Battle of Limonest
The Battle of Limonest (20 March 1814) saw 53,000 Austrian and Hessian troops led by Prince Frederick of Hessen-Homburg attack 23,000 French troops under Marshal Pierre Augereau. After some stiff fighting, the Allies forced the outnumbered French defenders to withdraw from a line of hills north of Lyon in this War of the Sixth Coalition action. Lyon, in 1814 the second largest city in France, was abandoned to the Allies as a direct result of the defeat.
| Battle of Limonest | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of War of the Sixth Coalition | |||||||
 Charge of the 13th Cuirassiers Regiment at the Battle of Limonest, 20 March 1814, by Theodore Jung | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Austria Hesse-Darmstadt |
 France | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Prince Frederick of Hessen-Homburg |
Pierre Augereau | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
|
I Corps II Corps VI German Corps |
Army of the Rhône | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 53,000, 112 guns | 23,000, 36 guns | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 3,000 | 1,000 | ||||||
While Napoleon faced the main Allied armies of Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher to the east of Paris, a secondary campaign was conducted near Lyon to the south. In January 1814 the Austrians easily captured large swaths of territory, but failed to seize Lyon. By mid-February, a reinforced Augereau managed to recapture some towns, posing a threat. Anxious for his supply line back to Germany, Schwarzenberg sent Prince Hessen-Homburg large forces to protect his southern flank. With greatly superior forces, Hessen-Homburg pressed the French back in a series of battles and captured Lyon on March 22.
References
- Leggiere, Michael V. (2007). The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France 1813-1814. 1. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87542-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Nafziger, George (2015). The End of Empire: Napoleon's 1814 Campaign. Solihull, UK: Helion & Company. ISBN 978-1-909982-96-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Petre, F. Loraine (1994) [1914]. Napoleon at Bay: 1814. London: Lionel Leventhal Ltd. ISBN 1-85367-163-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Smith, Digby; Kudrna, Leopold. "Biographical Dictionary of all Austrian Generals during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815: Friedrich Joseph Ludwig, Erbprinz zu Hessen-Homburg". napoleon-series.org. Retrieved 20 March 2016.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Smith, Digby; Kudrna, Leopold. "Biographical Dictionary of all Austrian Generals during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815: Philipp August Friedrich, Prinz Hessen-Homburg". napoleon-series.org. Retrieved 20 March 2016.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
See also
Edgar, Rob (2010). "Battle of Limonest, 20th March 1814". The Napoleonic Wargamer.