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Battle of Fère-Champenoise 1814

Battle of Fère-Champenoise: A.I.Dmitriev-Mamonov-Fere-Champenoise
Image: Alexander Ivanovich Dmitriev-Mamonov (1787-1836), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.

Key facts

Date25 March 1814Wikidata
Year1814Wikidata P585 (point in time)
Era19th century (1800–1913)derived from year
LocationFranceNatural Earth (modern borders)
ContinentEuropeNatural Earth
War / conflictGerman campaign of 1813Wikidata P361
Coordinates48.7500, 4.0983Wikidata P625

About the battle

The Battle of Fère-Champenoise (25 March 1814) was fought between two Imperial French corps led by Marshals Auguste de Marmont and Édouard Mortier, duc de Trévise and a larger Coalition force composed of cavalry from the Austrian Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, Kingdom of Württemberg, and Russian Empire. Caught by surprise by Field Marshal Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg's main Coalition army, the forces under Marmont and Mortier were steadily driven back and finally completely routed by aggressive Allied horsemen and gunners, suffering heavy casualties and the loss of most of their artillery. Two divisions of French National Guards under Michel-Marie Pacthod escorting a nearby convoy were also attacked and wiped out in the Battle of Bannes. The battleground was near the town Fère-Champenoise located 40 kilometres (25 mi) southwest of Châlons-en-Champagne.

After being defeated at the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube on 20–21 March 1814, Emperor Napoleon moved to the east. He hoped to draw the Coalition armies away from Paris by cutting their supply lines, but Schwarzenberg's army instead began moving west toward Paris. Meanwhile, Marmont and Mortier were marching to join Napoleon, pursued by Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's Allied army.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Fère-Champenoise (revision 1370110615), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Location

48.7500, 4.0983 · France

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Further reading