"Battles are decisive"
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Revolutionary Wars 1792-1795, German Front 1796-1797, Napoleon's First Italian Campaign 1796-1797, Egyptian Campaign 1798-1801, Second Italian (Marengo) Campaign 1800, South German Campaign 1800, Campaign against Austria 1805, Campaign against Prussia 1806-1807, Peninsular War 1807-1814, Campaign against Austria 1809 , Russian Campaign 1812, Spring Campaign in Saxony 1813, Fall Campaign in Saxony 1813, Winter Campaign in France 1814, "Hundred Days" Campaign in Belgium 1815,
Valmy , Jemappes , Neerwinden , Wattignies , Fleurus ,
20 September 1792
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French Army, the "Armee du Centre", under the elder General Kellerman had maybe 52,000 men consisting of 35 battalions of infantry, 60 squadrons of cavalry, and 40 guns. The French consisted of about one third regulars and two thirds volunteers. |
Prussian Army under the Duke of Brunswick with 34,000 men and 36 guns. King Frederick William III was with the army. |
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Valmy is about half way along the main road from Verdun to Rheims. The Prussians had just taken Verdun and were moving on Paris. The morning being foggy the Prussian didn't get formed up into line and moving until 1:00 P.M. being stopped very shortly afterward by French fire. A mutual cannonade continued until 4:00 P.M. when heavy rain put an end to the battle.
The French casualties were about 300 men. Although Valmy was anything but a pitched battle it was nevertheless extremely important. The Prussian advance which had looked to put an end to the Revolution was halted and within a month Brunswick was retreating to the Rhine. |
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6 November 1792
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French Army of the North, under General Doumouriezwith 40,000 "hastily gathered and ill-disciplined" men. |
Austrian Army, under Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen with 14,000 men. |
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The Austrians were trained troops in an entrenched position at Jemappes west of Mons. The French were poorly trained but in an enthusiastic attack took the position by storm. The French certainly took heavy casualties but the exact numbers are unknown. This was the first successful attack by French Revolutionary forces. It led to the taking of Belgium (Brussels falling ten days later) and to Saxe-Teschen's resignation. |
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18 March 1793
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French Army of about 45,000 men, mostly raw recruits, under General Dumouriez. |
Austrian Army of about 40,000 men. Main body under Prince Frederick of Saxe-Coburg. Advance Guard led by Archduke Charles. |
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The French deployed on the 16th on some heights near Tirlemont about 35 km, or 23 miles, north-west of Leige. The Austrians came up and deployed on the 17th. On the 18th the French attacked. After fierce fighting in the center the French paused to reorganize around noon. However, the Archduke Charles having won his battle to the north intervened bringing on a French defeat. The French lost about 4,000 men. This defeat shattered French morale and led to their abandoning their attack on the Netherlands. The Austrians recovered Brussels. Dumouriez defected to the Allies shortly afterwards. |
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15-16 October 1793
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French Army of the North under General Jourdan with around 50,000 raw troops. |
Austrian Army under Prince Frederick of Saxe-Coburg with about 20,000 men, several thousand more according to some sources at the battle. Maybe 14,000 maintaining the seige of Maubeuge. |
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The French were moving on Maubeuge attempting to lift the seige there.
The Austrians deployed on a plateau near Wattignies village, about 10 km from Maubeuge,
in defense of the seige. Initial French attacks on the 15th were beaten off with
heavy loss. The French lost about 8,000 men. The seige of Maubeuge was lifted. Critical because it was the last position the Allies needed to take before being able to move on Paris. Jourdan got to keep his head. |
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26 June 1794
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French Army under General Jourdan with about 75,000 men. |
Austrian Army under Prince Frederick of Saxe-Coburg with 52,000 Austrians and Germans. |
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This was a fight for Charleroi which the French took just before the battle commenced. The Austrians advanced in several columns on the French redeployed in a defensive ring with rough entrenchments. Although the central column under the Archduke Charles did succeed in taking the village of Fleurus, there were further fortifications beyond it and all the columns were finally beaten off by the French after some six hours of fighting. The French lost about 5,000 men, maybe more. Though essentially a tactical draw as a battle, Fleurus was a significant strategic victory for the French. It resulted in the Austrians deciding to abandon the theatre. As a result the Austrian Netherlands (modern Belgium) fell to the French. |
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First Battle of Altenkirchen, Ukerath , Kinzig , Rastatt , Ettlingen , Haslach , Forcheim , Neresheim , Friedberg , Amberg , Wurzberg , Biberach , Emmendlingen , Schliengen , Second Battle of Altenkirchen , Diersham ,
4 June 1796
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French Army of the Meuse and Sambre commanded by General Jourdan Actual forces engaged were its Northern wing led by General Kleber with around 22,000 men. |
Left wing of Austrian Army of the Lower Rhine under Prince Wurttemburg with about 24,000 men. | |
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The French with three divisions, the center under Lefebvre, Soult on the right, and Ney on left, had
already manouvered the Austrians off the line of the Seig, and out of a position at Ukerath since
the beginning of the month.
The French losses are unknown but are unlikely to have been great. The French pursued the retreating Austrians vigoroursly; pushing them back to line of the Lahn river 50 km to the south. The battle also led to their capturing vital Austrian magazines with badly needed supplies. |
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19 June 1796
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Rearguard of the French Army of the Meuse and Sambre with around 22,000 men, General Kleber commanding. |
Advance guard Austrian Army of the Lower Rhine under General Kray with about 13,000 men. | |
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The Archduke Charles of Austria having marched with reinforcements to the support of the Austrian
Army of the Lower Rhine, Prince Wurtemburg commanding, the fortunes of war turned against
General Jourdan commanding the French Army of the Sambre and Muese. The French lost about 1,500 men killed or wounded and another 700 taken prisoner.
The battle was undoubtly a caution to the French generals and a help to Austrian morale. Unfortunately
for the Austrians, Bonapartes successes in Italy had led to half their Army of the Upper Rhine being
being sent there. This significantly weakened the Austrian position along the southern portions of
the Rhine and General Moreau commanding the opposing French Army of the Rhine and Mosselle was not
slow to take advantage.
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28 June 1796
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The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle under General Moreau, actually engaged was the column commanded by General Desaix with around 34,000 men. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine commanded by General (FML) Latour, forward elements actually engaged commanded by General Sztarry numbered about 17,000 men. | |
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The French under Moreau had stolen a few marchs on the already outnumbered Austrians
under Latour, and managed to take a bridgehead across the Rhine opposite Strasbourg at
Kehl by stealth and daring.
The French losses are unknown The Austrians lost what little hope they had of containing the French bridgehead. A bad situation had become worse. |
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5 July 1796
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The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle with around 34,000 men engaged, General Moreau commanding. |
Forward elements of the Austrian Army of the Lower Rhine under General Latour with about 18,000 men. | |
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Having failed to hold the line of the river Kinzig the Austrian forces retreated a little north to the line of the River Murg. Rastatt was one of the main positions on this line. The Austrians actually managed to hold there, but not elsewhere. Once again they were forced back. Both sides lost about 500 men
Despite their numerical inferiority the Austrians had hoped the terrain and being on the defence
might allow them to hold the French up long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
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9 July 1796
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The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle with around 65,000 men engaged, General Moreau commanding. The columns of both Desaix and St. Cyr were present. |
The Austrian Army of the Lower Rhine with reinforcments around 40,000 men, about half cavalry, the Archduke Charles commanding. | |
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The Archduke Charles having reinforced General Latour's Army of the Upper Rhine the Austrian's
once again attempt to stop the advance of the French under General Moreau. The French lost about 2,000 men.
Tactically a draw, stategically the battle was a loss for the Austrians. Charles needed to have
defeated Moreau decisively. His line of communications ran east back through
Stuttgart and along the Danube to Austria. |
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14 July 1796
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General Ferino's column of the French Army of the Rhine and Moselle with likely with somewhere around 20,000 men. |
A mostly German Allied force under General Frolich with about 15,000 men, strong in cavalry. |
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General Frolich's Allied force deployed between Kinzig and Elz tried to deny passage of the Black forest to the French column under General Ferino. The French succeed in pushing in the Allied center around Haslach and the flanking Allied forces were forced to retreat. Losses are unknown, but not likely high as only center was engaged. The French sucess in the Black Forest created yet another threat to the Austrian lines of communication. Frolich and the other Austrian commanders in the south began to fall back on Danube hoping to concentrate on the Danube along with the forces of Archduke Charles. The territory of the small south German states was abandoned. |
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7 August 1796
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The French Army of the Sambre and Meuse with around 46,000 men engaged, General Kleber commanding, as Jourdan was ill. |
The Austrian Army of the Lower Rhine with 40,000 men, General Wartensleben commanding. | |
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Given the fort of Forcheim, a defensible river line and the fact that the more numerous French had been
forced to make detachments to defend their communications, an Austrian stand seemed possible. Losses unknown, French claim to have taken 60 cannon and "many other munitions" in Forcheim. The Austrians under Wartensleben were forced to continue their withdrawal south and east. |
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11 August 1796
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The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle with around 50,000 men engaged, General Moreau commanding. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 55,000 men, the Archduke Charles commanding. | |
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Having concentrated all his forces from the upper and middle Rhine, and with the French spread out
and depleted by detachments the Archduke decided to turn and fight. The French lost about 2,400 men.
This battle is variously described as a French victory, a draw, or an Austrian victory.
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24 August 1796
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The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle with around 53,000 men engaged, General Moreau commanding. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 34,000 men, General Latour commanding. |
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General Latour attempted yet another corden defense running the length of the Lech river with its
center at Friedberg just east of Augsberg. The French likely lost a few hundred men, some drowned in the crossing of the Lech.
Unfortunately, and as usual, the only public reports of the action were French, and, as usual,
they mentioned enemy losses but not their own. Although tactically Moreau won yet another French victory, strategically Friedberg was a mistake on his part. He was plunging deeper into Bavaria as the Archduke was defeating Jourdan to the north, and would continue to do so even as the Austrians hounded the Army of the Sambre and Meuse close to destruction. |
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24 August 1796
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The French Army of the Sambre and Meuse with around 45,000 men, General Jourdan commanding. |
The Austrian Army of the Lower Rhine plus reinforcements with about 63,000 men, the Archduke Charles commanding. | |
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The Archduke fell on Jourdan's right flank and rear as Wartensleben's Army attacked from the front.
Now outnumbered and in a false position Jourdan fell back north and then west on poorer secondary
roads. The French lost about 4,000 men.
Amberg and the subsequent Austrian pursuit of Jourdan completely reversed the strategic situation
in Germany. |
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3 September 1796
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The French Army of the Sambre and Meuse with around 40,000 men engaged, General Jourdan commanding. |
The Austrian Army of the Lower Rhine with reinforcements for about 44,000 men, the Archduke Charles commanding. | |
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An Austrian column under General Hotze beat the French to Wurzberg. The rest of the Archduke's
army was in close pursuit. The Austrian superiourity in cavalry and light troops, as well as
the fury of the local population at French depredations was telling on the French Army The French lost about 2,000 men and 7 guns. Graham reports 3,000 taken prisoner
Wurzberg sealed the results of Amberg. The French Army of the Sambre and Meuse in Franconia was
defeated and was driven back to its starting positions of the early summer with heavy losses. |
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2 October 1796
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The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle with around 40,000 men engaged, General Moreau commanding. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 23,000 men, General Latour commanding. |
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Moreau's French Army of the Rhine and Moselle was forced to retreat by the Archduke's successes in the North
against Jourdan's Army of the Sambre and Meuse. The French losses seem to have been minimal. Although still threatened by minor Austrian forces, a peasant uprising, and the Archduke on his northern flank, Moreau had managed to discourage a close pursuit by Latour and gain manouvering room. |
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19 October 1796
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The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle with around 45,000 men engaged, General Moreau commanding. |
The Austrian Army with about 35,000 men, Archduke Charles commanding. |
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Moreau's French Army of the Rhine and Moselle had sucessfully avoided being cut off, but now
faced the majority of the Austrian forces in Germany united under the command of Archduke Charles. The French lost around 2,000 men.
Moreau was forced to fall back 40km south to Schliengen where he deployed in defence of the
French bridgehead at Hunningen. |
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23 October 1796
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The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle with around 30,000 men engaged, General Moreau commanding. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 40,000 men, Archduke Charles commanding. |
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Moreau having sent Desaix across the Rhine and the Austrians having received some reinforments
from the blockade of Kehl, the Archduke Charles had the advantage of numbers for change. The French losses seem to have been minimal.
The Austrians and French both have monuments claiming Schliengen as a victory. |
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18 April 1797
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The French Army of the Sambre and Meuse with around 70,000 men engaged, General Hoche commanding. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 40,000 men, General Werneck commanding. | |
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Hoche crossed at both Dusseldorf and Neuwied. He caught Werneck still in the process of
concentrating his troops who'd been spread out in a cordon defence.
The French losses were likely minimal. The Austrians had been pursued to the gates of Frankfurt when operations were halted on news of peace negotiations. |
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20 April 1797
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The French Army of the Rhine and Moselle with around 60,000 men, General Moreau commanding. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 17,000 men, General Sztarray commanding. |
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Moreau managed to get his advance divisions under Vandammne and Davout across the Rhine in boats.
The French losses were about 3,000 men. In addition to recrossing in the Rhine successfully and establishing himself in superior force, Moreau managed to re-take the bridgehead at Kehl. If hostilities hadn't been halted by peace talks it likely would have not gone well with the Austrians. |
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Montenotte , Millesimo , Dego , Ceva , Mondovi , Fombio , Lodi , Borghetto , Lonato , Castiglione , Roveredo , Bassano , Caldiero , Arcola , Rivoli ,
12 April 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon, then simply General Bonaparte, with 9,000 men mainly belonging to LaHarpe's division. Massena led one of LaHarpes's brigades on the decisive flanking attack while LaHarpe himself conducted the pinning frontal assault. |
Allied Austrian-Piedmontese Army represented by the Austrian division of General (FML) Argenteau with 6,000 men. |
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Argenteau's forces had been pushing back a small French brigade under Rampon throughout the days of April the 10th and 11th. This was part of a rather ill co-ordinated Austro-Sardinian offensive against Savona and Genoa. On the 12th the French counter-attacked. LaHarpe's brigade joined Rampon's and did so frontally. While the Austrians were engaged in defending against this Messena's force flanked them on their rear right. Given how the mountainous terrain channeled movement and communications the Austrians stood in danger of being totally cut off. Their force disintegrated trying to withdraw.
The French casualties were likely about 120 men. Messena's force being known to have lost about 50 men Napoleon had identified a low pass running west and slightly north from the area of Savona through Millesimo and Ceva to the area of Mondovi as the primary route he needed to open for his Army to able to establish itself in the plains of Northern Italy. Montenotte lay north of this route's eastern end. Stalling the Austrian threat in this area so he could fall upon the Sardinians under Colli was a necessary first step in his plans. So although the actual losses in this series of hard fought but small skirmishs are uncertain and likely not that high, the undeniable disorganization of the Austrians was a critical precondition to Napoleon's final success. |
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13 April 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon, forces under General Augereau with two demi-brigades and Joubert's brigade, about 10,000 men in all, were engaged. |
Allied Austrian-Piedmontese Army under General Colli, his leftmost Austrian provisional Corps under Provera with about 2,500 men was engaged. |
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The main French attack came on the 13th. The plan had been that it would be spearheaded by Augereau's division attacking through Carcare from the south and then east along the Savona-Ceva road to Millesimo. As it happened Carcare was occupied without resistance on the evening of the 12th, but Augereau's main force then got held up by the castle of Cassario on the 13th. The Sardinians had hastily thrown a picked force of men into it after the Austrian set-backs of the 12th. While the French main force made fruitless and costly attacks upon Cassario, a demi-brigade of Augereau's commanded by Menard by-passed the castle and drove the Sardinians out of Millesimo. Being the day's only French success this is what made its way into Napoleon's reports and the history books. The Allied force in Cassario, surrounded and short of supplies, finally surrendered on the morning of the 14th.
The French casualties were likely about 1,200 men, at least 600 at Cassario. Although it put a days delay into French plans and a dent into their morale the isolated bravery of the defenders at Cassario failed to affect the campaign's course. By the morning of the 14th the French were solidly in place to continue their attack against either the Austrians in Dego or the Sardinians at Montezemolo. Montezemolo which is between Millesimo and Ceva is the highest point in the road between Savona and Ceva which Napoleon was seeking to capture. Dego was a vital point on the main line of communications between the Austrian and Sardinian armies. |
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14-15 April 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon, the 8,500 men of Messena's division were directly engaged initially. Later joined by perhaps 8,000 men of LaHarpe's division. |
Allied Austrian-Piedmontese Army under General Argenteau and Colonels Avogadro and Vukassovich with about 8,000 men. |
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Massena attacked Dego on the morning of the 14th with another of his frontal pinning attacks combined with a flanking maneuver. He took the position rather easily at a cost of about 200 French dead. The Austrian defending force had about twice as many dead and thousands of them were taken prisoner. Both the original 4,000 defenders of Dego under Colonel Avogadro and a relief column under General Argenteau were caught up in the Austrian rout. At nightfall on the 14th while their cavalry pursued the defeated Austrians the poorly supplied French soldiers dispersed to forage and loot. Early the next morning a force of some 3,000 plus Austrians under Colonel Vukassovich surprised the unwary French routing them in their turn, taking many of them prisoner. However, by the middle of the 15th Messena and a furious Napoleon were staging yet another counter-attack with both Massena's own troops and those of LaHarpe's division. Despite inflicting severe casualities of about 1000 men upon the French Vukassovich was forced out of Dego. He managed to extricate only a small fraction of his men from the defeat.
The French casualties were somewhere between 1000 and 2000 men, 200 to 400 dead. Once again the initiative of individual Allied commanders and the bravery of their men was wasted due to ineffective overall command. The French may have been deeply disturbed by events at Dego and Napoleon temporarily induced to greater caution, but stategically Napoleon had succeeded in separating the Austrian and Sardinian armies from each other. He was now free to fall upon the Sardinians under Colli without fear of Austrian interference. |
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16-17 April 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon, then simply General Bonaparte, with 24,000 men. Generals Augereau and Serurier commanded the main two divisions engaged. |
Allied Austrian-Piedmontese Army under General Colli with 13,000 men. |
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Ceva was a fortified location the taking of which had figured largely in Napoleon's planning from the beginning of the campaign. Augereau's forces suffered about 150 casualities in an unsuccessful assault they made on the 16th. The next day they tried again this time in conjunction with the 9,000 men of Serurier's division coming up from the south. Colli had already withdrawn the night before. He'd feared being outflanked by Serurier. The French found that only a garrision in the fortress remained. They occupied the town and surrounding fortifications without opposition. Morever although the fortress garrison refused to surrender it did not harass the main body of French troops that Napoleon ordered to bypass it.
The French casualties were likely about 750 men. How to take the excellent defensive position at Ceva had been a major concern of Napoleons. Having mostly neutralized it without having to bring up artillery and making a setpiece attack was a major stroke of good fortune. It also let Napoleon shorten his extremely overstretched supply lines as the route to Ceva from the south was much shorter than that through Savona. Still the French supply situation remained very bad and Napoleon needed to break through to the wealthy plains of Northern Italy quickly before his army disintegrated. |
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21 April 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon, then simply General Bonaparte, with 23,000 men |
Allied Austrian-Piedmontese Army under General Colli with 9,000 men. |
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After his withdrawal from Ceva Colli had taken up positions at San Michele several miles east of Mondovi. This excellant defensive position was covered by the Tanaro river in the north and the Corsaglia river to the south. On the morning of the 19th Serurier attacked in the south and Augereau in the north. Without artillery support they took heavy losses and their hungry and undisciplined troops gave up their few gains to Sardinian counter-attacks. The French spent the 20th re-grouping. The Sardinians spent the day assessing their situation and found they didn't like it. The Austrians under Beaulieu having regrouped to the north-east and French troops on their left under Masssena threatening their communications with Turin they decided to withdraw once more. Destroying the bridges over the Corsaglia they started withdrawing on the night of the 20th. This time Napoleon did not let them get away. He defeated their rearguard during the night and entered the town of Mondovi early on the 21st as Colli's army retreated in disorder.
The French casualties were likely about 700 men. With the capture of Mondovi the path to the plains of Northern Italy lay open. Of more immediate importance vast supplies of food and equipment the French Army desperately needed were captured intact. The Sardinian army was a shambles and they'd begun negotiations for a separate peace. |
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8 May 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon, then simply General Bonaparte, with 12,000 men actually engaged consisting of an Advance-Guard under General Dallemagne supported by LaHarpe's division. |
Austrian Army of North Italy under General Beaulieu. Left wing detachment of General Liptay with 5,000 men defending, 4,000 of them infantry, 1,000 cavalry. |
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After extracting his army from Piedmont, the Austrian general Beaulieu set up a cordon defence of Lombardy behind the flood swollen Po River. He destroyed all the bridges across it. This made any direct frontal attack by the French problematic, but it also meant the Austrians were in turn unable to easily interfere with French movements. Napoleon exploited this by rapidly marching across the Austrian front to their far left wing and crossing at Piacenza on May 7th. The Austrian force under Liptay that Beaulieu had dispatched to oppose this crossing arrived too late. Instead reaching reaching the village of Fombio north of the Po near Piacenza it stopped and dug in to await the French attack. This attack came early on the 8th. By the evening, after heavy fighting the forces under Liptay had been pushed out of Fombio. They retreated north through the town of Codogno and to the crossing of the Adda River at Pizzighettone. The French took Codogno but almost lost it again when a column from the Austrian main army stumbled across them during the night. LaHarpe, the senior French general on the scene, was killed amid the confusion. The French loss of momentum allowed the Austrian Army to escape intact.
The French casualties were more than 450 men, at least 150 killed. The actions of Fombio/Codogno sealed the success of Napoleon's crossing at Piacenza and doomed the Austrian defence of the Duchy of Milan. However, they also put paid to Napoleon's hope of either trapping the Austrian Army or at least forcing it to retreat north and away from its eminently defensible base at Mantua. |
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10 May 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon, then simply General Bonaparte, with about 15,000 men. Advance-Guard under Dallemagne later supported by Massena's and Augereau's divisions. |
Rearguard of Austrian Army under General Sebottendorf with 10,000 men total. |
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The bulk of the Austrian Army had got across the Adda River on the 9th, but the French caught up with its rearguard under General Sebottendorf at the Lodi crossing on the 10th. They took the town itself without difficulty in the morning but the bridge across the Adda was better defended. Most of the day passed in an artillery duel as the French brought up more guns and men.
Finally around six the Advanced-Guard of 3,500 picked men stormed across the bridge with the
encouragement of many higher ranking officiers including Lannes, Dallemagne, Messena and Berthier. Napoleon
had taken a hand in the laying of the supporting cannon. The first line of Austrians broke and fled.
The French casualties were at least 500 men, and likely closer to 2000. Lodi was a French tactical victory. It may have had wider repercussions by cementing the relationship between the leadership of the French Army of Italy and their troops. However, any hope Napoleon may have had of catching a retreating Austrian Army and destroying it with a vigorous pursuit were dashed. The Austrians had got away to fight another day, and would have time to properly garrison Mantua. The French Army took several weeks in which it occupied Milan, got some deserved rest, and received its first pay in years. |
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30 May 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon, then simply General Bonaparte, with 28,000 men |
Austrian Army under General Beaulieu with 19,000 men. |
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After evacuating Lombardy Beaulieu reinforced the garrison of Mantua to the fortress' full capacity of over 12,000 men. The remainder of his Army he used to form another cordon defence, this time behind the river Mincio. The Mincio runs from Lake Garda and past Mantua before reaching the Po. There were four bridges across the Mincio at Peschiera, Borghetto, Goita and Rivalta. Napoleon carefully designed his approach manoeuvres so as to confuse the Austrians as to which of these he intended to take. He launched Augereau at Peschiera in a major diversionary attack. This may have been wasted effort, as Beaulieu was sick and the Austrian command riven with dissent. In any case, when the advance guard of picked men under General Kilmaine stormed the crossing at Borghetto they quickly took it despite sharp resistance by the small Austrian force there. Supporting units beat off the limited Austrian counter attacks and fanned out east of the crossing thereby splitting Beaulieu’s field army in half.
The French casualties were at least 100 men likely about 150 men total. His field force dismembered Beaulieu retreated up the Adige river valley towards Trento. Napoleon now held Northern Italy with the exception of Mantua. The remainder of the campaign would consist of his beating off attempts by successive Austrian armies to relieve the besieged garrison there. |
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31st July to 5th August 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon, then simply General Bonaparte, actually engaged piecemeal by brigades were the divisions of Despinoy with 4,000 men. and Massena with maybe 11,000 men around Lonato itself. For particular periods Augereau's division also participated in the battles against the Austrian Western column. Serurier's division gave up two brigades, one each to reinforce Augereau's and Massena's divisions. The smaller divisions of Kilmaine and Sauret, about 5,000 men each, also played a role in defeating Quosdanovich's forces. Both of these gentleman fell ill during the campaign and their units were temporarily commanded by Beaumont and Guieu respectively. So in summary starting with a weak division of about 4,000 men the French reinforced until almost their whole army, something in excess of 30,000 men, was concentrated against Quosdanovich. |
Austrian Forces western column under General Quosdanovich with about 17,500 men. Quosdanovich's force was divided into two advance-guards and 4 brigades. The advance guards seem to have had about 1,800 men each and the brigades roughly 3,500 men each. Much of the hottest action around Lonato involved Ott's and Ocskay's brigades. |
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The week's action in which Napoleon first stopped and then forced back the Austrian western column under
Quosdanovich was a chaotic dogfight of which the two actions at Lonato were only a representative part.
The French casualties were likely about 5,000 men over the week. Quosdanvich's threat to French communications was beat off and his forces prevented from combining with or even indirectly aiding the main column under Wurmser. The price the French paid was having to lift the seige of Mantua and losing their seige train in the bargain. |
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5 August 1796
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French Army of Italy under Napoleon with about 33,000 men. |
Austrian main army under General Wurmser with about 25,000 men. |
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Having driven off Quosdanovich's Western column Napoleon now assembled his entire army in opposition
to the Austrian main force under Wurmser.
The French casualties were about 1,500 men. Having defeated the main Austrian Army Napoleon was able to drive it back into the Tyrol and resume a blockade of Mantua. Since he had lost his carefully assembled seige train a full seige was no longer possible. |
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4 September 1796
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French Army of Italy under General Bonaparte . Actual battle fought by Massena's division with about 10,200 men. Divisions of Augereau (10,100 men) and Vaubois (5,445 men) plus brigade under Guien (2,775 men) in support. |
Austrian main army under General Wurmser. Actual battle fought by portion of General Davidovich's wing (25,000 men) of about 14,000 men in strength. |
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The major engagement in the opening phase of the autumn portion of the 1796 Italian campaign. Napoleon was
under orders to take the offensive against the Austrians, and for his part Wurmser was making the second
Austrian attempt to relieve Mantua.
The French casualties were a few hundred men. The French shattered half the Austrian army and secured the Adige river valley for both defensive and offensive purposes. They were securely in the Austrian rear having cut their previous supply lines although the Austrians could potentially draw supplies from the east. Napoleon had the choice of moving down the Adige Valley to defend in the Verona area or of advancing down the Brenta valley in an effort to take Wurmser's force in the rear. |
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8 September 1796
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French Army of Italy under General Bonaparte using divisions of Massena and Augereau with about 22,000 men in all. |
Austrian main army under General Wurmser with about 20,000 men. |
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The French Army of Italy pursued the Austrians under Wurmser down the Brenta Valley towards Bassano
overwhelming the rearguards of a few thousand men Wurmser had left behind to delay them.
Very early on the 8th of September, with Massena's division on west side of the Brenta River and Augereau's
on the east side, the French caught up with the two rear 'divisions' of the Austrian Army commanded by
Quasadanovich and Sebottendorf near Bassano. The Austrians were not ready. Their supply trains were
blocking the streets of the town and they had at most 14,000 men available, perhaps no more than 7,000.
The French casualties were a few hundred men. Bassano marked the the defeat of the second Austrian attempt to relieve Mantua. It came very close to resulting in the total destruction of the main Austrian field army in Italy. In the event, the main surviving fragment of that army and its commander were bottled up in Mantua. Disease was rampant and supplies short there so its strength began to rapidly waste away. In practical if not moral effect the Austrians might as well as been killed or taken prisoner. The Austrian authorities would need to find yet another army somewhere. |
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12 November 1796
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French Army of Italy under General Bonaparte using divisions of Massena and Augereau; about 13,000 men. |
Austrian army under General Alvintzy with about 18,000 men actually engaged. |
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The Austrian army under Alvintzy was advancing from Bassano to Verona in its third effort to
relieve Mantua. Alvintzy pushed his advance guard (8,000 men) under Hohenzollern out ahead to
the Caldiero ridge. Bonaparte determined to attack it with the divisions of Massena and Augureau.
The French casualties were in the area of 2,000 men. Caldiero was perhaps the first clear defeat the French Army of Italy suffered under Bonoparte. Already exhausted from almost a year's hard campaigning against successive Austrian armies the morale of the French troops took a significant hit. Furthermore, Bonaparte faced an Austrian army at the gates of Verona against which victory in head on fight looked unlikely. |
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15-17 November 1796
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French Army of Italy under General Bonaparte mainly using the divisions of Massena and Augereau but with detachments from other formations for a total of about 19,000 men in all. |
Austrian main army under GeneralAlvintzy with about 24,000 men total. |
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Having failed to defeat Alvintzy's army on its approach march Bonaparte was left facing
a new more numerous Austrian army before Verona in terrain that favoured Austrian
tactics. Morever his troops were tired and their leadership decimated by constant
hard campaigning.
The 16th saw Massena and Augereau repeating their efforts of the 15th. In the process they met
Austrian forces advancing on the French bridgehead at Ronco. The Austrians were severely mauled.
Once again, however, Augereau failed to take Arcola and Bonaparte withdrew his forces to the
bridgehead at Ronco.
Their flank turned by Augereau the Austrians after some hard fighting withdrew.
The French admitted losses of about 4,600 men. The battles around Arcola left the troops of both sides physically exhausted. Morally and strategically the victory went to Bonaparte and the French. They had stymied the third Austrian attempt to relieve Mantua. |
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14 January 1797
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French Army of Italy under General Bonaparte using divisions of Joubert, Rey, and Massena totalling approximately 21,000 men. |
Austrian army under General (FZM) Alvintzy with about 28,000 men. |
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Rivoli was the culmination of the Austrian's fourth attempt, the second under Alvintzy, to relieve
Mantua.
The French casualties were some 5,000 men. The outcome of Rivoli was not just the defeat of the third and last effort to relieve Mantua, but the destruction of the Austrian Field Army in Italy and the complete demoralization of its remenants. Mantua surrendered several weeks later. In the spring Bonaparte marched on Vienna. |
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21 July 1798
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The French Army of the Orient with around 28,000 men, General Bonaparte commanding. |
A Mameluke commanded Eygptian force with about 24,000 men and 30 guns. Most of the force was poor grade infantry, its core was its Mameluke cavalry consisting of at most 6,000 men. Murad Bey commanded that part of the Eygptian force actually engaged. | |
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Bonaparte having made it most of the way to Cairo the Mamelukes resolved to meet him. The French losses were about 300 men.
The previously demoralized and almost mutinous French troops enjoyed much rich looting. |
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1 August 1798
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The British Mediterrean Fleet under Admiral Nelson with 14 ships of the line and 7 frigates. |
The French Fleet under Admiral Bruey with 13 ships of the line and 4 frigates. . | |
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Nelson had been seeking the French Fleet for some time. He was mortified at having
missed it earlier and having allowed Bonaparte to land in Eygpt. The British lost 218 men killed, 678 wounded. The fate of Bonaparte's Army of the Orient was determined by this naval battle. The Mediterrean had become a British lake and his army was cut-off. The French in Eygpt would receive no further supplies or men, and when they tried to move their heavy seige guns to Syria by sea, those vital strategic assets were captured and used against them. |
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16 April 1799
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The French Army of the Orient with around 4,000 men in the end, an initial 2,000 under General Kleber and another 2,000 in the relief column commanded by General Bonaparte. |
The Ottoman Army of Damascus with about 35,000 men, Achmed Bey commanding. | |
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Bonaparte was beseiging Acre, the Ottomans had raised an army at Damascus which was
marching to relieve it. Bonaparte sent Kleber with a very small division to intercept
and defeat this threat. The French losses were about 300 men.
One of the two main armies the Ottamans had been organizing to retake Eygpt was defeated. |
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25 July 1799
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The French Army of the Orient with around 7,700 men and 17 guns, General Bonaparte commanding. |
The Ottoman Army of Rhodes with about 18,000 men, Mustafa Pasha commanding. | |
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With British help the Ottomans landed the Army of Rhodes at Aboukir overwhelming the
small French garrison that'd been left there. They then dug in to await both their own
reinforcements and the likely French counterattack. They did so in three lines behind
which they held the Fort of Aboukir itself. The French casualties were about 900 men around 200 killed outright. The Ottoman Turk attempts to recover Eygpt were decisively defeated. The French had been whittled down but faced no immediate threat to their control of Eygpt. It was not unreasonable to expect that in the event of a general peace they might be able to retain possession of the country. |
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20 March 1800
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The French Army of the Orient with around 10,000 men, General Kleber commanding. |
An Ottoman Army from Syria with about 40,000 men, Ibrahim Bey commanding. | |
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General Kleber, who'd been left to hold Eygpt by Bonaparte, had been attempting to
negotiate the safe evacuation of his Army back to France. The French casualties were about 300 men .
The main and most immediate threat to the French position in Eygpt was removed. |
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20-21 March 1801, Also known as Battle of Alexandria.
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The French Army of the Orient with around 10,000 men, General Menou commanding. |
A British Army with about 12,000 effectives, General Abercromby commanding. | |
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The British had begun landing at Aboukir Bay on the 8th March, by the 18th they'd
taken Aboukir Castle.
The French suffered about 3,000 casualties.
The British had proven they could meet the French on equal terms |
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9 June 1800
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The Advance Guard of the French Army of the Reserve with around 8,000 men,
General Lannes commanding. |
An Austrian column with about 18,000 men, and 35 guns, General Ott commanding. |
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The French and Austrian's were both manouvering in confusion and ignorance of each others
positions. The French casualties were about 500 men .
The French had finally gained some idea of where the Austrian's were.
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14 June 1800
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The French Army of the Reserve with around 15,000 men at first reinforced to 23,000 men. The French likely had 42 guns. General Berthier was in nominal command, the actual command was held by Napoleon who was technically still just "First Consul Bonaparte". |
The Austrian Army of Italy with about 35,000 men with 100 guns, General Melas commanding. |
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Napoleon thought he was pursuing an Austrian Army that was trying to evade him and regain
secure lines of supply, either by passing north of Po and marching east or by marching south
to Genoa where the Royal Navy could ensure its supply by sea. The French casualties were about 7,000 men.
As First Consul, Napoleon's political position was still fragile. He had needed victory and
and he took pains to re-write the record to make Marengo appear more of one than it was. |
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Second Stockach , Hochstadt , Hohenlinden
3 May 1800
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The French Army of the Rhine with around 28,000 men belonging to the French right wing under General LeCourbe actually engaged, General Moreau in overall command. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 9,000 men of Prince Joseph of Lorraine detachment actually engaged, General (FZM) Kray commanding overall. |
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Stockach was a major depot on the main Austrian line of communications to its armies on the Upper
Rhine throughout the wars of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. Lake Constance lies just a few
kilometers to the south-east. The upper Danube is 20 to 25 kilometers north of it, in a rougher more
forested area. Stockach was also frequently the location of the Austrian Army's HQ in this period. The French losses were about 2,000 men. Although the main action at Engen was at least a draw on hearing of the loss of Stockach Kray ordered an Austrian retreat that ended in his force being forced all the way back to the fortifications at Ulm. The loss of Stockach had unhinged the entire Austrian postion. It also directly resulted in considerable losses of stores as well as the rout and considerable loss to the Austrian forces engaged there. |
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19 June 1800
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The French Army of the Rhine with around 25,000 men of General Lecourbe's right wing Corps engaged, General Moreau commanding overall. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 70,000 men, General (FZM) Kray commanding overall. Main part of engagement fought by what was originally the Austrian right wing commanded by General (FZM) Sztarray with about 16,000 men. |
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General Kray's main force was in Ulm but he was again flanked by Moreau's right wing under General Lecourbe
who managed a surprise river crossing of the Danube some 60km down river near Hochstadt (close to the site
of Marlbourough's famous victory at Blenhiem). The French losses are uncertain but not likely more than a few hundred. Kray was forced to abandon Ulm and ulitimately most of Bavaria. |
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3 December 1800
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The French Army of the Rhine with around 100,000 men engaged, General Moreau commanding. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 130,000 men, Archduke John commanding. |
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Hohenlinden is about 30km east of Munich near the Inn Valley The French losses were about 5,000 men killed and wounded. The victory at Hohenlinden not only ended the campaign in Germany against Austria in the French favor but caused the collapse of the Second Coalition. It left Moreau with a reputation that would prove something of a political problem for Napoleon. |
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20 October 1805
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The French Grande Armee with around 210,000 men, under the command of Napoleon. |
The Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine with about 40,000 men at Ulm, 72,000 overall, Archduke John in nominal command. In fact the Austrians were under the direction of General Mack. |
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Ulm was a manouver and a surrender rather than a battle per se. The French losses at Ulm itself were minimal. The Russians were still coming, but the Austrians had little to nothing left between the Grande Armee and Vienna. The boost to French morale was immense. The blow to Austrian morale close to shattering. The manouver on and capitulation of Ulm to this day continue to enhance Napoleon's personal reputation. |
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2 December 1805
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The French Grande Armee with around 73,200 men and 139 guns, under the command of Napoleon. |
The Austrian and Russian Allied Army with about 85,000 men and 278 guns, General Kutuzov in command. |
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Napoleon and his Grande Armee had pursued Kutuzov's Russians across most of Germany and
Austria. The French supply lines were stretched and two possible threats were forming to
them. The Archduke Charles forces in Italy threatened them from the south and Prussia
looked ready to intervene from the north. The French losses were 1,300 men killed, 6,400 wounded, and 500 missing. Austerlitz was Napoleon's finest victory achieved by the Grande Armee at the heights of its power. It forced the Austrians to make peace and thus ended the Third Coalition. |
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Jena , Auerstadt , Eylau , Friedland
14 October 1806
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The French Grande Armee (minus Davout's and Bernadottes Corps) with around 90,000 men, under the command of Napoleon. |
The Prussian Army with about 35,000 men under Prince Hohenlohe initially engaged, plus a further 15,000 reinforcments under Ruchel. |
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The battle took place on an open plateau north west of Jena in the valley of the Saale river. The French losses were about 5,000 men. Together Jena/Auerstadt knocked Prussia out of the war. They also revealed the bankruptcy of the existing Prussian Army organization and system of tactics. Until Jena the Prussian Army had still enjoyed a formidable reputation based on the successes of Frederick the Great. |
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14 October 1806
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III Corps of the French Grande Armee with around 27,000 men, General Davout commanding. |
The main Prussian Army with about 60,000 men, senior officers present were the Duke of Brunswick and King Frederick William III. |
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Davout's task was to, with Bernadottes assistance, flank the main Prussian Army as it fought Napoleon and
to block its retreat.
The French losses were very roughly 11,000 men. Jena was a severe defeat for the Prussians, but it was Davout's blocking action at Auerstadt that turned it into the destruction of the Prussian Army. Auerstadt was also a convincing demonstration of the French Army's superiority operationally and tactically to the Prussians and of Davout's own skill as a general. |
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7-8 February 1807
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The French Grande Armee with around 45,000 men and 200 guns initially, under the command of Napoleon, later reinforcements in the form of Davout's and Ney's Corps numbered around 26,000 men. |
The Russian Army with about 67,000 men and 460 guns
General Bennigsen in command. a further 9,000 men later arrived under General Lestroq. |
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Napoleon's army had already been in winter quarters for most of a month when, during late January, the Russians launched an
unseasonal and unexpected offensive through East Prussian and towards Danzig. The French losses were about 4,000 men on the 7th, and a further 10,000 on the 8th. As the French held the field afterwards they could claim a victory. The general consensus since is that Eylau was a horrible and costly draw and the first major exception to Napoleon's long record of victories. |
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14 June 1807
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The French Grande Armee with around 80,000 men and 118 guns, under the command of Napoleon. |
The Russian Army with about 60,000 men and 120 guns General Bennigsen in command. |
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Late on the 13th of June forward cavalry elements of Lannes Corps were pushed out of the vital river crossing of
Friedland by the much stronger cavalry of Bennigson's Russian Army. The French losses were about 9,000 men. Friedland was a sharp defeat for Russia's best field army; it was the victory Napoleon needed to force the Russians to make peace. That peace was negotiated at Tilsit the next month. It is usually considered to mark the height of Napoleon's power. |
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Medina del Rio Seco , Baylen , Vimeiro , Corunna , Oporto , Talavera , Bussaco , Fuentes de Onoro , Albuera , Salamanca , Vitoria , Battle of the Nivelle , Toulouse ,
14 July 1808
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French with around 14,000 men and 40 guns initially, under the command of General Bessieres. |
The Spanish with about 23,000 men and 30 guns General Cuestra in overall command, although almost 16,000 of the Spanish force was from General Blakes Army of Galacia. | |
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Cuestra being senior despite commanding only about 6,500 newly raised and untrained men was able
to summon Blake's intact force of regulars to assist him in attacking the French in Castile. The French losses were about 105 men killed and 300 wounded.
As well as opening the road to Madrid, Medina del Rio Seco was an important boost to French
(especially Napoleon's) morale. They'd met Spanish regulars for the first time in pitched
battle and scored an easy and dramatic success. |
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22 July 1808, shocking set back to French arms.
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French with around 14,000 men and 40 guns initially, under the command of General Dupont. |
The Spanish with about 23,000 men and 30 guns under General Reding. | |
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Dupont had been charged with taking Andulusia. The French, Napoleon in particular, having been
grossly over-optimistic he'd been given wholly inadquate forces both in number and quality for
the task. The French losses were about 20,000 men, about 18,000 having surrendered.
1,200 Swiss deserted to the enemy, the rest were dead either in battle or from the rigors of
campaigning. Baylen not only shook the French hold on Spain forcing them to retreat to north of the Elbro, it shook the French hold on Europe. French armies had earned a ruputation for invincibility at Marango, Austerlitz, Jena and Friedland, Baylen gave that reputation the lie. |
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21 August 1808, future Duke of Wellington defeats Junot
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French with around 13,000 men and 24 guns, under the command of General Junot. |
The British and Portuguese with about 16,000 men (about 2,000 of them Portuguese) under General Arthur Wellesley. | |
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Wellesley had drawn up his troops north of Lisbon in and around the villiage of Vimiero. Junot
resolved to attack him before he could get any closer to Lisbon itself. The French losses were about 2,000 men and 14 guns. The result of Vimiero was a French surrender, but Wellesley's newly arrived superiors granted such favorable terms that both of them and Wellesley himself were recalled to England for an enquiry. |
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16 January 1809
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French with around 16,000 men and 40 guns, under the command of Marshal Soult. |
The British with about 15,000 men under Lieutenant General Sir John Moore. | |
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Having been pursued across most of Castile and Galacia Sir John Moore's army, representing most
of Britain's effective land forces, finally reached the sea and a rendezvous with an evacuation
fleet at Corunna. The French losses were about 1,500 men.
The exact impact of the retreat to Corunna and the subsequent battle there are still debated. |
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12 May 1809
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French with around 11,000 men, under the command of Marshal Soult. |
The British and Portuguese with about 18,000 men under General Arthur Wellesley. | |
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The total French forces in the peninsula overwhelmingly outnumbered the British and Portuguese, but as well as
facing numerous Spanish regulars, they were dispersed holding down hostile populations. The various
French Corps were also largely out of communication with each other and therefore unable to provide
mutual support. Soult's Corps was the only one actually occupying Portuguese territory so it
was Soult that Wellesley picked to attack. The French losses were about 600 men and 6 guns in battle,
plus another 1,500 sick wounded in Oporto hospitals and 52 originally Portuguese seige guns . Soult's forces were harried into Galacia losing their baggage and guns on the way. Portugal was free of French invaders for a while at least. Wellesley might have been somewhat disappointed not to have actually cut-off and destroyed Soult, but given the rough equivalence between the regular forces involved he could not have been too surprised at the outcome. |
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28-29 July 1809
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French with around 46,000 men and 80 guns, under the command of King Joseph Bonaparte, General Jourdan advising. |
The British and Spanish with about 52,000 men (incl. 32,000 Spanish of General Cuesta) General Sir Arthur Wellesley in overall command. | |
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Having chased Soult out of Northern Portugal Wellesley next moved to central Portugal with the
aim of meting out the same treatment (in conjunction with Cuesta's Spanish army of Estremadura)
to the French 1st Corps under Marshal Victor. The French losses were about 7,268 men and 20 guns.
Talavera saw an Allied army face the French in open battle and hold while inflicting heavy losses.
It gained Wellesley a peerage, he became Lord Wellington. It did not make it easier to sustain
his Army in Spain, shatter the French forces, or improve co-operation with the Spanish forces. |
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27 September 1810
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French with around 62,000 men and 114 guns, under the command of Marshal Massena. |
The British and Portuguese with about 52,000 men (25,000 Portuguese) under General Sir Arthur Wellesley. | |
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The frontier fortresses having fallen "The Army of Portugal" over 60,000 strong under the
justly famous Marshal Messena marched into Portugal without any serious opposition from the
Allied army of Wellington. The French losses were about 4,500 men.
Wellington didn't stop the French at Bussaco, but he'd taught them to be more cautious in the future,
and given his men, especially the untried Portuguese units cause for confidence.
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3-5 May 1811
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French Army of Portugal with around 47,000 men, 4,600 of them cavalry, and 38 guns, commanded by Marshal Massena . |
The British and Portuguese with about 35,000 men, of which 2,000 were cavalry, and 48 guns under Wellington . |
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Materially it did not take Messena long to put the French Army of Portugal back into fighting trim. Still facing Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army in the open on the Spanish-Portuguese border between the fortresses of Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo, Massena had every right to expect the more numerous French could beat the Allies. With superior cavalry he could hope that any such victory would be decisive. So although we have no actual record of Massena's intent, it seems likely his main goal when he attacked in May 1811 was the not the relief of Almeida, but rather the destruction of Wellington's army. By May 3rd Massena had driven Wellington's screening forces back upon the main Allied position. The French immediately attacked the key village of Fuentes de Onoro, in fact, taking it from its garrison of picked British troops and wounding the garrison commander Colonel Williams in the process. Wellington ordered a three regiment counterattack that re-took most of the village including the key high ground. The British lost 259 men to the French 652. The 4th of May was spent by the French on reconnaisance and manouvering. Massena having learned Wellington's right flank was largely open past Fuentes de Onaro settled on a plan to outflank him there. An assault by picked troops would take the village unhinging the Allied flank just as it was being turned. During the night of May 4th Wellington, anticipating a possible French flanking move, but not its size, moved his 7th Division into the village of Pozo Bello on his far right. He covered the gap between Pozo Bello and Fuentes de Onoro with cavalry. Wellington also moved troops , most notably the Light Division, from his left and center to the north to reserve positions on the plateau behind Fuente de Onoro. Massena's cavalry attacked at dawn. The Spanish cavalry to the south on Wellington's farthest right was driven off. The 7th division was in danger of being cut-off. It was forced out of Pozo Bello by two French infantry divisions (supported by third). A courageous and disciplined covering action by the greatly outnumbered British cavalry and horse artillery kept it from being overwhelmed long enough that Wellington was able to send the elite Light Division to cover its further withdrawal to the far right of a new line. This new line formed by the the 1st and 3rd divisions met the old Allied line at right angles at the key village of Fuente de Onoro. It was at Fuente de Onoro that Massena launched the second, and as it developed, bloodier, prong of his attack. This attack was led by picked grenadiers and strongly supported by the available French artillery. If successful it would unhinge Wellington's entire position by flanking both his wings, while Massena's own strong left wing to the south lay poised to contest the Allies' main line of retreat. In the event the British Highlanders and Irish proved a match for the best the French could throw at them. The village was mostly lost at one point but retaken in a counter-attack. Unusually, thanks to its losses in the invasion of Portugal, the French artillery was weaker than the British and unable to blast a way open for the infantry. By mid-afternoon it was clear to Massena that both his attempt to disorder and destroy part of the Allied right wing, and his attempt to unhinge the Allied position by taking Fuentes de Onoro, had failed. There was no point in wasting more lives and he called his attack off.
The French losses were about 2,192 men. Fuentes de Onoro was an attempt to severely defeat, likely even destroy, the Anglo-Portuguese army. It was the first battle that army fought against the French in the open. Massena had every right to expect success. He knew he was one of the best generals in Europe, his infantry the equal of any, and his cavalry and artillery had proven themselves superior to every foe previously encountered. In the event, Wellington proved himself Massena's match, and furthermore so did his infantry of all nationalities, his much maligned cavalry (for once its discipline was superb), and his artillery. If the Wellington's Army had been badly defeated it would have ended the last major threat to French from regular formed troops in the Peninsula. The French would have been free to disperse their troops to suppress the guerillas and properly occupy most of Spain. Fuentes de Onoro was the watershed of the Peninsular War. From that point on it was all downhill for the French, they never had enough troops to face both Wellington and the Spanish. Substantial reinforcements, the presence of Napoleon himself to co-ordinate operations properly, or a later decisive defeat of Wellington might have changed the situation, but none of those happened. |
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16 May 1811
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French with around 25,000 men and 48 guns, under the command of Marshal Soult . |
The Allies with about 35,000 men (12,000 Spanish) and 50 guns under General Beresford . |
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While Wellington dealt with Massena's Army of Portugal on the northern route into the country, Beresford was left on the southern one beseiging the key fortress of Badajoz. Marshal Soult, commanding in Andalusia, on hearing of the threat to Badajoz concentrated his scattered garrisons and marched to its relief. Beresford lifted his siege and gathered his troops to meet Soult south of Badajoz on the main road from Andalusia around the village of Albuera. He expected an attack straight up the road, through the village and the center of his position. It was therefore on a line centered on Albuera that he positioned his Anglo-Portuguese divisions during May 15th. When the Spanish army under Blake arrived that night he positioned them on his southern flank. Following Wellington's example he kept his main line, both British and Spanish, out of sight behind the crest of the high ground his dispositions followed. Because of this, and the late arrival of Blake's troops, when Soult came up he failed to realize that Blake had already joined Beresford. Individually Soult out numbered both Beresford and Blake, against them together he was significantly outnumbered. It was therefore a primary goal of his strategy to prevent their joining and in order to achieve this he planned a massive outflanking attack around what he thought was Beresford's southern flank in order to split him from Blake.
In fact, when Soult launched this flanking attack with three-quarters of his infantry early on the 16th, he was attacking the southern flank of Blake's already arrived Spainards. Beresford and Blake were both caught off guard. A single brigade of Zaya's division was left to take the brunt of the French attack while Beresford marched his 2nd division to its support. Fortunately for the Allies Zaya's was one of the best divisions in the Spanish army and these troops held steadfast for a prolonged period time despite being outnumbered several times to one. Their ordeal did not end with the arrival of the first British troops. Colburne's brigade, the first of Stewart's 2nd division to arrive, counter-attacked wheeling in line to pour fire into the flanks of the French columns attacking the Spanish, only to be flanked and attacked by French lancers who all but destroyed the Brigade. Seventy percent losses were inflicted in few minutes. Zaya's troops, however, continued to hold. The other two brigades of the 2nd division arrived in time to meet a renewed assault by the second wave of French columns. The casualities in the head on collision were horrendous on both sides. The situation was critical when General Cole commanding the 4th division, which Beresford was holding in reserve, decided on his own to attack, This despite the presence of considerable French cavalry. Soult by this time had realized that Beresford and Blake were united, that he was outnumbered and his flanking attack had failed. Still faced with Cole's attack he had to send in his reserves under Werle in order save his already committed and battered infantry. Werle's brigade slightly outnumbered Cole's entire division having nine battalions to Cole's six and a bit. Moreover, Cole had to deploy Harvey's Portuguese brigade to fend off the strong French cavalry. Werle, however, was under the handicap of attacking British troops in line with columns. The slaughter on both sides was again extreme, British musketry decimated the French columns but the British follow-on charge was blown away by supporting French artillery. The action between Cole and Werle was the last major action of the day. The French infantry had been beaten and was in full retreat, but the Allied infantry had taken horrendous casualities and were in poor shape themselves. The French cavalry and artillery were intact and deployed to resist any Allied pursuit. Beresford allowed Soult to retreat largely unhindered. The French losses were about 7,000 men.The Allies lost about 6,000 men (roughly 4,000 British, 1,400 Spanish, 400 Portuguese). Tactically Albuera was a disaster for both sides. As Soult retreated without relieving Badajoz it can be considered an Allied Phyrric victory. In conjunction with Fuentes de Onoro it meant French commanders would be very circumspect about meeting an Anglo-Allied army on anything resembling even odds in the future. |
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22 July 1812
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French with around 49,000 men and 78 guns, under the command of Marshal Marmont . |
The Allies with about 49,000 men and 60 guns under Wellington . |
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Wellington was on the strategic offensive. His target was the French "Army of Portugal" under the command of Marshal Marmont. The "Army of Portugal" was, in fact, dispersed through out north-west Spain in Leon and Old Castile due to problems of supply. If Wellington could beat this force then the French communications to Madrid and Andalusia would be threatened. He could hope to force an French evacuation of most of Spain south of the Ebro. But although he was on offensive strategically, tactically Wellington hoped to fight a defensive battle. Marmont didn't oblige. Many long weeks of manouver passed. Marmont gathered reinforcements until his army was the equal of Wellington's in everything but cavalry. Wellington missed his chances to attack at an advantage, but neither did he fall into any of the traps Marmont set him. Finally Wellington learned (but Marmont didn't) that King Joseph was marching from Madrid with all the troops he could spare. Marmont was about to be reinforced to the point he'd enjoy a definite superiority. Wellington prepared to retreat. It was the 22nd of July and both the armies had been in close contact for days. They were now deployed just south of Salamanca around the village of Los Arapiles. The village was named for two significant hills, the "Lesser" Arapile to the north and the "Greater" to the South. Both armies were laid out in a fallen-over "L" shape, with long legs running east-west and shorter ones north-south. The British lines lay to the north-west of and within the French ones, between the French and Salamanca. The corner of the British lines was anchored on the "Lesser" Arapile, that of the French on the "Greater" Arapile. Wellington knew this, but Marmont was only able to see some of the Allied forces as Wellington had hide many of them in the dead ground behind the "Lesser" Arapile and its associated high ground. The first part of the day passed as days before had with skirmishing and manouvering, Marmont extended his left west and Wellington matched him extending his right west also. Neither commander proved willing to bring on a general engagment. Wellington is believed to have been on the verge of attacking when he uncharacteristically allowed Beresford to talk him out of it. Both commanders had late lunches. Wellington in a famous (but variously recorded) incident was still in the middle of his sometime around three in the afternoon , when Marmonts leftmost divisions began to extend themselves excessively to the west, marching separated with their flanks exposed to the British. Marmont later denied it in his battlefield report, but the most plausible explaination for this is that Marmont seeing the dust from Wellington's withdrawing trains thought it was in fact the better part of the Allied army retreating, and furthermore, thought that Wellington was a hopelessly defensive minded general who Marmont could take liberties with and that therefore the French Marshall directed his leftmost divisions to manouver to cut off the retreat of what he supposed was only the Allied rearguard. Whatever the case it was the opportunity Wellington had been waiting for. He threw his lunch away and galloped to his 3rd Division. The 3rd Division was positioned in reserve behind Wellington's right flank. He ordered it and the accompanying cavalry to immediately attack the leading French division. This division was Thomiere's. That done Wellington dispatched the 5th Division next in line to attack the French division following Thomiere's, that being Maucune's. Again he followed up the infantry attack by that of a brigade of cavalry. Due to the rolling terrain the French divisions of Thomiere and Maucune failed to see the British attacks coming until the last moment and were caught in the flank while almost completely unprepared. They were routed by the infantry and kept from rallying by pursuing cavalry. A third French division, Brennier's, following the first two was caught up in the attack and crippled. It's leading battalions also routed but others managed to stay in formation and fight back. The French having had three of their eight divisions mauled, and their left flank compromised were well on their way to losing the battle. It was for the time being though not Marmont's problem, both he and his second in command, Bonet, had been badly wounded by a British shell. It fell to General Clausel commanding one of the center French divisions to take overall command more than an hour after the action had begun and try to save the day. Clausel's division and the next one in line, Bonnet's, managed to defeat the third phase of Wellington's assault that being the attacks of the 4th Division and Pack's brigade in the British center. Clausel then chose to counter-attack and after severely punishing the 4th Division ran into the British 6th Division which had followed up behind the 4th. Repulsed to its front the French center was also flanked on its left by the 5th Division and the 7th Division following on behind the 5th. At some cost the Allies had now shattered five of the eight French divisions. Of the remaining three, Foy's facing the Allied Light Division was so far away on the French right to the north and east as to be out of the fight and Sarret's on the left was fighting a stubborn retreat covering the routing remenants of the divisions shattered there. Only Ferrey's division in reserve behind the French center was fresh and available. Clausel ordered it to fight a rearguard action and cover the French retreat at all costs. Time had to bought so that the rest of the army could get away. And buy time Ferrey did. Eventually his division was forced back and then routed, but not before inflicting crippling losses on the opposing 6th Division, and having bought enough time for dark to fall and bring an end to the battle. The immediate Allied pursuit of the defeated French was not vigorous and remains a matter of controversy. Wellington thought a Spanish garrison was occupying Alba de Tormes blocking one main route of retreat, and he ordered the reliatively fresh 1st Division to cut off retreat along the other. The Spanish garrison wasn't there as expected and the 1st Division failed to do much. The same was true of the battered 6th division which was ordered in direct pursuit of the fleeing French. Why the cavalry or the mostly unscathed 7th division weren't used in the direct pursuit is a question the historian Oman asked a hundred years ago, and others asked a hundred years before at the time. The answer is likely some combination of fatigue after a day of battle and days before that of hard marching, maybe of some lack of personal initiative by some generals, and without doubt just the plain fog of war. The French losses were about 14,000 men and 20 cannon.The Allies lost 5,214 men . Napoleon was pre-occupied marching his Grande Armee into Russia at the time of Salamanca and his having withdrawn troops from Spain to aid in his Russian campaign was doubtless a contributing factor to making the Allied victory at Salamanca possible. His losses in Russian and Eastern Europe during the next couple of years would dwarf those in the Peninsula. Nevertheless Salamanca was a decisive battle. It unhinged the entire French position in the Peninsula and invalidated Napoleon's strategy there. The French could not both occupy all of Spain and contain Wellington's army, not with the resources they could realistically afford given their problems elsewhere in Europe. The immediate results of Salamanca were that French evacuated both Madrid and Andalusia concentrating the Army of the Center and the Army of the South in Valencia. Thus concentrated they were able to counter-attack and push Wellington back into Portugal, but the political damage both in Spain and the rest of Europe had been done, and it was considerable. In the longer run Wellington and the Allies had proved they could attack and defeat a French force of equivalent size, and Napoleon was deprived of hundreds of thousands of veteran French soldiers he dearly needed elsewhere. |
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21 June 1813
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French with around 50,000 men and 153 guns, under the command of Marshal Jourdan . |
The Allies with about 70,000 men and 90 guns under Wellington . |
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The spring of 1813 saw the French strength in Spain depleted by the withdrawal of troops to make up the losses Napoleon had suffered in Russia the year before. What strength they had was concentrated in northern Spain to defend their supply lines to France. Being concentrated in a country never rich and further improverished by years of war, and fighting a guerilla war amidst a hostile population they were very dependant upon those supply lines. On the other hand they knew Wellington was also very dependant on his own supply lines which stretched back to Lisbon and would only grow longer as he advanced. What they didn't know was that Wellington had prepared a switch of his supply base to Santander a port on the north coast of Spain, and that Spainish guides had provided him a route that would allow him to completely outflank the planned French lines of resistance. In the space of four weeks from late May on Wellington forced the French back, taking Salamanca, Valladolid, and Burgos, and crossing both the Douro and Ebro without fighting a major battle. Wellington finally caught up with the retreating French, and a hugh convoy of loot and civilians, at Vitoria. Vitoria lay in a valley followed by the great road to Bayonne, the main line of communication to France. The French were deployed in a series of lines across this valley. Unfortunately for them Wellington did not send his most of divisions straight up the road along the valley bottom. Rather while the Light Division and the 4th Division entertained the French directly Wellington sent most of his forces on three great outflanking manouvers. Hill commanded a force three divisions strong charged with taking the long hill to the south of the valley. Picton and Dalhousie with their divisions were to outflank the French from the northern hills. Graham also led a strong force of four divisions around the north of the French. Wellington's objective for Graham was not to just outflank the French, but to actually get into their rear and block their retreat. The battle began with Hill's troops around eight morning pushing both up the valley directly and against the heights to the south of it. Much hard to and fro fighting for the duration of the morning resulted in a stalemate in the valley but the Allies gained the heights of La Puebla to the south and began to push the French there east thereby outflanking the forces the in valley. Graham had made contact with the Army of Portugal defending the French communications by noon, but the north central forces under Dalhousie failed to come into action as Dalhousie waited for some tardy brigades to come up. Picton commanding the "Fighting" 3rd Division took it upon himself to attack without orders. Attacked on their northern flank, and front, and outflanked to the south the French fell back in increasing disorder. By mid-afternoon the allies had won and the fleeing French, their main line of retreat blocked by Graham, were forced to abandon their guns and baggage and make their way over a secondary route towards Pamplona. Again the aftermath of Wellington's victory was controversial. His troops stopped to loot the incrediable wealth of the French convey rather pursuing the beaten French and fully capitalizing on their success. The French losses were about 5,000 men and 151 cannon.The Allies lost about 5,000 men . Vitoria ended French power in the Peninsula. Moreover, it had a profound effect on wider European opinion likely destroying any chance Napoleon had of keeping Austria from joining the Allies, or of negotiating a peace that left him in power. |
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10 November 1813
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French with around 60,000 men, under the command of Marshal Soult . |
The Allies with about 82,000 men under Wellington . |
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Soult had disposed his somewhat demoralized forces in a very strong defensive line along the river Nivelle. He expected an attack near the coast and placed most of his forces there. Wellington, in fact, attacked in the center sending a strong force under Beresford against the hill strongpoint of La Petite Rhune. The attack began at six in the morning and by mid-afternoon had broken through thereby unhinging Soult's defense. Soult managed to withdraw most of his men, but lost many guns. The French losses were about 4,450 men and 70 cannon.The Allies lost 2,265 men . Southern France was a sideshow to the main event in central Europe, but tying down French troops and some of Napoleon's best officers, worsening Napoleon's political situation and preventing any counter offensive into the Peninsula were all worthwhile achievements. |
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10 April 1814
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French with around 42,000 men, under the command of Marshal Soult . |
The Allies with about 49,000 men under Wellington . |
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Wellington continued to hunt Soult's force not knowing that Napoleon had abdicated several days earlier. Soult's men were outnumbered but defending a partially fortified city. Toulouse lies on the river Garrone, its suburb St.Cyprien is on the west bank and the main city is on the east, further east lie the Heights of Calvinet. The heights dominate the city and were Wellington's main objective. Hill with two divisions was to launch a diversionary attack against St.Cyprien. The 3rd and Light Divisions on the other side of the river attacked the city's northern defences. This was also supposed to be a diversion but Picton who was commanding became heavily engaged and took heavy losses. A further diversion was made by two Spanish divisions against the northern part of the ridge formed by the Heights of Calvinet. They too took heavy losses. Beresford, with the 4th and 6th divisions, launched the main attack from the south east after a long flank march. Their fight was bloody. It took them two attempts to gain the heights and then further hard fighting to secure them. Early evening saw Soult evacuating his remaining forces on the heights, the city now being untenable he abandoned it, along with most of his guns and wounded, in the late evening. The French losses were 3,236 men, plus 1,600 wounded and most of their guns.The Allies lost about 4,500 men, about half of them Spanish. In hindsight Toulouse might seem a pointless bloodbath. It however tied down critical miltary resources and if Napoleon had not already been defeated in the north he would have had a serious problem in the south with Soult's army basically a spent force. |
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20 April 1809
21 April 1809
22 April 1809
21-22 May 1809
5-6 July 1809
16-18 August 1812
7 September 1812
24 October 1812
25-29 November
2 May 1813
20-21 May 1813
23 August 1813
26-27 August 1813
26 August 1813
30 August 1813
6 September 1813
3 October 1813
16-19 October 1813
Brienne , La Rothiere , Champaubert , Montmirail , Vauchamps , Craonne , Laon , Arcis-sur-Aube ,
29 January 1814
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French Army under Napoleon about 30,000 men mostly raw conscripts. |
Prussians under Blucher with 25,000 men. |
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The battle at Brienne starting with Napoleon pinning Blucher's Prussians with Grouchy's cavalry and horse artillery in the late morning at Brienne on the Aube. The main attack with Ney's Corps and part of Victor's went in in the middle of the afternoon. The balance of Napoleon's troops attempted to outflank the Allies to the south. Despite setbacks the French succeeded in taking the town and chateau by evening. An Allied counter-attack failed and fighting had ended by 10:00pm. The Allies fell back on Bar-sur-Aube and Schwarzenberg's force during the night. The French followed the next day.
The French casualties were about 3,000 men. Napoleon caught the advancing Allies dispersed and unprepared, but was only able to bring his own forces up piecemeal. His raw recruits inflicted greater casualities on the Allies, but not enough to be a serious setback to them with their vastly superior numbers. Nor was Napoleon able to follow up his success with a pursuit as Blucher fell back on Schwarztenburg's large and still fresh army. The Allies were put on notice about the sort of fight Napoleon was going to give them without having to pay a high price for the information. |
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1 February 1814
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French Army under Napoleon with 40,000 men mostly raw recruits. |
Allied Army under the Blucher with 53,000 men. |
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The battle took place in a snowstorm on ground south of Brienne. The French were in the process of starting to withdraw when they were forced to deploy to meet a counterattack by Blucher with reinforcments from Schwartzenburg's army. This attack went in around 1:00pm and the battle raged all day. The French right and center held under heavy attack but the situation on the left had to be restored by the commitment of the reserve Young Guard. Napoleon was able to effect a withdrawal after dark.
The French casualties were 6,000 men total, 4,000 killed or wounded, 2,000 prisoners and 50 guns The effect of this battle on both sides morale was disproportionate. The French morale fell and desertions in the immediate aftermath of the battle reached 4,000 men. The Allies became actively overconfident. |
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10 February 1814
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French Army under Napoleon had 30,000 men, tired and many of them raw recruits with 120 guns. |
Allied Army; Olssufiev's Russian detachment of 5,000 men which was part of Blucher's Army. |
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The French surprised the strung out forces of Blucher's army. The corps of Marmont and Ney caught Olssufiev's 5,000 Russians by surprise and enjoyed a massive numerical advantage of six to one. By 10:00 am Olssufiev's pickets were being driven in but expecting support from the rest of Blucher's army Olssufiev stood and fought. The support never came and by 3:00pm the Russians had been driven back through Champaubert. The Russian retreat was cut off by cavalry that flanked them on both sides.
The French casualties were about 200 men. Another battle that had a disportionate effect on morale this time in the French favor. This success placed Napoleon between the two wings of Blucher's army and was the prelude to his victories at Montmirail and Vauchamps. |
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11 February 1814
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French Army, under Napoleon had 30,000 men. |
Allies consisting of Sacken's Corps of Blucher's Army with 18,000 men and 90 guns. |
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Enjoying a position between the two wings of Blucher's army under Sacken and Yorck, Napoleon decided to march on Sacken's Russian Corps. Delayed by mud and rain the French had only 6,800 infantry and 4,500 cavalry deployed against Sacken by mid-morning. Furthermore Napoleon was forced to detach a division to hold off the approaching Yorck. Fortunately for the French their reinforcements under Marmont arrived more quickly than the Allied ones under Yorck. Launching an attack around 4:00pm with about 20,000 men they routed Sacken's troops pursuing them west until nightfall. The need to stand off Yorck's force prevented a fuller exploitation of their success.
The French casualties were about 2,000 men. Although a definite French victory Montmirail was not materially decisive. However, it did shake even the ever optimistic Blucher's faith in final Allied victory. |
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14 February 1814
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French Army under Napoleon had 25,000 men. |
Allied Army under Blucher with 20,000 men. |
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Following his successes at Montmirail and Chateau-Thierry Napoleon turned south to deal with Schwartzenburg's forces leaving Marmont's corps to follow up Blucher's retreat. Blucher counter attacked on February 13th. Marmont slowly withdrew in the face of this. Napoleon marched overnight to Marmonts assistance. On the morning of the 14th the arrival of French cavalry under Grouchy helped Marmont repel Blucher's attacks with Ziethen's allied division being severely mauled. Realizing Napoleon was arriving with reinforcements Blucher disengaged and retreated. This retreat was successful despite the efforts of French cavalry at least partly because the French guns became bogged down in the prevailing mud.
The French casualties were about 600 men. Napoleon managed to inflict severe material loses on Blucher's forces and freed himself to turn south and deal with Schwarzenburg's Army of Bohemia. By the same token he'd failed to deal a death blow or force surrender upon Blucher. |
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7 March 1814
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French Army under Napoleon with 37,000 men. |
Allied Army of Silesia under Blucher with 85,000 men. |
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Both sides had plans to trap the other. Blucher hoped to pin Napoleon on the plateau at Croanne and then turn his right flank with a cavalry heavy force. Napoleon unaware of Blucher's plan nevertheless managed to disrupt it with the speed of his advance gaining a foot hold on the plateau before all of Blucher's forces had arrived on March 6th. He then made plans for a pincer attack on the Allied forces on the next day. On March the 7th then both sides launched plans of envelopment. The Allied flanking force under Winzingrode bogged down in marshy terrain. Ney launched the northern french pincer attack early with inadequate artillery support and was beaten off with heavy losses. Blucher then ordered a withdrawal towards Laon.
The French casualties were about 5,400 men. Croanne was tactically inconclusive. Stategically Napoleon was misled into thinking Blucher more badly beaten than he was and overstretched himself pursuing the Allied retreat to Laon. |
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9-10 March 1814
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French Army under Napoleon had about 47,000 men. |
Allied Army of Silesia under Blucher with 85,000 men and 150 guns. |
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Napoleon thought he had Blucher's army on the retreat and wanted to damage it badly enough to at least keep it out of the fight for a period. Blucher drew his forces up in a strong defensive position in front of Laon and frontal attacks proved indecisive so Napoleon sent Marmont's VI Corps with 10,000 men on a wide manoeuvre around the Allied left flank. On March 9th Marmont was surprised by General von Wartenburg and routed. Napoleon held his ground before Laon during March the 10th before marching south to deal with Schwartzenburg.
The French casualties were about 6,000 men. Neither the Allies nor Napoleon got the results from the battle of Laon they had hoped for. Napoleon had managed to first impose upon a much larger force than his own then successfully disenage despite a severe tactical setback. He had needed though a decisive enough victory to remove Blucher's Army of Silesia as a threat to Paris. The Allies for their part had successfully beaten Napoleon off and went on to claim Laon as a great victory. In the end this turned out to be strategically true, but at the time there was great bitterness and division over the failure to follow up the defensive success and severely maul or destroy Napoleon's forces. |
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20-21 March 1814
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The French Army under Napoleon had 28,000 men. |
Allied Army of Bohemia under Schwartzenburg with 80,000 men. |
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Napoleon was attempting an attack on the Allied Army of Bohemia's communication when his cavalry encountered Allied forces under General Wrede at Arcis-sur-Aube on the 20th. A to and fro cavalry action ensued with the French eventually prevailing. During the night Schwartzenburg deployed 80,000 troops while the French were reinforced to a strength of 28,000. Napoleon had thought he was facing a rearguard action when the truth was revealed on the 21st he immediately withdrew. Schwartzenburg failed to harass him by attacking.
The French casualties were about 3,000 men. Although tactically the French won this battle, strategically it marks the failure of Napoleon's attempt to bluff the Allies into retreating or halting. Superior manoeuvring could not make up for the lack of strength on the battlefield. |
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Ligny , Quatre Bras , Waterloo , Wavre ,
16 June 1815
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French Army under Napoleon with about 80,000 men with 210 guns. |
Prussian Army under Blucher with 84,000 Prussians with 224 guns. |
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Napoleon surprised the Allies in mid-June of 1815 successfully moving across the French frontier at Charleroi to place himself between the British-Allied and Prussian armies. The ever aggressive Blucher attempted to concentrate his corps around Ligny to the north-east of Charleroi and Fleurus. He met the balance of the French army there on the afternoon of June 16th with the 32,000 troops of Zeithen's corps. The corps of Pirch and Thielmann managed to reinforce him during the day, but Bulow's corps was too far away and failed to appear for the battle. The French managed to force the Prussians out of their positions inflicting a punishing but not lethal defeat upon them. An attempted flanking manouever by Drouet's corps might have made the battle a decisive one but the unit was recalled by Ney to help at Quatre Bras and failed to intervene. The French lost about 12,000 men. Against a less aggressive and determined opponent than Blucher the battle of Ligny might have determined the campaign in the French favor. If the Prussians had retreated on their lines of communication or even simply sat and licked their wounds Wellington would have left to face Napoleon alone at Waterloo. This would have almost certainly have meant defeat for him. |
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16 June 1815
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French Army under Ney with about 22,000 men. |
Anglo-Allied Army under Wellington with eventually 36,000 men and 70 guns. |
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Wellington initially left the vital crossroads of Quatre Bras undefended. Initiative on the part of subordinates that were initially badly outnumbered by Ney's forces allowed him to rush in reinforcements and eventually win the day. Not before a number of units had been badly mauled though. The French lost about 4,000 men. The failure of Ney to seize Quatre Bras and send forces against the flank of the Prussians at Ligny kept that battle from being a decisive French victory. It also allowed the British-Allied forces to retreat to a tenable defensive position at Waterloo where they would be joined by the regrouped Prussians. |
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18 June 1815
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French Army under Napoleon with about 72,000 men of which 15,750 cavalry. 246 guns. |
Anglo-Allied Army under Wellington with 67,500 British and Allied troops.
including 12,400 cavalry, with 156 guns. Prussian Army under Blucher with eventually 45,000 men, with 30,000 Prussians in Bulow's Corps, the remaining roughly 15,000 men from Pirch's. |
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Waterloo was the last major battle of the Napoleonic Wars and of Napoleon's career. It was a defensive battle fought on the Brussels road only a little short of the city itself. The weather having been wet the battle didn't start until almost noon despite elements of both armies having camped on the battlefield the night before. The wet ground also reduced the effectiveness of the superior French artillery. So did Wellington's now renowned tactics of deploying his formations on reverse slopes. A set of forward positions at Hougoumont, La Haie Sainte, and Papelotte had to be reduced before the main assaults could go forward and by the time that had been achieved the Prussian forces were appearing on Napoleon's left flank. A major infantry assault was broken at the expense of the destruction of much of the British cavalry. Later French cavalry attacks failed to break the Allied squares. The Imperial Guard made a last ditch attack as the French flank was crumbling under Prussian pressure at Plancenoit. The Guard having been repulsed the French army broke and except for the Guard itself fled. An effective pursuit was launched by arriving Prussian cavalry. The French lost about 25,000 men in battle, another 16,000 afterward, and 220 guns. Waterloo marked the end of Napoleon's career and determined the shape of the 19th century. |
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18 June 1815
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French Army under Grouchy with about 33,000 men and 80 guns. |
Prussian Army under Thielmann with 17,000 Prussians and 46 guns. |
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While the balance of Blucher's forces moved to the assistance of Wellington at Waterloo, Thielmann's corps at Wavre held off the French right wing under Grouchy. Although tactically defeated in this engagement Thielmann achieved his strategic objective. Grouchy failed to detain the balance of the Prussian army and failed to intervene at Waterloo himself. The French lost about 2,500 men. Holding Grouchy at Wavre was a necessary part of the eventual victory at Waterloo. The decisive conclusion of the campaign in the Allied favor. |
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