Napoleon's Battles: Toulon to Waterloo, What Happened and Why It Mattered

Start hereAfter Borodino, Napoleon wrote that there were 2,000 French and 12,000 Russian on the field. Historians now estimate French losses at 25,000 to 35,000. Why are the two so far apart?

Napoleon’s main battles run from the siege of Toulon in 1793 to Waterloo in 1815. He won many of these battles and lost some of the biggest. This page takes them in order: what happened, why it mattered, and what the sources say they cost. Where the counts disagree, you get the range and who gives each number.

01The battles at a glance

Battle	Date	Against	Outcome
Toulon	Sept–Dec 1793	British forces holding the port	Port retaken; Bonaparte promoted
Lodi	10 May 1796	Austrians	French win
Arcole	17 Nov 1796	Austrians	French win
Rivoli	15 Jan 1797	Austrians	French win
The Pyramids, near Embabeh	21 July 1798	Mamluk army of Murad Bey	French win
Abukir Bay, at sea	1 Aug 1798	British fleet under Nelson	French fleet captured or destroyed
Marengo	14 June 1800	Austrians	Narrow French win
Ulm	19–20 Oct 1805	Austrians under Mack	Austrian surrender
Austerlitz	2 Dec 1805	Russians and Austrians	French win
Jena and Auerstedt	14 Oct 1806	Prussians	Double French win
Eylau	8 Feb 1807	Russians and Prussians	Inconclusive
Friedland	14 June 1807	Russians	French win
Aspern-Essling	20–21 May 1809	Austrians	French defeat
Wagram	6 July 1809	Austrians	French win
Borodino	7 Sept 1812	Russians under Kutuzov	No clear winner
The Berezina	26–28 Nov 1812	Russians	Escape at a huge cost
Lützen and Bautzen	2 and 20 May 1813	Russians and Prussians	French wins, not decisive
Leipzig	16–19 Oct 1813	Russians, Austrians, Prussians, Swedes	French defeat
Campaign in France	Jan–Mar 1814	Coalition armies	Local wins; Paris fell 31 March 1814
Ligny and Quatre Bras	16 June 1815	Prussians; Wellington’s army	Win at Ligny; Quatre Bras held
Waterloo	18 June 1815	Wellington’s army and Blücher’s Prussians	French defeat

021. Toulon, 1793: the first step up

Before Toulon, in February 1793, he took part in an expedition against the island of La Maddalena in Sardinia.

Toulon surrendered to British forces on 27 August 1793. On 16 September, Bonaparte was made commander of artillery in Carteaux’s army. His plan was “to rain permanent cannon fire on the British vessels in the bay”.

The army’s new commander, Dugommier, agreed to use it in November. The British left Toulon on 18 December. On 22 December 1793, Bonaparte was promoted to brigadier general.

Two years later, in Paris, he helped crush a royalist rising against the Convention on 13 Vendémiaire Year IV (5 October 1795). He was named general of division on 16 October 1795.

032. Italy, 1796–1797: Lodi, Arcole and Rivoli

On 2 March 1796, the Directory named him commander-in-chief of the Army of Italy. Against the Austrians he won at Montenotte on 12 April, Lodi on 10 May and Arcole on 17 November 1796. Rivoli followed on 15 January 1797.

In a few months he defeated four Austrian armies in battle. The Austrians signed the treaty of Campo Formio on 17 October 1797.

The campaign also shaped his image. He founded two army newspapers, meant to keep up morale and to tell the French public about their general’s victories. Keep that in mind when you read battle reports from his side.

043. Egypt, 1798: the Pyramids and Abukir Bay

His own despatch tells the story of the Pyramids. On the morning of 20 July 1798, he wrote, “we saw the pyramids”. That evening he learned that 23 beys and their men were entrenched at Embabeh, with more than 60 guns.

The battle came the next day, 21 July, at those entrenchments. French infantry in squares met the Mamluk cavalry charges with cannon and musket fire. Many Mamluks threw themselves into the Nile and drowned.

He estimated the Mamluk losses at “two thousand elite cavalrymen” and his own at “20 or 30 men killed and 120 wounded”. These are his figures, and the despatch was printed in 1801. French troops entered Cairo on 4 Thermidor (22 July).

The sea went the other way. On 1 August 1798, Nelson’s fleet trapped and bombarded the French fleet in Abukir Bay. The Fondation Napoléon counts 1,700 French sailors killed. Britain’s National Maritime Museum says only two major French ships escaped capture or destruction.

Our reading: with the fleet gone, the army in Egypt was cut off by sea. The Syrian campaign, launched in January 1799, finished in defeat. Despite a land victory at Abukir on 25 July 1799, he went back to France and reached Paris on 16 October.

054. Marengo, 1800: the near-defeat

On 14 June 1800 he narrowly defeated the Austrians at Marengo, in northern Italy. By the early afternoon, an Austrian column was pushing the French from the field in a retreat close to collapse.

By three o’clock, General Desaix had arrived with news of reinforcements. Marmont’s guns, a charge by Desaix’s division and 400 horsemen under Kellermann turned the day. Desaix was killed in that charge.

Don Barry, writing for the Fondation, counts “over 5,000 casualties”, a quarter of all French soldiers engaged. He calls Marengo “a very costly and inconclusive win”. It still led to the Peace of Lunéville in February 1801.

065. 1805: Ulm and Austerlitz

At Ulm, the Austrian general Mack found himself surrounded. He capitulated on 19 October 1805. The next day 25,000 men with 60 cannon filed out before Napoleon. On 21 October, at Trafalgar, the combined French and Spanish fleet was beaten at sea.

On 2 December 1805, at Austerlitz, he crushed the Russian and Austrian armies. The Treaty of Pressburg with Austria followed on 26 December.

His proclamation the next day spoke of an enemy army “of one hundred thousand men, commanded by the emperors of Russia and Austria”. It claimed “more than thirty-thousand prisoners”. Those are his numbers, written for his soldiers.

French deaths have been counted again since. Older estimates gave 3,000 to 5,000 French dead; a man-by-man count reduced this to about 1,600, as Thierry Lentz reports for the Fondation.

076. 1806–1807: Jena, Eylau and Friedland

On 14 October 1806 the French won twice in one day against Prussia: Napoleon at Jena, and Davout at Auerstedt. Napoleon entered Berlin on 27 October 1806.

Eylau, on 8 February 1807, was an appalling and inconclusive bloodbath. It pitted 66,500 French against 82,500 Russians and Prussians. It is usually recorded as a French victory because the Russians retreated and left the French in control of the field.

The French dead at Eylau were traditionally put at 5,000 to 10,000. A later count by Danielle and Bernard Quintin gives 4,000 to 4,200 French soldiers killed or mortally wounded.

Friedland, on 14 June 1807, was his decisive battle against Tsar Alexander. That evening he wrote to Joséphine of “30,000 men dead or captured” on the Russian side, his own figure. Russia and Prussia signed the peace at Tilsit on 8 July 1807.

087. 1809: Aspern-Essling and Wagram

The Fondation calls the 1809 war with Austria the hardest-won campaign of his career. It brought wins at Eckmühl on 22 April and Ratisbon on 23 April. Then came a defeat, at Essling on 20–21 May 1809.

He won at Wagram on 6 July 1809. The peace was signed in Vienna on 14 October 1809.

098. 1812: Borodino and the Berezina

Borodino, on 7 September 1812, lasted about ten hours. General Lariboisière estimated that the 587 French guns fired about 60,000 times.

Who won is not simple. In territory won and losses inflicted, the 1812 timeline gives the victory to Napoleon, though not the decisive one he wanted. The Russian armies retreated towards Moscow. Kutuzov reported it to the tsar as a Russian victory. The Fondation’s timeline for young readers says neither Napoleon nor Kutuzov emerged victorious.

The numbers show why the sources disagree.

• Napoleon, letter to Maret, 9 September: “there are 2,000 French and 12,000 Russian, and that is no exaggeration”.

• Marie-Pierre Rey, preface to volume 12 of his letters: 25,000 to 28,000 for the Grande Armée, and about 45,000 Russian.

• The Fondation’s 1812 timeline: 45,000 Russian dead, wounded or missing, and 28,000 to 35,000 for Napoleon.

Rey puts the real ratio at “one to two at the very most”, not his one to six. A week after the battle the French entered Moscow.

The retreat brought the Berezina. On 27 November, 50,000 men crossed the river near the village of Studienka. The crossing cost between 25,000 and 40,000 men and most of the baggage. The same timeline also calls it one of his most brilliant victories, since the crossing actually took place.

On 5 December he left the army at Smorgon to return to Paris. Our page on the 1812 Russian campaign follows the whole campaign.

109. 1813: Lützen, Bautzen and Leipzig

He won at Lützen on 2 May and at Bautzen on 20 May 1813. Neither win finished the allied armies. After Lützen the French lacked the cavalry to follow up. At Bautzen he could not force the decisive victory, and allied casualties were less than half those of the French.

Leipzig, from 16 to 19 October 1813, is called the “Battle of the Nations”. The name comes from the many nations involved and the number of soldiers present.

The size of the armies depends on the page and the day.

• The Fondation’s timeline for young readers: nearly 200,000 men on the French side and more than 300,000 on the coalition side.

• The Fondation’s Leipzig timeline, for 18 October: almost 320,000 allies against only 170,000 French.

On 19 October the French had only one bridge over the river Elster to retreat across. A corporal had been left in charge of the charges. In a panic and under fire, he blew the bridge. About 30,000 soldiers lost their way out and were soon captured.

Traditional accounts put French losses at 60,000 men. The same timeline says the true total is probably closer to 100,000 killed or wounded, against 54,000 for the allies. After Leipzig, most of the fighting to come would be on French soil.

1110. 1814: fighting in France

He took charge of an army of 60,000 young soldiers. He won at Brienne on 29 January, Champaubert on 10 February and Montmirail on 11 February, against much larger forces.

It did not stop the coalition from entering Paris on 31 March 1814. By 6 April his abdication was unconditional, and he was exiled to Elba.

1211. 1815: Ligny, Quatre Bras and Waterloo

Back in power in 1815, he invaded Belgium with a force of 130,000 soldiers. On 16 June his main army beat the Prussians at Ligny. Britain’s National Army Museum says the Prussians lost over 20,000 men and the French half that number. The same day Wellington held the crossroads at Quatre Bras, then had to fall back because of Ligny.

Waterloo, 18 June 1815

The two main accounts we read give different sizes for the armies.

• National Army Museum: Napoleon had 72,000 men and 246 guns, after sending 33,000 after the Prussians. The Anglo-Allied army had 68,000 men and 156 guns.

• Thierry Lentz, Fondation Napoléon: with around 65,000 men he had roughly the same strength as his opponent.

The weather shaped the start. Lentz writes that a terrible storm broke in the night. The French had to wait until 11am for the soaked ground to dry enough to place their artillery.

The museum says the first attack, on Hougoumont, came at 11.30am. The bombardment before it was partly negated by Wellington’s position and the wet ground. Later, the soggy ground hampered the French cavalry charges.

Lentz adds that Napoleon was ill, with either haemorrhoids or dysuria, and that no one knows for certain which. The museum says that by mid-afternoon, news of the Prussians’ arrival forced him to form a defensive line on his right. At about 7pm the Imperial Guard attacked, halted and broke, and the French army fell into retreat.

Whether the delay, or anything else, cost him the battle is still argued. Lentz notes a debate, running ever since, over Ney, Grouchy and Soult. The sources we read do not settle it, and neither do we.

The losses differ too.

• National Army Museum: Napoleon lost nearly 40,000 men killed, wounded or captured, and the Allies 22,000.

• Lentz: 10,800 dead, 6,800 of them French, and around 35,000 injured, two-thirds of them French.

Our reading: the museum’s figure counts prisoners, while Lentz separates the dead from the injured. Napoleon abdicated for the second time on 22 June 1815. Lentz calls Waterloo one of the biggest military disasters ever suffered by a French army before 1870.

1312. What the battles cost

No one has an exact total, and the estimates keep moving.

• French dead: Jacques Houdaille sampled the army’s registers at 1 in 500. He found 439,000 soldiers and officers from France died in combat or in hospital. Allowing for uncertain losses, the Fondation’s balance is 900,000 to 1,000,000 killed over 15 years.

• A wider range: Lentz reports the general estimate of 400,000 to one million French dead for the wars of the Empire, from 1805 to 1815.

• The allied armies: their totals range from 1 million to over 2.5 million.

• Civilians: these are the hardest to count. For Spain from 1808 to 1814, recent studies put the civilians killed at between 215,000 and 375,000.

Most French soldiers did not die in the fighting itself. The Fondation’s words: “A minority of the men died on the battlefield, while the vast majority died in hospital as a result of their wounds or illness.”

1413. Stories about these battles

The Battle of the Pyramids was fought at the pyramids

Doesn't hold up It was fought near the village of Embabeh, where the Mamluks were entrenched. The name is easy to believe: the battle carries it, and Gros’s painting is titled Napoleon Bonaparte haranguing the army before the Battle of the Pyramids. But his own despatch says he first saw the pyramids the morning before, and found the enemy entrenched at Embabeh.

Napoleon never lost a battle until Waterloo

Doesn't hold up He lost at Essling in 1809 and at Leipzig in 1813, and the Syrian campaign of 1799 ended in defeat. Our reading: the idea is easy to believe because his run of wins was long and Waterloo is the defeat everyone remembers.

The British won Waterloo on their own

Doesn't hold up The museum describes a coalition led by Wellington and Blücher. Wellington’s own army included German troops. Hougoumont was held by British Guardsmen and German Light Infantry, and Papelotte by German Duchy of Nassau troops. The arrival of the Prussians completed Napoleon’s defeat.

Rain decided Waterloo

Partly The part that holds up: the storm delayed the start, and the wet ground blunted the guns and hampered the cavalry. The part that does not: Thierry Lentz writes that Napoleon ‘was of course slowed down by the storm, but this alone does not explain the defeat.’

1514. How to read a battle account

A battle report is a story told by someone, at some time, for some reason. Four questions help you read one.

1. Who wrote it? Napoleon’s letters and proclamations are his side’s account. Rey notes that after Borodino he stressed Russian losses and played down his own: one to six in his letter, against one to two at most by today’s estimates.

2. When was it written? Counts change as historians go back to the registers. Austerlitz went from 3,000–5,000 French dead to about 1,600.

3. What is being counted? Killed, wounded, captured and missing are different numbers. The two Waterloo accounts above differ partly for this reason.

4. Who claimed the win? At Borodino, Kutuzov reported a Russian victory to the tsar, while the Fondation’s 1812 timeline gives the win to Napoleon in territory and losses inflicted.

Try it on the next battle you read about. If a single number has no name beside it, treat it as a starting point, not an answer.

For the man behind the battles, see Napoleon Bonaparte: the facts. For the famous meme from his exile, see “There is nothing we can do”: what the line means. Our pages on his exile and death, and on the myths about him, are in preparation.

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How we checked this · Last checked October 2026

• We read the Fondation Napoléon's timelines and articles, Napoleon's own despatch from Egypt and his proclamation after Austerlitz, Britain's National Army Museum page on Waterloo, and Royal Museums Greenwich on the Battle of the Nile.
• Casualty numbers are given as ranges or with the name of whoever gives them. Where accounts disagree, as at Borodino, Leipzig and Waterloo, both are shown.
• Most of the page rests on the Fondation Napoléon's published timelines and articles. For Waterloo we also read the National Army Museum, an independent British source.
• For the Italian battles we used Eymeric Job's article, which gives each date in both the revolutionary and the usual calendar.
• On the rain at Waterloo, Thierry Lentz writes that the storm slowed Napoleon down but does not alone explain the defeat.

Checked October 2026.

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