Nations, Battle of the

Defeat of Napoleon I outside the town of Leipzig, Saxony by a coalition of Britain, Prussia, Russia, Austria, and Sweden 16-18 October 1813. Napoleon offered strong resistance but was greatly outnumbered; his eventual defeat led to a French collapse east of the Rhine.

Napoleon had an army of about 185,000, mostly half-trained conscripts with a contingent of Saxons against 60,000 Prussians under Marshal Gebhard von Blücher and 160,000 Austrians and Russians under Prince Schwarzenburg. A further 150,000 Swedes under Prince Bernadotte were en route to the battlefield.

Napoleon had set up a defensive line on the Elbe but was forced back toward Leipzig by the threat of envelopment by the Austro-Russian force from the south, the Prussians from the northeast, and the Swedes from the north. Schwarzenburg attacked 16 October, but after a day of fighting the French held firm. There was indecisive skirmishing 17 October, but by 18 October all the coalition armies had arrived. The Saxons deserted Napoleon for the coalition forces, abandoning their position and leaving a weakened front. Napoleon then began a fighting retreat and by the morning of 19 October about half his army had managed to escape on the road to Erfurt. The three-day battle cost the French some 60,000 killed and wounded and 11,000 prisoners; coalition losses were about 50,000.