The Battle of Saint-Julien (1 March 1814) saw Imperial French troops led by Jean Gabriel Marchand attack Austrian soldiers under Johann Nepomuk von Klebelsberg. In tough fighting, the Austrians managed to hold off persistent French assaults during this War of the Sixth Coalition clash. The next day, the Austrians withdrew within the defenses of Geneva, a distance of to the northeast. The battle was part of operations in which a French army led by Marshal Pierre Augereau squared off against Austrian forces under Ferdinand, Graf Bubna von Littitz.
The 1814 Campaign in Northeast France pitted Emperor Napoleon against the main Allied armies of Field Marshals Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher to the east of Paris. Meanwhile, a lesser campaign was fought around Lyon and Geneva to the south. In January 1814 the Austrians seized Geneva and occupied vast tracts of eastern France, but they failed to capture Lyon. In mid-February, Pierre Augereau launched an offensive from Lyon toward the north to recapture territory. On his extreme right flank, Marchand's division recaptured parts of Savoie and advanced to the gates of Geneva, which was an important Austrian base. Alarmed for the safety of his supply line to Germany, Schwarzenberg quickly dispatched massive forces to guard his southern flank.
Invasion
Geneva falls
Rather than directly invading France from the east across the Rhine, the Army of Bohemia under Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg moved south into Switzerland. On 21 December 1813, Austrian formations of the army crossed the Rhine at Basel, Grenzach, Laufenburg and Schaffhausen while Swiss military units stood aside. Once across the Rhine, the Army of Bohemia executed a right wheel and plunged across Swiss territory into France. Among the formations in the army were Ferdinand, Graf Bubna von Littitz's 1st Light Division consisting of 6,388 troops and 24 artillery pieces, Hieronymus Karl von Colloredo-Mansfeld's I Corps comprising 15,708 men and 64 field pieces and Alois von Liechtenstein's II Corps including 12,708 troops and 64 guns. Prince Frederick of Hesse-Homburg led the Austrian Reserve Corps which consisted of two elite infantry divisions and two cuirassier divisions, a total of 18,500 men and 100 guns. The German VI Corps under Prince Philipp of Hesse-Homburg initially numbered 9,250 soldiers from Hesse-Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Isenburg, Reuss and Würzburg. It mustered at Frankfurt am Main before leaving for France in January with 13,000 soldiers and 16 field pieces.
When Bubna reached Geneva on 30 December 1813, its French commander promptly had a paralyzing stroke and his 1,500-man garrison quickly surrendered to the Austrians. Geneva's arsenal contained 117 heavy guns, 30 field guns and muskets for 1,000 men. Napoleon was so angry at the loss of the city that he threw the prefect in prison, even though a civil commission cleared him of wrongdoing. After his coup, Bubna operated as a practically independent commander. He left Theophil Joseph von Zechmeister in charge of Geneva and captured Bourg-en-Bresse on 11 January 1814. Napoleon assigned Marshal Pierre Augereau to defend Lyon, mount a threat to the Allied south flank and recapture Geneva. On 14 January the emperor ordered Marshal Louis-Gabriel Suchet to send 10,000 infantry plus cavalry from the eastern Pyrenees to help Augereau.
Lyon saved
Augereau reached Lyon on 14 March where Louis François Félix Musnier informed him that only 1,200 soldiers and 500 raw conscripts were available to defend the city. Leaving Musnier to make the best of a bad situation, Augereau rode to Valence to round up more troops. By 16 January, Austrian patrols lurked outside the walls of Lyon. Believing his shaky soldiers would not be able to hold, Musnier moved them to the west bank of the Saône River on 17 January, evacuating the city. Having got wind of this development, Bubna sent an officer to demand Lyon's surrender. When the Austrian negotiator arrived, a mob gathered nearby and began threatening to throw him in the river. Playing a good bluff, Musnier magnified his own strength and exaggerated the hostility of the city's residents. The hapless Austrian officer's report caused Bubna to reconsider trying to immediately seize the city, which Musnier reoccupied. Even so, Bubna hung around Lyon during 18–19 January. Late on the 19th, 1,200 French troops arrived from Valence and helped drive the Austrians out of the suburbs.