The French, showing a bold front, and…
June 1807 CE
Lannes holds Bennigsen in place until the French have massed eighty thousand troops on the left bank of the river.
Both sides now use their cavalry freely to cover the formation of lines of battle, and a race between the rival squadrons for the possession of Heinrichsdorf ends in favor of the French under Grouchy and Nansouty.
Bennigsen is trapped and has to fight.
Having thrown all of his pontoon bridges at or near the bottleneck of the village of Friedland, Bennigsen has unwittingly trapped his troops on the west bank.
In the meantime Lannes fights hard to hold Bennigsen.
Napoleon fears that the Russians mean to evade him again, but by 6 a.m. Bennigsen hasd nearly fifty thousand men across the river and forming up west of Friedland.
His infantry, organized in two lines, extends between the Heinrichsdorf-Friedland road and the upper bends of the river along with the artillery.
Beyond the right of the infantry, cavalry and Cossacks extend the line to the wood northeast of Heinrichsdorf.
Small bodies of Cossacks penetrate even to Schwonau.
The left wing also has some cavalry and, beyond the Alle river, batteries come into action to cover it.
A heavy and indecisive fire-fight rages in the Sortlack Wood between the Russian skirmishers and some of Lannes's troops.
The head of Mortier's (French and Polish) corps appears at Heinrichsdorf and drives the Cossacks out of Schwonau.
Lannes holds his own, and by noon Napoleon arrives with forty thousand French troops at the scene of the battle.
Napoleon gives brief orders: Ney's corps will take the line between Postlienen and the Sortlack Wood, Lannes closing on his left, to form the center, Mortier at Heinrichsdorf the left wing.
I Corps under General Victor and the Imperial Guard are placed in reserve behind Posthenen.
Cavalry masses are collected at Heinrichsdorf.
The main attack is to be delivered against the Russian left, which Napoleon sees at once to be cramped in the narrow tongue of land between the river and the Posthenen mill-stream.
Three cavalry divisions are added to the general reserve.
The course of the morning's operations means that both armies still have large detachments out towards Königsberg.
The emperor spends the afternoon in forming up the newly arrived masses, the deployment being covered by an artillery bombardment.
At 5 o'clock all is ready, and Ney, preceded by a heavy artillery fire, rapidly carries the Sortlack Wood.
The attack is pushed on toward the Alle.
Marshal Ney's right-hand division under Marchand drives part of the Russian left into the river at Sortlack, while the division of Bisson advances on the left.
A furious charge by Russian cavalry into the gap between Marchand and Bisson is repulsed by the dragoon division of Latour-Maubourg.
Soon the Russians find themselves huddled together in the bends of the Alle, an easy target for the guns of Ney and of the reserve.
Ney's attack indeed comes eventually to a standstill; Bennigsen's reserve cavalry charges with great effect and drives him back in disorder.
As at Eylau, the approach of night seems to preclude a decisive success, but in June and on firm ground the old mobility of the French reasserts its value.
The infantry division of Dupont advances rapidly from Posthenen, the cavalry divisions drive back the Russian squadrons into the now congested masses of infantry on the river bank, and finally the artillery general Sénarmont advances a mass of guns to case-shot range.
The terrible effect of the close range artillery sees the Russian defense collapsing within minutes, as canister decimates the ranks.
Ney's exhausted infantry succeeds in pursuing the broken regiments of Bennigsen's left into the streets of Friedland.
Lannes and Mortier have meanwhile held the Russian center and right on its ground, and their artillery has inflicted severe losses.
When Friedland itself is seen to be on fire, the two marshals launch their infantry attack.
Fresh French troops approach the battlefield.
Dupont distinguishes himself for the second time by fording the mill-stream and assailing the left flank of the Russian center.
This offers stubborn resistance, but the French steadily forces the line backwards, and the battle is soon over.
The Russians suffer heavy losses in the disorganized retreat over the river, with many soldiers drowning.
Farther north, the still unbroken troops of the right wing withdraw by using the Allenburg road; the French cavalry of the left wing, though ordered to pursue, remains inactive.
French casualties number approximately ten thousand soldiers, while the Russians suffer at least twenty thousand casualties.
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