Napoleon I himself, having defeated the Allies at Montereau on 17 February, forcing them to retreat toward Troyes beyond the river Aube, had turned north to the valley of the Marne to try to impede the renewed drive toward Paris by the Army of Silesia (mostly Prussians) under Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher; the marshals he left behind were ordered to make it appear as though he was still with them.

Although MacDonald enjoyed a measure of numerical superiority at the outset, many of his troops were cut off from the main theater of the battle by their deployment astride the Aube and were therefore unable to participate, much of the French artillery being stuck on the wrong side of the river.

These figures underscore the intensity of the battle and the higher relative losses suffered by the French forces compared to their opponents.

[2] A Russian cavalry officer, Eduardo von Lowenstern, witnessed the revenge the Bavarians took on the town for the loss of a battalion: “The houses were being stormed.

Women and old people murdered, children thrown from the second floor onto the paving and smashed.”[4] In the north-east of Paris a Prussian army went into the Battle of Gué-à-Tresmes.