The fortified city of Torgau was built on both sides of the Elbe as a royal Saxon main arsenal based on a design by Ernst Ludwig von Aster.

During the Armistice of Pläswitz, provisions were insufficiently available to protect the Middle Elbe and to enable offensives against the Prussian heartland.

[2] After the Battle of Leipzig, the fortress was besieged by the IV Army Corps with around 23,000 men under Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien.

The French garrison commander Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara died of typhus on 17 November.

[3] General Adrien Jean-Baptiste du Bosc surrendered on the 26th of December, with about 7,200 men being taken prisoner on 10 January 1814 and 2,400 remaining in the hospitals.