Battle of Hanau The Battle of Hanau was fought on ( 30 – 31 October 1813 ) between Karl Philipp von Wrede ’ s Austro - Bavarian corps and Napoleon ' s retreating French during the War of the Sixth Coalition . Following Napoleon ' s defeat at the Battle of Leipzig earlier in October , Napoleon began to retreat from Germany into France and relative safety . Wrede attempted to block Napoleon ’ s line of retreat at Hanau on 30 October . Napoleon arrived at Hanau with reinforcements and defeated Wrede ’ s forces . On 31 October Hanau was in French control , opening Napoleon ’ s line of retreat . The Battle of Hanau was a minor battle , but an important tactical victory allowing Napoleon ’ s army to retreat onto French soil . Napoleon ultimately lost the War of the Sixth Coalition , giving the battle little strategic importance . Background . The Battle of Leipzig , the largest and bloodiest encounter of the Napoleonic Wars , began on 16 October 1813 , raged for three days and ended with a decisive victory for the Sixth Coalition . Napoleon was forced to abandon central Germany to the coalition and hastily retreated westwards . His strategy was to regroup all his available forces on the shores of the Rhine , where his lines of communication would be shorter and his rear less likely to be threatened . The Emperor ' s concern was that his already battered army might be forced to fight against superior forces again , so he ordered that the retreat be carried out at great speed . Had the coalition managed to advance with more vigour in the days following the Battle of Leipzig , the already disorganised French army would probably have been destroyed , but the coalition armies themselves had suffered such high losses at Leipzig that they were in no position to launch an effective pursuit . With military action confined to secondary rearguard actions , Napoleon was able to install his headquarters at Erfurt on 23 October and began to reorganise his forces . On 26 October , he sent orders to the various corps , directing them to Frankfurt via Eisenach and Fulda . Their assigned destination was the city of Mainz , by the Rhine river . The coalition was buoyed by the news that Bavaria , a former French ally , agreed to join the Sixth Coalition according to the Treaty of Ried concluded just before the Battle of Leipzig . This allowed the coalition to threaten the overall military position of the French by moving a 45 , 000 - 50 , 000 Austro - Bavarian army , under the command of Karl Philipp von Wrede , into Napoleon ' s rear , occupying Würzburg in Franconia . The small French garrison of Würzburg , under General Jean Victor Tharreau , did not try to resist and instead barricaded themselves at the local citadel , allowing the enemy to occupy the town without a fight . From Würzburg , Wrede moved towards the strategic city of Hanau , along one of Napoleon ' s main retreat routes . Wrede ’ s advance guard reached Hanau on 28 October and took possession of the city , blocking Napoleon ’ s route to Frankfurt . Although Wrede probably assumed that the main part of the French forces was retreating along a more northerly road to Coblenz and thus expected to face a force of only 20 , 000 men , he did entertain hopes that he would be able to play a major role in the defeat of Napoleon . He also believed that the French army was completely disorganised , which was not true , and was closely following the main coalition army , the " Army of Bohemia " , which was in reality much further away and not really in close contact with Napoleon ' s forces . Order of battle . Coalition Army . The Austrian and Bavarian army at the battle of Hanau comprised two army corps , one Austrian and one Bavarian , and numbered no less than 42 , 000 men : 33 , 000 infantrymen , 9 , 000 cavalrymen and 94 artillery pieces . They were under the overall command of Bavarian General Karl Philipp von Wrede . The Austrian Corps , under the command of Field - Marshal - Lieutenant Baron Fresnet , numbered 24 , 000 men : 18 , 000 infantrymen ( 18 battalions ) , 6 , 000 cavalrymen ( 32 squadrons ) and 34 artillery pieces . These men were organised in three divisions : the 1st division under General Bach , the 2nd division under General Trautenberg , and the 3rd division under General Spleny ( cavalry and reserve artillery ) . The Bavarian Corps , under Wrede ' s direct command , numbered 18 , 000 men : 15 , 000 infantrymen ( 17 battalions ) , 3 , 000 cavalrymen ( 20 squadrons ) , and 60 artillery pieces . These men were organised in two divisions , one cavalry reserve and one artillery reserve : the 2nd division was under General Beckers , the 3rd division under General Lamotte , the three - brigade cavalry reserve waas under Generals Bieregg , Ellbracht , Dietz , and the artillery reserve was under General Cologne . French Army . The French Grande Armée had suffered horrendous casualties following the battle of Leipzig , which left the French Corps at a fraction of its prior strength . Emperor Napoleon I was in personal command of the French forces in the battle . They numbered between 40 , 000 and 50 , 000 men , but only a fraction of them were ready for combat , with Napoleon able to count on little more than 30 , 000 men : the IInd , Vth and XIth Army Corps , the Ist and IInd Cavalry Reserve Corps and the Imperial Guard . Guard units aside , many of the French battalions at Hanau were only 100 - man strong , and the cavalry squadrons were much smaller . Of these men , only one division ( General Jean - Louis Dubreton ' s , 15 battalions ) of Marshal Claude Victor - Perrin ' s IInd Corps , and another ( General Henri - François - Marie Charpentier ' s 11 battalions ) of Marshal MacDonald XI Corps , were committed to battle with a grand total of some 7 , 000 - 8 , 000 men . Cavalry support came from Sébastiani ' s IInd Cavalry Corps , some 3 , 000 sabres , and Nansouty ' s Imperial Guard cavalry , some 4 , 000 sabres . The entirety of the Imperial Guard infantry and artillery , some 6 , 000 men and 52 cannons , were also committed . Napoleon thus commanded a total of about 20 , 000 men ( 40 battalions , 113 squadrons ) at the battle of Hanau . Preliminaries . On 29 October , having correctly reckoned that his force was strong enough to block the retreat of a disorganised enemy army , Wrede decided to give battle . He had plenty of time to prepare his dispositions and deployed his army in a relatively narrow and deep order , which was quite sensible , given that his intention was to remain on the defensive . Wrede ' s left covered the road to Frankfurt and Mainz , the main retreat route that the French wanted to take . The bulk of his force was positioned along the Kinzig river , on the opposite bank from the city of Hanau , while on his right the divisions of Elbracht and Trautenberg were positioned on the southern bank of the Kinzig . Beckers ' s Bavarian division constituted the far right and was deployed on either side of the Kinzig . One regiment , the Austrian " Szekler " , two battalions strong , as well as a great many skirmisher s detached from their parent units were placed in an advanced position in the Lamboy forest . Most of the cavalry was placed in the second line , in the centre , with the artillery quite evenly dispersed throughout the battlefield . Meanwhile , Napoleon spent the night of 29 / 30 October at Isenburg castle , near Gelnhausen , and received detailed intelligence about the Austro - Bavarian preparations , which confirmed that the enemy was intending to make a stand . Napoleon thus directed the army ' s baggage and supply train northwards , away from the coalition forces , under the protection of Jean - Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova ' s Cavalry Corps , while leading his remaining forces in a frontal manoeuvre against Wrede ' s force . He ordered Victor to form the left wing with his Army Corps and march along the Kinzig , while MacDonald ' s Corps and the Guard were to penetrate the Lamboi forest . Part of the Guard cavalry under General Charles Lefebvre - Desnouettes was detached further north to cover the flank of the army . Napoleon studied Wrede ' s position and spotted its main weakness , namely that he had most of his army deployed with the river behind it , which would act as a natural barrier should retreat be necessary . Upon seeing Wrede ' s dispositions , Napoleon sarcastically noted : " I have made Wrede a Count but it was beyond my power to make him a General . " However , in order to exploit this potentially fatal weakness in Wrede ' s deployment , Napoleon first had to beat him , and do so with an inferior number of infantry , less cavalry and fewer cannons , fighting against an enemy who had all the time it needed to deploy its forces for defense . Battle . Wrede , following successful skirmishing against the French , began to deploy his forces to face the main French force of 20 , 000 . On 30 October Wrede placed his centre with the River Kinzig behind it , and his right wing to its south in an isolated position with only a single bridge linking it with the main force . Napoleon had only 17 , 000 troops including Marshal MacDonald ’ s infantry and General Sébastiani ’ s cavalry to face the enemy forces blocking them . Due to dense forests on the east of Wrede ’ s positions the French were able to advance and make close contact with the allies almost unseen . Napoleon decided to attack the allies ' left with all available troops . By midday Marshal Victor and MacDonald had cleared the forest in front of the allies ' centre . Soon after , General Drouot found a track in the forest towards Wrede ’ s left on which cannon could be moved . Three hours later Grenadiers of the Old Guard had cleared the area of allied troops and Drouot began to deploy 50 cannons supported by cavalry of the Guard and Sébastiani . A brief artillery bombardment from Drouot ’ s cannons silenced Wrede ’ s 28 cannons . French cavalry then attacked and pushed back Wrede ’ s cavalry on his left flank , then attacked the flank of Wrede ’ s centre . Wrede ’ s centre started to fall back , skirting the banks of the Kinzig River and suffering heavy casualties . On the right wing , Wrede ’ s forces tried to cross the single bridge over the Kinzig River to reinforce the centre , but many drowned in the attempt . Wrede was successful in rallying his troops to form a defensive line running from Lamboy Bridge to the town of Hanau . During the night the allies abandoned Hanau . The French occupied Hanau on 31 October with little resistance . Napoleon made no effort to pursue Wrede , the main road to Frankfurt was now reopened , the French retreat continued . Aftermath . Wrede suffered 9 , 000 casualties , Napoleon suffered many fewer , but some 10 , 000 French stragglers became allied prisoners of war between 28 and 31 October . The French reached Frankfurt on 2 November and were only 20 miles from their relatively safe rear base at Mainz . Napoleon was not slowed or blocked or interfered with on his march to Frankfurt , where he arrived in the afternoon of 31 October 1813 . Militarily the battle was a clear victory for Napoleon . Wrede failed to block Napoleon ' s path , although the allied forces of Russians , Prussians and Austrians had cut Napoleon ' s line of retreat . However Napoleon could evaded the maneuver . The Kingdom of Bavaria wanted with this battle to support militarily its shift to the allied side . It did not really matter to the Bavarian politicians and military whether the battle was won or lost — as long as it took place . Overall , 4 , 500 French soldiers and 9 , 000 allied soldiers were lost in the battle . However , the allies were able to capture around 10 , 000 French stragglers . On 5 November 1813 Alexander I marched with his troops into Frankfurt . Honors . The best officers in the battle were honored by promotion and received many medals . For example , Carl Philipp von Wrede received two medals from the Austro - Hungarian Empire : the Order of Leopold and the Commander ' s Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa and two from the Russian Empire : the Order of Alexander Nevsky and the Order of St . George . To commemorate the Battle of Hanau , memorials were erected in the city of Hanau , five of which have been preserved : at Lamboystrasse , Karl - Marx - Strasse and Robert Blum Strasse , and two more at the Kinzig bridge . The battle is also immortalized at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in the list of battles won by Napoleon .