The advance guard of Marshal Lannes reports seeing large numbers of Russian troops at the town of Friedland on June 13.

Both sides engage one another for the remainder of the day with no result.

Crucially, Bennigsen believes he has enough time to cross the Alle the following day, to destroy the isolated units of Lannes, and to withdraw back across the river without ever encountering the main French army.

Bennigsen's main body begins to occupy the town on the night of June 13, after Russian forces under General Golitsyn have driven off the French cavalry outposts.

The army of Napoleon marches on Friedland, but remains dispersed on its various march routes, and the first stage of the engagement becomes a purely improvisational battle.

Knowing that Napoleon is within supporting distance with at least three corps, Lannes sends aides galloping off with messages for help and wages an expert delaying action to fix Bennigsen in place.

With never more than twenty-six thousand men, Lannes forces Bennigsen to commit progressively more troops across the Alle to defeat him.

The French, showing a bold front, and shifting troops where needed to stop Russian advances, engage the Russians first in the Sortlack Wood and in front of Posthenen in the early hours of the 14th.

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.

The Chesapeake–Leopard Affair has outraged the American sense of honor.

Americans of every political stripe see the need to uphold national honor, and to reject the treatment of the United States by Britain as a third class nonentity.

Americans talk incessantly about the need for force in response.

President Thomas Jefferson notes: "Never since the Battle of Lexington have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation as at present, and even that did not produce such unanimity."

James Monroe, at this time a foreign minister acting under instructions from U.S. Secretary of State James Madison, demandsBritish disavowal of the deed, the restoration of the four seamen, the recall of Admiral Berkeley, the exclusion of British warships from U.S. territorial waters, and the abolition of impressments from vessels under the United States flag.

The event has raised tensions between the two countries and, while possibly not a direct cause, is one of the events leading up to the War of 1812.

In fact, many Americans demand  war because of the attack, but President Jefferson will turn to diplomacy and economic pressure in the form of the ill-fated Embargo Act of 1807.

The Federal government has begun  to be concerned about the lack of war material.

Their concerns lead to the establishment of a tariff protecting the manufacturers of gunpowder, which will help ensure the fortunes of the DuPont company.

The humiliating incident has significant repercussions for the U.S. Navy.

The public is shocked that Chesapeake had not been able to put up any resistance and surrendered so quickly, questioning the ability of the Navy to defend the country from a possible British invasion, despite the expensive and controversial frigate-building program.

A court-martial finds Barron guilty of being unprepared and suspends him from service for five years as punishment.

In 1820, Commodore Barron will challenge and mortally wound Commodore Stephen Decatur, who had served on the court-martial, in a duel over remarks Decatur had made about Barron's conduct in 1807 (Barron will also be wounded).

Emperor Alexander had sent an envoy to seek an armistice with the French on June 19.

Napoleon had assured the envoy that the Vistula River represents the natural borders between French and Russian influence in Europe.

On that basis, the two emperors had begun peace negotiations at the town of Tilsit after meeting on an iconic raft on the River Niemen.

The very first thing Alexander said to Napoleon was probably well-calibrated: "I hate the English as much as you do."

Napoleon had reportedly replied, "Then we have already made peace."

The two emperors spend several days reviewing each other's armies, passing out medals, and frequently talking about non-political subjects.

Although the negotiations at Tilsit feature plenty of pageantry and diplomatic niceties, they are not spared from ruthless politics.

Alexander faces pressure from his brother, Duke Constantine, to make peace with Napoleon.

Given the victory he had just achieved, the French emperor offers the Russians relatively lenient terms–demanding that Russia join the Continental System, withdraw its forces from Wallachia and Moldavia, and hand over the Ionian Islands to France.

By contrast, Napoleon dictates very harsh peace terms for Prussia, despite the ceaseless exhortations of Queen Louise.

Napoleon, wiping out half of Prussian territories from the map, creates a new kingdom of eleven hundred square miles called Westphalia.

He now appoints his young brother Jérôme as the new monarch of this kingdom.

Prussia's humiliating treatment at Tilsit causes a deep and bitter antagonism that will fester as the Napoleonic Era progresses.

Moreover, Alexander's pretensions at friendship with Napoleon lead the latter to seriously misjudge the true intentions of his Russian counterpart, who will violate numerous provisions of the treaty in the next few years.

Despite these problems, Tilsit at last gives Napoleon a respite from war and allows him to return to France, which he has not seen in over three hundred days.

His arrival will be greeted with huge celebrations in Paris.

The Spanish Resistance Gains Momentum – The Battle of Bailén (July 23, 1808)

After occupying Portugal in late 1807, Napoleon turned his attention to Spain in 1808, seeking to consolidate French control over the Iberian Peninsula. However, his efforts met fierce and widespread resistance. Though initially disorganized, the Spanish forces achieved several notable victories, marking the beginning of serious trouble for Napoleon’s ambitions in Spain.

Spanish Resistance – Early Engagements Against the French

• By July 1808, the Spanish had engaged the French in at least a dozen battles, managing to win or at least avoid outright defeat in seven of them.
• The Spanish uprisings, fueled by outrage at Napoleon’s imposition of his brother Joseph Bonaparte as king, transformed into a full-scale popular war against the French occupation.
• Spanish guerrilla forces harassed French supply lines, while regular Spanish armies regrouped and launched counteroffensives.

The Battle of Bailén (July 23, 1808) – A Stunning Spanish Victory

The most spectacular victory came on July 23, 1808, in southern Spain, when General Francisco Javier Castaños led Spanish forces to a decisive triumph over the French at Bailén.

• French General Pierre Dupont, leading 18,000 troops, had advanced into Andalusia, expecting little organized resistance.
• Castaños’ Spanish forces outmaneuvered him, cutting off his supply lines and encircling his army near Bailén.
• After fierce fighting, the French forces, exhausted and demoralized, were forced to surrender—marking the first major open-field defeat of Napoleon’s army in Europe.

Impact of the Spanish Victory at Bailén

• The myth of French invincibility was shattered – Bailén was Napoleon’s first significant battlefield defeat in Europe.
• The French were forced to withdraw from much of Spain – In the wake of the defeat, Joseph Bonaparte abandoned Madrid, retreating north to Vitoria.
• The Spanish resistance gained momentum – The victory inspired further uprisings and resistance efforts across Spain and Portugal.
• Britain intensified its involvement – Seeing Spain’s ability to resist Napoleon, Britain increased its military aid, sending Arthur Wellesley’s expeditionary force to Portugal in August 1808.

Conclusion – A Turning Point in the Peninsular War

Though Napoleon’s forces were still formidable, the Battle of Bailén marked the beginning of the downfall of French rule in Iberia. The combination of Spanish resistance, British intervention, and Portuguese defiance ensured that the Peninsular War (1808–1814) would become one of the defining conflicts of the Napoleonic era, ultimately leading to Napoleon’s expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula.

“Patriot” Spain outside the control of the French armies had split into a number of autonomous provinces after the deposition of King Ferdinand.

Resistance centers in provincial committees (juntas) that organize armies.

A Central Junta at Aranjuez seeks to control this nascent federalism and the local levies, and ...

...Spanish regular troops defeat a French army of inferior, ill-supplied troops under General Pierre Dupont de l'Étang on July 20, 1808, the same day that the French recapture Madrid, ultimately forcing him to capitulate with all his army at Bailén (Baylen) on July 23.