The German Campaign of 1813 was fought by Napoleon from April to October 1813 against the armies of the Sixth Coalition . Like the Phoenix rising from its ashes, the Grande Armée , which disappeared in the Russian snows in 1812, suddenly seems to be reborn in the plains of Saxony . The Russians suddenly saw their march on Paris interrupted by the start of the French Empire:thousands of young conscripts came to block their way, led by the greatest general of the time. But victories are not enough in the face of the reversal of alliances which sees Prussia, Austria and many German states turn against Napoleon .
The context of the campaign of 1813
The fine flower of the Grande Armée has just disappeared during the disastrous Russian campaign, a victim of the Russian army, but also and above all of the rigors of winter and disease . In France, General Malet's attempted coup d'etat forced the Emperor to hastily return by sleigh. Marshal Murat, to whom he had entrusted the command of the army, abandoned his post to join his Kingdom of Naples, forcing Eugène de Beauharnais to lead the retreating troops. Returning to Paris, Napoleon reaffirmed his power and pulled out all the stops to reconstitute an army capable of stopping the advance of the Russians. In France, he organized strong levies of men, inexperienced young people aged 17 to 18 who were quickly sent to the Rhine before they had been able to receive any real military instruction. From these levies of 1813 was born the image of the ogre that we attach to Napoleon and that the royalist propaganda will maintain.
For his part, Tsar Alexander is jubilant, his armies advancing ever more towards the West and he begins to imagine himself as the mystical liberator of enslaved Europe. In February he entered Warsaw, Poland was "liberated", or at least it passed from French domination to Russian domination, which was not necessarily to the taste of the Poles. Overthrown, the French troops had to fall back on the Oder, then on the Elbe. However, the Russians cannot continue their frantic race in this way. The Tsar's army also suffered heavy losses, during the fighting, but also because of the rigors of winter. Strategically, the Tsar also had to leave troops garrisoned throughout his advance to secure his lines of communication. Further and further away from Russia, he finds himself with only 80,000 men in the front line. Undoubtedly, Alexander risks finding himself in Poland in the same situation as Napoleon had found himself in Russia. To change the situation, he must imperatively cause a change of alliance, if possible with Austria, but especially initially with Prussia.
Sweden, led by French Marshal Bernadotte elected Hereditary Prince of Sweden, has sided with Russia. Bernadotte hopes in return to attach Norway to his kingdom. He also hopes that he will be called upon for a monarchical restoration in France.
Prussia, although hostile to Napoleon, was nevertheless reluctant to go to war on the side of the Russians. However, General Yorck defected, he joined Russia by the Tauroggen convention and took Königsberg, creating de facto a first starting point for a war of national liberation. He was joined by intellectuals like Baron de Stein who called for German unity, a national leap forward and a general mobilization to oust the French occupier. His call received very favorable echoes in student and university circles. On February 27, King Frederick William of Prussia signed the Kalish Agreement in Breslau, which sealed his alliance with Russia. On March 17, he declared war on France. The Prussian army hastily reconstituted itself with the raising of thousands of Jäger (“Hunters”), light infantry from the rural middle class (they had to pay for their equipment), but also and above all a general mobilization of men from 17 at 40 to form a militia, the Landweh. If some of the soldiers are also inexperienced, the enthusiasm created around the war of liberation makes them formidable troops.
The imposition, backlash of the continental blockade and the levying of men for the army so infuriated the Germans that parts of northern Germany rose up from themselves. The Prussian monarchy could have taken advantage of this anti-French nationalist fervor, but above all it wanted to drive out the occupier to restore a monarchical and aristocratic system (in Prussia and France), and was therefore wary of these armed nationalist movements. Proof of this temptation to use all the people, and this fear of no longer being able to control them:the formation of the Landstürme ("Francs-tireurs") made up of all men aged 15 to 60 who have not been enrolled in the army and who were to be responsible for harassing the enemy. The Landstürme exist on paper, but they will receive neither uniform nor weapon. Be that as it may, faced with the advancing coalition and a fiery Germany, Eugène de Beauharnais was forced to leave Berlin, the French army left Hamburg and Dresden behind. Arndt, Körner and Rückert sing of the "holy war"...
For its part, Austria looked with an interested but hesitant eye on the events of the beginning of the year 1813. Linked by matrimonial alliance to France, Austria whom Napoleon had already defeated and spared twice knew that she was risking a great deal if she again entered into a coalition and lost. Moreover, its interests are not necessarily those of Russia. However, if the Russians and the Prussians prevail, she is aware that she will have to render accounts for her loyalty to France. Caught between two fires, Austria takes a "neutral" position of referee, while rearming to prepare when the time comes to intervene in the camp of the strongest.
The United Kingdom, for its part, supports the coalition and allies itself with Bernadotte's Sweden, already an ally of Russia. The country is still engaged in the conflict against the United States, but it is a distant war where the Navy has the upper hand, a war which does not worry the crown too much. In Spain the troops of Wellesley (future Duke of Wellington) definitely take the advantage and an invasion of France by the Pyrenees becomes possible.
The Empire Strikes Back
On April 25, after entrusting the regency to the Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon took charge of the army in Erfurt. He wrote it, he intends to "put on the boots of Italy"! It brought together four army corps and the Guard, that is to say about 80,000 men. To the young conscripts of 1813 were joined a few veterans of the armies of Spain and Italy. The French army seems to have thought of its wounds very quickly and Napoleon is ready to face his enemies. However, if we were able to find in France infantrymen, artillerymen and cavalry (the imperial army moreover regains a very national coloring that it no longer had especially in 1812), we are sorely lacking in horses and therefore in cavalry.
Napoleon joins up with the troops of his ex-son-in-law Eugène de Beauharnais, he now has 120,000 men, plus garrison troops. He succeeded in a short time in reversing the trend and imposing his numerical superiority on the allies, who at that time only had 100,000 men. The Emperor knows that he should rush on Prussia, take Berlin to force the Prussians out of the coalition and at the same time intimidate the Austrian neighbor who risks rallying to the Russians at any time. However, precisely to incite Austria to join them, the Allies campaign near the Austrian border, in Saxony. Napoleon cannot abandon his Saxon ally, at the risk of seeing his other German allies turn away from him. And, since the enemy is there, he hopes to annihilate him in a decisive battle that he will constantly seek in multiple maneuvers.
May 2 Napoleon marches on Leipzig and defeats the allies at Lützen! The Prussians and the Russians resist valiantly, the losses are very heavy on both sides (the French lose 18,000 men, the coalition 20,000) and for lack of cavalry to pursue the enemy Napoleon cannot complete his victory. Paradoxically, and as they had already done at the Moskva, the Russians, although retreating and abandoning Leipzig to the French, considered the battle a victory... The Grande Armée continued its counter-attack, on May 8 it retook Dresden, on the 10th it recrossed the Elbe, on the 21st it again defeated the allies at Bautzen and Wurschen (another 40,000 dead in total, distributed equally between the two camps). Further north, Davout retakes Hamburg and Lubeck! In the South-East the French troops under the command of Lauriston progress to Breslau!
Sudden and brutal the imperial counter-attack is a great success, Napoleon has recovered the territories he controlled in 1812, with the exception of Poland. But, for lack of cavalry (Napoleon has only 5,000 mounted cavalry), Napoleon is unable to obtain the decisive victory he so hoped for. Moreover, the losses were extremely heavy, a third of the Grande Armée was out of action (dead and wounded) and, for lack of cavalry, Napoleon was always unable to exploit his victories as he would have liked to do. On the evening of the Battle of Bautzen, he became exasperated:“A butchery, not a captured cannon, not a flag! ". He knows that he will need a respite to reform his army once again, so he accepts an armistice on June 4 at Pleiswitz which should lead to a congress for peace.
From the armistice of Pleiswitz to the congress of Prague
If officially the armistice of Pleiswitz aims to facilitate peace negotiations, in fact no one is mistaken, it is above all a truce allowing it is up to everyone to refocus their forces. For Austria, it is also an opportunity to enter into official contact with the coalition members within the framework of the talks. Taking advantage of the lull, Russia, Prussia and the United Kingdom signed a pact on June 14. Victorious in Spain, England felt the moment had come for a disaster and offered two million pounds sterling to finance the war effort of the continental coalition, and thus encourage Austria to join its ranks.
Although officially neutral, Austria is seriously considering going to war on their side if the Prague peace negotiations fail. It must be said that for the allies the news is good, on June 21 Wellesley crushed the French in the Iberian Peninsula during the Battle of Vittoria.
During the interview between Metternich and Napoleon in Dresden on June 26, the Emperor made it clear that he did not intend to give everything up to the coalition, the ambassador reported these words :
“What do you want from me? That I dishonor myself? Never ! I will know how to die, but I will not cede an inch of territory. Your sovereigns, born on the throne, can allow themselves to be beaten twenty times and still return to their capitals:I cannot, because I am an upstart soldier. My domination will not outlive me, the day when I shall have ceased to be strong and consequently to be feared."
Therefore, all that remains is to make unacceptable proposals to France for it to refuse and that the moral responsibility for the war is transferred to him. It's done when you demand the abandonment of Holland and Germany that France has just reconquered. On the French side, we cannot accept retrocessions other than that of Poland and the Illyrian provinces already lost. Napoleon tries to negotiate, but the allies have no intention of negotiating by bits what they can now take by force:on August 11 the Congress of Prague ends. Despite letters from his daughter, Empress Marie-Louise, and under pressure from Metternich, Emperor Francis, who on June 27 had joined the coalition, declared war on France, and therefore on his son-in-law, August 12.
From then on, for the allies, victory seemed assured, the arrival of reinforcements and the rallying of Austria gave them a large numerical superiority over the French Empire. Indeed, Napoleon succeeded in raising for the campaign an army of 200,000 men, mainly positioned in Saxony, but in front of him the allies opposed three large armies:
- Bernadotte's army in the North with 100,000 men, Swedes, Russians, Prussians...
- Blücher's army in the center, in Silesia, also composed of about 100,000 men.
- The army of Bohemia in the South, commanded by Schwarzenberg, which alone has 200,000 men.
The coalition is also counting on a rallying of the Germanic states.
Coalition Offensive
Napoleon is scattering his forces, and that may be a mistake. He sends Davout to march on Berlin, Ney against Blücher and launches himself personally against the bulk of the coalition forces:the army of Bohemia, which he defeats. On August 27 Napoleon won an important victory in Dresden that the allies were trying to retake at Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, but once was not custom Schwarzenberg's army managed to fall back in good order. Although in flagrant numerical inferiority, the French lost "only" 8,000 men, while 27,000 allies were out of action and they abandoned about forty guns. During this battle, General Moreau, a Frenchman who had rallied to Russia, was mortally wounded by a cannonball which shattered his right knee.
However, Napoleon's successes did not erase the setbacks of his marshals:Vandamme was beaten at Kulm, Macdonald was defeated on the Katzbach, Oudinot at Grossbeeren near Berlin and Ney in Dennewitz. The allies only attack from a position of strength, they fear Napoleon and avoid confronting him 
in person. Each battle hollowed out the ranks of the Grande Armée, while the ranks of the allies always seemed to be replenished thanks to the mobilization of the Prussians. Among the young French conscripts the setbacks directly impact the morale, many are those who decide to desert, see to mutilate themselves to be reformed. Extreme fatigue linked to forced marches, illnesses (fevers, typhus...), bivouacs in the open air in less and less clement weather and the lack of supplies also contribute to defections.
Napoleon orders to decimate the deserters, that is to say that as soon as ten deserters are caught, one is shot. But this does not solve the root of the problem, the Grande Armée is forced into rapid and exhausting marches to surprise the enemy and the intendancy does not follow:if the French lack light cavalry this is not the case for the allies who are thus able to constantly threaten and harass the supply lines. The Russian Cossacks excel in this area, rushing at full speed on the convoys, attacking isolated groups, lost soldiers... The supply cars which have in time formed the circle to repel the attacks of those whom the Reaper dubbed "the Mohicans of the North".
At the end of September, Napoleon finds himself forced to adopt a defensive position, the bulk of his army is in the city of Dresden (130,000 men), the rest is around Leipzig ( 72,000 men). Davout also has 30,000 men, but far, in Hamburg. At the beginning of October, the allies launched a massive offensive on the Elbe. In an attempt to prevent the meeting of the allied armies, the Emperor directs his forces towards the city of Leipzig.
Leipzig:the "Battle of the Nations" 
Napoleon had failed to unite all his forces in Leipzig when the fighting began on October 16, he found himself greatly outnumbered:250,000 united against 185,000 French. The battle begins around 9 a.m. on October 16, 1813, under low, gray skies, in the rain. Napoleon positioned himself around the city, to the north Marmont had to face Blücher's troops, to the south Poniatowski, Victor and Lauriston, supported by Augereau and Macdonald, faced the imposing army of Schwarzenberg. The fighting on the 16th for control of the southern villages was extremely violent, with the village of Wachau, defended by Victor's men, changing hands several times during the day.
However, around 11:30 a.m. the Grande Armée seemed to have repelled all the attacks of the Allies and Napoleon decided to take advantage of this to launch a counter-attack with 12,000 cavalry and two divisions of the Young Keep ! But the enemy in turn cashed in without their line breaking, the Austrian reserve entered the trail and the Grande Armée was cut off in its tracks. At the end of this murderous day, no side had taken the upper hand, Napoleon had lost 20,000 men killed or wounded, the allies 30,000. Reaper, promoted to sergeant major, gives us a grim snapshot of one of the day's many grim scenes:
“We were on the march [...] when we were very vigorously attacked from the front and flank by an enemy two and three times our number. We quickly formed up in squares by battalion to support the charges of a cavalry which threatened to assail us vigorously. My captain, behind whom I was, had just instructed our men not to fire on the cavalry except at his command, when a shell struck the back of his head and covered me with blood. The shell, continuing on its way, passing a few centimeters from my face, fell in the saloon and took one foot from the master drummer. We waited for the charge without flinching, and firing only at about twenty-five or thirty paces, we checked the momentum of the horsemen. In the course of the evening, we suffered three or four cavalry charges which had no better success. Our artillery didn't let her get as close as the first time, and threw heavy grapeshot at her. The enemy artillery gave it back to us; we got our fair share, but still not as much as a square of a marine regiment that was near us, one side of which was somehow demolished.”
In the city of Leipzig, the wounded are pouring in, churches are transformed into makeshift hospitals where amputations are carried out lustily. The prisoners meanwhile are parked in the cemeteries, to shelter them we go so far as to open vaults and it is in the middle of the skeletons that some do their cooking. For Napoleon the situation is complicated and he knows it:if tactically there is a status quo, each camp having repelled the assaults of the other, strategically the allies have the advantage. They will indeed have time to receive reinforcements from Bernadotte and Bennigsen while Napoleon will only receive Reynier's corps partly composed of insecure German troops.
The troops sleep on the battlefield, the next day, October 17, Napoleon asks the allies for an armistice with a view to peace. They refuse. Napoleon, although decided to fall back, remains on his positions while awaiting the arrival of Reynier. He presumes that the allies will not be able to attack again before the 19th. On the night of October 17 to 18, the Grande Armée and its 150,000 men fall back on Leipzig, Napoleon, cornered in the city, closes ranks. The French army forms an arc around the city:Ney and Marmont in the North face the armies of Blücher and Bernadotte, in the East Sébastiani is positioned opposite Bennigsen, in the South Poniatowski, Victor and Lauriston continue to make facing Schwarzenberg's army, to the west Bertrand is responsible for guarding the only retreat route.
In the early morning, the allies with 250,000 to 300,000 men went forward in a general offensive along the entire French line:the objective was thus to engage the entire Grande Armée in the fray and to prevent Napoleon from attempting clever maneuvers. The same scenes of fierce fighting that had taken place on the 16th recur on the 18th around the villages south of Leipzig, still to the south... But still a little closer to the city... To the north Ney pushes back somehow enemy attacks. But suddenly what is considered one of the greatest dramas of the battle for Napoleon occurred:the Saxons and the Württembergers who served in the Grande Armée betrayed and turned their arms and their cannons against their former comrades (only the Saxon Royal Guard who was at Napoleon's side remains loyal, the Emperor later sent them back so that they could join their sovereign who remained loyal to Napoleon and will be treated as a prisoner of war by the allies).
The betrayal opens a real breach in the French device, the allies try to exploit it, General Bülow takes the initiative and is stopped in extremis only by the cavalry de Nansouty who manages to take him from behind. The village of Schönefeld changes hands no less than seven times! In the South, the cannonade is terrible, a witness says that in the city itself it would have been impossible to hold a glass filled with water as the ground was shaking. The battle only ends with the night, the soldiers spend it on the battlefield. The French lost 50,000 men during the day, the allies 60,000. Napoleon, back in Leipzig, organizes the retreat which seems the last way out to save the Grande Armée as long as there is still a road to the West.
On the night of October 18 to 19, 1813, the Old Guard crossed the bridges over the Elster to establish in the West in front of Lindenau. Kellermann's cavalry followed, Augereau's and Victor's corps, Sebastiani's cavalry... But an improvised bridge for the retreat collapsed, there was only one bridge left for the whole Grande Armée cross the Elster! Inevitably, congestion occurs. Meanwhile Dombrowski and Reynier protect the North, Marmont the East and the trio Macdonald, Lauriston and Poniatowski the South. Seeing that the Grande Armée was in danger of escaping them, the allies rushed to Leipzig and reached the suburbs, bloody battles took place at the gates of Leipzig while the Grande Armée slowly withdrew by the only bridge. Sergeant-Major Faucheur, who is defending to the east in the Marmont sector, reports:
“In the morning we were furiously attacked by Blücher on our front, and on our left by the Swedes […]. Sheltered by the houses, we waited firmly for the enemy's attacks. Each time he wanted to force his way into the village, we covered him with our fire, then we threw ourselves on him with bayonets, but when we had the misfortune to leave the village and show ourselves in open country, at the pursuit of our assailants, we were immediately riddled with grapeshot and forced to return to the village. Then the enemy reformed their columns and threw themselves on us, heads lowered, pushing us back sometimes halfway, sometimes to the last houses of the village. In our turn, we returned to the charge to cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" and we regained lost ground [...]. We lost Scönfeld seven times and [...] seven times we won him back.
To prevent the Allies from pursuing him, Napoleon ordered the bridge to be blown up as soon as his army passed . Colonel Montfort commanding the engineers entrusts this mission to a corporal, but the latter, deceived by the sight of some enemy soldiers, blows up the bridge while the troops of Poniatowski, Macdonald, Lauriston and Reynier have not yet passed. ! This is the second great drama of the battle for Napoleon and he has often been criticized, as well as his Chief of Staff Berthier who did not dare to take the initiative, for not having previously built several bridges to ensure retirement.
Some of the soldiers stuck on the wrong bank try to swim across, including Macdonald and Poniatowski. But the latter, already suffering from several injuries, including one on the back, drowned. Lauriston and Reynier are taken prisoner with a good part of their men (12,000 men). A substantial part of the French artillery park, 150 guns, as well as the crews (500 cars) fell into enemy hands. The four days of combat left more than 160,000 dead in total, it will take months for the citizens of Leipzig to bury all the bodies... Numerically, this is the greatest battle of the Napoleonic wars, Europe will never see no such engagement before 1914.
The retreat and the end of the German campaign
The French were forced to retreat, the strangled regiments withdrew in the middle of a swarm of isolated men, the exhausted and starving troops resupplied at the inhabitant's, with the abuses it entails. Reaper reports:
“We had brought into the ranks, on October 19 and 20, all the armed men; but there were also a very large number of them who, crippled, sick or wounded, marched unarmed between our columns, presenting a frightful spectacle of demoralization, for these men did not for the most part belong to the regiments with which they marched, and not being able to be restrained by the bonds of discipline, threw themselves like vultures on the villages in sight and took from them all the resources which would have been so precious to the rest of the army; seldom did they take advantage of their finds for long, almost always they were killed or taken by the Cossacks who never attacked our columns, but who always prowled around”.
Nevertheless, despite the disproportionate balance of power, the French managed to stand up to the allies and save the army from destruction. Although weakened, the Allies pursued them very slowly, leaving them to fall back on the Rhine. On the evening of the 19th, the King of Prussia named Blücher field-marshal of all the armies and François I raised Metternich to the title of prince. The victory of the Allies, which is sometimes called the "Battle of the Nations" (10 different nations participated in it) really appears as the apotheosis of a Germanic nationalism which had fermented during the French occupation. 
A man will nevertheless really try to stop Napoleon in his retreat:the Bavarian general de Wrède, a former ally... He wants to cut off the road to Mainz from the French with his 50,000 soldiers and about sixty guns. Although weakened, Napoleon still had a few hundred thousand men, he swept the troops from De Wrède to Hanau and was thus able to cross the Rhine. During this last battle, the French lost 2,000 to 3,000 killed or wounded, the Austro-Bavarians counted 1,700 killed, 3,100 wounded, 4,300 prisoners and lost several artillery pieces. Ironically on the defeat of the Bavarian, Napoleon launches "Poor de Wrède, I was able to make him count, but I could not make him general »...
On November 2, 1813, Napoleon was in Mainz, on the 9th he was in Saint-Cloud. To try again and again to stop the progress of the allies, he ordered a new levy of 300,000 soldiers, increasingly young and inexperienced. Les premiers mois de l'année 1814 apportent de tristes nouvelles :en Alsace les premiers éléments de l'armée de Bohême ont passé le Rhin, les Anglais ont passé les Pyrénées, à Naples Murat tente de sauver sa couronne et abandonne l'Empereur pour signer un traité de paix avec l'Autriche. Napoléon compte à présent faire planer devant les coalisés l'ombre de 1793. Révélant un génie militaire sans pareil, Napoléon s'engage dans la campagne de France, un chant du cygne aux allures d'apothéose funeste.
Bibliography
• BOUDON Jacques-Olivier, Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire, Perrin, 2003.
• BRUYERE-OSTELLS Walter, Leipzig 16-19 octobre 1813, Tallandier, 2013.
• DAMAMME Jean-Claude, Les soldats de la Grande Armée, Perrin, 2002.
• GARNIER Jacques &KRAUSE Jean-François, Atlas Napoléon, Napoléon 1er Editions, 2006.
• GARNIER Jacques (Présenté et annoté par), Mémoires du général baron de Marbot, Mercure de France, 1983.
• JOURQUIN Jacques (Textes présentés par), Souvenirs de campagnes du sergent Faucheur, Tallandier, 2004.
• PIGEARD Alain, Dictionnaire des batailles de Napoléon, Tallandier, 2004.
• TULARD Jean, Napoléon ou le mythe du sauveur, Fayard, 1987.