V Cavalry Corps ( Grande Armée ) The V Cavalry Corps ( Grande Armée ) was a French military formation that existed during the Napoleonic Wars . The corps was created in 1813 and fought until 1814 . Emperor Napoleon first organized the corps during the summer armistice in 1813 and it fought at Dresden and Leipzig . Samuel - François Lhéritier led the corps at first but was replaced by Pierre Claude Pajol . After Pajol was wounded at Leipzig , Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud commanded the corps at Hanau in 1813 , and at Brienne , La Rothière , Mormant , Fère - Champenoise , and Paris in 1814 . History . 1813 . After the disastrous French invasion of Russia , Napoleon had to rebuild his armies in Germany . By 1 May 1813 the French emperor was ready to lead an army numbering 226 , 177 troops and 457 artillery pieces . However , his cavalry was its weakest element . Between mid - April and 1 May , it was organized into the I Cavalry Corps with 3 , 515 officers and men , the II Cavalry Corps with 3 , 293 sabers , and the III Cavalry Corps with 3 , 895 troopers . On 25 March , General of Brigade Jean Antoine de Collaert was assigned to lead the 1st Brigade of General of Division Samuel - François Lhéritier ' s 4th Cavalry Division in General of Division Jean - Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova ' s III Cavalry Corps . After a reorganization , the division became part of the V Cavalry Corps on 10 August . From that day until 5 October , Collaert became the acting commander of the 5th Dragoon Division . The summer armistice ended on 17 August 1813 . At this time , Lhéritier commanded the V Cavalry Corps which counted about 4 , 000 horsemen in 20 squadrons supported by six guns . In its initial disposition , Lhéritier ' s corps was posted near Dresden together with the XIV Corps under Marshal Laurent Gouvion Saint - Cyr . As the Allied Army of Bohemia advanced from the south , the V Cavalry Corps covered the left flank during Saint - Cyr ' s fighting withdrawal . On 25 August , Lhéritier lost three guns in a skirmish with Russian cavalry outside Dresden . Lhéritier ' s corps was present during the Battle of Dresden on 26 and 27 August 1813 . Its three divisions were led by Generals of Brigade Stanislaw Klicki , Collaert , and Auguste Étienne Lamotte . Klicki led the 9th Light Cavalry Division , Collaert directed the 5th Dragoon Division , and Lamotte commanded the 6th Dragoon Division . Meanwhile , Pierre Claude Pajol led the 10th Light Cavalry Division which belonged to Saint - Cyr ' s corps . Pajol ' s division counted four squadrons each of French , Italians , and Poles . On the 26th , Pajol appears to have taken command of Lhéritier ' s corps as well as his own division because one authority states that he controlled 46 cavalry squadrons while I Cavalry Corps commander General of Division Victor de Fay de La Tour - Maubourg directed 78 more . This mass of cavalry was deployed to the east of Dresden in the Friederichstadt suburb . Yet the same source assigned only 68 squadrons to La Tour - Maubourg and Pajol for the action on the 27th . Beginning at 6 : 00 AM , the cavalry supported by Marshal Claude Perrin Victor ' s II Corps advance against the outnumbered Austrian left wing . The attack was a complete success and by 2 : 00 PM the Austrian defenders were almost annihilated , losing 15 , 000 prisoners . Of the V Cavalry Corps , only the 26th and 27th Chasseurs à Cheval and 19th Dragoon Regiments were engaged . On 26 September 1813 , the V Cavalry Corps , still under Lhéritier , was posted at Grossenhain . On 2 October , the corps was placed under the orders of Marshal Joachim Murat along with the II , V , and VIII Corps . Murat was ordered to Freiberg to defend against another advance by the Allied Bohemian Army . On the 14th Murat stood to fight south of Leipzig at Liebertwolkwitz with 32 , 400 infantry , 9 , 800 cavalry , and 156 guns . The contending forces included Murat ' s command plus the IV Cavalry Corps and one division of the I Cavalry Corps . The outcome was a drawn battle in which both sides held their positions . The V Cavalry Corps , now under the command of Pajol , was so badly " knocked about " that it was temporarily out of action . At the Battle of Leipzig on 16 – 19 October , Pajol led 5 , 000 troopers and 11 guns in three divisions under Generals of Division Jacques Gervais , baron Subervie , Lhéritier , and Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud . Subervie led the 9th Light Cavalry Division , Lhéritier directed the 5th Heavy Cavalry Division , and Milhaud commanded the 6th Heavy Cavalry Division . See Order of Battle : Leipzig 1813 . Early on the 16th the I and V Cavalry Corps and the Imperial Guard cavalry were placed in reserve in the southern sector . On the 18th the V Cavalry Corps supported the II Corps to the south of Leipzig . At 4 : 00 PM on 18 October , the I , III , and V Cavalry Corps were withdrawn from the battlefield . Pajol was among the many wounded and was replaced by Milhaud in command of the corps . During the retreat after Leipzig , Milhaud and Lhéritier led the 15th and 18th Dragoons in action at Eckartsberga on 22 October . The French successfully parried an attempt by Feldzeugmeister Ignaz Gyulai ' s III Armeekorps to cut off their escape route . The 19th and 20th Dragoons and the 14th and 27th Chasseurs à Cheval from the V Cavalry Corps participated in the Battle of Hanau on 30 – 31 October . By late November , Milhaud ' s V Cavalry Corps covered the Rhine River from Mainz in the north to near Landau in the south . The corps numbered 3 , 973 horsemen of whom 300 patrolled the river every day between Mainz and Worms . 1814 . By the end of January 1814 , Allied columns brushed aside the weak forces defending the borders and invaded France . Napoleon resolved to move against them with the Imperial Guard , II and VI Corps and the I and V Cavalry Corps , a total of 33 , 000 infantry and 8 , 000 cavalry . In a clash at Saint - Dizier on 27 January , 2 , 100 troopers belonging to Milhaud ' s cavalry defeated 1 , 500 men of the Russian 2nd Hussar Division . The French units involved in the skirmish were the 5th Chevau - Léger Lancers , the 10th and 26th Chasseurs à Cheval , and the 2nd , 11th , 13th , and 19th Dragoons . At the Battle of Brienne on 29 January , the V Cavalry Corps led the attack . In overall command of the cavalry , General of Division Emmanuel Grouchy placed General of Division Hippolyte Piré with the light cavalry division on the left , Lhéritier ' s dragoons in the center , and some Imperial Guard cavalry on the right . Before 3 : 00 PM , the horsemen swept forward , driving back Pyotr Pahlen ' s Russian cavalry . In their pursuit , the dragoon divisions of Lhéritier and General of Division André Louis Briche came across three Russian battalions in square and were repulsed . The cavalry was then shifted to cover the French right flank during the remainder of the combat . The corps also fought at the Battle of La Rothière on 1 February . Late in the day , Napoleon threw in Milhaud ' s corps to cover the disengagement of his outumbered and defeated army . On 6 February 1814 , Marshal Jacques MacDonald reported that his cavalry was in a bad state . He wrote that the V Cavalry Corps counted 800 sabers which was half their nominal stength . The III Cavalry Corps numbered only 500 while the II Cavalry Corps had between 800 and 900 troopers . On the 10th , the III and V Cavalry Corps and General of Division Antoine - Louis Decrest de Saint - Germain massed at Meaux to cover a river crossing . The combined force was 2 , 000 horsemen and five guns . Milhaud led the divisions of Piré and Briche at the Battle of Mormant on 17 February . Lhéritier ' s division was transferred to the newly formed VI Cavalry Corps at this time . Milhaud ' s V Cavalry Corps participated in the Battle of Fère - Champenoise on 25 March , including the 23rd Chasseurs à Cheval and the 5th , 6th , 21st , 25th , and 26th Dragoons . The 6th Dragoon Division fought under the command of General of Division Nicolas - François Roussel d ' Hurbal at the Battle of Paris on 30 March . Orders of Battle . Leipzig 1813 . V Cavalry Corps : General of Division Pierre Claude Pajol ( 5 , 000 ) " Sources :