He crossed the Rhine into Germany to link up with remnants of his old Grande Armée under the command of Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, and to quickly defeat this new alliance before it became too strong.

On the 30 April, Napoleon crossed the river Saale, advancing on Leipzig from the west and southwest in three columns led by the V Corps under General Jacques Lauriston.

But due to the lack of cavalrymen and faulty reconnaissance, he was unaware of the Russo-Prussian army under Wittgenstein and Graf (Count) von Blücher concentrating on his right flank to the southeast.

Napoleon was visiting the 1632 battlefield, playing tour guide with his staff by pointing to the sites and describing the events of 1632, in detail from memory, when he heard the sound of cannon.

Wittgenstein and Yorck continued to press Ney in the center; control of the villages switched hands multiple times as troops were committed from both sides.

General Drouot concentrated these into a great mass of artillery of about 100 guns (Grande Batterie) that unleashed a devastating barrage on Wittgenstein's center.

Napoleon had collected his Imperial Guard behind these guns and sent them in a counter assault led by Marshal Mortier into the allied center at about 6:00pm, which cleared the Coalition forces from the villages.

A Prussian cavalry attack, and encroaching darkness, slowed the French offensive, allowing the main Coalition army to retreat in good order to regroup south of the villages.

Napoleon demonstrated his usual prowess in driving back the Russo-Prussian force at Lützen, but the costliness of his victory had a major impact on the war.

[4] The ferocity of these two battles prompted Napoleon to accept a temporary armistice on June 4 with Tsar Alexander and King Frederick William III.

[4] During the battle of Lützen, Gerhard von Scharnhorst, one of the brightest and most able Prussian generals, was wounded while serving as Wittgenstein's Chief of Staff.