Editing Battle of Brienne (section)

==Prelude==
===Plans===
In November 1813, the 70,000 French survivors of the disastrous [[German Campaign of 1813]] crossed to the west bank of the [[Rhine]] River. Emperor Napoleon left 100,000 French soldiers in German garrisons, trapped by enemy blockading forces and hostile populations. All of Napoleon's German allies switched sides and joined the [[Sixth Coalition]]. To the south, [[Marshal of the Empire|Marshal]] [[Jean-de-Dieu Soult]]'s 60,000 men and Marshal [[Louis Gabriel Suchet]]'s 37,000 defended the Spanish border. Napoleon's step-son [[Eugène de Beauharnais]] with 50,000 troops defended the [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy]] against the [[Austrian Empire]]. There were numerous French garrisons in [[Belgium]], the [[Netherlands]] and eastern France, while 15,000 soldiers were isolated in [[Mainz]].{{sfn|Petre|1994|pp=1–2}}

Czar [[Alexander I of Russia]] and King [[Frederick William III of Prussia]] wished to dethrone Napoleon, but Emperor [[Francis I of Austria]] was not anxious to overthrow his son-in-law. Francis also feared that weakening France would [[European balance of power#19th century|strengthen his rivals]], Russia and Prussia. Prince Schwarzenberg followed his emperor's wait-and-see policy, while Blücher yearned to crush Napoleon at the earliest opportunity. [[Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte]], the crown prince of [[Sweden]] and a former French marshal, led a third Allied army. He secretly wished to replace Napoleon as the leader of France and was not inclined to invade his former homeland. The Allied leaders met at [[Frankfurt-am-Main]] to work out a plan to fight Napoleon.{{sfn|Chandler|1966|p=947}}

In the Allied plan that emerged, [[Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow]] would advance with one of Bernadotte's corps into the Netherlands and be joined there by a [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]] corps under [[Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch]]. Blücher would cross the middle Rhine with 100,000 troops and occupy Napoleon's attention. Meanwhile, Schwarzenberg would cross the upper Rhine near [[Basel]] with 200,000 men and move toward [[Langres]], falling on the French right flank.{{sfn|Chandler|1966|pp=948–949}}

To oppose this vast array, Napoleon deployed Marshal [[Claude Perrin Victor]] with 10,000 troops on the upper Rhine, Marshal [[Auguste de Marmont]] with 13,000 and [[Horace Sebastiani]] with 4,500 on the middle Rhine and Marshal [[Jacques MacDonald]] with 11,500 on the lower Rhine. Holland and Belgium were held by 15,000 troops led by [[Nicolas Joseph Maison]].{{sfn|Petre|1994|pp=12–13}} In reserve were the [[Imperial Guard (Napoleon I)|Old Guard]] under Marshal [[Édouard Mortier]] and two newly formed Young Guard divisions under Marshal [[Michel Ney]]. Well to the south at [[Lyon]], Marshal [[Pierre Augereau]] was directed to form a new army.{{sfn|Chandler|1966|pp=948–949}}

===Operations===
[[File:EB1911-19-0232-a-Napolonic Campaigns, Campaign of 1814.jpg|thumb|right|upright=2.0|alt=Black and yellow map of the Campaign of 1814 in 1:2,000,000 scale|Campaign of 1814 map shows Brienne on the Aube at lower right center, northwest of [[Chaumont, Haute-Marne]], north-east France.]]

On 22 December 1813, elements of Schwarzenberg's army crossed the upper Rhine and moved into France and Switzerland. Blücher crossed the middle Rhine on 29 December.{{sfn|Chandler|1966|pp=948–949}} Napoleon's cordon defense quickly collapsed in the face of these two Allied armies. Victor soon abandoned [[Nancy, France|Nancy]] and on 13 January 1814 Marmont retreated to [[Metz]]. By 17 January, Marmont, Ney and Victor withdrew behind the [[Meuse]] River. Blücher's army advanced {{convert|75|mi|disp=flip}} in nine days and crossed the Meuse on 22 January. Schwarzenberg reached Langres on 17 January, where the cautious Austrian halted for a few days, convinced that Napoleon was about to attack him with 80,000 troops. When Schwarzenberg moved forward again, Mortier's Imperial Guard slowed his advance by carrying out skillful [[rearguard]] actions.{{sfn|Chandler|1966|pp=950–952}} The [[First Battle of Bar-sur-Aube]] was fought on 24 January between Mortier's guardsmen and two of Schwarzenberg's corps.{{sfn|Smith|1998|p=490}}

At first, Napoleon grossly underestimated Allied numbers, crediting Schwarzenberg with 50,000 troops and Blücher with 30,000.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=13}} By the end of January, he formed a more realistic estimate and resolved to prevent the armies of Blücher and Schwarzenberg from joining.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=14}} In fact, the combined Allied armies would number 120,000 soldiers for the Battle of La Rothière on 1 February.{{sfn|Smith|1998|p=493}} On that date, the two Coalition armies brought 85,000 men and 200 guns into action against Napoleon, who could only oppose them with 45,100 soldiers and 128 guns.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=30}}

Leaving his brother [[Joseph Bonaparte]] in charge of the capital, Napoleon departed from [[Paris]] and reached [[Châlons-sur-Marne]] on 26 January 1814. Near Châlons were the following forces. Victor led 14,747 men from the [[II Corps (Grande Armée)|II Corps]] and [[Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud]]'s [[V Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée)|V Cavalry Corps]]. Marmont headed 12,051 troops from the [[VI Corps (Grande Armée)|VI Corps]] and [[Jean-Pierre Doumerc]]'s [[I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée)|I Cavalry Corps]]. Ney directed 14,505 soldiers in three Young Guard infantry divisions under [[Claude Marie Meunier]], [[Pierre Decouz]] and [[Henri Rottembourg]] and a Guard cavalry division under [[Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes]]. MacDonald and Sebastiani were approaching from the north with about 10,000 men but were too distant to be available. Mortier with 20,000 soldiers, including 12,000 Imperial Guards, retreated west to [[Troyes]] after his clash with Schwarzenberg's army.{{sfn|Petre|1994|pp=17–18}}

Napoleon directed that his presence at the front should be kept a secret. He issued four days' rations to his army and marched it from Châlons toward [[Saint-Dizier]], where he believed Blücher was located with about 25,000 soldiers and 40 guns. When his army reached Saint-Dizier, he found that his adversary had marched southwest to Brienne-le-Château.{{sfn|Chandler|1966|p=958}} In a clash at Saint-Dizier on 27 January 1814, Milhaud's 2,100 cavalrymen drove back 1,500 Russians of Sergey Nikolaevich Lanskoy's 2nd [[Hussar]] Division.{{sfn|Smith|1998|p=490}} At Brienne, Blücher would be near parts of Schwarzenberg's army and Napoleon hoped to drive the Prussian field marshal's forces into the [[Aube (river)|Aube River]] before he could be reinforced.{{sfn|Chandler|1966|p=958}} Napoleon was familiar with Brienne; he had entered the Royal School of Brienne at the age of nine on 23 April 1779 and studied there for five and a half years.{{sfn|Chandler|1966|p=6}}

===Forces===
{{main|Battle of La Rothière order of battle}}
[[File:PetreMap-28-Jan-1814.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.0|alt=Campaign map 28 January 1814|Positions, evening 28 January 1814]]
On 28 January, Napoleon advanced toward Brienne in three columns. [[Étienne Maurice Gérard]]'s right column marched south from [[Vitry-le-François]] and included the infantry divisions of [[Étienne Pierre Sylvestre Ricard]] (of VI Corps) and [[Georges Joseph Dufour]] plus Cyrille Simon Picquet's cavalry. The center column was made up of the Imperial Guard and marched southwest from Saint-Dizier through [[Montier-en-Der]]. The left column, consisting of Victor and Milhaud, marched south to [[Wassy]] before turning west to join the center column at Montier-en-Der. Marmont was left with [[Joseph Lagrange (soldier)|Joseph Lagrange's]] infantry division and the I Cavalry Corps near [[Bar-le-Duc]] to hold off [[Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg]]'s Prussian I Corps. Napoleon sent messages to Mortier at Troyes, [[Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux de Bordesoulle]] at [[Arcis-sur-Aube]] and [[Pierre David de Colbert-Chabanais]] at [[Nogent-sur-Seine]] to cooperate with his plan. Russian [[Cossacks]] captured all three couriers and delivered their dispatches to Blücher. By the morning of 29 January, the Prussian field marshal was aware that Napoleon had gotten between him and Yorck and was approaching him from the northeast with 30,000–40,000 soldiers.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=19}}

The roads were in poor condition because of a thaw, but Napoleon's soldiers managed to slog through the mud to reach Montier-en-Der and Wassy by nightfall on 28 January. Blücher was in Brienne with [[Zakhar Dmitrievich Olsufiev]]'s infantry corps while [[Fabian Gottlieb von Osten-Sacken]]'s Russian [[army corps]] was farther west at [[Lesmont]]. The Allied VI Corps under [[Peter Wittgenstein]] was approaching [[Joinville, Haute-Marne|Joinville]] but its cavalry under [[Pyotr Petrovich Palen|Peter Petrovich Pahlen]] reached Brienne. Schwarzenberg's headquarters was located at [[Chaumont, Haute-Marne|Chaumont]]. The Allied V Corps under [[Karl Philipp von Wrede]] was between Chaumont and Saint-Dizier.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=20}} The Allied III Corps under [[Ignaz Gyulai]] and the IV Corps under [[William I of Württemberg|Crownprince Frederick William of Württemberg]] were near [[Bar-sur-Aube]]. The Allied I Corps under [[Hieronymus Karl Graf von Colloredo-Mansfeld]] was well to the south at [[Châtillon-sur-Seine]] and the Reserve under [[Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly]] was marching from Langres to Chaumont.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=21}}