Battle of Leipzig (1813): The Battle of the Nations

The Battle of Leipzig, fought from 16 to 19 October 1813, was the largest battle in Europe before the First World War. Over four days the armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden, known as the Sixth Coalition, converged on Napoleon around the Saxon city and forced him into a costly retreat. Known in German as the Völkerschlacht, the “Battle of the Nations”, it broke French power in Germany and opened the road to the invasion of France in 1814.

Background: after the disaster in Russia

The French invasion of Russia in 1812 had destroyed most of Napoleon’s Grande Armée, with the retreat ending in scenes such as the Battle of the Berezina. Early in 1813 Prussia changed sides, allying with Russia by the Treaty of Kalisch in February and declaring war on France in March. Across Germany, patriotic volunteers joined the struggle in what Germans came to call the Wars of Liberation.

Napoleon rebuilt his army with remarkable speed, largely from young conscripts. In the spring campaign he won victories at Lützen on 2 May and Bautzen on 20–21 May, but he lacked the cavalry to turn them into decisive successes. An armistice agreed at Pläswitz in June gave both sides time to reinforce.

During the armistice Austria, led by its foreign minister Klemens von Metternich, tried to mediate. When Napoleon refused terms, Austria joined the Coalition and declared war in August 1813. Sweden, led by its Crown Prince Charles John, the former French marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, was already fighting with the allies.

The Coalition adopted the Trachenberg Plan: its armies would avoid battle with Napoleon in person and instead attack his subordinates, retreating when the Emperor himself advanced. The strategy worked. Napoleon won a major victory at Dresden on 26–27 August, but his marshals were defeated at Grossbeeren, the Katzbach, Kulm and Dennewitz.

Three Coalition armies now closed in: the Army of Bohemia under the Austrian Field Marshal Karl Philipp zu Schwarzenberg from the south, the Army of Silesia under the Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher from the north, and Bernadotte’s Army of the North. A fourth force, the Russian Army of Poland under Levin von Bennigsen, was on its way. In early October Bavaria agreed by the Treaty of Ried to leave Napoleon’s side. Napoleon concentrated his forces around Leipzig, a key road junction, hoping to defeat the Coalition armies one at a time before they could unite.

16–17 October: opening clashes and a pause

The battle opened on several fronts at once. South of the city, around the village of Wachau, Schwarzenberg’s army attacked Napoleon’s main force. Napoleon counter-attacked in the afternoon with infantry, artillery and a massed cavalry charge under Joachim Murat that nearly broke the Allied centre. The Emperor was confident enough to have church bells in Leipzig rung for a victory, but Russian and Austrian reserves stabilised the line by evening.

To the north, Blücher attacked the village of Möckern, held by Marshal Auguste Marmont’s corps. After savage fighting in which the village changed hands several times, the Prussians took it, forcing Marmont back towards the city. To the west, an Austrian corps under Ignác Gyulai attacked Lindenau, the vital causeway that was Napoleon’s only good line of retreat, but was held off by General Henri Bertrand.

On the same day Napoleon promoted Prince Józef Poniatowski, commander of the Polish troops, to Marshal of France, making him the only foreign-born officer among Napoleon’s marshals.

Sunday 17 October was largely quiet as both sides rested and waited for reinforcements. Bennigsen’s army and Bernadotte’s Army of the North approached, giving the Coalition a large numerical advantage. Napoleon received few reinforcements.

The Emperor sent a captured Austrian general, Maximilian von Merveldt, back to the Allied camp with proposals for an armistice. The Allied monarchs, Tsar Alexander I, King Frederick William III of Prussia and Emperor Francis I of Austria, all present near the battlefield, did not reply. Napoleon drew his forces into a tighter ring around Leipzig.

Day three: 18 October

On 18 October the Coalition launched concentric attacks from the north, east and south with overwhelming numbers. Some of the fiercest fighting took place at Probstheida in the south, where French troops held the village against repeated assaults, and around Schönefeld in the north-east.

During the afternoon, Saxon troops serving in Napoleon’s army, several thousand strong, went over to the Coalition near Paunsdorf, along with some Württemberg cavalry. The defection did not decide the battle on its own, but it opened a gap in the French line and was a powerful symbol of the collapse of Napoleon’s German alliances. By nightfall the French perimeter had held at most points, but Napoleon was running low on ammunition and recognised that he had to retreat.

Day four: 19 October and the Elster bridge

The French withdrawal began during the night through Leipzig and across the bridges over the Elster and Pleisse rivers towards Lindenau. A rearguard under Marshals Jacques Macdonald and Poniatowski, with General Jacques Lauriston and General Jean Reynier, fought from street to street as the Coalition stormed the city’s suburbs.

Around midday or early afternoon on 19 October, the stone bridge over the Elster, mined in readiness, was blown up too early, apparently by a junior engineer who panicked as Allied skirmishers approached. Some 15,000–20,000 French troops were cut off in the city. Many were captured; others tried to swim the river. Macdonald managed to swim across, but Poniatowski, already wounded, drowned in the Elster. Reynier and Lauriston were taken prisoner, as was King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, Napoleon’s ally, who had remained in Leipzig.

Key people

• Napoleon commanded the French and allied forces and directed the battle from command posts south and east of the city.
• Karl Philipp zu Schwarzenberg, the Austrian field marshal, was overall Coalition commander, a difficult role with three monarchs present.
• Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, aged 70, led the Army of Silesia with great aggression and was promoted field marshal after the battle.
• Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Crown Prince of Sweden and a former French marshal, commanded the Army of the North.
• Józef Poniatowski, nephew of the last king of Poland, became a national hero after his death in the Elster.

By the numbers

All figures are estimates; historians’ totals differ depending on which units and which days are counted.

Consequences

Napoleon’s retreat from Leipzig turned into a march back to the Rhine. At Hanau on 30–31 October he brushed aside a Bavarian and Austrian force that tried to block his way, but only a fraction of his army reached France, many of them sick with typhus. The Confederation of the Rhine, the system of German client states Napoleon had built since 1806, collapsed as its rulers joined the Coalition. Kingdoms such as Westphalia disappeared.

The Allied armies crossed the Rhine at the end of 1813 and the start of 1814. Despite brilliant defensive victories in the 1814 campaign, Napoleon could not halt them. Paris fell on 31 March 1814, and in April Napoleon abdicated and was sent into exile on Elba. In Spain, meanwhile, Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Vitoria in June had already driven the French back to the Pyrenees.

Legacy

In Germany, Leipzig became a central memory of the Wars of Liberation and of emerging German nationalism. The centenary was marked on 18 October 1913 by the inauguration of the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, a massive monument about 91 metres high built near the area of the heaviest fighting. Today the battle is commemorated with exhibitions and large re-enactments, especially for anniversaries such as the bicentenary in 2013.

For Poland, Poniatowski’s death made him a symbol of loyalty and sacrifice; his remains were later moved to Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. For military historians, Leipzig showed how war had grown in scale since the 18th century: battles now involved several armies, coalition politics and hundreds of thousands of men fighting over days rather than hours.

Timeline

• 1813, 2 May: Napoleon defeats Russians and Prussians at Lützen.
• 1813, 12 August: Austria declares war on France and joins the Coalition.
• 1813, 26–27 August: Napoleon wins the Battle of Dresden.
• 1813, 8 October: Bavaria agrees to leave Napoleon’s alliance by the Treaty of Ried.
• 1813, 16 October: Battles at Wachau, Möckern and Lindenau open the Battle of Leipzig.
• 1813, 17 October: Lull in the fighting; Coalition reinforcements arrive.
• 1813, 18 October: Concentric Coalition attacks; Saxon troops change sides.
• 1813, 19 October: French retreat; the Elster bridge is blown and Poniatowski drowns.
• 1813, 30–31 October: Napoleon forces his way past the Bavarians at Hanau.
• 1814, 31 March: Coalition armies enter Paris.

Why it matters

Leipzig was the decisive battle of the War of the Sixth Coalition. It ended Napoleon’s domination of Germany, brought about the collapse of the Confederation of the Rhine and made the invasion of France possible. Its sheer scale also foreshadowed the mass warfare of the following century.