Campaign 1814

After the decisive Battle of Leipzig the French retreated to the Rhine and beyond into France. Following them were the victorious forces of the Sixth Coalition. Napoleon positioned his forces on the Rhine, in Holland and in Belgium and then left for Paris to build new field commands. Eugene was in northern Italy facing an Austrian army under Bellegarde. And of course the war in Spain was winding down. The Allies did not wait for Napoleon to bring up his new army and began to cross the Rhine at several points. The understrength French corps were no match for the Allied juggernaut and retired by stages closer to the west. By the end of January the Allies had advanced to within one hundred miles of Paris! What followed from that point, until the end of the campaign, was one of Napoleon's most remarkable campaigns. Fielding an army one third the size of the Allied forces he won one stunning victory after another. Unfortunately he was never able to achieve a decisive victory. The Allied armies gradually ground down the outnumbered French forces and after the Battle of Paris he was forced to abdicate.