First Battle of Bar-sur-Aube

Overview

The First Battle of Bar-sur-Aube 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.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

At Bar-sur-Aube on 24 January 1814, a French Imperial Guard corps under Mortier engaged converging Austrian and Württemberg forces as the Sixth Coalition pressed into northeastern France toward the French interior. Mortier's corps, outnumbered and facing simultaneous pressure from Gyulai's Austrians and the Crown Prince of Württemberg's corps, held its defensive positions through sustained fighting before withdrawing under cover of night. The retreat to Troyes, 53 kilometres to the west, ceded the Bar-sur-Aube position to the Coalition and continued the general contraction of French operational lines in the 1814 campaign. French casualties of roughly 1,700 against Coalition losses of 1,000–1,400 indicated the cost of the rearguard defense, and the loss of elite Imperial Guard strength at this stage of the campaign carried particular operational weight given Napoleon's strained manpower reserves.

Tactics

Forces & casualties

Commanders (5)