File:1813 Rheinübergang, Kaub – Blücher Denkmal – Um Mitternacht, los !.jpg

English: Historical background.
The December 30, 1812 signature of the Convention of Tauroggen (<► File:Convention of Tauroggen - Overall view.JPG) led to
the March 17, 1813 An mein Volk proclamation by King Frederick William III of Prussia (<► File:Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher – Statue, socle – “An mein Volk”.jpg), which finally led to
the October 19, 1813 victorious Battle of the Nations at Leipzig.

Two months later, the Allied Forces, Prussian, Russian, Austrian and Swedish, were already about to cross the Rhine at various places : Basel, Mannheim, Coblenz – and Kaub.
During most of November and December, elements of a pontoon were prepared in the hilly region around Weisel (► File:1813 Weisel – Zur Erinnerung an Blüchers Rheinübergang – Umgebung.jpg), eastwards of Kaub, to be assembled at the very end of December. Feldmarschall Blücher himself had arrived at Kaub in the afternoon of December 31, 1813. His 50000-men army, also counting 18000 horses and about 200 cannons, would cross the Rhine from January 2 to 5, 1814. Blücher seemingly left Kaub on January 2.
The Rheinübergang at Kaub, if only for its prestigious Commander, immediately caught the minds of the populations and remained the focal point of that vast military movement, which the romantic account long insisted to have occurred on December 31, 1813 at midnight.

By that time, the Duke of Wellington had already freed Portugal from any napoléonic occupation since the capture of Almeida on May 10, 1811, and was about to do so for Spain where his campaign had culminated at the resounding Battle of Vitoria on June 23, 1813.