Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube

• 1. Introduction

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  The Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube unfolded over two days in March 1814, and it nearly ended with the capture of Napoleon Bonaparte himself. On the second day of fighting, French troops crested a plateau expecting to chase a retreating enemy and instead found themselves staring at somewhere between 74,000 and 100,000 soldiers drawn up in three battle lines. Napoleon had roughly 28,000 men. The French emperor had walked into a trap of his own making, and the only question left was whether he could get his army out alive.

  How did one of history's shrewdest military commanders end up so catastrophically outnumbered? What does this battle reveal about the final, desperate weeks of the Napoleonic Wars? And what happened when a howitzer shell landed at Napoleon's feet during the fighting? The answers lead through two days of brutal combat, a night cavalry charge described by one account as 'magnificent,' and a retreat so skillfully concealed that the pursuing Allies spent an entire day crossing a bridge the French had already destroyed.

• 2. A House Divided

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  At the end of February 1814, Napoleon discovered that the two main Allied armies had separated. Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher was driving north toward Paris with 53,000 soldiers. Only 10,000 French troops under Marshals Auguste de Marmont and Édouard Mortier stood between Blücher and the French capital.

  Napoleon's response was to split his own forces. He left 42,000 men under Marshals Jacques MacDonald and Nicolas Oudinot to watch Austrian Field Marshal Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg's larger army, then headed northwest himself with 35,000 soldiers to deal with Blücher. On the 28th of February, Marmont and Mortier turned Blücher back at the Battle of Gué-à-Tresmes. But Napoleon could not catch the Prussian field marshal, who slipped free of the trap.

  The pursuit north cost Napoleon time he could not afford. While he chased Blücher, the French emperor believed his opponent commanded 70,000 soldiers. Blücher actually had 110,000. On the 7th of March, Napoleon fought at the Battle of Craonne, which one authority described as a French Pyrrhic victory. Two days later, at the Battle of Laon, Blücher's superior numbers crushed Napoleon's force and Marmont's corps was routed. Napoleon bluffed the Allies into not pursuing his beaten army. Then, on the 12th of March, an Allied corps under Emmanuel de Saint-Priest seized Reims from its French garrison. Napoleon responded by marching straight there, winning the Battle of Reims the next day and mortally wounding Saint-Priest. His corps lost 3,000 men and 23 guns.

• 3. Napoleon's Gamble South

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  After Reims, Napoleon spent three days resting his troops while Marshal Michel Ney reoccupied Châlons-sur-Marne. Ney was reinforced by a 3,000-man division that Jan Willem Janssens brought in from the Ardennes garrisons. Napoleon's plan was elegant: swing south, threaten Schwarzenberg's supply line back to Germany, and force the main Allied army to pull back while simultaneously gathering the French frontier garrison troops into his own ranks.

  Schwarzenberg's army, meanwhile, had been pressing MacDonald steadily toward Paris. On the 27th of February, Schwarzenberg defeated Oudinot at the Battle of Bar-sur-Aube, forcing MacDonald to withdraw west. By the 3rd and the 4th of March, the Allies overwhelmed MacDonald again at the Battle of Laubressel. Schwarzenberg occupied Troyes but then halted for nearly two weeks, paralyzed by indecision. Encouraged by Blücher's victory at Laon, the main Allied army eventually crossed the Seine and drove MacDonald beyond Provins by the 16th of March.

  When news of Napoleon's success at Reims reached the Allied camp, Schwarzenberg's offensive halted again. Napoleon moved south with 24,000 soldiers, aiming for Arcis-sur-Aube and hoping to reach Troyes in the rear of the Allied main army. On the 17th of March, Schwarzenberg pulled his army toward the area between Troyes and Arcis. Napoleon's advance guards drove Schwarzenberg's cavalry south toward Arcis the following day, spreading alarm among the Allied commanders. The Austro-Bavarian V Corps under Karl Philipp von Wrede was ordered to hold Arcis while the rest of Schwarzenberg's army retreated east. On the afternoon of the 19th of March, a French cavalry division under Louis-Michel Letort de Lorville swept southwest to Méry-sur-Seine and captured an entire Allied pontoon train.

• 4. First Day's Fighting

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  At 10 in the morning on the 20th of March, Ney and Horace Sebastiani's cavalry occupied Arcis-sur-Aube, which Wrede's Bavarians had abandoned. Local residents repeatedly warned the French that large Allied forces were within twelve miles of the town. Ney and Sebastiani passed this intelligence to Napoleon. The French emperor refused to believe it.

  Napoleon arrived at 1 in the afternoon, crossed the bridge over the Aube, and met with Ney at the nearby village of Torcy-le-Grand. He accepted the report of a staff officer that only 1,000 Cossacks were in the area. Schwarzenberg, meanwhile, finally gave the order to attack at 2 in the afternoon. Wrede's infantry advanced on Torcy-le-Grand while a mass of Allied cavalry pressed toward Sebastiani's horsemen. Paisiy Sergeevich Kaisarov ordered a bombardment, followed by a cavalry charge involving Cossacks, the Archduke Joseph Hussar Regiment Nr. 2, the Szekler Hussar Regiment Nr. 11, and Leopold von Geramb's Austrian light cavalry. The charge broke Colbert's division in the first line and then swept through Exelmans' division in the second.

  As fleeing French cavalry galloped for the Arcis bridge, Napoleon drew his sword and rode into their path, shouting, 'See who will re-cross the bridge before me.' The crack troops of Louis Friant's Old Guard division crossed the bridge and held position to defend Arcis. During this crisis, an Allied howitzer shell landed near the rallying troops. Seeing his soldiers flinching from it, Napoleon rode his horse directly over the shell. It exploded beneath the horse, killing the animal and throwing the emperor to the ground. Napoleon emerged unscathed from the smoke, mounted a fresh horse, and rode off.

  The village of Torcy-le-Grand changed hands three times before two Old Guard Grenadier battalions, a squadron of mounted gendarmes, and a squadron of lancers finally ejected the Allies for good. The Archduke Rudolf Infantry Regiment alone suffered 500 casualties. Between 5 and 8 in the evening, the French repulsed repeated attacks. At dusk, a 4,500-man Young Guard division under Christophe Henrion reached Plancy but halted to rest. Sebastiani then launched a night cavalry charge, placing guard lancers and Éclaireurs in the front rank supported by cuirassiers. The charge smashed Kaisarov's Cossacks and pressed back several Austrian regiments. Even the routed divisions of Colbert and Exelmans, defeated earlier that day, rejoined the fight. A brigade of Russian grenadiers formed a square and eventually halted the French. When the cavalry of both armies finally separated, the village of Nozay stood between them.

• 5. The Trap Closes

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  The Allies suffered approximately 2,000 casualties on the first day. Despite vastly superior numbers, they had gained no ground. Napoleon still believed he was fighting a rearguard action. Tsar Alexander feared that Napoleon would pull back north across the Aube and lunge east to seize the bridge at Lesmont in the Allied rear. Instead, Napoleon waited for reinforcements and planned to attack again in the morning.

  Historians differ on how many troops Schwarzenberg assembled for the second day. Francis Loraine Petre counted 74,000 soldiers in line with 14,000 more guarding Troyes. David G. Chandler put the number at over 80,000. George Nafziger credited the Allies with 83,400 infantry and 24,500 cavalry. Against this, the French brought 28,000 troops, of whom 9,000 were cavalry. Oudinot arrived at Arcis at 8 in the morning with Leval's VII Corps infantry division and the II Cavalry Corps under Antoine Louis Decrest de Saint-Germain. Napoleon counted 28,000 total French soldiers for the 21st of March.

  At 10 in the morning, Napoleon ordered an attack. As Ney's and Sebastiani's troops climbed the plateau, they crested the ridge and found perhaps 100,000 enemies arrayed in three lines stretching from the Aube to the Barbuise stream, with skirmishers in front and at least 100 field guns covering the ground. Ney kept his battalions in column, ready to retreat. Schwarzenberg, instead of launching an immediate general assault that would almost certainly have shattered the French, called a council of war. The council lasted until noon. Schwarzenberg alone would give the signal to advance.

  Sebastiani attacked Pahlen's cavalry and drove it back on the Allied second line. Schwarzenberg interpreted this as a French offensive and waited. By 1 in the afternoon, Napoleon finally recognized that he was desperately outnumbered. He ordered the retreat. A bridge of boats was established at Villette-sur-Aube, a short distance west of Arcis, by 1:30 in the afternoon. Antoine Drouot and the Old Guard withdrew by that crossing while other units crossed at Arcis. General Exelmans personally led the Sailors of the Guard to protect the Villette bridge. Napoleon ordered Oudinot to defend Arcis with Leval's division, three brigades of Peninsular War veterans, to buy time.

• 6. The Escape

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  Schwarzenberg realized at 3 in the afternoon that Napoleon was retreating. Rather than unleash his corps immediately, he called another council of war. When the Allied advance finally came, their cavalry claimed to have captured a French cavalry brigade, and Pahlen's horsemen took three cannons. By 4 in the afternoon, 80 Allied cannons were firing on Arcis. Sebastiani withdrew his surviving cavalry across the Villette bridge and destroyed it behind him.

  Oudinot deployed his brigades at Arcis with François Maulmont's on the right, Jacques de Montfort's on the left, and David Hendrik Chassé's in reserve. Henri Rottembourg's 5th Young Guard Division covered the north end of the Arcis bridge. The intense bombardment caused serious losses and threw the withdrawing troops into disorder. The 10th Light Infantry Regiment repulsed an initial Allied assault, but the Allies pressed into Arcis in strength and Leval was wounded. At the last moment, Chassé rallied 100 soldiers by personally beating a drum. This bought enough time for the final troops to cross at 6 in the evening. Maulmont's brigade destroyed the bridge as soon as it crossed.

  That evening, Oudinot blocked the causeway on the north bank of the Aube. MacDonald arrived at nearby Ormes at 9 in the evening with two divisions, joining François Étienne de Kellermann's cavalry corps. The rest of Napoleon's army headed north to Sompuis. All day on the 22nd of March, MacDonald's troops blocked the bridge at Arcis, leaving the Allies completely unaware of Napoleon's movements.

• 7. Reckoning

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  The human cost of Arcis-sur-Aube was significant on both sides. David G. Chandler calculated 3,000 French casualties and 4,000 Allied. Digby Smith and Gaston Bodart counted 3,400 French killed and wounded, plus three guns and 800 prisoners. Nafziger put French losses at 4,200 and noted that Wrede's Bavarian corps alone lost 224 officers and 2,000 rank-and-file. Allied losses in most accounts ran to approximately 3,000.

  On the first day, the divisions of Janssens and Boyer and two battalions of the Old Guard, perhaps 7,000 men in total, had fought Wrede's 22,000 soldiers to a standstill. That fact alone tells a story about the quality of the remaining French army. But Arcis was still a French setback: Napoleon had failed to damage Schwarzenberg's army, failed to reach Troyes, and had been forced into a retreat he had not planned.

  What followed moved quickly. On the 25th of March, the Allies defeated Marmont and Mortier at the Battle of Fère-Champenoise. Napoleon won the Battle of Saint-Dizier the following day, but the victory served no strategic purpose. Paris fell on the 30th of March. The Allies occupied the French capital the next day. On the 6th of April 1814, Napoleon abdicated. Arcis-sur-Aube was his penultimate battle before Elba; only Saint-Dizier came after it. The ability to rally panicking cavalry with a drawn sword, or to ride a horse over a live shell without blinking, could no longer compensate for armies that no longer existed.