Background
The Battle of Brienne (29 January 1814) saw an Imperial French army led by Emperor Napoleon attack Prussian and Russian forces commanded by Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.
Warned just in time of the impending French attack, Blücher recalled Sacken from Lesmont to Brienne. The Prussian field marshal had Olsufiev’s 6,000 infantry, Pahlen’s 3,000 cavalry and Lanskoy’s 1,600 hussars on hand until Sacken arrived. Olsufiev’s command was part of Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron’s Russian army corps. Blücher posted Olsufiev in Brienne, Pahlen in the plain to the northeast and Lanskoy near the Bois d’Ajou (Ajou Woods). The 9th Light Cavalry Division under Hippolyte Piré at the point of the French advance met three Cossack regiments under Nikolay Grigoryevich Scherbatov at Maizières-lès-Brienne. Scherbatov also directed the 4th and 34th Jäger Regiments which were detached from the Russian 4th Division in the Allied VI Corps. Piré was soon joined by the remainder of the V Cavalry Corps under the overall command of Emmanuel de Grouchy. The French horsemen pressed back Scherbatov and Pahlen after some skirmishing. Lefebvre-Desnouettes was wounded during the cavalry action.
By 3:00 pm Pahlen retreated through Brienne and reformed his horsemen on the Russian right flank. The French pursuit by the divisions of Samuel-François Lhéritier and André Briche stopped when it encountered three battalions of the 4th and 34th Jägers deployed in square formation. Sacken’s troops began arriving at Brienne at this time and he sent his cavalry under Ilarion Vasilievich Vasilshikov to the right flank. Napoleon called a halt until 3:30 pm when Guillaume Philibert Duhesme’s II Corps infantry division reached the field. Then the French emperor ordered a general attack. For an hour the soldiers of Duhesme and Olsufiev fought to a stalemate. Between 4:00 and 5:00 pm Decouz’s division of Ney’s corps reached the battlefield and was put in on Duhesme’s right flank. At first Decouz’s men were successful in forcing their way deeper into the town. However, Ney called a halt when trouble developed elsewhere on the field.
Noticing that Duhesme’s division was not supported by cavalry, Blücher hurled 40 cavalry squadrons under Pahlen and Vasilshikov at the French left flank. The Russian horsemen routed Duhesme’s division and captured eight artillery pieces. In the confusion, a group of Cossacks nearly captured Napoleon, but right afterward the unruffled French emperor rallied his shaken soldiers and led them back into action. Nightfall prevented a worse disaster to Duhesme, which came about because the French cavalry was all deployed on the right flank. By this time, Sacken’s troops were all on the field but his wagon train was still lumbering past Brienne. Blücher and his chief of staff, August Neidhardt von Gneisenau, thinking that the day’s fighting was ended, went to the château. They were nearly made prisoners when some of Victor’s infantry led by Louis Huguet-Chateau slipped up to the château by an unguarded road and seized the place. This coup was carried out by 400 soldiers of the 37th and 56th Line Infantry Regiments. Huguet-Chateau’s men also captured four guns but lost them to a Russian counterattack.
Napoleon ordered the divisions of Decouz and Meunier, supported by Lefebvre-Desnouettes’ cavalry, to storm Brienne. The assault was completely unsuccessful; Decouz was mortally wounded and one of his brigadiers, Rear Admiral Pierre Baste, was killed outright. Another brigadier, Jean-Jacques Germain Pelet-Clozeau took temporary command of Decouz’s division. To keep Sacken’s trains from capture, Blücher ordered Sacken to clear the French from Brienne and Olsufiev to retake the château. After bitter fighting, Sacken drove the French from most of the town, but Olsufiev failed to recapture the château. Finally, Grouchy sent Lhéritier’s horsemen into the town but this gallant effort was futile. At midnight, Blücher ordered Olsufiev’s troops to retreat and two hours later gave Sacken instructions to withdraw. The Russian cavalry held their positions until morning. The French did not initially notice the Russian withdrawal and finally occupied Brienne at 4:00 am.
Historian Francis Loraine Petre stated that both sides suffered about 3,000 casualties. He called the action “scarcely a tactical victory for Napoleon” and noted that the French were unable to keep Blücher from joining Schwarzenberg. David G. Chandler reported that the French lost 3,000 and the Allies 4,000 casualties, but that the battle was “inconclusive”.[Digby Smith asserted that Napoleon had 36,000 troops while the Allies had 28,000. The French lost 3,500 casualties and 11 guns and the Allies sustained 3,000 casualties. François Louis Forestier, commanding Victor’s 2nd Division, lost his life. Forestier died of his wounds on 5 February. Decouz succumbed to his wounds on 18 February. George Nafziger wrote that the French lost eight guns but found the Russian claim to capturing three additional guns doubtful. Nafziger gave combined casualties as 6,000 without specifying how many were lost on each side.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Brienne
