NAPOLEON'S SIX DAYS' CAMPAIGN

In 1812, Napoleon’s army was retreating from the failed invasion of Russia. Seeing an opportunity, the “Sixth Coalition” of Russia, Austria, Prussia, Great Britain Sweden, Spain and other nations who smelled French blood was formed and eventually defeated Napoleon’s forces at the Battle of Liepzig in 1813. In 1814, the combined Coalition of some four hundred thousand crossed the Rhine into France under the overall command of Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

By 1814, the French army in France was down to seventy thousand men, but the French had the home advantage of shorter supply lines, a friendly populace and secure lines of communication.

At the start of the campaign of 1814, two main Coalition armies invaded France: Field Marshall Karl Phillip Schwarzenberg’s Army of Bohemia to the south and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's Army of Silesia to the north. Both armies were heading for Paris. Napoleon tried to prevent this advance, without much success. The French suffered a loss at the Battle of La Rothière (1 February 1814), following which the Coalition further divided their force with Schwarzenberg staying on the Seine with the goal of  threatening Paris from the south while Blücher’s army headed north towards the Marne and Paris. This created a gap between the Coalition armies that Napoleon took advantage of by moving north into the middle of Blücher's scattered army. This was the start of Napoleon’s brilliant Six Day’s Campaign (February 10-15).

On 10 February the French crushed General Zakhar Olsufiev's Russian corps at Champaubert. On learning of this defeat, Blücher moved his force north toward Verrus and ordered troops at the front of the advance under the command of Fabian von der Osten-Sacken (Russian) and Johann Yorck von Wartenburg  (Prussian) to unite at Montmirail and fight their way past Napoleon to join up with Blücher's main army. Concurrently, Napoleon led his main army west to deal with Sacken and Yorck, while a smaller French force commanded by Marshal Jacques MacDonald was ordered to advance along the Marne and retake Château-Thierry.

Thus, on 11 February there were three forces converging on Montmirail - Sacken from the west, Yorck from the south, and Napoleon from the east. All three groups had to contend with muddy roads and exhausted troops.

The Battle of Montmirail took place in the area north of the Petit Moran River, with the village of Montmirail at the rear of the battlefield. The Petit Morin River flows west on the southern margin of the battlefield, which was mostly rolling terrain covered by several woods. Just north of the Petit Morin there was a forest thar anchored the French left flank.

Sacken had two infantry and one cavalry corps under his command, about eighteen thousand men. Yorck also commanded about eighteen thousand men. Napoleon’s force heading to Montmirail  was about 27-30,000 men, made up of Marshal Ney’s Young Guard, the I Cavalry Corps, and Old Guard divisions under Marshal Édouard Mortier, duc de Trévise, and a smattering of other troops - a total of about twenty-seven thousand soldiers.

Napoleon won a hard fought battle at Montmiral, defeating a series of attempts by Sacken to break through to the east. Yorck played a minor part in the battle. The battle was characterized by a series of attacks and counter-attacks by infantry and cavalry. Control of the village of Marchais  Map was traded between the French and Russians at least three times. There was also heavy fighting around the village of Bailly, Marchais-en-Brie. Map Eventually, the French gained control of the battlefield and at the end of the day both Yorck and Sacken ordered a retreat towards Château-Thierry.

Macdonald’s force failed to make much progress towards Château-Thierry, and this enabled Yorck and Sacken to get most of their men across the Marne River.

On the morning of 12 February, the Prussian advance guard were in place at Montfaucon Map , about eleven kilometres south of Château-Thierry (about halfway from Montmirial).  Napoleon moved his army North from Montmirial along two parallel routes passing through Fontenelles and Rozoy. The Prussians were defending a series of hills divided by streams that ran west towards the Meuse. The first significant fighting of the day took place on the Caquerets Hill, just north of Montfaucon and saw the Prussians forced back to the next line of hills. The French next made advances to the east near Viffort. A subsequent cavalry fight resulted in further Prussian retreat.

The battle next moved nearer to Château-Thierry, with the French cavalry inflicting heavy losses on the retreating Prussians. The French attack became bogged down in the suburbs of Château-Thierry where the Prussians staged an effective rearguard action. This allowed most of the Coalition soldiers to reach safety on the north bank of the Marne. Before the French could advance farther, the Coalition blew out the bridge across the Marne, effectively ending the battle and allowing the Coalition forces to retreat. By evening, the Prussians had withdrawn north to Oulchy-la-Ville.

The French needed most of the next twenty-four hours to restore the Marne crossing. Once able to cross the river, Mortier was sent to hound the Coalition forces as they moved North to Soissons. Napoleon led the rest of his army back to Montmirial, ready to move south to deal with the threat from Schwarzenberg on the Seine. On the way he was able to spank the Coalition at the Battle of Vauchamps once more on 14 February.

Vauchamps was Napoleon’s last significant military victory. The battle came about as a result of Blücher launching an attack on February 13 against the isolated corps of Marshal Auguste de Marmont which was Napoleon’s rear guard. While Marmont was initially pushed back, Napoleon committed significant troops to support Marmont. On February 14, Blücher resumed the attack on Marmont. The arrival of Napoleon’s main army changed the tactical dynamic, and the Prussians were pushed back in a fierce counter-attack. The French infantry and cavalry pursued the counterattack and the Prussians took heavy losses that did not stop until after nightfall and a forced march retreat by Blücher’s army.

The area where the Six Days’ Campaign played out is farmland (which in 1814 made for excellent cavalry fighting terrain). As a result, there is not much to see in terms of battlefield remembrance. There are memorials at sites set out below, but there is not really any reason to visit this area except out of historical curiosity.

Of course, the area closer to Château-Thierry overlaps some of the most intense battlefields of the First World War (see the Battle of the Marne) and in our discussion of those sites you can find more information about current area attractions.