Editing Battle of Lützen (1813) (section)

==Prelude==
Following the disaster of [[French invasion of Russia]] in 1812, a new coalition consisting of Britain, Sweden, Prussia and Russia formed against France. In response to this, Napoleon hastily assembled an army of just over 200,000 which included inexperienced recruits, troops from Spain and garrison battalions but was severely short of horses (a consequence of the Russian invasion, where most of his veteran troops and horses had perished). He crossed the [[Rhine]] into Germany to link up with remnants of his old {{lang|fr|[[Grande Armée]]}} under the command of Prince [[Eugène de Beauharnais]], and to quickly defeat this new alliance before it became too strong.

On the 30 April, Napoleon crossed the river [[Saale]], advancing on Leipzig from the west and southwest in three columns led by the V Corps under General [[Jacques Lauriston]]. His intention was to work his way into the Coalition's interior lines, dividing their forces and defeating them in detail before they could combine. But due to the lack of cavalrymen and faulty reconnaissance, he was unaware of the Russo-Prussian army under Wittgenstein and [[Graf]] ([[Count]]) [[Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher|von Blücher]] concentrating on his right flank to the southeast. Prussian scouts reported that the French army was stretched between Naumberg and Leipzig.  Wittgenstein's plan was to attack towards Lützen and split Napoleon's forces in two. He was hoping to inflict serious casualties on Napoleon and score a victory that could possibly be used to bring Austria into the Coalition. On the eve of the battle, one of Napoleon's marshals, [[Jean-Baptiste Bessières]], was killed by a stray cannonball while reconnoitering near [[Rippach]].

[[File:Mort du maréchal Bessières.jpg|left|thumb|Death of Marshal Bessières]]

[[Marshal of France|Marshal]] [[Michel Ney|Ney's]] [[III Corps (Grande Armée)|III Corps]] was to hold the right flank around Lützen in support of the forces marching towards Leipzig and was caught by surprise. The [[III Corps (Grande Armée)|III Corps]] consisted of five infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade. Three of these divisions were situated around Lützen, one division in the four villages to the southeast (Kaja, Kleingörschen, Großgörschen and Rahna) and one division a mile to the west of these in Starsiedel. The French [[VI Corps (Grande Armée)|VI Corps]] under Marshal Marmont was at Rippach to the west, Bertrand's [[IV Corps (Grande Armée)|IV Corps]] was south of Weissenfels ([[Weißenfels]]) where the [[Imperial Guard (Napoleon I)|Imperial Guard]] was also located. Macdonald's [[XI Corps (Grande Armée)|XI Corps]] and the [[I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée)|I Cavalry Corps]] were situated to the north of Lützen.