Battle of Arnhem (1813)
| Battle of Arnhem (1813) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of War of the Sixth Coalition | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of Prussia
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 Imperial France
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Friedrich von Bülow
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Henri Charpentier
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| Units involved | |||||||
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III Corps |
XI Corps
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| Strength | |||||||
| 10,000 | 4,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 600–700 | 1,500, 14–15 guns | ||||||
The Battle of Arnhem (30 November 1813) saw Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow's Prussian corps fight an Imperial French division under Henri François Marie Charpentier at Arnhem. Attacking under the cover of fog, the Prussians broke into the city at several points and forced the French to retreat to Nijmegen after hard fighting in this War of the Sixth Coalition clash. Arnhem is a city in the Netherlands located on the Rhine River 100 kilometres (62 mi) southeast of Amsterdam.
In late November 1813, Bülow's III Prussian Corps invaded the Netherlands, sparking a Dutch rebellion against the French. Marshal Jacques MacDonald commanding the defending French XI Corps ordered Charpentier to evacuate Arnhem, but that general chose to ignore his instructions and suffered a defeat. After winning the battle, Bülow continued west in order to liberate Utrecht and support the Dutch revolt. The Prussian general's forces were soon joined by a British expedition led by Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch. Nevertheless, friction between the Prussians and their Russian and Swedish allies resulted in a pause in the effort to liberate Holland and Belgium from the French.
The Coalition armies decisively defeated Emperor Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig on 16–19 October 1813. The French emperor employed 203,133 soldiers and 738 field guns while his Coalition foes massed 361,942 men and 1,456 artillery pieces. Napoleon's forces lost 2,893 officers and 43,500 rank and file killed and wounded while 8,000 wounded, 15,000 sick and 15,000 unwounded were taken prisoner. Allied casualties numbered 1,792 officers and 51,982 men. Of Napoleon's enormous army, only 80,000 escaped west over the Saale River; the rest were dead, wounded, captured or defected to the Coalition. By the time the French emperor withdrew to the west bank of the Rhine River in November, there were only 60,000–70,000 soldiers left to defend France with approximately 100,000 more besieged in German fortresses.
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