Battle of Courtrai (1814)

Battle of Courtrai (1814)
Part of War of the Sixth Coalition
Battle of Courtrai (1814) is located in Belgium
Lille
Lille
Antwerp
Antwerp
Courtrai
Courtrai
Ghent
Ghent
Tournai
Tournai
Breda
Breda
Hoogstraten
Hoogstraten
Maubeuge
Maubeuge
Brussels
Brussels
1814 Campaign in the Low Countries (in what are now Belgium and Holland)
Date31 March 1814[1]
Location50°50′N 3°16′E / 50.833°N 3.267°E / 50.833; 3.267
Result French victory[1]
Belligerents
 France  Saxony
 Prussia
Commanders and leaders
First French Empire Nicolas Maison Kingdom of Saxony Johann Thielmann
Kingdom of Prussia Friedrich von Hellwig
Units involved
First French Empire I Corps Kingdom of Saxony III German Corps
Strength
9,500–13,000[1]
35–36 guns
3,800–9,000[1]
6–7 guns
Casualties and losses
300[1]–800 900[1]–1,908
2–3 guns lost
War of the Sixth Coalition:
Campaign Low Countries 1814
Map
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50km
30miles
Courtrai
Bergen op Zoom
3
Siege of Bergen op Zoom (1814) at Bergen op Zoom, on 8 March 1814
Antwerp
2
Siege of Antwerp (1814) at Antwerp, from 14 January to 4 May 1814
Hoogstraten
1
Battle of Hoogstraten at Hoogstraten, on 11 January 1814
The color black indicates the current battle.

The Battle of Courtrai (31 March 1814) saw Johann von Thielmann's Kingdom of Saxony troops and a few Prussians encounter an Imperial French force under Nicolas Joseph Maison near Kortrijk (Courtrai), a city south-west of Ghent in what is now Belgium. Thielmann attacked only to find himself facing the bulk of Maison's I Corps. The action ended in a rout of the Saxons, most of whom were under fire for the first time.

While Napoleon battled the main Coalition armies: the Army of Bohemia (or the Grand Army), under the command of the Austrian Prince Schwarzenberg and the Army of Silesia under the command of the Prussian General Prince Blücher in a major campaign in north-east France, a secondary campaign was waged in the Low Countries to the north. A third Coalition body, Army of the North led by Prince Jean Baptiste Bernadotte sent major elements into the Low Countries to drive out the Imperial French occupation forces. In time, the Coalition forces, joined by a British expedition and other reinforcements, succeeded in driving the local French forces back to Lille and isolating most of the remainder in Antwerp.

Badly outnumbered by the Coalition forces under Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Maison mounted a daring operation. He marched north from Lille to Antwerp where he added one division from its French garrison to his army. Moving south again, he drubbed the aggressive Thielmann when the Saxon general tried to head him off. The Battle of Paris on 30 March and the subsequent abdication of Napoleon ended the war soon afterwards.

  1. ^ a b c d e f Bodart 1908, p. 480.