Battle of Limonest

Battle of Limonest
Part of the Campaign of France of the Sixth Coalition
Charge of the 13th Cuirassiers Regiment at the Battle of Limonest, 20 March 1814, by Theodore Jung
Date 20 March 1814[1] Location Limonest, France 45°50′13″N 4°46′19″E Result Coalition victory[1]
Belligerents
Austrian Empire  Grand Duchy of Hesse	First French Empire
Commanders and leaders
Prince Frederick of Hessen-Homburg	Pierre Augereau
Units involved
I Corps II Corps VI German Corps	Army of the Rhône
Strength
30,000[1]–53,000, 112 guns	20,000[1]–23,000, 36 guns
Casualties and losses
2,900[1]–3,000	1,000–2,000[1]
class=notpageimage| Location within France

War of the Sixth Coalition:
Campaign in north-east France

200km
125miles

Paris

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Bar-sur-Aube

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  current battle

  Napoleon in command

  Napoleon not in command

The Battle of Limonest (20 March 1814) saw 30,000–53,000 Austrian and Hessian troops led by Prince Frederick of Hessen-Homburg defeat 20,000–23,000 French troops under Marshal Pierre Augereau.^[1]

Background

While Napoleon faced the main Allied armies of Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher to the east of Paris, a secondary campaign was conducted near Lyon to the south. In January 1814 the Austrians easily captured large swaths of territory, but failed to seize Lyon. By mid-February, a reinforced Augereau managed to recapture some towns, posing a threat. Anxious for his supply line back to Germany, Schwarzenberg sent Prince Hessen-Homburg large forces to protect his southern flank.

Battle

After some stiff fighting, the Allies forced the outnumbered French defenders to withdraw from a line of hills north of Lyon in this War of the Sixth Coalition action.

Aftermath

Lyon, in 1814 the second largest city in France, was abandoned to the Allies as a direct result of the defeat. With greatly superior forces, Hessen-Homburg pressed the French back in a series of battles and captured Lyon on 22 March.

Notes

1. Bodart 1908, p. 478.

References

• Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905). Retrieved 7 June 2021.
• Leggiere, Michael V. (2007). The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France 1813-1814. Vol. 1. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87542-4.
• Nafziger, George (2015). The End of Empire: Napoleon's 1814 Campaign. Solihull, UK: Helion & Company. ISBN 978-1-909982-96-3.
• Petre, F. Loraine (1994) [1914]. Napoleon at Bay: 1814. London: Lionel Leventhal Ltd. ISBN 1-85367-163-0.
• Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.
• Smith, Digby; Kudrna, Leopold. "Biographical Dictionary of all Austrian Generals during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815: Friedrich Joseph Ludwig, Erbprinz zu Hessen-Homburg". napoleon-series.org. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
• Smith, Digby; Kudrna, Leopold. "Biographical Dictionary of all Austrian Generals during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815: Philipp August Friedrich, Prinz Hessen-Homburg". napoleon-series.org. Retrieved 20 March 2016.

External links

• Edgar, Rob (2010). "Battle of Limonest, 20th March 1814". The Napoleonic Wargamer.
• Media related to Battle of Limonest at Wikimedia Commons