The demise of French reign started in 1813 with the defeat of Napoleon in the Battle of Leipzig. The coalition armies conquered the Rhine crossing at Mannheim on 31 December 1813 and pursued the French fleeing toward Kaiserslautern. That same day, the French retreated from Speyer leaving hundreds of typhoid patients behind in the Speyer field hospital which had been used by Napoleon's retreating army. In the following weeks it was used for the wounded of the coalition army which came through Speyer. After Napoleon returned from Elba, Speyer again was a military back area in the wars of 1815. Once again it stood in the international limelight when, on 27 June 1815, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Francis I of Austria and King Frederick William III of Prussia met at the allied headquarters in Speyer.