page_title: Battle of Vauchamps
section_title: Grande Armée
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Vauchamps / Opposing forces / Grande Armée
context_page_description: The Battle of Vauchamps was the final major engagement of the Six Days Campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition. It resulted in a part of the Grande Armée under Napoleon I defeating a superior Prussian and Russian force of the Army of Silesia under Field-marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.
  At the beginning of 1814, the armies of the French Empire, under the direct command of Emperor Napoleon I, were scrambling to defend Eastern France against the invading Coalition Armies. Despite fighting against vastly superior forces, Napoleon managed to score a few significant victories and, between 10 and 13 February repeatedly beat Blücher's Army of Silesia. On 13 February, reeling from his successive defeats, Blücher looked to disengage from Napoleon and instead manoeuvre with a part of his forces to fall upon the isolated VI Corps of Marshal Auguste de Marmont, who was defending Napoleon's rear. The Prussian commander attacked and pushed back Marmont late on 13 February. Nevertheless, the Emperor had read into his enemy's intentions and directed powerful forces to support Marmont.
context_section_description: Napoleon had sent orders for a major concentration of forces, which resulted in a force of some 25,000 men being assembled in this sector. However, of these men, only 19,000 soldiers got to the battlefield in time, with no more than 10,000 men engaged in the actual fighting:
  VI Corps, commanded by Marshal of the Empire Auguste de Marmont:
  3rd Division under Joseph Lagrange
  8th Division under Étienne Pierre Sylvestre Ricard
  Reinforcements temporarily attached: 7th division under Jean François Leval
  Cavalry, commanded by General Emmanuel de Grouchy:
  Division Antoine Louis Decrest de Saint-Germain
  Division Jean-Pierre Doumerc
  Division Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux de Bordesoulle
  Guard cavalry, commanded by General Étienne de Nansouty:
  2nd Division under Charles, comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes,
  3rd Division under Louis Marie Levesque de Laferrière.
  Guard artillery under Antoine Drouot.
  Guard infantry, under Marshal, Prince of the Moskowa Michel Ney (Reinforcements not engaged):
  1st (Old Guard) division under Louis Friant,
  2nd (Young Guard) division under Philibert Jean-Baptiste Curial.
  Grouchy's I Cavalry Corps and II Cavalry Corps, each of two divisions, numbered a combined 3,600 horsemen. The two Guard cavalry divisions together counted 3,300 troopers. The 1st Old Guard Division had 4,000 men and the 2nd Old Guard Division had 3,000. The 1st Young Guard Division was made up of 4,000 soldiers while the 2nd Young Guard Division had 2,500 troops. Marmont's two divisions could muster only 3,000 men. Jean François Leval's 7th Division comprised 4,500 soldiers. Of these forces, only the cavalry, Marmont's infantry and one battalion of the Old Guard were actually engaged in the fighting. The others were marching along behind.
caption: Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, commander of the French forces
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