Editing Battle of Brienne (section)

===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}}