Battle of Montmirail

Napoleon battles Sacken and Yorck near Montmirail on 11 February 1814.

Blücher was near Fère-Champenoise when heard that Olsufiev's corps had been wrecked; he immediately ordered Kleist and Kaptzevich to undertake a night march back to Vertus. The Prussian field marshal ordered Yorck to march to Montmirail while holding the important bridge over the Marne River at Château-Thierry in case a retreat was necessary. During 10 February, Sacken advanced west to Trilport where there was a bridge over the Marne. Blücher recalled Sacken, instructing him to march east to Montmirail to rendezvous with Yorck, then clear the highway between there and Vertus. Blücher neglected to mention anything to Sacken about escaping over the Marne.[12]

F. Osten-Sacken

Napoleon ordered MacDonald to move east from Trilport. At 7:00 pm, the emperor instructed Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty with two divisions of cavalry to march west to capture Montmirail, followed at 3:00 am by Étienne Pierre Sylvestre Ricard's division of Marmont's corps. Ney's Young Guard divisions would move in their wake at 6:00 am while Mortier's Old Guard would march directly from Sézanne to Montmirail. Jean François Leval's division was detached from Oudinot and ordered to march to Montmirail via La Ferté-Gaucher. Napoleon posted Marmont at Étoges with Joseph Lagrange's division and the I Cavalry Corps.[12] Using his central position, Napoleon hoped to smash Sacken and Yorck while they were isolated from Blücher. Accordingly, he ordered MacDonald to retake Château-Thierry and its vital bridge while Marmont kept an eye on Blücher.[13]

Yorck sent a dispatch to Blücher expressing doubt whether he could join Sacken at Montmirail because his soldiers were too worn out to march on the night of 10–11 February. Instead, Yorck promised to move south to Viffort on the road to Montmirail. When he received his orders, Sacken destroyed the bridge at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre and began marching east at 9:00 pm on the 10th. By 9:00 am the following day, Russian corps commander's leading elements were clashing with French patrols east of Viels-Maisons. The French had driven Sacken's Cossacks under Akim Akimovich Karpov out of Montmirail early that morning. At 9:00 am Yorck reached Viffort and was skirmishing with French cavalry.[14] With the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre bridge broken to the west and unknown forces looming to the east, Sacken was in serious danger of becoming trapped. Understanding this, Yorck sent a staff officer to his Russian colleague to warn him that his Prussians would be late to the battlefield. Due to the muddy roads, the heavy Prussian field guns and a brigade had to be left behind. Yorck's messenger recommended that Sacken retreat north to Château-Thierry.[15]

Sacken would have none of it. Against the advice of his own staff who urged him to move closer to Yorck,[16] the Russian commander deployed his army corps with its main weight to the south. Strictly following his orders, Sacken determined to smash his way east through Montmirail. At the start of the battle Napoleon was significantly outnumbered and could only defend with 5,000 Old Guard infantry, 4,500 cavalry, Ricard's division and 36 guns. Because of the bad condition of the roads and the exhaustion of the soldiers, it was not clear whether French reinforcements or Yorck's Prussians would first arrive on the field. Napoleon was taking a huge risk.[13]

Ivan A. Lieven

Sacken's strength was variously given as 18,000 men and 90 guns by David G. Chandler,[17] 14,000 soldiers and 80 guns by George Nafziger,[18] and 18,000 soldiers by Francis Loraine Petre. Prussian staff officer Karl Freiherr von Müffling credited the Russians with 20,000 troops while another German officer counted 16,300 men and 90 guns.[16] Sacken led two infantry and one cavalry corps. The foot soldiers belonged to Alexander Ivanovich Tallisin's VI Corps with the 7th and 18th Infantry Divisions and Ivan Andreievich Lieven's XI Corps with the 10th and 27th Infantry Divisions and a brigade from the 16th Division. The cavalry corps included Sergei Nicholaevich Lanskoi's 2nd Hussar Division and Semyon Davydovich Pandschulishev's 3rd Dragoon Division. Artillery chief Alexey Petrovich Nikitin directed three batteries of 12-pound cannons and four batteries of 6-pounders.[18] Tallisin was acting corps commander in place of Alexei Grigorievich Scherbatov who was ill.[16] The cavalry corps was directed by Ilarion Vasilievich Vasilshikov.[19]

Napoleon, shown with his marshals and staff, leads his army over roads made muddy by days of rain. Though his empire was crumbling, Napoleon proved to be a dangerous opponent in the Six Days Campaign.

According to Chandler and Petre, Napoleon's greatest strength during the battle was 20,000 men.[20][16] Nafziger arrived at a larger total of 27,153 soldiers.[21] The cavalry was made up of the 2,582 troopers of the 1st Guard Cavalry Division under Pierre David de Colbert-Chabanais, the 2,164 sabers of the 3rd Guard Cavalry Division under Louis Marie Levesque de Laferrière and the 896 horsemen of Defrance's division. The infantry numbered 4,133 men from Claude Marie Meunier's 1st Young Guard Division, 2,840 soldiers from Philibert Jean-Baptiste Curial's 2nd Young Guard Division, 4,796 men from Louis Friant's 1st Old Guard Division, 3,878 soldiers from Claude-Étienne Michel's 2nd Old Guard Division and 2,917 men from Ricard's 8th Infantry Division. Finally, Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes led either 3,535 horsemen from the 2nd Guard Cavalry Division[22] or 4,947 infantry from the 3rd Young Guard Division.[21]

The Petit Morin River flows west on the southern margin of the battlefield, which was mostly rolling terrain covered by several woods. Just north of the Petit Morin there was a forest which anchored the French left flank. On the northern fringe of the forest was the village of Marchais-en-Brie with a north-south stream a little to the west. Farther north was the east-west highway. Napoleon placed Ricard's division in columns east of Marchais. Two of Ricard's battalions were detached and posted north of the highway in the Bailly Wood. Behind Ricard were Ney's two Young Guard divisions under Meunier and Curial. In reserve was Friant's division in battalion columns at 100-pace intervals.[21] To keep Sacken and Yorck from linking up, the French emperor deployed Friant's division where the Château-Thierry road met the main east-west highway, with Defrance's cavalry on his right. Farther north, blocking the Château-Thierry road was Nansouty[15] who had overall command of the Guard cavalry divisions.[18]

Sacken posted Tallisin's corps to the south with the 7th Division on the right and the 18th Division in the center. On the north, but still south of the highway was Lieven's corps with the 10th Division in the center and the 27th Division on the left. The infantry was arrayed in two lines with each battalion in column. Three lines of skirmishers deployed in front and the light artillery was posted on the flanks of the infantry. The 12-pounders of Battery Nr. 18 were positioned in the center between the 10th and 18th Divisions while the other two heavy batteries were kept in reserve. The Russians massed 36 guns on the west side of the ravine. According to one account, Lieven's corps was in reserve west of the village of L'Épine-aux-Bois. Vasilshikov's cavalry was arranged to the left of Lieven's infantry near the highway.[23]

Ludwig von Yorck

Sacken created a 2,360-man task force under General-major Heidenreich that included the Pskov, Vladimir, Kostroma and Tambov Infantry Regiments, two companies of the 11th Jägers, the Lukovkin Cossack Regiment and six guns. Except for the guns which were unable to cross the stream, Heidenreich's troops moved east and seized Marchais[23] at about 11:00 am. More French artillery having arrived in the interval, Napoleon ordered Ricard to attack Marchais at noon. A bitter struggle for Marchais raged for two hours, with the Russians retaining control of the village.[16] Napoleon ordered an artillery bombardment while he waited for Michel's Old Guard division to march forward from Montmirail. At 2:00 pm the emperor ordered an attack on Sacken's left flank. Four of Friant's Old Guard battalions marched west along the highway toward Haute-Épine dairy farm, supported on their right by seven squadrons of Gardes d'Honneur. At the same time, Claude-Étienne Guyot led four Guard cavalry squadrons around the Russian left flank. The combined attacks broke Sacken's first line and compelled him to send his second line into action while moving his cavalry to the left to get in contact with Yorck's Prussians.[24]

To break the connection with Yorck, Napoleon ordered a new attack straight down the highway by Nansouty with all three of his divisions, Colbert, Desnouettes and Laferrière. This charge broke up some Russian formations, forcing the soldiers to scatter into the Viels-Maisons woods. Vasilshikov's cavalry counterattacked, forcing Nansouty's horsemen back and restoring the link with the Prussians. By this time Meunier's Young Guard division joined Ricard's in the fighting for Marchais on Napoleon's left flank. The French captured Marchais twice before being driven out again when Sacken's 18th Division recaptured the village.[24]

At either 3:00 pm[24] or 3:30 pm[25] Otto Karl Lorenz von Pirch's 1st Infantry Brigade and Heinrich Wilhelm von Horn's 7th Infantry Brigade arrived at Fontenelle-en-Brie on the Château-Thierry highway. Because of the poor condition of the roads, the Prussians only had brigade Batteries Nrs. 2 and 3 armed with 6-pounders. The heavier cannons were left behind with the 8th Brigade at Château-Thierry.[24] Fearing the appearance of MacDonald's forces in his right rear, Yorck also sent his remaining infantry brigade back to hold Château-Thierry. The Prussian reserve cavalry deployed near Fontenelle[25] though it lacked its artillery. Pirch deployed his brigade in two lines between Fontenelle and the hamlet of Tourneux farther east. After waiting for Horn's brigade to close up behind him, Pirch began attacking toward the Bailly and Plenois woods. Sacken ordered his two reserve heavy batteries to support the Prussian advance. At the same time, Michel's Old Guard division reached the battlefield and was committed to the fight against Yorck.[24]

French cavalry charging Russian squares at Montmirail.

Napoleon ordered the tired soldiers of Ricard and Meunier back into the battle for Marchais. The emperor sent Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre with two battalions of Old Guard Foot Chasseurs to cut off Marchais from the north. Ricard organized a four-battalion attack from the hamlet of Pomesson in the south.[24] Lefebvre's two battalions captured L'Épine-aux-Bois. Though the French achieved local artillery superiority, the Russians in Marchais continued to resist until 5:00 pm when they were forced to relinquish control of the village and pull back. When they reached the west side of the ravine, Defrance's cavalry charged into them, inflicting heavy losses on the brigades of Dietrich and Blagovenzenko. Several hundred Russian skirmishers near Marchais were either cut down or captured. Realizing that without control of Marchais, the battle was lost, Sacken began pulling back his artillery from the right wing toward the center. Near the highway, Russian infantry squares were charged by French cavalry, but they were able to escape when their own cavalry intervened. The Sophia Regiment was completely engulfed by French cavalry but fought its way clear.[26]

Ricard's division goes into action near Marchais during a re-enactment of the battle.

Pirch attacked with the 1st East Prussian and West Prussian Grenadier Battalions and the 5th Silesian Landwehr Regiment in the first line screened by a cloud of skirmishers. The second line consisted of the Leib and Silesian Grenadier Battalions and the 13th Landwehr Regiment. Mortier put four Old Guard battalions into the Bailly woods alongside Ricard's 2/2nd Light and 7/4th Light Infantry Battalions. Despite the support from Russian artillery, the Prussian attack recoiled amid blistering musketry and canister shot. When French skirmishers threatened to envelop one flank, the 2/5th Silesian Landwehr charged with the bayonet to cut its way out. Ignoring the protests of his staff, Yorck went up to encourage the skirmish line, saying, "I want to die if you cannot stop the enemy."[27]

After Michel counterattacked the Prussians with ten battalions, the Leib Grenadier Battalion and the 1/5th Silesian Landwehr met them. Two battalions of the Leib Infantry Regiment anchored the Prussian right flank while the 1st Brigade reformed on their left. Pirch led a bayonet attack that temporarily stopped the French, but he was badly wounded.[28] He was replaced in command by Colonel Losthin.[27] As Prussian retreat continued, the 13th Silesian Landwehr and the Silesian Grenadier Battalion were assailed in the woods, but managed to drive off their French pursuers.[28] The Prussians ended the day between Fontenelle and Viffort.[27]

By evening the Polish Lancers of the Guard fought their way as far west as Viels-Maisons. Sacken was nearly trapped, but Yorck's effort gave the Russians enough time and space to get away.[20] With Vasilshikov's cavalry covering the withdrawal, the Russians headed for the Château-Thierry road as it rained. The Russian retreat through marshes and woods was guided by a line of bonfires. The artillery was saved by detailing 50 cavalrymen to help pull each gun using ropes, though eight disabled pieces were abandoned. After an all-night march, Sacken's troops reached Viffort on the main road and continued marching northward toward Château-Thierry.[27]