Following a reorganisation of the independent foreign units in 1811, several battalions were merged to form the 11th Light Infantry Regiment, which the Po Tirailleurs continued into.

When Napoleon reviewed the battalion at Ulm at the end of October 1805, he noticed that the unit was in a serious state of disorganisation and decided to take swift remedial action.

[3][8] Several weeks later, Napoleon once again reviewed the battalion quickly noted his satisfaction at the excellent appearance of the unit and the transformation of the men.

Furthermore, while arriving in Austria the men were surprised to learn Hulot had specially ordered large amounts of polenta, a favourite and local food which they had been deprived of when on campaign.

[2][4][5][9] On the morning of 2 December, the Tirailleurs du Po were still part of the 3rd Division in Marshal Soult's IV Corps and would play an important role that afternoon.

The division was tasked with holding back the anticipated Austrian attacked until Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout's III Corps could come up to its aid.

However, away behind Tellnitz, III Corps commanded by Maréchal d’Empire Louis-Nicolas Davout arrived and was organising a counterattack towards the village.

[1][10] The 54,000 men of General of Infantry Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden's wing were continually getting in each other's way during the early stages due to the fog, and this confusion undoubtedly assisted the sustained defence of Legrand's gallant division.

But the fatal consequence of this was that the main attack absorbed every possible soldier that could be spared and deprived the allies of a formed reserve with which to meet unexpected crisis.

[12] Following the end of the battle, the battalion would be held in high regard and earned a reputation for gallantry for their defence of Napoleon's right wing.

[2][3][5] Before the beginning of the impending conflict, Napoleon passed a series of decrees to set a new general uniform for the army, in addition to several of the new foreign regiments.

When the War of the Fourth Coalition broke out, Soult's IV Corps advanced alongside Napoleon and his Imperial Guard through Saxony.

At the town of Jena they met the advance guard Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen's first Prussian field army.

[14][15] Napoleon then order an all out charge, with the IV Corps holding the far (right, by now the north) advancing easily through the Prussian Right Wing.

The next day, on 6 November, the French forces arrived and their men proceeded to put the hapless free city to the sack, with terrible atrocities being committed.

[4][5][19] As Prussian forces routed and surrendered en masse, Napoleon's Grande Armée continued moving east towards the Russo-Austrian-Prussian occupied region of Partitioned Poland.

Soult's IV Corps is also credited with helping 'win' the battle because they were able to divert the majority of the Russian reserve, commanded by Barclay de Tolly.

In May Napoleon opened up his plans to invade East Prussia and destroy Levin August von Bennigsen Russian Field Army once and for all.

[4][24][25][26] Napoleon's Advance Force moved towards the town, expected to fight just a small rear-guard of Bennigsen's army.

However, Napoleon soon realised that after Ney's failed attack on the actual Russian rear-guard, he had now faced the entirety of Bennigsen's Army.

The woods was only defended by three weakened jäger battalions left there by Lieutenant General Feodor Petrovich, Graf von Ovarov.

According to the military journal of IV Corps, it was the 26th Lights who took the redoubts and was soon assisted by the Fusiliers-Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard and later the Tirailleurs du Po.

[24][25][26] By mid-day, the division was in the area south of the woods and faced General Gorchakov's forces, which held strong positions across from the French.

By the afternoon, the entire French line was steadily forced back, though the Russians weren't able to chase them, exhausted, and now severely injured.

Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq's Corps had escaped from the battle mostly intact, but like the Prussian Army which had fought Napoleon the previous year, it was badly lead, suffered from a lock of staff, and was extremely old-fashioned.

[4][5] In January 1809, the battalion was withdrawn from Turin and re-joined the reformed IV Corps, now under command of the flamboyant André Masséna, Duke of Rivoli based in Strasbourg on the border of the Rhine.

On the 19th, IV Corps was in the area of Geisenfeld and force marched towards the town of Landshut in the east, planning to cut the Austrian's line of retreat towards the Isar.

Massena wasn't aware that Marshal Jean Lannes' II Corps had crossed the river several miles south, and was forced to carry out a head-one charge across a small bridge in Ebersberg.