First Battle of Bar-sur-Aube

Part of the War of the Sixth Coalition (Napoleonic Wars)

French Old Guard infantry in combat

Date	24 January 1814
Location	Bar-sur-Aube, France
Result	See Aftermath section

Belligerents

Austrian Empire

K. of Württemberg

First French Empire

Commanders and leaders

Ignaz Gyulai

Prince Württemberg

Édouard Mortier

Units involved

III Corps

IV Corps

Imperial Guard

Strength

15,000, 56 guns

12,000–13,000, 24 guns

13,000–14,200, 50 guns

Casualties and losses

1,000–1,700

400–1,200

The First Battle of Bar-sur-Aube (24 January 1814) was fought during the War of the Sixth Coalition when Marshal Édouard Mortier, duc de Trévise's corps of French Imperial Guards defended against an Austrians corps under Ignaz Gyulai and a Württemberger corps led by Crown Prince Frederick William of Württemberg. After holding his main defensive positions in stiff fighting, Mortier withdrew his elite troops during the night and retreated to Troyes. Bar-sur-Aube is located 53 kilometres (33 mi) east of Troyes.

The 1814 Campaign opened with an invasion of eastern France by the main Coalition army led by Austrian Field Marshal Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg and a second army led by Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. The weak French defending forces were pushed back without too much trouble, except for Mortier's guardsmen near Langres. These crack troops made a fighting withdrawal to Bar-sur-Aube where they offered battle in a strong position. Two days after the clash, Emperor Napoleon joined his reeling forces and the major fighting began.

For Emperor Napoleon the Battle of Leipzig was a catastrophe. Of his army, only 60,000–70,000 survivors retreated to the west bank of the Rhine River in November 1813. Almost 100,000 of Napoleon's soldiers were left behind in German fortresses and all his German allies abandoned him and joined the Coalition. In the 1814 campaign, Napoleon could act with singleness of purpose since he was both the political and military leader of France. The Coalition's major powers had divergent interests. Czar Alexander I of Russia wished to seize Paris and overthrow Napoleon. King Frederick William III of Prussia was ready to go along with the czar and his countrymen were eager to avenge years of French occupation and humiliation. Emperor Francis I of Austria was less keen on the overthrow of Napoleon, who was married to his daughter Marie Louise and Austria already stood to regain all the territories lost to France. Francis and his minister Klemens von Metternich feared Russia and Prussia might gain too much power if France were crushed.

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