Napoleon’s 7 greatest victories and worst defeats

On 14 June 1800, near the village of Marengo in Piedmont, Napoleon faced an Austrian army under General Michael von Melas.

After he had crossed the Alps with a fast-moving force of 28,000 men, he aimed to restore French control over northern Italy.

At first light, Austrian troops struck unexpectedly, and their 31,000-strong force initially drove French units back across the plain. 

By early afternoon, Napoleon faced a serious risk of defeat because, for several hours, French troops attempted to stabilise the line, but enemy attacks continued to push them into retreat.

At that moment, General Louis Desaix, who had scouted the southern roads, arrived with a fresh division.

With those reinforcements, Napoleon ordered a counterattack that fell upon the exhausted Austrian centre.

Desaix was killed in the charge, but his men held firm and broke through the enemy line.

General François Étienne de Kellermann then led a powerful cavalry charge that completed the collapse of Austrian resistance. 

The Austrians withdrew from Italy and signed the Convention of Alessandria, which secured their immediate retreat, since the French had recaptured the battlefield and had turned the campaign around.

In Paris, the news of victory at Marengo strengthened Napoleon’s political position, which enabled him to secure his position and lead to his eventual coronation, which laid the groundwork for the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801. 

On 2 December 1805, Napoleon fought the combined armies of Tsar Alexander I and Emperor Francis II near the Moravian town of Austerlitz.

He positioned his troops below the Pratzen Heights, deliberately weakened his right flank to tempt the Allies into stretching their forces too thin.

A thick morning fog covered the field and largely hid his plans. Early that day, the Allied generals moved their forces to strike what appeared to be a vulnerable French line. 

At a crucial moment, Napoleon sent Marshal Soult’s corps against the now-exposed centre.

French troops stormed the Pratzen Heights and split the Allied army in two. At the same time, cavalry and artillery attacked the flanks, which forced enemy soldiers into disorganised retreats.

Some early accounts claimed that French gunners fired into the frozen lakes, which caused many troops to drown, though later historians have questioned the accuracy of this detail. 

Napoleon’s Grande Armée, which had marched over 600 miles in less than two months, had won one of the most notable victories in military history largely because the Allied armies had lost more than 36,000 men by day’s end.

Austria exited the Third Coalition and gave up significant territory under the Treaty of Pressburg.

The victory ended the last parts of the Holy Roman Empire and led to the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine under French influence.

On 14 October 1806, French forces under Napoleon met the Prussian army in twin engagements at Jena and Auerstedt.

The Prussian commanders relied on rigid tactics inherited from Frederick the Great, while the French operated under the corps system, which allowed greater flexibility.

Napoleon struck first at Jena, where he faced Prince Hohenlohe’s force of 38,000 men.

He commanded approximately 55,000 to 60,000 troops directly at Jena, while his total campaign force numbered closer to 96,000.

As the battle progressed, French divisions surrounded and broke the Prussian line.

At the same time, Marshal Davout, who operated independently at Auerstedt, faced the main Prussian army under the Duke of Brunswick.

His corps, which numbered only 26,000 men, held its position and counterattacked effectively.

Brunswick died in the fighting, and the Prussian retreat turned into a rout. 

Following both victories, French troops entered Berlin, and Napoleon took key symbols of Prussian power, including the sword of Frederick the Great.

He also had the Quadriga from the Brandenburg Gate sent to Paris as a trophy.

Prussia was effectively humiliated and disarmed and accepted occupation.

Napoleon’s campaign in central Germany showed that decentralised command worked and that the traditional military hierarchy had weaknesses.

In early July 1809, French and Austrian armies met near the village of Wagram during a renewed war between France and the Habsburg Empire.

After recovering from a bloody encounter at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon assembled over 170,000 troops for a major engagement.

Prior to the battle, he had organised a difficult crossing of the Danube near Lobau Island, for which he had used a series of floating bridges.

On 5 July, he launched initial attacks against Archduke Charles’s defensive positions, but Austrian resistance proved stronger than expected.

Overnight, Napoleon adjusted his plan. At dawn, he concentrated artillery and infantry in the centre, where the Austrian line had thinned.

Meanwhile, General MacDonald advanced in a large column under heavy fire, a rare and risky formation, which led an assault that forced a breach.

Victory at Wagram forced Austria to accept the Treaty of Schönbrunn, which stripped it of territory and weakened its influence in Europe, due to the Austrians losing over 40,000 men and began to pull back in disorder.

However, the size of the losses raised concern in Paris. Many veterans had fallen, and replacements generally lacked experience.

From that point, the quality of French forces gradually fell, and future victories came at greater cost.

On 7 September 1812, near the village of Borodino, west of Moscow, Napoleon met the Russian army under General Kutuzov.

The battlefield stretched across open terrain that was fortified by Russian redoubts, including the Bagration flèches and the Great Redoubt, which formed a series of defences.

Napoleon was determined to break Russian resistance before winter and began the attack at dawn.

His army, numbering around 130,000 men, slightly outnumbered the Russian force of approximately 120,000.

Throughout the day, French infantry and artillery assaulted the strongpoints, and they suffered heavy casualties as they secured limited ground.

Marshal Ney and Marshal Davout launched repeated attacks on the Russian left, and they eventually overran the flèches.

In the centre, the final assault on the Great Redoubt turned into very heavy fighting that cost thousands of lives.

Napoleon committed some elements of the Imperial Guard, including artillery and Young Guard units, but he held the Old Guard in reserve, as he feared it might be needed later.

Napoleon was uncertain of their strength and did not pursue, and by evening the Russians had withdrawn and had kept most of their army largely intact.

He entered Moscow soon after, only to find the city abandoned and set ablaze, and with no shelter and winter approaching, he hesitated.

That decision left his army exposed and began what became the worst retreat in European military history.

From 16 to 19 October 1813, Napoleon fought the Allied powers near Leipzig in Saxony where Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden combined their forces to outnumber the French nearly two to one.

Early on, French troops resisted enemy pressure and even secured temporary advantages, especially along the southern approaches.

The battle became known as the "Battle of the Nations" due to the large number of armies involved.

French attempts to withdraw became increasingly difficult because fresh Allied reinforcements had arrived from the north and east, which had surrounded Napoleon's position, and the only escape route, a bridge over the Elster River, became the focus of retreat operations.

An early explosion of the bridge reportedly left tens of thousands stranded.

During the battle, Saxon troops defected to the Allies, which weakened Napoleon’s line further.

Napoleon escaped with the core of his army, but the loss of around 40,000 men, alongside thousands more captured or deserted, largely ended his control over Germany.

The French formations had collapsed and many had surrendered or drowned as they attempted to cross the river.

The Confederation of the Rhine fell apart, and his influence in central Europe vanished.

Allied commanders such as Schwarzenberg, Blücher, and Barclay de Tolly coordinated the surrounding of his forces.

On 18 June 1815, Napoleon faced the Duke of Wellington’s Anglo-allied army near Waterloo, south of Brussels.

The ground was waterlogged from rain the night before and significantly delayed the opening attack and complicated French troop movements.

Napoleon had around 73,000 troops, while Wellington commanded roughly 68,000, later reinforced by approximately 30,000 Prussians under Blücher who arrived during the battle.

Repeated cavalry charges by Marshal Ney failed to break British squares, which held firm under artillery and musket fire.

By late afternoon, Napoleon committed the Imperial Guard in a final attempt to shatter the British centre.

When the Guard faltered and fell back, panic spread across the French line. Some later accounts claimed that Napoleon muttered, "Merde," as his elite troops retreated, though there is no firm evidence he actually said it.

As pressure mounted from two sides because Prussian forces had arrived and had struck the French right, French unity collapsed, and units fled the field.

French losses were around 25,000 killed or wounded, with another 8,000 captured while Allied casualties approached 23,000.

Napoleon retreated to Paris, abdicated for the second time, and surrendered to the British.

They sent him to Saint Helena, where he died six years later, surrounded by memories of earlier victories instead of soldiers.