ABSTRACT
The campaign of 1814 was one which ought never to have been fought. Politically, France had nothing to gain; from the military point of view Napoleon had nothing to hope for. The plan which Schwarzenberg and Radetzky preferred was that the Army of Bohemia should move through Switzerland, thereby turning the lines of the Rhine and Vosges, and descend on Paris from the plateau of Langres, a country which had long been spared the horrors of war and was therefore well adapted to support and supply an advancing army. The idea of disregarding communications and pushing on to Paris originated with the Russian Toll. Alexander took it up at once with great warmth, and Schwarzenberg and Frederick William acquiescing, the Army of Bohemia had started for Paris as Napoleon moved East.
