According to official returns, by 1813, the 1st Swiss was the weakest of the four regiments, standing at 587 in strength, with 210 Russian campaign veterans. By Spring 1813, all four of the Swiss regiments were assigned to General Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor's independent Corps of Observation of Holland charged with defending the Dutch departments of the French Empire. By October however, the 1st–3rd Swiss regiments advanced into Germany to take up a position at the famed battlefield of Minden in the Kingdom of Westphalia.