text: battle of vauchamps the battle of vauchamps ( 14 february 1814 ) 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 . on the morning of 14 february , blücher , commanding a prussian corps and elements of two russian corps , resumed his attack against marmont . the latter continued to fall back until he was reinforced . napoleon arrived on the battlefield with strong combined - arms forces , which allowed the french to launch a determined counterattack and drive back the leading elements of the army of silesia . blücher realized that he was facing the emperor in person and decided to pull back and avoid another battle against napoleon . in practice , blücher 's attempt to disengage proved extremely difficult to execute , as the coalition force was by now in an advanced position , had virtually no cavalry present to cover its retreat and was facing an enemy who was ready to commit its numerous cavalry . while the actual pitched battle was short , the french infantry , under marshal marmont , and most of all the cavalry , under general emmanuel de grouchy , launched a relentless pursuit that rode down the enemy . retreating in slow - moving square formations in broad daylight and along some excellent cavalry terrain , the coalition forces suffered very heavy losses , with several squares broken by the french cavalry . at nightfall , combat ceased and blücher opted for an exhausting night march in order to take his remaining forces to safety . context on 13 february , having fought three successful actions in three days against the prussian and russian army at champaubert , montmirail and château - thierry , napoleon was pursuing the defeated enemy . after his consecutive defeats , field - marshal blücher decided to disengage from napoleon and move a significant force against the isolated french army corps of marshal marmont , at étoges . blücher knew that marmont 's corps was weak and his plan was to destroy it and thus fall upon the rear of napoleon 's main force . still in pursuit of the debris of the enemy force , late on 13 february , napoleon received reports that marmont 's corps had been attacked and pushed out of his position at étoges . the emperor deduced that the enemy force before him would have to be a much reduced one and promptly decided to go to marmont 's aid . the emperor left château - thierry on 14 february , towards 3 o 'clock in the morning , leaving a small portion of his forces with marshal édouard mortier , duc de , with orders to continue the pursuit of the enemy . taking with him the cavalry of the guard and grouchy 's cavalry reserve , napoleon headed for the village of vauchamps . meanwhile , late on 13 february , having successfully regrouped what forces he could muster at bergères - lès - vertus , blücher had launched an attack against marmont 's single division , pushing him out of étoges and advancing as planned towards champaubert and fromentières , in the rear of napoleon 's force . however , having read blücher 's intentions , napoleon had given orders for a concentration of french forces in that very sector . opposing forces army of silesia during the battle of vauchamps on 14 february , prussian field - marshal blücher , commander of combined prussian - russian army of silesia could count on 20 , 000 to 21 , 500 men , from three army corps : iind ( prussian ) corps , commanded by general friedrich graf kleist von : 10th brigade under george ludwig von pirch 11th brigade under hans ernst karl , graf von zieten 12th brigade under prince augustus of prussia cavalry brigade under von cavalry brigade under von reserve artillery under braun . ( russian ) corps : 9th division under udom ii . xth ( russian ) corps under general peter mikhailovich : 8th division under prince urusov ( or ) , 22nd division under . kleist 's ii corps numbered 13 , 500 men while 's x corps counted 6 , 500 soldiers . there were also the 1 , 500 troops from ix corps who survived the battle of champaubert . these were grouped into three or four temporary battalions and an artillery battery . the rump of ix corps lost 600 men and all of its guns on the evening of 14 february . the ii corps had eight 6 - pound batteries and two 12 - pound batteries . each battery had eight guns or a total of 80 cannons . there was also a howitzer battery of unknown strength . the x corps had three batteries attached . grande armée 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 de saint - germain division jean - pierre doumerc division étienne tardif de de 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 michel ney ( reinforcements not engaged ) : 1st ( old guard ) division under louis friant , 2nd ( young guard ) division under philibert jean - baptiste . 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 . battle having begun to push back the feeble french forces from marmont 's vi 's corps the day before , blücher occupied champaubert early on 14 february , sending his vanguard forward , as far as the village of fromentières and then vauchamps . marmont , commanding only the lagrange division and 800 men from the ricard division , had cautiously pulled his men back towards montmirail , where he began to receive reinforcements . towards 9 o 'clock in the morning , blücher set zieten 's brigade and some cavalry in motion from vauchamps towards montmirail . to their surprise , marmont 's men didn 't give ground this time and vigorously counterattacked , pushing zieten 's advance guard back into the village of vauchamps . the accompanying prussian cavalry was dispersed by a violent french cannonade . with now both brigades of ricard 's division available , marmont launched these men against the prussian position at vauchamps , with the 1st brigade on his right , advancing under the cover of the beaumont forest , south of the montmirail - vauchamps road and the 2nd brigade on his left , north of the road , advancing frontally towards the position . marmont also had with him his own escort cavalry squadron and four élite imperial guard duty squadrons from the emperor 's own escort , under general lion . marmont 's leftmost brigade entered vauchamps , but , with the village heavily invested with zieten 's prussian defenders , the frenchmen were soon repulsed , with the prussians in pursuit . marshal marmont then launched his five squadrons to the rescue and the cavalry promptly forced the prussians back to the village , with one of their battalions taken prisoner , after taking refuge in an isolated farm . zieten then decided to pull back his forces towards the village of fromentières . there , zieten was joined by generals kleist and , who , having heard the sound of the guns , had begun to move their respective army corps in that direction , coming from champaubert . the french also moved forward , with marmont 's two divisions ( lagrange and ricard ) in pursuit of zieten , along the road to fromentières . marmont was now supported on his left by general grouchy , who had just arrived on the field of battle with the divisions of saint - germain and doumerc , moving past the village of , in order to cut off zieten 's retreat . further french reinforcements were now available , this time on marmont 's right : the division of leval , who had been steadily moving up the valley of the petit morin river , in a bid to outflank the prussians . with the french imperial guard artillery now also deployed and firing at them , zieten 's prussians drew back in good order , and formed in squares to fend off grouchy 's cavalry . towards 2 o 'clock in the afternoon , after assessing the situation , blücher realised that he was facing napoleon himself and thus decided to immediately withdraw . he ordered all of his forces to retreat through champaubert and directed a part of his artillery to safety , towards étoges . pursuit with the coalition forces now in full retreat , marmont received orders to aggressively pursue the enemy , knowing that he could count on his two infantry divisions , plus that of leval , as well as on the support of general drouot 's guard artillery , on nansouty 's guard cavalry on his right and on grouchy 's two cavalry divisions on his left . following marmont at a short distance were further reinforcements , two guard infantry divisions ( friant and ) under the command of marshal ney and with them was napoleon himself . napoleon was followed by an additional " young guard " division , under general meunier , which the emperor had taken with him when he left château - thierry early that morning . the french cavalry had been hindered in its movements by the broken terrain and thus far unable to really bother zieten 's infantry squares . consequently , blücher was able to lead an exemplary retreat up to fromentières and . however , once past these villages , the terrain became flat and even , proper for cavalry action , and now , with the increasingly aggressive action of the enemy cavalry against his flank and rear , zieten and his brigade became increasingly isolated . grouchy , with the divisions of doumerc and saint - germain was now boldly menacing zieten 's right , while on his left , the prussian general saw nansouty 's guard cavalry ( laferrière - levesque 's division , plus the four service squadrons , under lefebvre - desnouettes ) . zieten 's brigade was finally cut off from the rest of the army and charged violently by grouchy 's cuirassiers , who broke the infantry squares and took no less than 2 , 000 prisoners , with the rest of the brigade routed . abandoning his position at fromentières , where marmont 's infantry had just begun to , blücher ordered the continuation of the retreat towards champaubert and étoges , with kleist 's corps on the left , south of the road and 's corps on the right , north of the road . again taking advantage from the flat terrain , grouchy was able to advance rapidly and fall onto the rear of the coalition infantry squares , which were now slowly withdrawing in echelon and efficiently using the terrain to take shelter from the artillery bombardment . with night approaching and their retreat towards étoges now barred by enemy cavalry , the prussian squares began to lose cohesion . spotting this weakness , grouchy , who had been reinforced by 's division , energetically launched his three divisions against the coalition squares , dispersing a number of them , with these men fleeing in disorder to take refuge in the étoges forest . the old blücher , who had been bravely exposing himself to great danger in order to boost the morale his men , was almost taken prisoner , together with his chief of staff , gneisenau , generals kleist , and prince augustus of prussia . only just escaping capture , blücher crossed the forest of vertus and took up positions at étoges with prince urusov 's division , which had been left there in reserve . russian general udom , with 1 , 800 men and 15 cannon , was instructed to cover the position , by occupying the park at étoges . udom 's men were exhausted after the long retreat and fighting and , seeing that night had fallen , thought themselves in safety . however , doumerc 's cuirassiers , formed unseen in the night , surprised these men and a single charge was enough to send the panicked men fleeing . prince urusov , 600 men and eight artillery pieces were captured during this action , with the french sailors ' regiment from lagrange 's division subsequently entering the village of étoges . blücher abandoned this position too and made a hasty retreat towards vertus and bergères . he then opted for a speedy night march and the next day he managed to bring his remaining men to châlons , where he was joined by yorck 's and sacken 's corps . result the battle was actually no more than a very long cavalry pursuit and was a very costly defeat for blücher 's " army of silesia " , which lost as much as 10 , 000 men , during this day . french author jean - pierre mir states that the prussian corps of kleist had 3 , 500 men out of action ( killed , wounded and missing ) , as well as 2 , 000 prisoners . according to this author , the russian corps had around 3 , 500 men , killed , wounded or missing and also lost 15 cannons and 10 flags . historian alain pigeard places overall losses of the army of silesia throughout this day between 9 , 000 and 10 , 000 men but the detail of these losses seems to suggest lighter casualties . pigeard speaks of only 1 , 250 men killed , wounded or missing and 2 , 000 prisoners for the prussians , and of 2 , 000 men lost for the russians . since pigeard asserts that these casualties occurred during the pursuit , it is possible that these figures do not take into account the casualties incurred during the initial actions of this battle ( one battalion of zieten 's brigade captured , plus the 2 , 000 prisoners taken during grouchy 's and nansouty 's joint action against zieten ) . according to pigeard , the french registered very light casualties of around 600 men . military historian jacques garnier , analysing the battle in jean 's dictionnaire napoléon , notes that only the muddy , sodden ground , hampering an efficient deployment of the french artillery and infantry , prevented a much more emphatic victory . he also notes that after vauchamps , napoleon was able to safely turn south and fall upon the " army of bohemia " , commanded by prince of schwarzenberg .