Commanded by General Emmanuel de Grouchy, two divisions of the corps fought at Borodino, Tarutino, and Vyazma.

During the War of the Sixth Coalition in 1813, General Jean-Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova led the corps at Großbeeren, Dennewitz, Leipzig, and Hanau.

The III Cavalry Corps was first constituted for the invasion of Russia and placed under the command of General Emmanuel de Grouchy.

There were three divisions under Generals Louis Pierre Aimé Chastel, Jean-Pierre Doumerc, and Armand Lebrun de La Houssaye.

Four days later, a freak storm with freezing rain blew all night long, causing the deaths of thousands of horses.

Colonel Lubin Griois of Grouchy's corps artillery claimed that the storm killed one-fourth of his horses.

Soon after, Grouchy was directed to place his cavalry under Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout in attempt to cut off General Pyotr Bagration's Russian Second Army.

[2] Though Davout reached Minsk ahead of Bagration, the Russians were able to slip out of the trap because King Jérôme Bonaparte failed to pursue with energy.

[3] Doumerc's 3rd Heavy Cavalry Division was detached from the corps to operate on the northern front where it was in action at the First Battle of Polotsk from 16 to 18 August 1812.

On the 28th, a force of 30,000 Russians tried to advance up the west bank to cut Napoleon's line of retreat but was stopped in a desperate struggle by 14,000 French troops.

[14] Casualties were horrific during the retreat and included General Denis Étienne Seron who vanished without a trace in November.

[16] In 1813, Napoleon managed to fill the ranks of his infantry by conscripting under-aged youths and his arsenals were able to cast more cannons to replace the one thousand guns that were lost.

But the loss of over 200,000 horses and trained horsemen in Russia crippled his ability to field an effective cavalry arm in the next campaign.

[20] When the summer armistice ended, Napoleon had amassed 400,000 infantry in 559 battalions, almost 40,000 cavalry in 400 squadrons, and 1,284 artillery pieces.

[22] Arrighi's three divisions were led by Generals Jean-Marie Defrance, Jean Thomas Guillaume Lorge, and François Fournier-Sarlovèze.

[24] On 23 August 1813, the three divisions of the III Cavalry Corps were split among several formations as Oudinot's army advanced through broken terrain.

On the right flank, the IV Corps skirmished with General Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien's 13,000 Prussians and 32 guns.

General Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow's 38,000-man Prussian corps soon arrived and a 90-minute artillery bombardment ensued.

[29] A few days later, Lorge had 1,500 troopers and 6 guns near Leipzig while Arrighi's other two divisions counted 2,500 horsemen and six artillery pieces.

[32] When the Saxons defected from Napoleon's army on 18 October, the troopers of Defrance's nearby division cheered them, believing that their allies were launching an attack.

[39] III Cavalry Corps: General of Division Emmanuel de Grouchy Source: Smith, Digby (1998).

III Cavalry Corps: General of Division Jean-Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova (4,000) Source: Smith, Digby (1998).