French infantry in 1813
I have just been reading a Polish cavalryman's account of Leipzig. He has an interesting description of some French infantry which I thought I would share:
"How our regiment suffered can be measured by the fact that one of our officers, Captain [Antoni] Potkański, had three horses killed under him. Around me at least seven men were killed or wounded, that is four from my company and three from the 7th Company, while Captain Kossowski, standing next to me, was also wounded there. The truth is that for us officers such a situation is the very worst, because our tall bearskin caps (Barmütze) made us a clear target when we were next to the shorter shakoes of our troopers. Our six guns were already down to just two, the rest had been smashed by cannonballs or their gunners had been killed. After more than two or three hours of standing in this deadly position, the French infantry came to our aid, and they deployed in one line on our left flank, having the alder grove, which I mentioned before, behind them. But it was only the infantry of Marshal Augereau, the Duke of Castiglione, made up of young recruits who had only been in uniform for two weeks, and the hands of the soldiers were still dark blue from the dye running from their new and unsullied tunics. Such soldiers would not be able to stand for a moment under such intense fire, and after a few roundshot reached them, their line began to falter. When the enemy infantry column began to approach them, this regiment fired once, seeming to do so without even having received the order, and then they turned their backs and fled from the battlefield."


Not only the lack of cavalry leaders, but the lack of trained cavalry overall. Therefore not able to follow up his victories by pursuing his beaten enemy. Enabling Cossacks and Streifcorps to operate behind Napoleon's lines. Also depriving him of his eyes, imho the cause that Napoleon time and again did not know where the Allied troops were, on several occasions surprising French troops and ambushing them. Also the cause that Napoleon didn't know were his own troops were as communications were cut.