It resulted in a part of the Grande Armée under Napoleon I defeating a superior Prussian and Russian force of the Army of Silesia under Field-marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

Despite fighting against vastly superior forces, Napoleon managed to score a few significant victories and, between 10 and 13 February repeatedly beat Blücher's Army of Silesia.

Napoleon arrived on the battlefield with strong combined-arms forces, which allowed the French to launch a determined counterattack and drive back the leading elements of the Army of Silesia.

While the actual pitched battle was short, the French infantry, under Marshal Marmont, and most of all the cavalry, under General Emmanuel de Grouchy, launched a relentless pursuit that rode down the enemy.

On 13 February, having fought three successful actions in three days against the Prussian and Russian army at Champaubert, Montmirail and Château-Thierry, Napoleon was pursuing the defeated enemy.

After his consecutive defeats, Field-marshal Blücher decided to disengage from Napoleon and move a significant force against the isolated French Army Corps of Marshal Marmont, at Étoges.

[6] Still in pursuit of the debris of the enemy force, late on 13 February, Napoleon received reports that Marmont's Corps had been attacked and pushed out of his position at Étoges.

The Emperor left Château-Thierry on 14 February, towards 3 o'clock in the morning, leaving a small portion of his forces with Marshal Édouard Mortier, duc de Trévise, with orders to continue the pursuit of the enemy.

[12] Having begun to push back the feeble French forces from Marmont's VI's Corps the day before, Blücher occupied Champaubert early on 14 February, sending his vanguard forward, as far as the village of Fromentières and then Vauchamps.

To their surprise, Marmont's men didn't give ground this time and vigorously counterattacked, pushing Zieten's advance guard back into the village of Vauchamps.

Marshal Marmont then launched his five squadrons to the rescue and the cavalry promptly forced the Prussians back to the village, with one of their battalions taken prisoner, after taking refuge in an isolated farm.

There, Zieten was joined by Generals Kleist and Kapsevitch, who, having heard the sound of the guns, had begun to move their respective Army Corps in that direction, coming from Champaubert.

Marmont was now supported on his left by General Grouchy, who had just arrived on the field of battle with the divisions of Saint-Germain and Doumerc, moving past the village of Janvilliers, in order to cut off Zieten's retreat.

With the French Imperial Guard artillery now also deployed and firing at them, Zieten's Prussians drew back in good order, and formed in squares to fend off Grouchy's cavalry.

The old Blücher, who had been bravely exposing himself to great danger in order to boost the morale his men, was almost taken prisoner, together with his chief of staff, Gneisenau, Generals Kleist, Kapsevitch and Prince Augustus of Prussia.

Prince Urusov, 600 men and eight artillery pieces were captured during this action, with the French sailors' regiment from Lagrange's division subsequently entering the village of Étoges.

[2] Military Historian Jacques Garnier, analysing the battle in Jean Tulard's Dictionnaire Napoléon, notes that only the muddy, sodden ground, hampering an efficient deployment of the French artillery and infantry, prevented a much more emphatic victory.