Everything about Battle Of Montereau totally explained
Austria
Kingdom of Württemberg
| commander1=
Napoleon Bonaparte
| commander2=
Field Marshal Schwarzenberg Frederick I of Württemberg
| strength1=
| strength2=
| casualties1=2,500
| casualties2=6,000
|}}
The
Battle of Montereau was fought near
Montereau-Fault-Yonne on
February 18,
1814 and resulted the victory of the
French under
Napoleon Bonaparte against
Austrians and the Württembergeois under Royal Prince of
Württemberg.
Background
Following his successes with the
Six Days Campaign (10th to 14th February, 1814) in smashing the Allied drive on Paris,
Napoleon headed southward towards
Seine River where the main Austrian Army under
Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, was threatening Paris from the southeast. Napoleon stopped the advance on Paris at Mormant (about 30 miles from Paris) on 17th February, some French units had to march 60 miles in 36 hours to reach Mormant.
This action, plus defeats suffered by the Prussians to the north, caused the
Prince of Schwarzeberg to order a retreat. Schwarzeberg left
Frederick I of Württemberg, to command a rearguard at the key village of
Montereau, which was located at the confluence of the Rivers Seine and Yonne.
Battle
Napoleon ordered
Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin, duc de Belluno, to Montereau, but Victor's force was slow in marching on Montereau, this gave time for
Württemberg to strengthen his hasty positions. Harassing Cavalry attacks by General
Claude Pierre, comte Pajol, managed to push back outposts and slow the improvements of the defenses, but could do little else without the support of the infantry troops of General Victor-Perrin.
At 9:00AM on the 18th Victor arrived at Montereau,
Napoleon furious with Victor’s slow advance, replaced him with General
Étienne Maurice Gérard.
Gérard set to work establishing fire superiority over
Württemberg’s defending troops. By early afternoon artillery of the
Imperial Guard had arrived and allowed Gérard to silence Württemberg’s batteries and bombard the village.
At 3:00PM a French attack captured a ridge forming the key to
Montereau’s defences. Frederick I of Württemberg subsequently ordered a retreat, but it was soon turned into a rout by a cavalry forces lead by
Claude Pierre, comte Pajol leading a sweep into the village and Allied rear. Pajol’s cavalry charge also prevented the Allies from detonating demolition charges on two key bridges allowing further pursuit.
Conclusion
The Allies suffered 6,000 casualties and lost 15 cannons, the French suffered 2,500 casualties. The army of
Frederick I of Württemberg was in full retreat and that of
Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg fled eastwards towards
Troyes in disarray.
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Battle Of Montereau'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://battle_of_montereau.totallyexplained.com">Battle of Montereau Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
