Siege of Metz (1814)

The siege of Metz (17 January – 10 April 1814) was a blockade of the French city of Metz during the War of the Sixth Coalition at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It pitted French forces under General of Division (GD) Pierre François Joseph Durutte against Prussian soldiers under Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, Russian cavalry under Nikolay Borozdin, Russian troops under Dimitri Mikhailovich Youzefovitch, and Hessian soldiers under von Müller. The Allied forces began the siege on 17 January 1814 and eventually lifted it on 10 April the same year, without having taken the city. At the end of March and early April, Durutte carried out a remarkable campaign in which he briefly drove away the blockading forces of several nearby fortresses.