prussians he orders Oudinot to move towards  him, leaving Reynier’s Franco-Saxon corps exposed. The Prussians and Russians then turn  on Reynier’s flank and carry the day, with the help of devastating Russian  artillery fire. Once again, however, Karl Johan does not pursue Ney apart  from cavalry on the hunt

for prisoners. The French-led forces suffer 7000 killed and  wounded and 13,000 prisoners, while the Allies lose about 10,000. Napoleon’s hope to threaten  Berlin is now snuffed out for good, which means that Prussia continues to be a beacon for German  nationalists in the French-allied German states. So the Allies have put together a string of  impressive victories and escaped a worst-case scenario at Dresden. Napoleon, once master of  Europe, is in a bind: his enemies have superior forces, bu

t he cannot retreat without  risking his hold on his German allies. The fighting has only been going on for barely  a month, and already the Allies have victories at Grossbeeren, Katzbach, Kulm, and Dennewitz,  and have recovered from defeat at Dresden. The French have lost 100,000 men and 200 guns, while  the larger Coalition armies have lost 85,000 men and just 50 guns – and they have ample reserves on  the way from the east. (Lieven 425) Napoleon still wants to fight, but it is the Allies who

have the  initiative – in September he briefly advances on the army of Bohemia, but Schwarzenberg refuses  battle. The Emperor’s only realistic chance is to wait for the Allies to come to him, and  trust his own generalship to turn the tide. Diplomatically, Napoleon is on the  back foot as well. Prince Metternich is in secret negotiations with the German  states of the Confederation of the Rhine, whose leaders are now willing to consider changing  sides. But it will take a major Allied victory

to convince the hesitant German princes to join the  Coalition. Although many patriotic Germans have joined the Prussian army or formed irregular  militias to oppose the French, there has been no effective mass popular uprising against French  control, so the Princes must tread carefully. The Allies also want to attack, but they face  a strategic dilemma as well: to get the Army of Bohemia across the tricky Erzgebirge again, they’d  have to detach troops to cover Dresden, and this would weaken t

he main force. The solution, after  much inter-allied wrangling was for Russian Army General Ludwig Bennigsen’s 60,000-strong  Army of Poland, which has reached Silesia, to move into Bohemia to support Schwarzenberg.  Blücher’s army would also cross the Elbe, and link up with the Swedish Crown Prince coming south. For  Allied officers like Russian Army Quartermaster General K.F. Toll all roads lead to Saxony: “It was decided that after anticipated successes a suitable battlefield near Leipzig

will  serve as a place to assemble of the allied armies to fight the final battle  against Napoleon” (Безотосный, 449) While the armies marched, Allied cavalry starts  raiding the French rear, forcing Napoleon to use large units of up to several thousand men to  protect supply columns – Russian horsemen even briefly captured Kassel, 200km west of Leipzig. The preparations come to an end in mid-October, as the Armies of Bohemia and Silesia move into  Saxony to face the Grande Armee. Napoleon

hopes to defeat Blücher or the Crown Prince, who is  moving his army south, but before he can move his forces into position he runs out of time. The  threat from the Army of Bohemia cannot be ignored, so the Grande Armee concentrates at Leipzig  for the supreme battle. To give the Grande Arme more time to deploy, Marshal Murat  attacks Russian General Wittgenstein’s units on the 14th at Liebertwolkwitz,  and the two sides fight to a bloody draw. On the 15th, Prince Schwarzenberg writes to his  w

ife on the eve of battle: “What a solemn moment! The world rests on my shoulders. May a just God  give the strength not to succumb.” (Colson 39) French artillery officer Major Noel is  also somber as he watches the infantry: “Our men need rest. […] In Napoleon’s hands, our soldiers are mere pawns he moves  around the checkerboard of Europe. But these pawns given to him by an exhausted  France, are not the pawns of Austerlitz. […] they cannot stand the abrupt and continuous movements  this powerf

ul hand forces upon them.” (Colson 45) Hundreds of thousands of men are converging on  Leipzig. Napoleon will have to defeat superior forces if he wants to preserve his empire –  as he has done in years past. For the Allies, the coming battle is a chance to  remake the political order in Europe. The Battle of Leipzig begins on October 16,  1813. Allied leaders argued before settling on a plan to encircle the French army. The Army of  Bohemia approaches from the south, while the Army of Silesia a

rrives from the north, and the Army  of the North, still not close enough to fight, approaches from the northeast. Napoleon knows  that the other Allied armies will soon arrive, so he decides to concentrate his forces in the  south to gain a temporary advantage in numbers while he still can. The French try to outflank  the Allied position near Liebertwolkwitz, but General Matvei Platov’s Cossacks and  other Allied troops stop them. The main French attack focuses on the village of Wachau,  which

the Russians have also chosen as a point of advance. Ferocious fighting over the village  and nearby high ground ensues – a hallmark of the entire battle, in which village after  village will be fought over and destroyed. Wachau changes hands three times on this  day. The French attack is supported by the firepower of a Grande Batterie of 150 guns, an  experience which shakes French Lieutenant Martin: “The artillery fire was terribly powerful, which I  could not have previously imagined. I remem

ber the unbearable roar of the 12 pounders in our midst;  I remained deaf for several hours.” (Colson 158) Napoleon follows up the infantry and artillery  assault with a devastating charge of 10,000 horsemen under Marshal Murat. The French break  through and drive towards the spot from which the three Allied monarchs are observing. Russian  officer K. N. Batuyshkov recalls the tension: “To the right, to the left, everyone was  crushed. Only the Grenadiers fought steadily. [General] Raevsky stood

gloomy and speechless.  Things were not going very well.” (Батюшков, 374) Moments later Raevsky is wounded, but just in  time, Austrian and Russian cavalry arrives to plug the gap – including the Cossacks of the Guard from  the Tsar’s personal retinue. The Allies avert a crisis in the south, partly because of the timely  arrival of Blücher in the north. The Prussian reaches the battlefield more quickly than Napoleon  expects, and Marshal Marmont has to head north to meet the new threat, though

he and Marshal Ney  cannot prevent the Prussians from taking Möckern. Another point of concern for the French on  the first day is Austrian General Gyulai’s attack to the west of Leipzig at Lindenau, which  threatens the Grande Armee’s only potential route out of Leipzig in case of defeat – but the French  hold fast. The Austrians and Prussians however, do manage to take Döllitz and Markkleeberg  after these villages change hands several times. By the end of the day, Napoleon has severely  teste

d the Army of Bohemia and even captured Austrian General Maximilian von Merveldt, but  the Allied lines have held and reinforcements have arrived. On this day alone, 25,000  Grande Armee soldiers are killed or wounded, as are 30,000 Coalition troops.  Napoleon does make Polish Prince Poniatowski a Marshal of France for  his efforts against the Austrians. October 17 brings a pause to major fighting,  though in a local action the Russians take Gohlis from a Polish unit. The most important  event o

f the day is that reinforcements arrive for both sides. 14,000 French soldiers  join the Grande Armee from the north-east, but the Allies receive ten times as  many: Karl Johan’s Army of the North, Bennigsen’s Army of Poland, and an Austrian corps  all swell the ranks of the massive Coalition army that nearly surrounds Leipzig. The Allies now  outnumber the French with 335,000 men to 190,000. Napoleon knows that the situation is grave; he  sends a message to Kaiser Franz and offers an armistice.

The Allies, however, know they have  the advantage, and reject the French terms. On October 18, Napoleon understands he must save  what he can of the Grande Armee, and plans his retreat to the west. He orders French-led troops  to form up in a defensive line around the town to allow the army to cross the only bridge  across at Lindenau - which the entire army would have to use. He assigns a French corps to  keep the route open west of the bridge as well. For the Allies, the plan is relatively s

imple:  to put as much pressure as possible on the Grande Armee by attacking it from all sides.  Barclay’s Russians easily capture several villages against light resistance, since French  troops have withdrawn closer to shorten the line, and Bennigsen also advances. In the north, Bluecher attacks Leipzig’s walls but the French defenders hold  firm and the Prussians make little progress. In the afternoon, Kleist’s Prussians  storm the village of Probstheide, a lynchpin of the French defences. The

y manage  to get into the village, but cannot take it thanks to fierce French resistance from men like  Philippe Ballut, whose loyalty drives him on: “In these difficult moments, we were more devoted  to [the Emeperor] than ever. None of our men feared death. We were so close to it in Moscow  that it doesn’t scare us anymore.” (Colson 342) Napoleon is so worried he might lose the village  that he sends in units of the Imperial Guard to hold it, which they are able to do against  renewed assaults

by the Russians - for now. The Army of the North has entered the battle, and  Allied troops capture Paunsdorf with the help of a small British unit of rocketeers, making  effective use of a new weapon in the form of light and mobile rocket tubes. Soon after, in  an ominous sign for French political fortunes, several thousand Saxons and Würtembergers  surrender en masse, opening a gap in French lines which has to be filled in haste. Coalition  forces also manage to push into Schönefeld after a m

assive artillery duel. Napoleon realizes his only  option is to retreat to through Leipzig itself, and orders his remaining forces to  take shelter within the city walls. Very early the next morning, the Grande Armee  begins to hurry west across the bridge – just as it had done in 1812 over the Berezina. It  would take time for tens of thousands of men, horses and carts to leave the town, but discipline  soon begins to waver. The French command doesn’t have a clear plan for the defence of the ci

ty, so  units on the walls are not properly organized and led. In the midst of the confusion, the storm  breaks on the defenders of Leipzig. Allied cannon begin to bombard the town, followed  by an infantry assault. Leipzig resident Herr Ahlemann and his family take shelter in at  a family friend’s apartment, which is soon hit: “When the cannonballs crashed through the  roof and set the building around us on fire, we each lay in our place and  prayed to God to save us, since it seemed at the mom

ent the  world was ending.” (Platthaus 328) The far weaker and uncertain defenders give  ground, and soon there is desperate fighting in the streets. As the tension rises among  the men and horses packed together waiting for their turn to cross the bridge, disaster  strikes. French engineers have placed a massive explosive charge in a boat underneath the bridge  so they can blow it, but a French soldier sets off the charge early. The bridge – and all the men  and horses on it – is sent flying in

to the air. 30,000 men are trapped in the city, including  dozens of high ranking officers. Napoleon has already crossed, but Polish Prince  Poniatowski has not – already wounded, he tries to cross the river on his horse, but he  drowns. He was a marshal for just three days. Most of the French-led forces cut  off in Leipzig are made prisoner, and the rest of the Grande Armee  moves west. The battle is over, but Allied cavalry now has free reign to pursue  the ragged French columns and inflict as

much damage as possible. Russian cavalry,  including the Cossacks, plays a key role riding down whomever they can. The scenes remind  officer S. G. Khomutov of the campaign of 1812: “We walked the road along which the enemy  retreated, and it presented us the same spectacle as from Smolensk to Vilnius:  at every step we saw the dead and dying; if it were colder, one would think that we  were again in Russia.” (Безотосный, 472) The Battle of Leipzig, the Battle of Nations,  was over. In four day

s, the Coalition loses about 55,000 killed and wounded, while the French and  their allies lose some 45,000 killed and wounded, and 35,000 prisoners. More than half a million  men have taken to the field of battle in what will remain Europe’s largest battle until the First  World War. Napoleon escapes with just 80,000 men, another crushing blow to the Napoleonic  Order that has defined Europe for a decade. His exhausted men trudge westwards towards France,  which is now in danger of foreign inva

sion. The Allied victory shakes the political  order immediately: the Coalition monarchs dissolve the Confederation of the Rhine  and welcome some of its member states as new allies. For patriotic Germans  dreaming of a united nation-state, the Battle of Nations is the culmination not of  the Napoleonic Wars, but of the Wars of National Liberation. Decades later a new German state  will make Leipzig a centrepiece of national and imperial memory. But as the Emperor of the  French hurries to Paris

in October 1813, the rest of Europe holds its breath and wonders if 1814  will see the unthinkable: Napoleon’s Downfall. But before he can be dethroned, Napoleon is  still a potential threat since the Emperor of the French and what remains of his Grande  Armee manage to escape total destruction and now the Allied armies of the 6th Coalition  have to figure out how to stop him for good. The battered remnants of Grande Armee  limp west towards the relative safety of Frankfurt on the Main – once a

multinational  army, it’s now reduced to Frenchmen, Poles, and Italians after France’s German allies switched  sides. Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johann takes his Northern Army towards French-controlled Hamburg,  while Tsar Alexander and Austrian Emperor Franz accompany their armies in pursuit of Napoleon.  Prussian King Wilhelm Friedrich returns to Berlin. Allied cavalry does harass the French columns, but  by and large the Coalition pursuit is relatively slow. There are several skirmishes and r

earguard  actions, at Koesen, Frieburg, and Hoerselberg, but French forces are struggling to remain  a cohesive force even if the Allies aren’t pressing them too hard. Their struggles are  clear to Prussian officer Carl von Plotho: “The roads on which the French retreated  showed the most unmistakable traces of the disorganisation of the enemy’s army. The numbers  of corpses and dead horses increased every day. Thousands of soldiers, sinking from  hunger and fatigue, remained behind, unable to r

each a hospital. The woods for  several miles round were full of stragglers and worn out and sick soldiers. Guns and  wagons were found everywhere.” (F Lorraine) One reason for the slow pace is that  the Allies are divided about what to do next. They had been united when it came  to throwing the French out of the German states. They also agree in dissolving the  French satellite Confederation of the Rhine, essentially negating French territorial gains  since the revolution of 1789. But now that

the French have left Saxony, cracks  begin to appear in the 6th Coalition. Austria is worried that a full defeat of France  might tip the balance of power a little too far in Russia’s favour. Some Russian generals  want to wait and rest their exhausted armies, but Tsar Alexander is keen to press on towards  Paris. Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm is also committed to a French defeat, but former  French ally Saxony has become a bone of contention. Austria is not happy that the  Russians deliver th

e Saxon King Friedrich August to the Prussians, as Prussian state  chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg admits: “The Austrians do not take kindly to the fact  that we have the King of Saxony.“ (Platthaus 355) SEGUE While the Austro-Prussian rivalry for dominance in the German lands has returned to  the political scene, the Allied main armies crawl after Napoleon. Now, a new, smaller Allied army  attempts to cut off the French line of retreat. BLOCK 2 HANAU Allied generals worry that Napoleon mi

ght stop at Erfurt to fight them – but he judges  his forces are too weak, so he continues westwards towards the Rhine and France. A freshly-formed  Austro-Bavarian force now hurries north to cut off the French line of retreat – the 43,000 troops  are commanded by Bavarian General Karl von Wrede, who had previously fought for Napoleon until  Bavaria switched sides in early October. Wrede at first does not realize that Napoleon himself  is approaching with 80,000 men, and expects a much smaller F

rench force. One faint positive for the  Allies is that only about 20,000 French troops are combat-worthy, so they do have a numerical  advantage where it counts. On October 30, Wrede orders his troops to take up positions in  front of the Hessian town of Hanau. The position is a difficult one: the river Kinzig divides  the battlefield and makes maneuver or retreat more complicated, while the dense woods might  provide cover for the approaching French. The Austro-Bavarians have their back to the

river and  their positions connected by a vulnerable bridge. The fighting starts in the woods, where French  infantry is able to clear out Austro-Bavarian resistance by midday. This allows French forces  some room to implement Napoleon’s plan to strike at Wrede’s left. French artillery commander  Antoine Drouot’s men locate a hidden forest path that allows them to move up the guns in  secret. Once the Old Guard clears the wood, the gunners set up a battery of 50 guns facing  the Austro-Bavarian

left. Their overwhelming fire quickly suppresses the smaller Allied  battery facing them. Wrede realizes the danger, and now knows he is facing Napoleon  himself. Allied cavalry charges the French guns, but volleys of grapeshot cut the  German-speaking horsemen to pieces. An Austrian account describes the failed attack: “Oberstleutnant von Mertens led a battalion against the wood to stop the enemy  advance, [but] enemy cavalry appeared and launched a heavy attack […] Von Mertens’ horse  was wou

nded, and the enemy cavalry reached him and inflicted two light sabre wounds on him.  He was lucky to be saved by the Royal Bavarian Chevaux Legers under the command of His  Excellency […] von Wrede.” (Relation) The French cavalry then counter-charges,  and drives the Allied horsemen from the field. Wrede’s position is now critical,  and Napoleon knows it. Drouot’s guns pound the Allied centre while the French  cavalry attack them from the open flank. French Captain Jean-Roch Coignet is alone on

  horseback when he runs into enemy cavalry: “A platoon of Bavarians rode up near me, with  a handsome officer at their head. Seeing I was alone, he charged me. I stopped, he came alongside  and tried to stab me with his long sword. I parried the blow with my sabre […] I got beside  him and cut off half of his head. He fell like a sack; I took his horse by the bridle and galloped  off under fire from his platoon.” (Coignet 368) The Austro-Bavarian troops hold out for  as long as they can, but ev

entually give way under the pressure. As they retreat,  three battalions are lost in the river. Wrede does try to bring units from his right to  restore the line, but after a brief success the French drive them back across the Lamboi bridge. The way is now free for the main French force to continue west along the road to Frankfurt,  but the battle is not over. Overnight, Wrede establishes a new line south of the Kinzig,  and a French artillery bombardment of the town forces the Bavarians to leav

e it undefended.  The morning of the 31, French units occupy the town and watch the bridge while Napoleon and the  rest of the army retreat. Allied troops attack the Lamboi bridge but cannot take it, though  they do recapture the town. During this attack, Wrede is wounded and gives up his command.  French forces conduct a controlled withdrawal, and last-ditch Allied attacks across the bridge  on the other side of Hanau fail. The French army’s march west can longer be stopped. BLOCK 3 AFTERMATH T

he Battle of Hanau is a victory for Napoleon,  since it allows him to continue his retreat towards France and preserves what little  is left of his army. The Austro-Bavarian army lost about 9000 dead and wounded  in the battle and preceding skirmishes, while the French lost about 2500,  though about 10,000 sick and exhausted French troops become prisoners  of war when their army moves on. Despite the unfavorable result for the  German-speaking troops, nationalist German propagandists try to turn

Hanau into a victory  after the fact, since the French army does leave the battlefield and continue its overall retreat.  An 1814 publication compares it to an infamous French defeat in Russia, and tries to show  former French ally Bavaria has changed its ways: “Hanau became a second Berezina for the  defeat [French], and the Bavarians who had bled so often for France, bloodily  avenged Germany’s humiliation.” (NN 14) After reaching Frankfurt, Napoleon makes straight  for Paris, but his men str

uggle on to Mainz where a deadly typhus epidemic kills more than  1000. Captain Coignet witnesses the suffering: “They were struck by a yellow fever and we  found the dead strewn everywhere. […] I had to have men forced to load the bodies into  large carts, and stack them like bales of hay. The men resisted but they were threatened  with being shot: we dumped out the bodies by tipping the carts over, just like at Moscow.  I had to manage this terrible task on my own, since the Emperor’s cortege

had already left.  May such horrors never appear again!” Coignet 369 SEGUE Napoleon saves what’s left of his army at Hanau, but the campaign of 1813 is a terrible  defeat overall, and instead of dominating Europe, he faces a fight for his own survival. BLOCK 4 DIPLOMACY and NIVELLE Between 80 and 110,000 French troops  make it to France in November 1813, but the 1813 campaign is yet another disaster  for Napoleon. He has lost about 400,000 men he cannot simply replace, and he has lost  his domin

ant position in Europe. He no longer controls a vast alliance of client states –  Austria, Prussia and the other German states are now against him, and the Russians control  Poland. Allied armies are now poised to invade the French Empire from the north, east,  and south. The isolated French garrisons in Central Europe surrender in November and  December, freeing even more Russian troops. Meanwhile, the Pyrenees mountains and the Rhine  river become the focus of diplomatic discussions, since Aus

trian Foreign Minister Klemens von  Metternich now sends a peace proposal to Paris offering them as France’s “natural borders”. Hoping to capitalize on French war-weariness, the Allies prepare a manifesto for the French  people, declaring that they are not making war on the French nation, rather against  Napoleon. But even Metternich is skeptical: “Napoleon will make no peace,  of that I am convinced, though nothing would make me happier  than to find I am mistaken.” (Riley) At the same time, Al

lied leaders are considering  replacing Napoleon with Bourbon heir Louis, Count of Provence. On the other hand, the  Duke of Wellington, whose Allied army has pushed the French out of Spain, is willing  to consider peace with Napoleon in charge: “If Buonaparte became moderate he would  probably be as good a sovereign as we could desire in France. If he did not . . . he would  find himself engaged single-handed against an insurgent France as well as all Europe.” (Riley) In the end, instead of tre

ating for peace, Napoleon is preparing to raise yet another army,  as he tells Marshal Marmont in mid-November: “At present we are not ready for  anything, but by the first fortnight in January we shall be in a position  to achieve a great deal.” (Chandler) French authorities set about recruiting a new army  of 150,000 soldiers, but they are running out of time and men who are fit to serve. In the south,  British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces have pushed the French out of Spain and enter Frenc

h  territory. On November 10 in southwestern France, the Duke of Wellington’s 80,000 British,  Spanish, and Portuguese troops defeat 50,000 Frenchmen under Marshal Jean-de-Dieu  Soult at the Battle of Nivelle. Soult is pessimistic about  the state of the French army: “The men are fighting badly. They are no good.  At the head of such troops we shall certainly come to shameful grief.” (Riley) BLOCK 5 1813 CONCLUSION The 1813 campaign began and ended with Napoleon’s  French Empire in trouble. From

the borders of the Russian Empire, his new Grande Armee has  been smashed in Germany and driven back to the borders of his own Empire. Given that he seemed  to still have a fighting chance as late as his victory at Dresden in August, what went wrong? Napoleon fails in 1813 because – just like in Russia – he could not exercise effective  command and control over his vast armies, which meant his marshals and generals had to  act independently and they made mistakes. He also underestimated the res

olve of his enemies,  and the desire for freedom from French dominance in occupied lands. In the view of historian David  Chandler, the Emperor of the French had waged the campaign with unrealistic expectations: “Napoleon, in fact, was relying on an unlikely combination of miracles and  errors to achieve his total victory; miracles of performance and endurance on the part  of his men—errors of judgment and coordination on the part of his foes. Neither lived up to  his most optimistic expectation

s.” (Chandler) The Allies had also made mistakes – personal  jealousies and clashing national interests had slowed their armies, as had troubles with command  and control. Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm even delayed the crossing of the Rhine against  the advice of his more aggressive generals. But they had done enough to win at Leipzig,  and now their armies are superior to those of their enemy. And indeed, the war is not over  as French general Félix Girod de l’Ain observed: “…we hadn’t reache

d the end of our difficulties  and if we were about to cross back over the Rhine it would not be long either before  the allies would be doing likewise, following hard on our heels.” (Mir 24) In  the first days of 1814, German, Russian, and Austrian troops under Generals  Bluecher and Schwarzenberg cross the Rhine river into the heart of France. They’re closer than ever to bringing about Napoleon’s Downfall. SPONSORSHIP An interesting side note about 1813 is that  Napoleon retreated through the

so called Fulda Gap? This is a geographic lowland between  Frankfurt and Thuringia allows for easier traversal than the otherwise mountainous terrain.  150 years later, Warsaw Pact tanks would have used this route in case of an invasion of Western  Europe in response to a NATO nuclear first strike during the Cold War. Nuclear deterrence on the one  hand and using the atom to achieve nuclear powered communism were two primary goals of the Soviet  Nuclear program and if that topic interests you, y

ou should check out our new series Red Atoms  which covers exactly that from the first Soviet nuclear bomb to the Chernobyl disaster and beyond.  And where can you watch Red Atoms? On Nebula, a streaming service we’re building together  with other creators. Nebula is a platform where we don’t have to worry about the  algorithm or advertiser guidelines and where the viewers support us directly. This  allows us to produce series like Red Atoms or our WW2 series 16 Days in Berlin and Rhineland  45.

And it’s not just us, you can watch other creators' Nebula Originals there too like Real  Engineering’s Battle of Britain series. If you sign up at nebula.tv/realtimehistory you get  40% off an annual subscription and support our channel at the same time. For just $30 you can  watch Nebula originals, all our content ad-free and earlier than on YouTube, other Nebula  creators, Nebula classes and much more. That’s nebula.tv/realtimehistory for 40% off and  supporting us here at Real Time History

directly. ENDCARD I hope you liked this extended video on the 1813 campaign  that was so crucial for the history of Europe, especially Germany, but often gets overlooked in  favour of 1812 or 1815. As usual you can find all our sources in the video description below. If  you are watching this video on Nebula or Patreon, thank you so much for the support, we couldn’t  do it without you. I’m Jesse Alexander and this is a production of Real Time History, the  only history channel that rocks the Kat

zbach.