Battle of La Rothière

Background

After Leipzig, Napoleon retreated across the Rhine in November 1813 with about 129,000 men on 1 December, against a numerically stronger Coalition. Several former allies, Bavaria among them, went over to the other side. Three Allied armies invaded France in the winter: Schwarzenberg's Army of Bohemia crossed the upper Rhine on 20 December, Blücher's Army of Silesia the middle Rhine on 1 January, and Wintzingerode's the lower Rhine on 6 January.

The French withdrew at first with little resistance. Marshal Mortier fought at the first Battle of Bar-sur-Aube on 24 January and fell back to Troyes. Napoleon arrived on 26 January and took command of about 41,300 men, intending to strike Blücher before Yorck's Prussians could join him. The result was the Battle of Brienne on 29 January, generally treated as inconclusive; Blücher nearly was captured but fell back to a strong position.

Blücher then met Schwarzenberg at Trannes, and the two decided to attack Napoleon together. La Rothière was the only battle of the 1814 campaign in which both Allied armies attacked Napoleon's main army at once. Napoleon, who had lingered near Brienne on 30 and 31 January, did not expect an attack south of the town; he had read the scattered reports as signs of a move west towards Troyes.

The armies

The Allies had at least 78,000 men and perhaps considerably more, with about 200 guns. Blücher commanded the attack: two of his own corps (Sacken and Olsufiev) and two from Schwarzenberg's army (Gyulai and the Crown Prince of Württemberg). Wrede's Bavarians were to threaten the French left, and Barclay de Tolly's Russians formed the reserve. Schwarzenberg was commander-in-chief, but Blücher had tactical control.

The French had about 45,000 men, though the sources range from 36,000 to over 50,000, with about 128 guns. Gérard held Dienville on the right, Duhesme's division of Victor's II Corps held La Rothière itself, with battalions at Petit-Mesnil and Chaumesnil, Grouchy's cavalry stood between those villages, and Marmont's division lay at Morvilliers on the left. Napoleon recalled Guard infantry divisions as the attack became clear.

The weather shaped everything. Snow and heavy ground left the French artillery nearly useless, many columns lost their way, and wet snow fouled the priming of many muskets, so Sacken's infantry attacked with the bayonet.

The battle

Opening, about 13:00. The battle began just after 13:00 when Osten-Sacken's Russians advanced from Trannes, with the 11th and 6th Corps in front. Cavalry fought around La Rothière. Guyot's French light cavalry counter-attacked and killed many Russian gunners, and Nansouty's cavalry charged the Russian guns twice. The Russian artillery repulsed the first charge, and four fresh Russian cavalry regiments defeated the second. The Allies captured four batteries of Guard horse artillery, 24 guns. Blücher did not exploit the moment, because snow began falling again.

La Rothière, afternoon. About 16:00 Sacken's infantry went in with the bayonet and drove Duhesme's men out of the village, though some held houses on the northern edge; Sacken took the southern end, while Duhesme held the northern and the village stayed contested all day. At Dienville, Gyulai did not attack in force until about 16:00. One Austrian division crossed the Aube and attacked from the west bank; the bridge changed hands several times, and a French counter-attack retook it. The Austrians did not occupy Dienville until midnight, after the French left.

Beaulieu Wood, La Giberie and Chaumesnil. The Crown Prince's 4th Corps took Beaulieu Wood and La Giberie, but Victor's infantry retook La Giberie, and the Crown Prince asked for help. Toll, adviser to Tsar Alexander I, sent two cuirassier divisions and a grenadier division without telling Blücher. On the right, Wrede's advance was slowed when Pahlen's cavalry crossed its line of march; his leading elements reached La Chaise at 14:00 and cleared the Ajou wood by 16:00. Wrede took Chaumesnil, Napoleon sent Meunier's Guard division and Guyot's cavalry to retake it, and those attacks failed. Wrede's cavalry got among the French squares and took 21 guns around 19:00. The 4th Corps retook La Giberie at 17:00 and Petit-Mesnil soon after.

The reserves and the night. Unable to break the French centre, Blücher asked for the reserves, but only Paskevich's grenadier division arrived; the other grenadier division and the two cuirassier divisions marched back and forth without fighting. Seeing the battle turn, Napoleon prepared to withdraw and sent Rottembourg's Guard division to retake La Rothière. The first brigade retook the village but was driven out by Olsufiev's corps; the second cleared it again but was forced back by Grimmer's Austrian brigade and the Russian grenadiers. In the dark Bavarian and Württemberg cavalry charged each other by mistake, halting the pursuit. About 21:00 a heavier snowstorm let the French break contact, and they fell back to Lesmont, leaving Marmont to watch the Allies.

Aftermath

The French fell back to Lesmont and then Troyes. About 4,000 men deserted on the retreat, and the townspeople at Troyes did little to help. The Allies did not pursue; Maude attributes this to the state of the roads or inertia at Schwarzenberg's headquarters. Chandler called it a tactical defeat for Napoleon, Petre an Allied victory of note, and Smith a very significant Allied victory.

The consequence was a mistake. Worried about supplying both armies along one line, Schwarzenberg separated them: Blücher marched west towards Meaux, Schwarzenberg towards Troyes and Paris, with Wittgenstein's corps as a link. Blücher moved ahead of Schwarzenberg and his army became strung out, with Cossacks guarding his flank withdrawn without telling him around 4 February. Napoleon struck his centre. On 10 February Olsufiev's small corps, outnumbered about six to one, was virtually destroyed at Champaubert, opening the Six Days' Campaign.

The Allies' decision to divide was the real consequence of the day: it opened the way for Napoleon's counter-offensive against Blücher's dispersed corps in the following days.

Wargaming it

La Rothière is a good divisional-scale game on a table of snow-covered ridges and villages, at about one base per 1,000 men for the Allies and per 500 for the French. The Allies have numbers and a chain of command that is a game in itself: Blücher fights the battle, Schwarzenberg owns most of the troops, and Barclay's reserves were moved by Toll, the Tsar's adviser, without Blücher's knowledge.

The French defend a line of villages: Dienville, La Rothière, Chaumesnil, Petit-Mesnil and La Giberie. Give them poor artillery performance (snow and mud), musketry that fouls in the weather, and Guard reserves that arrive late.

The decisions are Blücher's: where to commit his scarce reserves, and whether the Allied player gets all of Barclay's troops or, as historically, only a trickle. Use the late-afternoon onset of a snowstorm as a victory-point-neutral event that cuts visibility and ends the pursuit. A shorter scenario starts at 16:00 with the villages half taken. The what-ifs are an Allied attack with all reserves, or a Napoleon who has withdrawn to Troyes the night before. Napoleon's own scoring condition is to leave the field with an army intact, as he did.

Maps and pictures