Commandant Foucart’s fascinating monograph details the Allied operations against the French lines of communication and the Imperial response to this serious threat in 1813.  Soon after the resumption of hostilities on 17 August, partisan bands were sighted on the flanks of the Grande Armée.   Leipzig, integral to Napoleon’s communications, was four days march from Dresden to the East and four days march to Erfurt to the West.  Imperial couriers and convoys proved easy targets and were repeatedly intercepted.  This continual harassment could not go unabated.  In early September, General Lefebvre-Desnouettes, commander of 3,000 Imperial Guard Light Horse, received the order to secure the region with the aid of an additional 5,000 troopers from the corps’ of Marshals Ney and Victor and 2,000 infantry from General Margaron.

Learn what the French command knew and when they knew it by following the daily communications and reports presented in extenso as events unfold and culminate at Altenburg on 28 September.