Henri François Marie Charpentier became a French chief of staff during the French Revolutionary Wars and a division commander during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1791 he joined a volunteer battalion and later became a staff officer. He served as Jacques Desjardin's chief of staff when that general served as commander of the right wing of the Army of the North during the battles of Grandreng, Erquelinnes and Gosselies in 1794. Next year he was Jacques Maurice Hatry's chief of staff during the Siege of Luxembourg. He was promoted to general of brigade and fought at the Trebbia and Novi in 1799 and fought at Montebello and Marengo in 1800. Napoleon appointed him general of division in 1804.

The Battle of Craonne was a battle between an Imperial French army under Emperor Napoleon I opposing a combined army of Imperial Russians and Prussians led by Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. The War of the Sixth Coalition engagement began when the bulk of Napoleon's army tried to drive Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov's 22,000 Russians off the Chemin des Dames plateau to the west of Craonne. After a bitter struggle, Napoleon's attacks compelled Vorontsov's force to withdraw, but French casualties exceeded Russian losses. While the battle raged, Blücher's attempt to turn Napoleon's east flank ended in failure due to poor planning.