Conflict: War of the Sixth Coalition (1813-1814)
Combatants: Allies vs. French
Location: France
Outcome: Allied victory
Driven back to the capital by the Allied forces under Karl von Schwarzenberg and Gebhard von Blucher, the remnants of the Grande Armee attempted to slow the enemy advance outside the city. The Allied army, now numbering over 100,000 men, attacked on the eastern outskirts of Paris before dawn on March 30th. With only some 22,000 soldiers, Marshal Auguste Marmont resisted tenaciously but the attackers turned the French left flank and the army could no longer hold. Napoleon's brother Joseph, who had been responsible for the defenses of Paris, fled before the day was half over. The city was abandoned and Marmont surrendered on March 31st. The Allies had lost 8,000 men in the assault; the French had lost 4,000.
Points of Interest:
Napoleon with reinforcements had approached within 11 miles of Paris when he learned of the surrender.
Napoleon would abdicate on April 11th and be exiled to the island of Elba.
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Sources:
Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, & Bongard, David L. (1992). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: Castle Books (HarperCollins).
Dupuy, R. Ernest & Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History. New York: HarperCollins.
Eggenberger, David (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
Haythornthwaite, Philip J. (1990). The Napoleonic Source Book. New York: Facts on File.