Very early the next morning, Blücher's troops quietly abandoned the town and retreated to the south, conceding the field to the French.

In late December 1813, two Allied armies initially numbering 300,000 men smashed through France's weak defenses and moved west.

Emperor Napoleon left 100,000 French soldiers in German garrisons, trapped by enemy blockading forces and hostile populations.

[2] Czar Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick William III of Prussia wished to dethrone Napoleon, but Emperor Francis I of Austria was not anxious to overthrow his son-in-law.

Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, the crown prince of Sweden and a former French marshal, led a third Allied army.

Schwarzenberg reached Langres on 17 January, where the cautious Austrian halted for a few days, convinced that Napoleon was about to attack him with 80,000 troops.

When Schwarzenberg moved forward again, Mortier's Imperial Guard slowed his advance by carrying out skillful rearguard actions.

[11] Leaving his brother Joseph Bonaparte in charge of the capital, Napoleon departed from Paris and reached Châlons-sur-Marne on 26 January 1814.

He issued four days' rations to his army and marched it from Châlons toward Saint-Dizier, where he believed Blücher was located with about 25,000 soldiers and 40 guns.

[13] In a clash at Saint-Dizier on 27 January 1814, Milhaud's 2,100 cavalrymen drove back 1,500 Russians of Sergey Nikolaevich Lanskoy's 2nd Hussar Division.

[7] At Brienne, Blücher would be near parts of Schwarzenberg's army and Napoleon hoped to drive the Prussian field marshal's forces into the Aube River before he could be reinforced.

[15] The roads were in poor condition because of a thaw, but Napoleon's soldiers managed to slog through the mud to reach Montier-en-Der and Wassy by nightfall on 28 January.

The Allied I Corps under Hieronymus Karl Graf von Colloredo-Mansfeld was well to the south at Châtillon-sur-Seine and the Reserve under Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly was marching from Langres to Chaumont.

[18] The Prussian field marshal had Olsufiev's 6,000 infantry, Pahlen's 3,000 cavalry and Lanskoy's 1,600 hussars on hand until Sacken arrived.

Blücher posted Olsufiev in Brienne, Pahlen in the plain to the northeast and Lanskoy near the Bois d'Ajou (Ajou Woods).

[17] The 9th Light Cavalry Division under Hippolyte Piré at the point of the French advance met three Cossack regiments under Nikolay Grigoryevich Scherbatov at Maizières-lès-Brienne.

The French pursuit by the divisions of Samuel-François Lhéritier and André Briche stopped when it encountered three battalions of the 4th and 34th Jägers deployed in square formation.

Napoleon called a halt until 3:30 pm when Guillaume Philibert Duhesme's II Corps infantry division reached the field.

[21] In the confusion, a group of Cossacks nearly captured Napoleon, but right afterward the unruffled French emperor rallied his shaken soldiers and led them back into action.

[23] Blücher and his chief of staff, August Neidhardt von Gneisenau, thinking that the day's fighting was ended, went to the château.

They were nearly made prisoners when some of Victor's infantry led by Louis Huguet-Chateau slipped up to the château by an unguarded road and seized the place.

The assault was completely unsuccessful; Decouz was mortally wounded and one of his brigadiers, Rear Admiral Pierre Baste, was killed outright.

He called the action "scarcely a tactical victory for Napoleon" and noted that the French were unable to keep Blücher from joining Schwarzenberg.