The Battle of Leipzig is also known as the Battle of the Nations. It was fought on 19 October, 1813. The place of the battle was Leipzig. This battle was fought between the coalition armies of: Prussia, Russia, Sweden and Austria and French army. The coalition army was led by: Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg and Tsar Alexander I of Russia. On the other side, the French army was led by Napoleon I. His army included Italian, Polish and German troops. This battle included more than 600.000 soldiers, which make the Battle of Leipzig the largest battle in the Europe before the WWI. After his defeat, Napoleon returned to France, but the coalition army invaded France the next year. In May 1814, Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to island Elba.
The strength of the French army was: 225.000 soldiers and 700 guns (October 16-17). On October 18-19, they had 155.000 soldiers. They lost 34.000 soldiers and 26.000 were captured. Making the total number 60.000. The coalition army consisted of 380.000 soldiers and 1.500 guns. On October 18-19, that number was 430.000 soldiers. They lost 54.000 soldiers.
The Battle of Leipzig was the deadliest battle of the Napoleonic Wars. The total number of casualties on both sides were between 80.000 and 110.000. One of the victims was Marshal Józef Antoni Poniatowski. He was a nephew to the Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last king of Poland. Poniatowski commanded with the rear guard. During the retreat of French forces, he drowned while he was crossing the river. 51 French generals were wounded and 15 were killed. Reynier and Lauriston, corps commanders were captured.
