Location of the five French and allied armies 12 April 1813
On 5 April 1813 Napoleon proposed an armistice for seven
days in order to allow consideration of peace proposals. The allies promptly accepted his proposal.
In the previous month the five French Armies had fought 58
battles. They had won 25, and drawn
4. Both they and the allied armies were
weary and in urgent need of rest, reorganisation, resupply and
reinforcement.
For Napoleon there was the added problem in Germany of
national resistance. They regarded this
as a War of Liberation. Throughout the
area he occupied there was widespread opposition and aggression towards the French. As a result he was forced to retreat to
Westphalia to shorten his lines of communication and to impose some discipline
on the local population.
The Austrians have moved north to draw closer to their
Prussian and Russian allies. They have
moved their main base to Prague.
The peace proposals ended in renewed hostilities on 12
April 1813 when Napoleon ordered his First Army to cross the river Weser and
attack Brunswick.
Location of armies at the end of the armistice
1 French Hannover
Prussian Brunswick
2 French Kassel
Russian Gotha
3 French Darmstadt
Austrian Bamberg
4 French Zamora
British Oporto
5 French Aranjuez
Spanish Toledo
All ten armies are at full strength and have been fully
resupplied.
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