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Battles inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe

  • Battle of RoveretoOn the 26th of August, orders arrived from Emperor Francis II to immediately attempt a second relief of the fortress of Mantua.
  • Revolt of CairoIn 1798, Napoleon led the French army into Egypt. He swiftly captured and occupied Alexandria and Cairo. The campaign began with a bold military move across…
  • Battle of ChampaubertOn the 10th of February 1814, a 19-year-old French conscript with fewer than six months of military service walked up to one of Russia's senior generals and…
  • Battle of MontmirailThe Battle of Montmirail, fought on the 11th of February 1814, was one of Napoleon's most daring gambles. With only 70,000 soldiers facing roughly 200,000…
  • Battle of HeilsbergThe Battle of Heilsberg was fought near a town on the Łyna River on the 10th of June 1807, and it cost the French army an estimated 12,000 men.
  • Battle of BassanoFeldmarschall Wurmser received a direct order from Emperor Francis II to relieve Mantua at once. The first attempt to break the siege had failed at the…
  • Battle of Landshut (1809)The first battle of Landshut occurred on the 16th of April 1809. Archduke Louis sent his vanguard under Joseph Radetzky against Bernhard Deroy's Bavarian III…
  • Battle of MillesimoThe Battle of Millesimo, fought on the 13th and the 14th of April 1796, was not quite the battle Napoleon Bonaparte said it was.
  • Battle of EckmühlThe Battle of Eckmühl, fought on the 21st and the 22nd of April 1809, began as a potential disaster for Napoleon and ended with him calling the surrounding…
  • Battle of MaloyaroslavetsOn the 19th of October 1812 Napoleon left Moscow and marched southwest toward Kaluga. Eugène de Beauharnais led the advance guard of this massive force.
  • Second Battle of DegoNapoleon Bonaparte stood at the edge of a new campaign in northwestern Italy during April 1796. His army numbered roughly 15,000 men after defeating the…
  • Battle of CastiglioneOn the 4th of July, the formal siege of Mantua began. This fortress held by Joseph Franz Canto d'Irles's Austrian garrison and 179 cannons became the focal…
  • Battle of HanauThe Battle of Hanau lasted just two days, the 30th and the 31st of October 1813, yet it decided whether Napoleon Bonaparte would escape Germany alive.
  • Battle of Lützen (1813)On the 2nd of May 1813, near the town of Lützen in Saxony, Napoleon Bonaparte rode among disordered conscripts on a battlefield that was going badly wrong.
  • Battle of Bautzen (1813)The Battle of Bautzen, fought on the 20th and the 21st of May 1813, came down to a single question: could Napoleon finally destroy the Prusso-Russian army in…
  • Battle of Mount Tabor (1799)Napoleon Bonaparte stood in Nazareth on the 16th of April 1799, staring at a map that showed his army trapped between Acre and a massive Ottoman force.
  • Battle of the PyramidsOn the 2nd of July 1798, French troops landed in Ottoman-controlled Egypt and seized Alexandria. General Bonaparte marched his army across the scorching…
  • Siege of Mantua (1796–1797)The Siege of Mantua began on the 4th of June 1796 and would not end until the 2nd of February 1797 , a grinding, eight-month ordeal that decided who would…
  • Battle of FriedlandThe Battle of Friedland on the 14th of June 1807 opened with a trap that snapped shut on the wrong army. Russian General Levin August von Bennigsen spotted…
  • Battle of LignyThe Battle of Ligny, fought on the 16th of June 1815 near a small Belgian stream, marked the last time Napoleon Bonaparte would ever win a battle.
  • Battle of MontereauThe Battle of Montereau was fought on the 18th of February 1814, and it turned on a single bridge. Two bridges, actually.
  • Battle of RatisbonNapoleon I summoned his first council of war on the night of the 22nd of April 1809. The meeting took place about 18 kilometers south of Ratisbon after his…
  • Battle of Aspern-EsslingOn the 10th of April 1809, Austrian troops under Archduke Charles crossed the border into Bavaria. This action began hostilities without a formal declaration…
  • Battle of DresdenThe Battle of Dresden began on the 26th of August, 1813, and within two days it had produced one of Napoleon's most tactically impressive victories.
  • Battle of RivoliThe Battle of Rivoli, fought on the 14th of January 1797, nearly ended in catastrophe for France. By eleven in the morning, an Austrian column under the…
  • Battle of MontenotteOn the 27th of March 1796, a young General Bonaparte arrived in Nice to take over the Army of Italy. His army included 63,000 troops, but only 37,600 men and…
  • Battle of UlmIn 1805, the United Kingdom, Austria, Sweden and Russia formed the Third Coalition against France. An Austrian army of 72,000 men under Karl Mack von…
  • Battle of AusterlitzThe Battle of Austerlitz, fought on the 2nd of December 1805, began with a French army that was outnumbered, tired, and deliberately pretending to be weaker…
  • Battle of LodiThe Italian campaign of 1796 began with French forces moving rapidly through northern Italy. Napoleon Bonaparte needed to force a crossing at Lodi to…
  • Battle of Abukir (1799)On the 25th of July 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte stood near the Egyptian peninsula of Abukir and looked out at a problem that should have been unsolvable.
  • Battle of Jena–AuerstedtOn the 14th of October 1806, two battles were fought simultaneously on the plateau west of the river Saale, in what is today Thuringia, Germany.
  • Battle of WagramThe Battle of Wagram, fought on the 5th and the 6th of July 1809, was the largest battle in European history up to that time.
  • Siege of JaffaNapoleon Bonaparte stood at the edge of the Levant in early March 1799. His fleet had been destroyed, yet he pushed forward into Ottoman territories.
  • Battle of Smolensk (1812)On the 27th of July, General Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly slipped his First Western Army away from Vitebsk. He avoided a general engagement with Emperor…
  • Battle of BorodinoOn the 7th of September 1812, near a small village called Borodino on the outskirts of Moscow, roughly a quarter of a million soldiers collided in a single…
  • Battle of MondovìThe Battle of Mondovì erupted on the 21st of April 1796 between Napoleon Bonaparte's French army and the forces of King Victor Amadeus III.
  • Battle of EylauThe Battle of Eylau ended with a French marshal riding across a field of bloodstained snow and frozen corpses, muttering four words: "Quel massacre!
  • Battle of CorunnaIn early October 1808, Sir John Moore took command of a British force numbering 30,000 men in Portugal. The political landscape had shifted dramatically…
  • Battle of MarengoThe Battle of Marengo, fought on the 14th of June 1800, began as a near-catastrophe for Napoleon Bonaparte and ended as one of his most celebrated victories.
  • Battle of ArcoleThe siege of Mantua held the fate of Italy in its grip during November 1796. Emperor Francis II of Austria appointed Feldzeugmeister József Alvinczi to lead…
  • Battle of SomosierraOn the 30th of November 1808, at a mountain pass 60 miles north of Madrid, a Polish cavalry officer named Jan Kozietulski called out to his men in French…