page_title: VI Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: VI Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée) / History
context_page_description: The VI Cavalry Corps of the Grande Armée was a French military unit that had an ephemeral existence during the Napoleonic Wars. The corps was created on 9 February 1814 and General François Étienne de Kellermann was appointed as its commander. The corps was formed by combining a newly arrived dragoon division from the Spanish front, a second dragoon division, and a light cavalry division made up of hussars and Chasseurs-à-Cheval. The latter two divisions included units from the former III Cavalry Corps. Kellermann led the VI Cavalry Corps at Mormant, Troyes, Bar-sur-Aube, Laubressel, and Saint-Dizier. After Emperor Napoleon I abdicated in early April, the corps ceased to exist.
context_section_description: On 12 November 1813, Napoleon ordered General Horace Sebastiani to take command of the V Corps and III Cavalry Corps and defend Koblenz. Sebastiani had only 4,500 troops to protect this part of the Rhine River. The Army of Silesia under Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher successfully crossed the Rhine near Koblenz on 2 January 1814, rendering the French position untenable. On 13 January, Marshal Jacques MacDonald ordered Sebastiani to retreat to Aachen. By 26 January, MacDonald and Sebastiani and about 10,000 men were near Sainte-Menehould and marching toward Châlons-sur-Marne, which they reached on 30 January. On 5 February, MacDonald was chased out of Châlons by General Ludwig von Yorck's Prussians. In the next few days, Blücher tried to run down and destroy MacDonald's force, but the marshal managed to evade his pursuers by 9 February. In the unsuccessful effort to catch the French, Blücher allowed his army to become dangerously extended.
  Over the following week, Napoleon won all the battles of the Six Days' Campaign, inflicting heavy casualties on Blücher's army. After his victories, the French emperor had to rush to the help of his forces defending the Seine River. These troops had been pushed back by the Army of Bohemia led by Field Marshal Karl von Schwarzenberg. Already, Napoleon ordered MacDonald to Guignes where he arrived on the evening of 14 February with 12,000 troops, including reinforcements. Trelliard's division arrived at Guignes on 16 February, fresh from the Spanish front. At this time, Kellermann's corps was not yet fully formed. Altogether, there would be 4,200 horsemen in the divisions of Jacquinot, Trelliard, and Roussel.
  The Battle of Mormant began at dawn on 17 February when Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin's II Corps and four French cavalry divisions attacked General [[Peter Graf von der Pahlen]'s Russian corps. On the right flank, Kellermann commanded the divisions from the V Cavalry Corps and Trelliard. On the left flank were two more V Cavalry Corps divisions under General Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud. Lhéritier and Trelliard first scattered the Russian cavalry, then fell on the infantry opposing them. Pahlen's Russian infantry squares were broken and most of the troops cut down or captured. Later in the day, Trelliard's division was directed to pursue toward Provins and missed the action at Valjouan against the Bavarians. The French inflicted 3,114 casualties on the Allies and captured 9 guns and 40 caissons while losing 600 killed and wounded.
  Napoleon won the Battle of Montereau on 18 February, resulting in 5,000 Allied casualties and capturing 15 artillery pieces. This induced Schwarzenberg to fall back on first Troyes and then farther east on 23 February. Marshal Nicolas Oudinot pursued with Kellermann's cavalry, including Jacquinot's division, while MacDonald led a second pursuing column. On 27 February, Napoleon left Oudinot and MacDonald to watch Schwarzenberg's army with 42,000 men and marched with 35,000 troops against Blücher, who was headed for Paris. Napoleon took with him Roussel's division and Sparre's brigade, which arrived from Spain at this time. Subsequently, Roussel's detached division fought at the battles of Craonne, Laon, Fère-Champenoise and Paris.
  At the Battle of Bar-sur-Aube on 27 February, Schwarzenberg attacked Oudinot by surprise, inflicting 3,060 casualties on the French while sustaining 2,400 casualties. Once the battle began, Kellermann crossed to the east bank of the Aube River. Jacquinot's division charged the Russian Lubny Hussars, mauling the regiment and driving off the Pskov Cuirassiers. Ismert's dragoon brigade charged a large Russian artillery battery three times. This foolhardy attack was repulsed and the 4th and 16th Dragoons suffered 400 killed and wounded between them. Nevertheless, Schwarzenberg was alarmed at the persistence of the French attacks and proceeded with caution. During the withdrawal, there was a brief panic when the infantry rearguard fled through the ranks of Kellermann's cavalry, but order was soon restored. After their defeat, the
caption: Kellermann the Younger
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